Writing thesis sections - Part 2
Develop your skills in writing about methods, results and findings.
Writing thesis sections - Part 2
Shaping the research question and hypothesis
This resource introduces approaches to writing the core parts of your thesis. It includes activities to help you apply tips and reflect on your own learning, and should take you 15-20 minutes to read and complete. Check out the further resources at the bottom of each section and references on the last page for more information on this topic.
The core part of your thesis starts with your research question or hypothesis and proceeds through your explanation of methods and results, or data analysis, and ends with a discussion of your findings.
The research question and hypothesis mark your own disciplinary territory and drive your research.
Whether you have both a research question and a hypothesis, and whether they are broken down into several sub-areas, will depend on your discipline and topic; but however they appear, it is important that they are clearly formulated.
Research question
A research question should:
- Focus on a clear, specific and significant problem or puzzle
- Be shaped in a way that allows it to be answered with different research results
- Be revisited frequently in the research process.
You can use the FINER criteria when developing a research question:
- Feasible – is the research practical and achievable given time and resources?
- Interesting – is the research intriguing, compelling and able to contribute to the field?
- Novel – is the research original?
- Ethical – are there any concerns about the impact of the research on participants or wider community?
- Relevant – is the research important or meaningful for those in the field?
Example research questions:
- What impact will climate change have on production systems in the Tasmanian dairy industry?
- What are the unique challenges and opportunities for higher education institutions that allow first-year undergraduate students to use Generative AI tools in written assessments?
Hypothesis
A hypothesis is a well-reasoned proposition in response to a research question that you will test to confirm or disprove in your research. Not all research has a hypothesis.
A hypothesis should:
- Be in the form of a statement
- Be disprovable
- Be clear and specific in scope.
Example hypothesis:
- Undergraduate students who participate in a stress-reduction seminar will report an increase in their well-being after six weeks
This is a statement that argues for a relationship between two clear and specific variables that can be tested and thus disproven.
Types of research questions
In order to help you frame a research question, keep in mind that there are four basic types of research (adapted from Fahnestock & Secor, 2004).
Four general research types and their corresponding questions:
| Research type | Key question |
|---|---|
| Definition | What is it? |
| Origin | How did it get that way? |
| Evaluation | What does it do? What effect does it have? |
| Proposal | What should we do about it? |
Contextualise the research question or hypothesis
The research question or hypothesis is part of your thesis core as it guides your own research, but it is usually stated in a lead-in section, such as the thesis introduction.
Complete the activity below to learn how a research question or hypothesis can be contextualised.
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Note that some disciplines require hypotheses rather than research questions and vice versa. However, the question implied in this example seems to be ‘What role does fast food play in the childhood obesity problem in the province?’
Use the side menu to go the next section: Choosing and justifying your methods, where we look at ways to present your research design.
Choosing and justifying your methods
Demonstrating that your methods are sound and appropriate for your question will help your reader see that the results and conclusions you reach are valid and reliable.
You can present your overarching research approach or methods in a central methods chapter in your thesis. If you use different methods for different parts of the thesis, these methods can be integrated into the parts.
Choosing your methods
To help you in this process:
- Clarify your stance or paradigm as a researcher if relevant to your discipline
- Are you an observer, experimenter or involved agent?
- How would this affect your data collection and/or analysis
- Align your methods to your research aim
For example, if your question asks about a quantifiable variable, consider a quantitative method for measuring it.
- Compare your methods to alternative methods
Demonstrate that your choice best suits your investigation.
- Show awareness of potential confounding factors
What are the biases or pitfalls? Show how you’re accounting for or guarding against them.
- Show awareness of your own assumptions
For example, show how a chosen method assumes a relationship between variables, and why that is reasonable.
- Consider the type of data you’re collecting
- How will it allow you to answer your research question or test your hypothesis?
- What criteria and thresholds have you established for data collection and analysis?
- What type of answer will you be able to generate if these criteria and thresholds are satisfied?
Asking these questions will help you design your methods to be part of a consistent line of reasoning that will take you from raw data to conclusions.
Presenting your methods
This activity provides two examples of presenting research methods in a thesis. The first one shows how the methods are being aligned and justified with the research aim. The second shows how clear measurements, criteria and thresholds are being established.
Drag and drop the main writing moves in each example, such as ‘defining the method’ and ‘establishing the threshold’ into their corresponding places.
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Sage Project Planner – Research Design (UoM login required)
Use the side menu to go the next section: Analysing data and reporting results, where we examine how to maximise the impact of your data.
Analysing data and reporting results
In this stage, you educate your reader on what you’ve found and take them through how you’ve turned data into knowledge, which involves making reasoned connections between variables or different parts of the data. Reporting your results and analysis requires summarising key points or patterns in the data and how they’ve emerged.
Choose representative information
- Use only representative data and analyses to demonstrate the validity of your results.
- Decide what to include by asking:
- What qualifies as representative data and why?
- What does it represent?
- How do I know if the representation is complete and correct?
Organise the information
- Capture categories or themes in the data that relate to your research question or hypothesis.
- Add informative headings and subheadings to help the reader navigate your results.
Illustrate your results
- Design any tables and figures to be understandable on their own and complementary to your writing, with clear, informative titles. These should illustrate the key evidence to support your results and make them easier for readers to process.
- When using tables and figures, think about:
- whether they are necessary, and
- which type of illustration best suits the information.
For example, if some qualitative information is best explained in a paragraph with a subheading, you may not need a table or figure at all. On the other hand, to compare the trends of two variables over time, a line graph will be useful.
State the new knowledge
- Begin every data chapter with a statement of purpose.
- End it with a statement of how the purpose has been addressed, highlighting the new knowledge generated by the chapter.
Example statement of purpose - chapter introduction
The aim of this study was to understand the role of group singing in inpatient and community mental health settings in regard to the contextual and conditional factors apparent within these settings which contribute to mental health recovery. (Bibb, 2016, p. 139)
Example statement of new knowledge - chapter conclusion
Findings were presented as a grounded theory of group singing which was described as the way consumers can experience triggering encounters with music in their singing group and use the group conditions as coping resources to regain musical, emotional and social health. (Bibb, 2016, p. 211)
Start early and revise regularly
- Start writing your data chapters early in your data collection and analysis and review them regularly to:
- Evolve your analytical categories or themes
- Reflect on the new knowledge these chapters produce
- Recognise, rectify or acknowledge limitations in your data or results.
- Assess the validity and reliability of this knowledge: is it warranted by the nature of the data? Does it align with the aim and methods? Is the analytical process rigorous enough?
Activity: Examples of presenting results
The two examples below demonstrate high-level presentation of results and evidence, with strategic use of tables or headings. These are connected to a cohesive narrative that directly addresses the aim of the data chapter.
Drag and drop the elements of each example into their corresponding places. Some key language has been bolded to help you.
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Use the side menu to go the next section: Synthesising and discussing findings, where we explore approaches to putting your results together.
Synthesising and discussing findings
The discussion section shows your arrival at new understandings, insights, solutions or theories emerging from your data analysis, which requires high levels of synthesis and conceptualisation.
To write an effective discussion:
- Connect all your findings and key evidence and put these in the bigger context of your inquiry
- Answer the research question or hypothesis
- Position your research in the field and state your original contribution
- Acknowledge limitations of your findings to show your self-awareness and critical thinking as a researcher.
Examples of discussing original contributions
Read the following discussion examples showing statements of original contributions. Notice the type of language that carries these statements, some of which we’ve bolded to highlight the writers’ authority and relationship to their field.
Example 1
Thesis titled ‘Foreign direct investment in Australia: Determinants and consequences’ (Faeth, 2005, p. 308)
Comparing these results with previous econometric studies analysing the consequences of FDI [foreign direct investment] in Australia shows that FDI has a wider range of consequences than previously assumed. It has been shown in this study that employment growth, wage growth, labour productivity growth and industry concentration were affected by Australian FDI.
Example 2
Thesis titled ‘Doctors down under: European medical migrants in Victoria (Australia), 1930-60’ (Mody, 2018, p. 231)
This thesis begins to redress the silence that characterises the historiography on twentieth-century medical migration to Australia. In doing so, I have demonstrated that medical migrants today represent part of an unbroken and sometimes hard-won legacy of refuge, second chances and fresh starts inherited from the medical migrants who arrived before them.
Approaches to the discussion
To arrive at a synthesis of your thesis and be able to state your original contribution, consider what processes to use for handling data.
Watch this video to learn about two approaches: tracking and mapping your findings and using a creative-rational approach.
Activity: Write a tiny discussion
Step 1: Free-write in response to the following prompt. Try 5-10 minutes of no-pause, no-edit writing:
- “What do you know now about your research problem that you didn’t know before starting your research?”
Step 2: Follow this up with the rational tasks of sorting and linking conclusions, as explained in the video.
Step 3: Write a brief introduction to your discussion. Start with what you’ve achieved in the previous chapters and quickly proceed to how you will put these findings together.
Use the side menu to go the next section: Using disciplinary conventions, where we look at a checklist for reflecting on the thesis core.
Using disciplinary conventions
Although academic writing conventions are common to most disciplines, the way they are applied may differ. For example, some social sciences may require a full disclosure of a researcher’s paradigmatic alignment and its implications for their research, while other disciplines may put more emphasis on detailing the research procedure. Look at examples from your discipline and check with your supervisors if you have questions.
Reflect on the thesis core
Study an example thesis to observe how the author framed the research question or hypothesis, justified the research methods, analysed data, reported results and synthesised and discussed findings. Then, look at your own writing or plan for these parts.
Answer the following questions for both the example thesis and your own to help you reflect on how you are using disciplinary conventions in shaping your own thesis narrative.
1. Is the research question feasible, interesting, novel, ethical and relevant (the FINER criteria)?
2. Is the hypothesis disprovable, clear and specific? Can you identify the key variables in the hypothesis?
3. Is the question or hypothesis properly contextualised and justified?
4. What research methods does the thesis use? Are they conventional or novel in the discipline? How are they justified?
5. What measurements and/or thresholds have been established for the data collection and/or analysis? What are these measurements and thresholds based on?
6. Has a clear trail of methods been laid out to allow a reader to follow and/or replicate the research?
7. What new knowledge does each of the data/results chapters add?
8. What new insight, theory or solution does the discussion section of the thesis present? What’s the key argument and evidence for this claim to knowledge? Is this argument valid?
9. Is there a clear line of reasoning that leads from the research question/hypothesis to the methods, data analysis/results and discussion? How is the research question being answered?
10. How could you improve this thesis in the above aspects?
Final tip
Together with your research question or hypothesis, your research methods, results, discussion, analysis and synthesis show the reader your own work, which shapes your original contribution. These parts should constitute the bulk of your writing effort throughout your candidature. Use your disciplinary expertise to promote your own innovation, whether in ideas or expression.
For more information and support in your writing,Explore: Academic Skills Graduate Research services
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Bibb, J. (2016). Musical recovery: The role of group singing in regaining healthy relationships with music to promote mental health recovery [PhD thesis, University of Melbourne]. http://hdl.handle.net/11343/124271
Bitar, H. (2004). Public aesthetic preferences and efficient water use in urban parks [PhD thesis, University of Melbourne]. http://hdl.handle.net/11343/38880
Brown, T. (2022). Exploring the indirect effects of climate change on fire activity in Australian wet Eucalypt forests [PhD thesis, University of Melbourne]. http://hdl.handle.net/11343/311844
Evans, D., Gruba, P., & Zobel, J. (2014). How to write a better thesis. Springer.
Faeth, I. (2005). Foreign direct investment in Australia: Determinants and consequences [PhD thesis, University of Melbourne]. http://hdl.handle.net/11343/39043
Fahnestock, J., & Secor, M. (2004). A rhetoric of argument (3rd edition). McGraw-Hill.
Lindsay, D. (2020). Scientific writing = thinking in words. CSIRO.
Mody, F. (2018). Doctors down under: European medical migrants in Victoria (Australia), 1930-60 [PhD thesis, University of Melbourne]. http://hdl.handle.net/11343/221550