RESEARCH WRITING:

WHAT IS A THESIS?
As a research candidate at RMIT you will be required to write either a thesis or an exegesis.
This will be determined by the type of research degree, whether it is by thesis or project. The
information here relates mostly to the thesis.
Exegeses differ widely between disciplines in their structure and orientation, although, as with theses, they must
show the purpose and theoretical basis of the project.

Developing your identity as a scholar

There are two parts to your thesis writing (Kamler & Thomson, 2006):
The text work:
work : Knowing the conventions and textual practices (how the writing works through structures
and sub-structures) common to your discipline is important.
The identity work: You don’t start out being an expert—you become one. Most academic identity work
happens through writing, but your identity also develops through professional gatherings and day-to-day
work. Through this, you write yourself into your disciplinary scholarship. The literature review materials in the
postgraduate section of RMIT Learning Lab have more information about identity work.

Structuring your thesis

Broad structure: The front and end sections are prescribed by the RMIT University HDR policy, but you will
need to decide how the main text is structured.

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The ‘story’ of your research
Your thesis tells the story of your research
…which is why the
You need to answer the following questions to tell your research
‘traditional’ thesis structure
‘story’…
looks like this:

What is the research about? Introduction

What is already known? Literature review
How did I go about my research? Methodology
What did I find? Results (Findings)
What do the results/findings mean? Discussion
So what? What is the significance and what are the contributions? Conclusion
What should happen now? Recommendations

However, not all theses are structured in the ‘traditional’ way. Many are a variation of this, as in the following
examples:
• If the literature review is very short, it is often found in a section of the introduction.
• Often results and discussion are put together and divided in another way, such as through methodology
or research questions. That is, there could be one chapter of the results and discussions of quantitative
methods used, and another chapter of the results and discussion of qualitative methods.
• Some theses divide in a similar way, but add the methodology to this; this produces two or three
chapters, each containing methodology, results and discussion.
Aside from the traditional structure and variations, in some disciplines theses are produced that are thematically-
based, each chapter dealing with a particular theme. However, even in these theses, answers to the questions
above are all there. They’re just not easily distinguishable by reading the contents page.
Because so much variation is possible, it is imperative that you read other theses from your discipline. These are
very easy to find online from the RMIT Library.

Overall integrity
However you structure your thesis, it must have overall integrity:
− What’s already known about an issue determines your research question or problem.
− Your research question or problem determines your methodology.
− Your methodology determines the data and results.
− Your results define what you can discuss.
− Your discussion determines your conclusion and recommendations.
Overall, your thesis will be judged on whether your research questions are aligned with the literature cited, your
methodology, your results and the claims you’re making.
Here are some important points to address at each stage of your thesis:

The introduction
The introduction generally has a shape, moving from the general to the specific and includes:

Contextual (background) information to the research question

Objectives and research questions/problems
(including the scope of your research)
Rationale for these questions
How you will find answers
(very brief methodology)
The structure of the rest of the thesis

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The literature review
• Review literature to define, explain, justify and show the gap that the present research will fill.
• Usually structured in themes
• Highlight areas of similarity and difference
• Remember to analyse, not just describe the literature.

The methodology
• Perhaps discuss your epistemology and theoretical perspectives (depending on your subject area).
• Discuss the limitations of your chosen methodology and any problems that arose.
• Use the literature to help justify your methodology (if not done in the lit. review).
• Explain how data were collected and analysed.

The results
• Use graphs, tables, etc., where appropriate.
• Don’t repeat information in graphs – point to the interesting or unexpected data.
• Don’t discuss results here if you have a separate discussion chapter.

Discussion
• Interpret and discuss the results in terms of the research question(s) or problem(s).
• Compare with results of previous research (bring in the literature)
• Discuss the effects of methods used on data obtained.
• Discuss limitations (shortcoming of the research or the research methodology)

Conclusion
• This is the ‘so what!’ section of your thesis – discuss the significance of the research.
• Return to the objectives and the research questions or problems and suggest whether they’ve been
answered or ‘solved’.
• Show what has been learned from the study and how it can be applied.
• Indicate possible future research.
• List recommendations (if any).

Signposting
Signposting the structure
Because your thesis is a large document, it’s important to signpost the structure through your writing. Here are
some reader directions (meta-discourse) you could use:
• Forecasting, e.g.
In this chapter, the results from the qualitative analysis are analysed.
• Recapitulation, e.g.
The preceding section outlined the literature relating to the value of the doctoral degree; this
section discusses diversity within doctoral candidates.
• Overview, e.g.:
Before the analysis of results from this instrument, it is important to discuss the theoretical
basis of this.
In a thesis you need to signpost throughout your writing at various levels.
• The whole thesis
The focus of this thesis is...
• Another chapter
The physical properties are presented and analysed in Chapter 5.
• The current chapter
The remainder of this chapter discusses...
• Another section
In the previous section, it was demonstrated that...
• The current section
The following experiment shows...
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How your thesis is judged
Your thesis needs to show that you can:
• plan, organise and carry out an investigation
• complete a critical review of the literature, identifying:
− strengths and weaknesses
− inconsistencies and gaps
− (possible) problems in methodology and analysis
• show an understanding of research theory and techniques
• interpret data
• understand and convey the relevance of the research results to the general field of study.

Final point
Start writing early!
We recommend all research candidates read the official RMIT University HDR policy:
http://www.rmit.edu.au/browse/Staff/Administration/Policies%20and%20procedures/Academic%20and%20res
earch/Higher%20degrees%20by%20research/

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