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How to write a thesis proposal
1.Introduction
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When starting the daunting task of writing their master thesis, many students riously struggle with the definition of a suitable problem statement and the construction of an acceptable thesis proposal. In many cas, their proposals are met with criticism from staff members concerning issues such as the (lack of) academic value of the theme they propo, or the lack of empirical rearch embedded in the proposal. At that point, it ems that students and faculty have a hard time finding some common ground for establishing common criteria for an acceptable thesis proposal. The purpo of this paper is to provide a t of guidelines for the construction of an adequate thesis proposal and the criteria that should be met.
2011考研英语2.Purpo of a thesis proposal
The basis purpo of a thesis proposal is to convince your thesis supervisor or the thesis coordinator that the thesis you propo meets the criteria t, and therefore has a good chance of resulting in an interesting and relevant study. Therefore, a thesis proposal that is only bad on a general and vague notion that the lected theme may be suitable for a masters thesis, will almost certainly result in a reje
ction of the proposal! Selecting a theme and writing a proposal is the first step in writing a thesis and it involves rious work such as the lection of relevant literature and the construction of a rearch plan.
A thesis proposal is not accepted or rejected solely bad on the topic. Nevertheless, choosing a topic is one of the critical difficulties in the process of writing a thesis. Graduate cours are always a good basis to start for lecting a thesis topic. Also, the choice of a topic may be bad on events that have been in the news recently. But in that ca it is esntial that such a news topic is related to academic literature before it can be moulded into a suitable topic for a thesis.
3.Something to think about
When lecting a theme for a thesis, it may not be very wi to arch for a completely new topic! Since the thesis in most cas will be the first full rearch project the student will be involved in, some caution may be appropriate. Therefore, choosing an area that has not been addresd at all by other rearchers may not be very suitable. Consider that pioneering work may be an appropriate challenge for outstanding students or more experienced rearchers only.
4.Criteria that should be met
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It goes without saying that a proper thesis proposal should meet criteria that are not dealt with here, such as using a clear writing style, u of proper grammar, etc. This paper will only address fundamental criteria that are related to the subject of the thesis. Unfortunately, the most fundamental criteria that are relevant for a masters thesis, also em to be the most confusing to students. In this ction we will address two esntial criteria: academic value and the enclosure of some form of empirical rearch.读万卷书不如行万里路英文
A. Academic value
As it ems impossible to define the term “academic value”, we will address the issue by discussing a number of topics that in itlf are no guarantee for academic value but jointly should provide you with a clear basis for writing a proposal with an appropriate academic level.
1. Relevance to the academic community: Most basically, the academic value of a thesis can be measured by its relevance to academics. Unfortunately, academics may judge a particular study as relevant for a large number of reasons: a rearch study may confirm or refute existing theory, it may deepen existing knowledge (or contradict such knowledge), it may provide insights in undiscovered rearch area’s or it may provide improved or newly designed rearch instruments. It should be clear from the examples, that academic value it not necessarily linked to practical value.
caymans2.External validity: The issue of academic value may often be related to the level of generalisability of the anticipated results. Rearch results that are only applicable in a very specific context (e.g. one single firm) may not be very relevant in other contexts and therefore have very limited value forthe advancement of knowledge in general. Therefore, in general a rearch design for which the anticipated results are arguably applicable in a broad context, will result in a higher academic value.
3.Internal validity: One of the major concerns in academic rearch relates to the issue whether the results of the study can really be attributed to causal effects between the dependent and the independent variables. For example, a study that is designed to test the effect of ICT on the productivityof a firm may show a statistical significant relationship between ICT spending and company sales. However, for to derive at in internal valid conclusion that ICT spending has a positive affect on firm sales, the rearch design should rule out alternative potential caus for this increa. It might for example be that larger firm spend more funds on ICT and also have higher sales. In that ca, it remains unclear whether the reported differences in sales should be attributed to the level of ICT spending or to firm size. It should be recognid that any rearch design typically will involve a trade off between external validity and internal validity.
4.Argumentation: Academics love to debate. Therefore, the academic value of a thesis is cloly link
ed to the level of argumentation ud. The argumentations may be bad on inductive reasoning - which arrives at general principles from particular facts - and on
deductive reasoning - which reasons from general claims to specific instances. In all cas, value judgements, personal opinions, or out-of-context quotes are no acceptable substitutes for a clear argumentation.
Given the issues discusd above, it should be evident that a critical literature review is esntial to a thesis proposal. Therefore, the proposal should include a critical discussion of lected articles, books and press releas that are relevant in the context of the propod theme. The literature ud should be screened on methodological quality (how well is the study designed and implemented). A literature review can be partly bad on literature dealt with in cours you took during your studies, but additionally it is imperative to address additional sources such as recent issues of relevant academic or professional journals or bibliographies (e.g. EBSCO). Study books ud in cours usually do not include the latest literature and readers ud in cours mostly only take account of a limited lection of articles that are relevant to the propod topic of your thesis. U appropriate references to all literature ud and never plagiarize or quote authors out of context.
B. Empirical rearch
The intent of a masters thesis is to provide the opportunity for a student to acquire, or sometimes refine, a number of skills to perform and complete an individual rearch project. The completion of the thesis is evidence that the student has acquired a certain level of rearch skills (related to rearch design, data collection, analysis of data, synthesis of rearch results with existing literature and a critical evaluation of the limitations of the rearch conducted). The conquence is that a thesis can hardly be limited to a literature review, since in that ca, in order to compensate for the lack of empirical rearch, the thesis should reach an elevated level of original thinking. Therefore, a literature review may (again) be an appropriate challenge for outstanding students or more experienced rearchers only.gateshead
The department of Accounting and Information Management has a strong tradition in (positive) empirical rearch. This means that we are not so much interested in telling how things should be done, but instead we are interested in how things are done. The main purpo of positive empirical rearch therefore is to explain current practice and to consider the implications of rearch findings for practice and theory. As a conquence, we encourage our students to engage in empirical rearch of a quantitative nature. Although qualitative rearch is not strictly forbidden, in nature it is a complex and contested rearch field. It us rearch methods bad on ca studies or persona
l experience and as a result it usually is interpretive in nature. The characteristics make qualitative rearch less suitable for application in a masters thesis.
The choice of an appropriate rearch method is a complicated issue that cannot be dealt with extensively in this paper. For a more thorough discussion e Black [1999]. However, one remark should be made here. In a number of cas, students find inspiration for their thesis topic in a practical environment such as an internship. In such cas, students often are inclined to propo rearch bad on a single ca study. This
approach assumes that the results of a study within one single firm may result in a study that meets the criteria on academic level mentioned earlier in this paper. In most cas, however, this assumptionis not valid. Empirical rearch bad on one single ca study only provides academically relevant results in exceptional circumstances. It is, however, possible to perform an acceptable rearch project within the context of one single firm, though not bad on a ca study design. It is possible to design a suitable rearch bad on archival data that is derived from the records of one single company, or to design a study bad on a questionnaire for which the respondents are customers of one single firms, suppliers of one single firm or even employees of one single firm. As long as it can be argued that the results of the study are applicable outside the co
ntext of that particular firm, such a design may well be acceptable.
5.Structure of a thesis proposal
In conclusion, a proper master thesis proposal should include at least the following items:
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1. Provide an introduction in which the theme of the thesis is outlined. The purpo of the introduction is to provoke the interest of the reader and to convince the reader of the importance and relevance of the theme chon.
2. What is the exact rearch question the propod rearch project should answer and to what extent should the results of the study add to answering the rearch question? It should be noted that in most cas, the purpo of a thesis will NOT be to ANSWER the rearch question. Therefore, it should be addresd in what n and to what extent the results of the propod rearch will address the rearch question.
3. How is this rearch question related to existing literature? Find relevant citations and explain what the propod rearch project adds to our existing knowledge on the subject.
4. What rearch methodology will be ud to address the rearch question? For example, empiric
excessal rearch may u data from databas, public sources, questionnaires, interviews, or experiments. The choice of a method is strongly dependent on the nature of the rearch question that is addresd in the study. Some rearch methods are more suitable for exploratory studies on topics that have not been rearched before. In that ca the main purpo of the study could be to asss in detail the phenomenon of interest in practice, using a number of detailed ca studies, in depth interviews or expert panels.In other situations the thesis may want to add to a body of existing literature by focussing on a particular issue that has not been addresd before. In this ca rearch results that can be generalid would be preferred and the u of databas or questionnaires would be more appropriate.
5. For what audience will the results of the rearch project be of interest? F.e. the project may be relevant to practitioners but - as explained in detail before in this paper - there should also be an academic value.
6.Concluding remarks
This paper deals with certain important aspects of writing a thesis proposal for students that are looking for a thesis in the areas of accounting, auditing and information management. Further general information on writing a thesis at theFdEWB-UM can be found in the thesis guide.
7.References
lada* Black, T.R., 1999, Doing Quantitative Rearch in the Social Sciences: An Integrated Approach to Rearch Design, Measurement and Statistics, SagePublications, London * Ryan R.J., R.W. Scapens, and M Theobald, 1992, Rearch Methods and Methodology in Finance and Accounting, Academic Press, London
