How to Write a Thesis Proposal – 5 Main Factors
When you’re in high school or college, you’ll be asked to write a thesis before graduating. This entire process can be nerve racking because there are many steps involved in writing the perfect thesis. For example, you have to find a popular topic, make sure it’s well-structured, and provide evidence along the way. It can be brutal, especially when you haven’t written a thesis before. If you can break down the entire process into little steps, then you’ll have an easier time putting everything together. Today I’ll be exploring 5 very important factors you should consider when you sit down to write the perfect thesis proposal.
1. Introduction
I’m hoping by now, you have a particular topic in mind, one which gets readers thinking and speaks to the current or future demands of people. The introduction should focus on the overall purpose of your thesis. It’s common to wait until the end to write out your introduction because you’ll have an easier time putting something insightful together. Once you’re done writing your thesis, you’ve laid out all the main points, added value, and finished writing your conclusion. Then you can go back and write your introduction knowing what to include. Either way, when writing your introduction think about including the following:
- Statement of goal(s)
- Scope of your work
- Any previous work you are building on (acknowledgments)
2. Problem Statement
This is a clear introduction to the problem which currently exists that is being addressed by your thesis. This provides an overview of the context of the research study and generates questions which the research tends to answer. It’s a focal point and consists of one sentence with accompanying paragraphs for elaboration. The person should be able to clearly understand the problem by reading the “statement.” In other words, it should be right to the point.
3. Importance of Background
Provide information on why this topic is important, then provide solid evidence to support your claim. For example, if I’m writing my paper on the growing concern of black-hat techniques in SEO, then I should support this statement by including background research that I’ve done. I’ll provide evidence on algorithm updates, what Google has said, and websites using black-hat strategies in SEO.
The main objective when providing background information on your topic is to show there is value in your topic. It’s to explain why this topic is of concern, backed up with evidence.
4. The Purpose
Now that you have provided an introduction, written a problem statement, and given some background information, it’s time to showcase the purpose of your thesis. This can be in many forms so it’s important you know what you’re trying to prove. For example, is the purpose of your thesis to analyze something, evaluate results, understand, interpret or change a previous study? You can also approach this step by asking yourself – what are you trying to learn from your research project?
Knowing your purpose will guide your research because you won’t get overwhelmed with all the facts, and just focus on those which help support your purpose.
5. Hypothesis
Clearly state the results you expect to see after your research is complete. You know your purpose and the background information so after completing your research, do you expect the results to change or remain the same? Here’s a quick definition of a hypothesis:
“A proposed answer to a question or problem that can be verified or rejected through testing. A hypothesis statement is typically an educated guess as to the relationship between factors, and serves as the basis for an experiment to test whether the relationship holds true.” – apus.libanswers.com
Putting together your hypothesis is not hard especially if you are passionate about your research topic and know what you want to prove in the end. You can do a quick Google search to find additional information on how to formulate the perfect hypothesis for your thesis proposal.
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