Master's degree thesis is an important basis for awarding master's degree. So, how to write a master's thesis?
Most people who read master of arts have written thousands of words. Moreover, from writing articles of several thousand words to writing master's thesis of 20,000-30,000 words, there is still a relatively difficult one? Hey? . Once you successfully cross this hurdle, you will have a feeling of climbing higher mountains, and all the other mountains are short in the sky ... why? Because the number of words in the articles written before is limited, it is easier to grasp the structure and logic; The second is that the article is not a real academic paper. The thesis written at graduation may be the largest. Generally speaking, we can talk about a smaller topic and repeat the existing research results. As long as you make the basic knowledge clear in your own language, you will be qualified. Articles written in daily work are nothing more than work summary, learning experience and secretary's affairs; Even though I have tried to create literary works, there is still a long way to go between infinite literary reverie and scientific paper writing. For most master thesis writers, it is the first time to write such a long article. Not only the length, but also the nature of the article is completely different from my own experience. It needs academics and some innovation. Therefore, if we make some efforts in the writing of master's thesis and master the basic steps and norms of writing, the thesis will be successful, which is a leap forward in one's studies. After three years of postgraduate study, you must grasp the most critical link of writing a thesis.
The first part: Eight steps of writing a thesis.
Strictly speaking, thesis writing does not begin with writing (or typing on the computer). Many of the previous steps belong to the necessary link of thesis writing, which is much more important than actual writing. Many people who come here realize that it takes months or even years to prepare a big paper. Once it is really ready, it only takes a few days to a few weeks to start writing.
The first step is to determine the title of the paper. Broadly speaking, you can write anything on any topic within your major, as long as you have new ideas, new discoveries, new perspectives, new research methods, new materials and so on. But what is behind this? Five new? It greatly limits the topic selection of master's thesis. This is because most authors are writing such a long academic paper for the first time, lacking experience and profound knowledge accumulation, which is difficult to grasp; At the same time, the condition of 20,000 to 30,000 words also has great constraints on the topic selection. If the topic is too big, it can't be carried out in this relatively narrow range. Therefore, whether the topic is appropriate or not has a great influence on the success or failure of the paper. Some people even say that a good topic is half the battle.
According to the experience of many master's dissertations, the topic selection at this level can be considered from the following aspects: research gaps in this major, controversial topics (my own views are relatively sufficient), comparative topics, topics in this major from other professional perspectives (this is a marginal effect of topic selection), old topics with new insertion angles, and new problems in this major that have just emerged.
The second step is to review the relevant theories and research around the topic of the paper, or? Literature retrieval? . This step of work is very hard, so you need to be mentally prepared. In China, at present, most Chinese academic materials are not online and need to be searched manually, so it may take a lot of time and energy to find Chinese materials in this step; Latin materials, especially English materials, are relatively easy to query because of the convenient conditions of network communication. However, even if a lot of information is found in the catalogue, it still needs the unremitting efforts of the author to really understand it.
This step is necessary. Without this step, the content of your thesis is likely to repeat what others have done, which is equivalent to doing it in vain; The process of searching is also a process of stimulating ideas and generating sparks of opinions. If you don't take this step, you will cut off the source of your new ideas, new perspectives and new materials. This is also to prepare for the next step in terms of viewpoints, angles and materials.
The third step is to put forward my own theoretical assumptions about the topic or specific problems to be studied. Topic selection refers to the general direction and scope of the paper to be written. If you really want to start writing, you will encounter two specific problems. The first category belongs to opinions: what is my specific opinion? You can imagine one or several ideas, but they are just a hypothesis. Through a lot of evidence and materials, through rigorous argumentation and appropriate argumentation framework structure, prove that your hypothesis is established and can form the main body of the paper. The second category belongs to practice: what problems should be demonstrated specifically? You can put forward many reasons, whether the influence of various environmental conditions is related to the demonstration and to what extent, all of which require scientific investigation and analysis.
In either case, this involves the central idea or the theme of the thesis, which must be clear and run through the whole thesis. Because the number of words in the master's thesis is relatively long, a common problem is that the author can't grasp the full text, writing style and writing method, which virtually deviates from his original assumptions or specific problems and says a lot of things that have nothing to do with the central idea or the theme of argument.
The fourth step is to decide which research method to adopt. The research methods of humanities and social sciences can be roughly divided into two categories, speculative research and empirical research, and the latter can be divided into qualitative research and quantitative research. In order to explore social facts or social phenomena, people adopt different research orientations, and different research orientations have different research methods, different research hypotheses, ways of collecting data and criteria for judging results. However, various research methods are increasingly showing compatibility and internal relations in current thesis writing. Generally speaking, according to your own topics and specific issues discussed, you can take one research method as the main one, supplemented by other methods. Like research? People? As the receiver of mass media information, this research orientation determines that the research itself should be based on quantitative analysis, but it also needs some speculative research in history, culture and political economy.
In the master's thesis of arts, the quantitative analysis made by the author directly for the thesis is generally small in scale, limited in scope of application, and more people use it, rather than their own direct investigation results. This is due to the small scale of the paper, the limited research funds given to the author, and the limited ability of the author to conduct social surveys. Based on logical analysis, this paper uses some quantitative analysis data appropriately, which sometimes adds some weight to the article. But it must be done according to the actual needs, not to show the diversity of research methods. For example, a very macro topic was originally suitable for speculative research, and it would be self-defeating to add a micro-quantitative survey result to prove anything. This is a specific problem to be grasped in writing a good paper now.
The fifth step is to design the framework of the thesis. This step is also needed in general article writing, but it is more necessary and detailed for master's thesis. Generally speaking, a master's thesis should have a preface, a first chapter, a main chapter and a conclusion. Chapter setting should have a general layout logic before writing to make its structure reasonable; There is a logical connection between chapters to prevent scribbling, drowning the theme and being unintelligible. This step is rarely completed once, and often changes according to the situation of collecting materials and the new situation encountered in the investigation and interview. However, just as an architect must have drawings before building a house, at the level of writing a master's thesis, the general framework of the article should not only be stored in his mind, but also generally written in words, which is more detailed and specific. Festival? Better (but? Festival? Don't fix the level from the beginning), which is convenient for writing.
When it comes to designing the framework of the thesis, because it is a textual chapter design, it is a good opportunity to solicit opinions from other experts in addition to the guidance of the tutor before formal writing. The framework is not a very thick paper, and it takes little time to read, so you can roughly see the value or existing problems of the article. At this time, it is much easier and easier to modify the structure of the paper than to modify it after writing, and the time is wider. Don't miss this opportunity.
The sixth step is to analyze and classify the obtained literature, investigation materials and various arguments, enrich them into various chapters respectively, and then elaborate and demonstrate them. This is actually the thesis writing itself, so this description is to let the author know the process of thesis writing. Materials and arguments are not born to prove arguments or explain specific problems. Only through the author's organization and demonstration of materials can they become full of vitality and serve their own themes naturally and effectively.
In this step, you need to review your knowledge of logic or social investigation and statistics, use correct logical thinking and rigorous data organization methods, closely focus on established theoretical assumptions or specific problems, mobilize all kinds of knowledge you have learned, and demonstrate opinions or problems through positive theory (this is the main), counter-theory, hypothesis theory, refutation theory, metaphor theory, etc., draw conclusions, and complete the paper.
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