751708 - Chapter 1

1. How to Write Thesis/IS
Introduction
Dr.
Warattaya Chinnakum
Faculty
of
Economic
,Chiang
Mai
University

2. Writing a Proposal:
Developing a Focused Project

3. Writing Thesis/Dissertation Proposals:
The Big Picture
Your proposal describes your proposed plan of work:
• What you intend to study (scope and research questions).
• How you intend to study your topic (methodology).
• Why this topic needs to be studied (significance).
• When you will complete this work (timeline).
• (Occasionally) Where you will conduct this work.

4. Writing Thesis/Dissertation Proposals
Purpose:
• Justify and plan (or contract for) a research project.
• Show how your project contributes to existing research.
• Demonstrate that you understand how to conduct
discipline-­‐specific research in an acceptable time-­‐frame.
Audience:
• your academic advisor and committee

5. Structure is KEY
You must have a clear structure before you start writing.
After you begin, however, adjustments are often necessary;
no hard rule exists how to structure your thesis. Suitable for
most:
• Title
• Introduction/Background
• Problem Statement
• Purpose/Aims/Rationale/R
esearch Questions
• Review of Literature
• Methodology
• Significance/
Implications
• Overview of Chapters
• Plan of Work
• Bibliography

6. What is thesis introduction
&
What to write in the Introduction

7. § Introduction should take less than 10% of your
thesis.
§ Introduction should be written after your research
is complete.
§ It should not have sections and subsections.
§ Common mistake
§ We write 30 pages of introduction because we
are afraid of failing to make it above the page
limit.
Introduction

8. Introduction
“The propose of introduction should be to supply sufficient
background information to allow the reader to understand
and evaluate the result of the present study without
needing to refer to previous publications on the topic. The
introduction should also provide the rationale for the
present study. Choose reference carefully to provide the
most salient background rather than an exhaustive review
of the topic”

9. Introduction
§ A description of the general problem followed by
a statement of the specific problem and the
motivation for the study.

10. What to write in the Introduction
§ What do we know about the topic?
§ Provide comprehensive & critical review of the major
findings in the area
§ What we don’t know[gap in knowledge]
§ Identifying what the gaps in our current understanding
of the field are, and why it is important that these gaps
be closed
§ What we are now showing
§ A clear statement summarizing what’s known, what
needs to be learned, and what you paper aims to
accomplish

11. 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 un-­‐known]
§ The last paragraph should state that rationale,
hypothesis, main objective, or purpose [why the study
was done]