Writing a Thesis: How To and Features

How many essays have you completed while studying at a college or university? What do they have in common? If you look carefully at an academic paper writing, you will notice at once that it’s a kind of a persuasive writing.

You formulate an idea, mention it at the beginning of your paper and then use arguments to persuade your reader that it’s a true one. Everything seems to be easy, isn’t it? However, writing a thesis paper has its own peculiarities, and today we are going to speak about what is a thesis paper.

How to Write a Thesis Paper

Completing a thesis research paper often starts with formulating a thesis statement. This statement is like a road map of your paper and often tells your readers what they are going to read about in the main body of your essay. So if you don’t know how to start a thesis paper, always include a thesis statement in its introduction.

However, thesis formulating shouldn’t be done in a hurry. Some students usually start to formulate the main idea of their paper as soon as they get instructions from their teacher or professor. It’s a big mistake. Thesis papers which include a crude and unreasoned thesis statements are difficult to compose, read and understand.

If you don’t know how to write a thesis paper or aren’t sure whether your idea is right or wrong, start the essay completing process by visiting a local library or surfing the internet. You have to collect all possible data on your topic to see all possible relationships between various facts. Think what is significant and unimportant, find things that may change something drastically, and only then start to develop a ‘working’ thesis. Such approach would be the right roadmap in "how to write a thesis paper".

Thesis Paper Examples

Students who still have some difficulties in understanding what is a thesis paper may use the following example as a starting point in their essay writing journey.

Imagine that your teacher asked you to complete a sample thesis paper about a famous English dramatist William Shakespeare. You have to prove that he was really a great one. The task seems to be an easy one. However, if you simply write something like ‘Shakespeare was a great play writer’, your reader may not agree with you. Your main goal is to prove your readers that he was indeed an outstanding dramatist by analyzing his plays, telling about the problems he discussed, investigating the characters he has invented and etc.

All in all, writing a thesis paper seems to be a little bit tiresome. Nevertheless, such writing assignments will help you deepen your knowledge and develop your writing and investigating skills.

A thesis is one of the most complex forms of academic writing a student encounters. Writing a thesis requires large amounts of research, expert writing skills, knowledge of the required format, and other components of successful thesis creation. If you have a BA or MA thesis to write soon, here are some tips that will help.

Thesis Format

Finding the right format for your paper is as important as doing outstanding research. The scientific community expects to see a flawlessly structured and formatted paper, and that’s exactly what you can deliver with the help of these formatting tips.

• The recommended font to use is 12pt. Times New Roman, although you can use other fonts if they are acceptable at your institution. To find this out, ask your instructor or at a thesis example from your school;
• Choose 1.5 spacing for the body of your paper and 1 spacing for block quotations;
• Set 1.25-inch margins for the left and right sides of the paper and 1-inch margins for the top and bottom of the page;
• Each page of your thesis should be numbered in the bottom right corner of the page, except for the title page;
• A typical thesis contains a lot of citations, and the citation style should be specified by your instructor. Make sure to follow the citation style closely and use a template for the required style to be completely confident you’re doing everything right.

This is how you should format your paper, but what exactly should your thesis contain? Writing an outline can help you design the correct structure for the thesis and not forget any important part in the process. Here are the parts that should be found in your outline.

1. Title page. The information on the title page includes the title, author, instructor, institution, and date. Your supervisor may have some additional requirements for the title page;
2. Abstract. An abstract should function as a short summary of your work. State your research problem, methods, results, and conclusion;
3. Table of contents. Here you should list every part of your thesis, both the titles and the subtitles. Additional parts like Acknowledgements and Appendix should also be included;
4. List of figures/tables. If you are using any figures or tables in your thesis, list them in this part and provide page numbers where the reader can find them;
5. Nomenclature. If you wish or are instructed to do so by your supervisor, include any terms, abbreviations, and symbols your readers may not be familiar with;
6. Introduction. In this part you need to specify your reasons for doing the research, the context and background of the problem, and your thesis. Plus, offer your criteria of research success;
7. Theory. Here you have to list all available theoretical information on the problem;
8. Methods. In this section you need to explain the methodology used by you in doing the research. The description of the methods needs to be detailed enough for other scientists to be able to recreate your research;
9. Results. Present your results and analyze how accurate and precise they are. This section can be vastly improved by the use of visual aids, especially tables;
10. Discussion. Determine whether the results obtained by your research are significant for your scientific field and how they compare to your theoretical expectations;
11. Conclusion. Here you need to present a review of the obtained results and how they are connected to your original problem statement. See whether your results meet the criteria for success from your own introduction;
12. Acknowledgements. Acknowledge anyone who has assisted you in your work;
13. Bibliography. Using the sample bibliography format, list every source you’ve referenced in the thesis.

Thesis Topics List

Writing and formatting your paper are important stages of thesis creation, but it all starts with choosing a topic. For example, a badly chosen theme for your thesis can lead to a less brilliant result of your research. Here are 10 topics you can use as an example for your own writing samples.

1. How discrimination affects the education process.
2. What causes eating disorders and how they can be prevented.
3. The effect of modern technology on interpersonal communication.
4. Is universal health coverage really needed?
5. School uniforms and their effect on the education.
6. Medical research and animal rights.
7. Is there a need for censorship on the internet?
8. Capitalism vs. socialism in the modern world.
9. Should day care be financed by parents or the government?
10. Social acceptance of drugs.