Capstone Project Checkpoint

Overall Shape of a Dissertation or Thesis
	1. Overall Shape of a Dissertation or Thesis 2. Structure of Each Section 3. Abstract and Acknowledgements More information Dissertation structure (From University of Warwick) Extraction of Constructing a Good Dissertation (Hofstee, 2006) How to Write a Better Thesis (Evans et al. 2011)
“The thesis is said to be shaped like an hourglass that is open at the top and bottom.” (Paltridge and Starfield, 2007: 83) Introduction: The section provides the background to and the rationale for the paper and moves from general discussion of the topic to research questions or hypothesis under investigation. Literature review: The literature review is placed after the introduction and before the section of methods. A good literature review enables a writer to have a survey of published works on the topic and formulate a theoretical framework for the project. Methodology: The section describes data collection, data, and the procedure to conduct the study. Results: Results are described, accompanied by some commentary. Discussion: Results are discussed with reference to the research questions and the literature review. Conclusions: The conclusion brings the paper to a close. It should reaffirm the statement, discussions and issues of a project, and reaches a final judgment. Conclusions are logically drawn from discussions, and no further discussion should be added. Recommendations/Implications: Based on the conclusions of the study, make recommendations or suggest implications for further research and contribution to knowledge and practice. Note: The sections of results and discussion can be combined to one section called Results and Discussion. Conclusions and recommendations can be combined to form one section called Conclusions and recommendations.