Writing Tips for Senior Theses

Concerning the Form of the Thesis

The watchword for writing a long research paper is structure. The format of your paper should reveal the structure of your thinking. Devices such as paragraphing, headings, indentation, and enumeration help your reader see the major points you want to make. If you tend to string sentences together without organizing your thoughts into paragraphs, you are not helping him or her make sense of your writing.

As a rule of thumb, if you type a full page (double spaced) without indenting for a new paragraph, you almost certainly have run one thought into another and have missed an opportunity to differentiate your ideas.

Headings can convey the major topics discussed in your paper. A research report typically contains four basic components:

Statement of the problem or theoretical question that gave rise to the research

Discussion of how the research was designed to clarify the problem

Analysis of the data or information produced by the research

Summary and conclusion of the study

Although you could include those sections in your report without separate headings, the underlying logic of your paper will be more readily apparent with headings that identify its basic components: (1) the problem, (2) research design, (3) data analysis, (4) summary and conclusion. Obviously, you can adjust or elaborate on these generic headings depending on your topic.

Thesis Guidelines

 

Award Winning Theses

 

The following theses are examples of outstanding work: