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Writing your dissertation - structure and sections

Posted in: dissertations

In this post, we look at the structural elements of a typical dissertation. Your department may wish you to include additional sections but the following covers all core elements you will need to work on when designing and developing your final assignment.

The table below illustrates a classic dissertation layout with approximate lengths for each section.

Hopkins, D. and Reid, T., 2018.  The Academic Skills Handbook: Your Guid e to Success in Writing, Thinking and Communicating at University . Sage.

Your title should be clear, succinct and tell the reader exactly what your dissertation is about. If it is too vague or confusing, then it is likely your dissertation will be too vague and confusing. It is important therefore to spend time on this to ensure you get it right, and be ready to adapt to fit any changes of direction in your research or focus.

In the following examples, across a variety of subjects, you can see how the students have clearly identified the focus of their dissertation, and in some cases target a problem that they will address:

An econometric analysis of the demand for road transport within the united Kingdom from  1965 to 2000

To what extent does payment card fraud affect UK bank profitability and bank stakeholders?  Does this justify fraud prevention?

A meta-analysis of implant materials for intervertebral disc replacement and regeneration.

The role of ethnic institutions in social development; the case of Mombasa, Kenya.

Why haven’t biomass crops been adopted more widely as a source of renewable energy in the United Kingdom?

Mapping the criminal mind: Profiling and its limitation.

The Relative Effectiveness of Interferon Therapy for Chronic Hepatitis C

Under what conditions did the European Union exhibit leadership in international climate change negotiations from 1992-1997, 1997-2005 and 2005-Copenhagen respectively?

The first thing your reader will read (after the title) is your abstract. However, you need to write this last. Your abstract is a summary of the whole project, and will include aims and objectives, methods, results and conclusions. You cannot write this until you have completed your write-up.

Introduction

Your introduction should include the same elements found in most academic essay or report assignments, with the possible inclusion of research questions. The aim of the introduction is to set the scene, contextualise your research, introduce your focus topic and research questions, and tell the reader what you will be covering.  It should move from the general  and work towards the specific. You should include the following:

• Attention-grabbing statement (a controversy, a topical issue, a contentious view, a recent problem etc)
• Background and context
• Introduce the topic, key theories, concepts, terms of reference, practices, (advocates and critic)
• Introduce the problem and focus of your research
• Set out your research question(s) (this could be set out in a separate section)
• Your approach to answering your research questions.

Literature review

Your literature review is the section of your report where you show what is already known about the area under investigation and demonstrate the need for your particular study. This is a significant section in your dissertation (30%) and you should allow plenty of time to carry out a thorough exploration of your focus topic and use it to help you identify a specific problem and formulate your research questions.

You should approach the literature review with the critical analysis dial turned up to full volume. This is not simply a description, list, or summary  of everything you have read. Instead, it is a synthesis of your reading, and should include analysis and evaluation of readings, evidence, studies and data, cases, real world applications and views/opinions expressed.  Your supervisor is looking for this detailed critical approach in your literature review, where you unpack sources, identify strengths and weaknesses and find gaps in the research.

In other words, your literature review is your opportunity to show the reader why your paper is important and your research is significant, as it addresses the gap or on-going issue you have uncovered.

You need to tell the reader what was done. This means describing the research methods and explaining your choice. This will include information on the following:

• Are your methods qualitative or quantitative... or both? And if so, why?
• Who (if any) are the participants?
• Are you analysing any documents, systems, organisations? If so what are they and why are you analysing them?
• What did you do first, second, etc?
• What ethical considerations are there?

It is a common style convention to write what was done rather than what you did, and write it so that someone else would be able to replicate your study.

Here you describe what you have found out. You need to identify the most significant patterns in your data, and use tables and figures to support your description. Your tables and figures are a visual representation of your findings, but remember to describe what they show in your writing. There should be no critical analysis in this part (unless you have combined results and discussion sections).

Here you show the significance of your results or findings. You critically analyse what they mean, and what the implications may be. Talk about any limitations to your study, evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of your own research, and make suggestions for further studies to build on your findings. In this section, your supervisor will expect you to dig deep into your findings and critically evaluate what they mean in relation to previous studies, theories, views and opinions.

This is a summary of your project, reminding the reader of the background to your study, your objectives, and showing how you met them. Do not include any new information that you have not discussed before.

This is the list of all the sources you have cited in your dissertation. Ensure you are consistent and follow the conventions for the particular referencing system you are using. (Note: you shouldn't include books you've read but do not appear in your dissertation).

Include any extra information that your reader may like to read. It should not be essential for your reader to read them in order to understand your dissertation. Your appendices should be labelled (e.g. Appendix A, Appendix B, etc). Examples of material for the appendices include detailed data tables (summarised in your results section), the complete version of a document you have used an extract from, etc.

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Life Sciences: Biosciences: Search the literature

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Library catalogue and specialist databases

To find a recommended book, journal or article, use the library catalogue . To research a subject area, use the specialist databases below. In these, you will find details of many thousands of journals and articles. Some include other sources of information, such as books, patents and conference papers.

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Student theses

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A critical review of conner's scale as an instrument for identifying 16-18 years old students with adhd in jeddah, kingdom of saudi arabia (ksa).

Student thesis : Doctoral Thesis › PhD

A Cross-cultural Study of Psychosocial Factors Influencing Young Peoples' Intended Non-condom Use

Adolescents' representations of climate change: (alternative format thesis), advancing the quantification of mentalising ability across development in typical and atypical populations: (alternative format thesis), a fluid power application of alternative robust control strategies, after the fire: post traumatic growth in recovery from addictions, age differences in the effects of metacognition on financial decision-making: (alternative format thesis), a longitudinal study of the personality and the attainments and attitudes of junior school children., a mixed-method psychosocial analysis how senior health care professionals recognise dying and engage patients and families in the negotiation of key decisions., a neurocognitive investigation of the role of reinforcement learning in updating dysfunctional self-schema in depression: a putative mechanism for antidepressant action: (alternative format thesis), a neurocognitive study of attentional processes in social facilitation, an examination of british chinese health care practice and beliefs: investigating the theory of planned behaviour, health-related 'quality of life', and chinese medicine treatment for psoriasis, an exploration of the relationship between contextual school factors and the mental well-being of students recognised as experiencing sebd, an identification and critical analysis of barriers to raising the topic of weight in general practice, an investigation into the impact of dementia on couples and how they cope with this, an investigation into the reciprocal relationship between gender and careers, an investigation of non-social cognition across the autism spectrum, an investigation of parental ptsd: how and why parental trauma impacts the parent and the family dynamic: (alternative format thesis), an investigation of parental responses to child experiences of trauma: (alternative format thesis), an investigation of response to different treatment modalities in cognitive behavioural therapy for obsessive compulsive disorder, antecedents of energy literacy and energy saving behaviour: a mixed methods approach, a phenomenological analysis of the expressive and communicative functions of deliberate self-harm, appeasing the mushroom gods: a foucauldian discourse analysis of magic mushroom users' constructions of meanings surrounding psilocybin mushroom use, assessing the subjective quality of life of people with dementia: development of the basqid, a study of public understanding of and response to climate change in the south of england, a study of self-esteem, neuroticism, and extroversion of delinquent boys in custody and awaiting-trial boys in khartoum province in the sudan., attachment relationships in long-term foster care: the function and role of animals, attitudes towards science: the design, construction, validation and use of an attitude scale., autistic characteristics in adults with epilepsy, captive flight: the movement of imagination apprehended in accounts of confinement, caribbean managers’ attitudes to risk and uncertainty in decision-making.

Student thesis : Masters Thesis › MPhil

Characterising the components of empathy: Implications for models of autism

Characterizing the relationship between energy and urban form using data, scaling and combined metrics, childhood adversity, resilience, and internalising and externalising outcomes: (alternative format thesis), chronic pain, work absenteeism and sickness certification: exploring the construction of acceptable pain-related work absence, communicating adaptation: using psychological insights to facilitate adaptive responses to climate change impacts, community-economic initiatives: the psychology and organisation of grassroots sustainability, compensating for distance compression in virtual audiovisual environments.

Student thesis : Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Engineering (EngD)

Conflict in Context: A critique and investigation into the logic, nature, and evolutionary consequences of competition in animals

Cultural differences in the effects of workspace personalisation on individual and organisational outcomes, dancing gender: exploring embodied masculinities, deception in autism: implications for police suspect interviewing: (alternative format thesis), defining the early indicators of dyslexia: providing the signposts to intervention, developing and evaluating digitally-mediated service provision for children with social, emotional, and mental health needs: (alternative format thesis), developing safety culture interventions in the manufacturing sector, developing the tools to thrive: psychosocial and behavioural support for families of children with developmental language disorder.: developing the tools to thrive: developmental language disorder, development of audio-haptic multisensory integration in sighted and non-sighted individuals: (alternative format thesis), development of conceptual framework and methodology for enhancing long term coping skills to improve psychological and physiological well-being, doctorate in clinical psychology: main research portfolio: 1) do interventions principally targeting excessive alcohol use in young people improve depression symptoms: a systematic review and meta-analysis; 2) moving on after trauma group for young refugees and asylum-seekers: service-user experiences; 3) service-user experiences of an integrated psychological intervention for depression or anxiety and tobacco smoking in iapt: mechanisms of change..

Student thesis : Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy)

Doctorate in Clinical Psychology: Main Research Portfolio: 1) A Systematic Review of Beliefs, Meanings and Motivations in Acquisition of Possessions in Hoarding Disorder; 2) Evaluating the Revised Anorexia Nervosa Care Pathway for Young People Receiving Inpatient Care at an Adolescent Unit ; 3)The role of intolerance of uncertainty, anxiety sensitivity and distress tolerance in Hoarding Disorder compared to OCD and healthy controls.