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How to write a thesis

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How to write a thesis

Uploaded by

mustakim.billa.tomal
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© © All Rights Reserved
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How to write a thesis

Slide 1: How to write a thesis


Presented by
Dr Md. Hashib Chowdhury
Dr. Toma
Dr. Tonni
M. Phil (thesis part)
Pharmacology & Therapeutics Department
Dhaka Medical College

Slide 2: What is Thesis


The dictionary defines thesis as
"a proposition that is maintained by argument"

A medical thesis is written work of original research in medical, nursing, pharmacy or any of
health & life science.

Slide 3: Why thesis is written


To share knowledge
Proof
Obtaining post-graduate degree, Masters, PhD, post-doctoral degree
Intellectual property

Slide 4: Thesis writing


Thesis writing is the final step of a research work,
Starts with protocol & ethical clearance followed by research work then thesis writing
Still some parts can be written alongside the work (introduction, literature review, material &
methods)

Slide 5: Components
• Title
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Rationale
• Hypothesis
• Objective
• Literature review
• Materials & methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• References
• Appendices

Slide 6: Title
• Reflects the content of research
• Short but complete
• Specific & relevant
• Unambiguous
• Within 15 words (250 characters including space)

Slide 7: Focuses on research question - Must


Includes variable & population
May include design & subjects, locale, year

Assertive
Smoking cessation decreases lung carcinoma
Declarative
Association between smoking & asthma in elderly

Slide 8: What to avoid


• Faulty syntax (word order)
e.g. Only Ali loves Moli.
Ali loves only Moli.
• Chemical formula
• Abbreviation / jargon except universal one
e.g. HIV, WHO, DNA, RNA etc
RCT

Slide 9: Opening word as: a, an, the


• Waste words e.g. studies on, observation on etc.
• Umbrella type title
e.g. Study on COVID-19
Study on gram-negative

"Causes of mortality among patients of sepsis in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and
determination of effective antibiotic treatment options (EATO)" or
"Causes of mortality among patients of sepsis in NICU and determination of effective antibiotic
treatment options (EATO)"

Slide 10: Abstract


• Mini version
• Summarizes all the sections
• Help readers to assess:

Content
Quality of research
Beneficiality to people
Slide 11: Comprises up to 800 words
• Preferably in one page
• Should be in future tense
• Generally no citation

Slide 12: Introduction


• Entices readers to continue on the main parts (the methods, result, discussion)
• In present tense
• Keep it short (1000 to 1500 words)

Includes background, knowledge review, justification of study

Slide 13: Start broadly and then narrow down to focus on topic

Slide 14: What Not to Include


• Own opinion
• Words like we, our, I
e.g. We have done this
Rather use: "Studies were carried out"
• Details about design

Slide 15: What to cite


• Do cite the papers written on your specific research topic.
• Do not cite well-known facts ("Maternal mortality is higher in developing countries than in
Europe") or articles not read.
• Do not over-reference.

Slide 16: Writing Good Introduction


• The first paragraph should provide a brief background in present tense to establish context,
relevance, or nature of the problem, question, or purpose (what is known)
• The second paragraph may include the importance of the problem and unclear issues (what is
unknown)
• The last paragraph should state the rationale, hypothesis, main objective, or purpose (why the
study was done).

Slide 17: Rationale (justification)


• As the last part of the introduction or a separate part
• Should answer:

Why research needs to be done?


What will be its relevance?
Brief description of most relevant studies provide support for rationale

Slide 18: Hypothesis


• A thesis should have either one hypothesis or more than one.
• No thesis should contain a research question.

Slide 19: Objectives


• Research is done to address the objective
• Should be written before starting research

General objective
• Statement of reaching the ultimate goal after the research.

Slide 20: Specific objectives


• Individual statements of the research question to fulfill the general objective/ statements of
each step taken to reach the ultimate goal
• Stated sequentially to maintain flow of study
Slide 21: Literature review
• Literature is like a chain story-telling where each writer starts with a partial story created
previously by others and expands on it…
• A systematic method for identifying, evaluating, and interpreting the work produced by
researchers, scholars, and practitioners
Source: Fink A, 1998

Slide 22: Components of lit. review


• Introduce topic
• Describe scope & organization
• Review past & present literature
• Clarify purpose

Length of literature
• How far back? Master's ~ 10 years; PhD - further back
• 20% total length of thesis

Avoid verbosity (repetitiveness)

Slide 23: Materials & Methods


• Material: research material used in research work
• Methods: tools & methodology followed for reaching conclusion

Slide 24: Most elaborated & detailed section


• Discuss about the tools/materials which you are using
• Detailed methodology used to conduct the analytical, statistical, numerical, experiment

Slide 25: Includes:


• Research design
• Place of study
• Research population
• Sample size
• Sample collection procedure
• Data collection instrument
• Period of study
• Laboratory procedure
• Data management & analysis
Slide 26: Research design
• Research design is based on study subjects and hypothesis.
• It may be broadly classified into observational and experimental study.

Slide 27: Research population


• Depending on the type of the study, the following should be included:

Inclusion criteria (characteristics study subjects must have)


Exclusion criteria (characteristics features must be absent)
Criteria for inclusion of case and control groups in intervention studies
Criteria for discontinuation
Slide 28: Sample size
• Optimum sample size is a prerequisite to generalize the study findings about the population.
• Adequate number of participants is to be included in a study to properly address the research
questions.

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