Last Updated on April 17, 2024 by Ali Hamza
The preliminary outline for thesis is supposed to provide a roadmap to keep everything organized in it. Thesis writing is a very systematic process, and you have to be careful about every step associated with it, including preliminary outlines. While working on outlines, you have to focus on the thesis statement side by side. The main structure of outlines is very easy to comprehend. You can focus on the main aspects and then find minor details while writing a thesis. The only purpose of preliminary outlines is to organize information as per the standard requirements and meet the right ends of study in a perfect way. As per its importance, this article aims to discuss the preliminary outline for thesis in detail.
Table of Contents
What Is Meant By A Preliminary Outline For Thesis and Why is it Important?
The preliminary outline for thesis is a structure that helps to visualize the whole research work. You can make changes to it, as per the demand of work. Simply you can say that it is a way to shape all of the ideas in one row. It can be in the form of small or long verdicts. You have to see which one is easy to understand and better for the development of ideas.
On the other hand, the selection of outline’s length can be as per the requirement of your institute. Every institute has some sets of standards that are necessary to follow. In such cases, you should ask your professors to guide you on the required structure so that you can end up with effective work. Draft a preliminary outline so that you can structure all of the important information for the thesis. In the same way, you can organize the main ideas in a preliminary outline that you are supposed to add to a thesis.
It does not matter if you are writing a thesis at the bachelor’s, master or PhD level; drafting a preliminary outline is necessary at all levels. First of all, it is important to develop a preliminary outline for the thesis so you can show it to your advisor. Your advisor checks if it is making a logical structure or not. Secondly, you have to add preliminary outlines to your thesis.
What Are Standard Preliminary Outline For Thesis?
Following are the preliminary outlines required for a thesis that you can find in the table of content:
Abstract
In order to have a successful thesis, it’s imperative that you should have an excellent abstract that can reel in your audience and present the gist of your thesis. First of all, examine the study questions and define the purpose of your research for writing an abstract. After that, you need to organize and write a discussion section briefly. Then you can describe the methods used to answer your research question and finally approach the result section. Do not forget to choose appropriate keywords for the abstract section in the thesis. To increase the worth of the abstract, you can finish up with statistical significance statements and references.
Acknowledgement
Acknowledgement is a necessary part of a thesis. If you think there is no need to add acknowledgement, you are wrong for sure. It is also considered as an unethical practice to do so. In a dissertation, you cannot cope with everything without any support. So, when you do not give credit to the right people, it creates a very bad impact on the reader. In terms of support, you have to say thanks to your parent who allowed you for your education. Furthermore, your advisor deserves it and any other person who has contributed directly to your research work.
Introduction of the Thesis
Chapter 1 in a thesis is the Introduction chapter, which is the most important of all. It sets the tone for your overall research and is a basis for the thesis. It helps the readers understand the research need, purpose and objectives. It is usually the extended version of your abstract. Typically, a thesis introduction includes the following information as sub-points in the preliminary outline for the thesis:
- Problem statement
- Research questions
- Objectives of the thesis with a bit of elaboration
- Outline of the thesis
Literature Review in a Thesis
The toughest section to write in a thesis is the literature review section. This chapter explains that you are aware of the current and past research. To prove this, you have to read a lot of research papers and articles. By reading and analyzing those papers, you review them in your thesis and identify the potential research gaps. You can use multiple techniques to write this chapter. You can write the review in chronological, thematic, and methodological order. Hence, in this section, you talk about the relevant research previously done in your field. You need to read a lot of papers, analyze them, and then present their review. If you find it difficult to work on this outline, you can contact to PhD Thesis writing service.
Outline of a Research Methodology
It is the third section in the main body of your thesis. In this chapter, you need to discuss everything related to the research methods. You talk about the research design, your research area, and the population. Another important thing you discuss in this section is why you have chosen a particular method. Suppose you have chosen quantitative research methods to research the problem. So, do not forget to include the reasons for doing so in this section.
Define Findings and Add Discussion
The chapters of findings and discussion are the fourth and fifth sections in the body of your thesis. By applying the chosen research methods, you have researched the problem. In the findings chapter, you present all your research results. It can be in the form of graphs, lines, and charts. On the other hand, in the discussion chapter, you discuss all the research results. You should discuss them in the context of research questions.
Concluding Lines
As a researcher, you can use the above-mentioned points as a preliminary outline for thesis. This article is not only supposed to help you in making effective preliminary outlines, but it has a detailed discussion about the way to address each outline. By following the mentioned outlines, you can make an effective start and end of the thesis.
