The front matter of a thesis contains basic information about the author and content of the thesis, though it does not actually contain the text of the thesis. The first part of the front matter is the cover page. Next is the approval page, which all advisers must sign before submission. After this is the abstract page. An abstract is a very short (about 150 words) description of the thesis and why it is relevant. On the acknowledgements page, students thank those who have supported them in their research. Finally, the table of contents page lists all chapters and subheadings.
The introductory section of the thesis describes the research question and why it is relevant to the field. The author should clearly state what she believes is the answer to this question, or the hypothesis. The second part of this section contains a literature review that takes the reader though relevant articles that have been published by other academics. Students should evaluate this body of research and show how their thesis addresses topics not adequately covered by past research. Finally, this section should also contain a general outline of the rest of the paper.
In the methodology section, the author describes in detail the experimental procedures used to gather her data. If surveys were used, there should be a thorough description of how they were constructed and distributed. Students should list any kind of special software or lab equipment used during the course of the project. The main function of the methodology section is to allow others reading the thesis to replicate the experiments.
The findings section has two major parts: results and discussion. Authors must first describe the results of their experiments objectively, without trying to infer what they mean or if they support or detract from the hypothesis. In the second part of this section, the author may interpret what the results mean.
In the conclusion, the author states whether his findings support his hypothesis. Even if the evidence does not support the hypothesis, the author should not try to sweep this under the rug but instead explore reasons why this might be the case. Finally, he should suggest some future research question that might be explored.
The back matter of the thesis consists of an index and a bibliography. An index is an alphabetical listing of topics found in the thesis and the page numbers upon which they are found. Bibliographies offer a list of related resources to the reader.