Taking time to think about the structure of your thesis or mapping its outline can be a daunting task but it doesn’t have to be! This post is based on a workshop given by Margaret Cargill who guides students through this process of thesis design to writing and gets you thinking about how to achieve this final PhD goal.

[Editor’s note: This post is written and published with Margaret’s permission]

It can be tricky to think about the ‘big picture’ of your project when you are so buried in your everyday work, or when you work on small components of your project one at a time. It’s therefore very important to take time to consider your thesis early enough so you don’t end up stressed out when it actually comes to writing it.

First of all, as in any other communication, you need to know your audience. In this instance it will be examiners from your discipline that you (or your supervisors) will select. They could be scientists whose work you have extensively referenced in your manuscripts or a particular scientist you would want as an examiner for your final work. If you are working on a cross-disciplinary project you have to think carefully about who you want to choose as they might not be an expert in the topics all of your chapters cover, if each covers a different discipline/ sub-discipline.

Know your audience!

Then you need to consider the purpose for which you are writing this thesis. It will obviously be to get your degree but do you also want to use your thesis as an opportunity to draw your scientific career path? For instance you might want to highlight the methods you have been working on throughout your project or maybe you want to promote the skill-set you have developed during your PhD to make yourself more employable when you graduate.

Just take time to think about this when structuring your thesis.

Once you have more of an idea about who your target audience is and why you are writing a thesis it’s really important to state your Take-home messages (THMs)! Take-home messages are the main points your work has identified which are relevant for your audience. It is useful to word them early on and revisit them regularly. To help you select your own take-home messages try the following exercise:

  1. If you had to submit your thesis today, what would be the take-home message(s) or the main conclusions of your thesis? List them all with dot-points.
  2. Separate all the concepts identified into two categories:
    • Conclusions extracted from your own results (technical and specific)
    • Contribution to knowledge in your discipline and/or particular area (more general language)
  3. Now consider the implications of these conclusions on your final thesis writing. You might want to modify
    • The structure of your overall thesis
    • The order of each chapters.
      note: you don’t have to put your first findings as first data chapter if it impacts the overall flow of your thesis
    • The conclusions drawn from your literature review (e.g. knowledge gaps). Make a note to add/remove information from your literature review as your work progresses. Your project will naturally evolve and so will the purpose of your literature review.
    • Your thesis title. Adapt it regularly towards the end of your candidature so you can find the perfect fit to your story.

This exercise is also very useful when you want to structure the actual conclusions for your thesis (steps 1-2). For more efficient planning consider revisiting your draft monthly.

Prepare drafts early on and revisit them regularly.

Now you need to consider the format of your final thesis. For scientific theses in Australia, and at The University of Adelaide, you can choose from three options: conventional thesis presented as a typescript; thesis by publication which may contain published manuscripts, submitted and/or accepted and/or unpublished and unsubmitted work written in a manuscript style; finally a combination of conventional and publication formats (source: Adelaide Graduate Centre). Once you have chosen your format, think about the structure of your thesis. The structure will often depend on your results and conclusions, and keep in mind that there is no ‘perfect recipe’.

A useful exercise is to start drawing a picture or mind-map of your thesis structure. Include as much details as possible to help you establish connections between different parts of your thesis. Based on Cargill and O’Connor (2013) you can find two main types of structure:

  • Abstract, Introduction/Literature Review, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions. [Structure of a conventional thesis]
  • Abstract, Introduction/Literature Review, Materials and Methods, combined Results and Discussion, Conclusions. [Structure of a thesis by publication]

Note that these are just suggestions. You can decide to have two separate chapters for your Introduction and Literature Review. This case might be preferable if you have a very long literature review chapter or want to put more emphasis on either the Introduction or the Literature Review conclusions (e.g,. knowledge gaps). The same goes with Materials and Methods chapter: if you incorporate individual published papers you might not need to include a separate Methods chapter in your thesis.

How will my chapters link if I have self-contained manuscripts?

Besides the overall structure, you might have come across more specific questions such as “How can I link my chapters together if I have stand-alone manuscripts?” Fear not! There are several options available. The two most common are:

  • To have an implicit link when all your chapters logically lead to the next, or
  • Specify the links between each sections at the end of your Introduction

Another option is to create an exegetical one-page document interleaved between each chapter to link them together.

Organising your references can sometimes give you a bit of a headache. Well, the most important thing is to be consistent! Keep it simple and retain the same formatting throughout your thesis (e.g. all references at the end of your thesis; references within each published/publishable manuscript and separate reference list at the end for Introduction and Discussion chapters; etc.). The only instance where you cannot alter the structure and referencing style of your chapters is if it is a published piece of work (such as a journal article).  In this case you can implement minor formatting changes to numbering and captions as long as these changes are mentioned in a author contribution statement.

To find more inspiration contact your University or Faculty/Department to get access to recently published theses in your discipline (e.g. Trove for Australian theses). These can be a useful source of information about the breadth of thesis structures you can find within your own research area.

Research gaps should logically flow from previous statements.

Ok so now you know who you are writing for, why you are doing it, what your key findings are, and have a better idea of how you want to structure your final thesis. It’s time to draw an outline of your thesis structure! Don’t panic too much about it at this stage, it will likely be a rough draft which can be modified and improved with time, but it’s good to start. Based on this structure and keeping in mind the Conclusions/Contribution to Knowledge you identified earlier, start working on your Introduction.
Writing an Introduction can be divided into six stages (Cargill and O’Connor, 2013):

  1. Write broad statements about your topic or field of research, set the context for the problem(s) you have identified and claim its centrality and importance.
  2. Prepare more specific statements, to build on existing literature and present how other researchers have approached the problem(s) stated in Stage 1.
  3. Next you can express the need for more research and highlight your research gap(s). Note: the ‘gaps’ need to logically flow from your Stage 2 statements.
  4. Write very specific statements underlining your research aims and objectives.
  5. Optional – If you have a practical problem or if your project has specific/practical applications now is the time to insert them into the introduction.
  6. Formulate a rhetorical map which presents the structure of your thesis. This is where you can create a link between all your chapters.

In practice you would start with Stage 4 and list all of your aims and objective statements. Then you would find information to complete Stage 1 and 2 to justify each part of Stage 4. Note that each Stage 4 statement will compose a Stage 1-2 ‘package’. Include Stage 3 statements at the end of each Stage 1-2 ‘package’. Now consider if you need a Stage 5 and add it to the outline. Finally, once you have been through this process, how could you link all the components of your thesis together?

Note: if you are working on an interdisciplinary project write several versions putting the emphasis on each discipline. Then select the version which is the most appropriate for the findings and conclusions for your thesis.

And there you have it!

It’s a lot to take in, but if you start this process early enough and take the time to go through these steps you will formulate a well constructed and logical thesis while also keeping your stress levels down! Remember to revise your thesis structure regularly (~once a month) before the final write-up.

Good luck!

If you enjoyed this post, please let me know! You can find me on twitter @JeanneauAmelie

Further reading:

Cargill, M.; O’Connor, P. (2013). Writing scientific research articles: strategy and steps, 2nd Edition. John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 978-1-118-57070-8