Monday, July 15, 2013

Planning a Thesis

A thesis is a difficult but rewarding academic task. When one successfully completes a thesis, great honors come his way and the student is usually given the opportunity to embark on a successful career in his field. But the key to writing a perfect thesis is to plan it properly. The first thing that the student needs to do is to find a proper topic. Some students are lucky enough to already have an original question in their heads that they wish to address. They are thus able to get started on their project without wasting any time.

But others are not so lucky. They are required to hunt a little before finding a topic that they would like to investigate. These students are well advised to talk to other students, scholars and professors to find a topic that they think will draw the attention of their academic circle. They can also read newspapers, browse through the Internet and look through academic journals to see what the burning topics currently making news in their world are.

The other thing that the student needs to examine is how easily research material is available for the question that he has chosen to answer. If it is very hard to find research material on a certain topic then it might be a good idea to avoid that particular theme. The student should be able to get enough material through both primary and secondary sources to complete the report in reasonably quick time. After deciding on the theme of the thesis, the student then needs to plan the collection of the research material.

If he needs to take some interviews or visit a few companies then he needs to coordinate with the right people and plan the visit. If he needs to collect material from secondary sources, then he needs to plan what books of what authors he is going to refer to and from what libraries he can access these books. Normally college professors are a good source for giving information on the best books to refer to. The student should also read through other research papers written in the past and examine the styles that those papers have been written in. The student should look at what writing style suits him best and what research methodology would give him success. If the work on the thesis is planned perfectly then the writing part becomes a lot easier.