Thesis and Dissertation Writing in a Second Language: a handbook for Supervisors

Table of Contents
1 Introduction
1.1 Background
1.2 
Characteristics of the Gulf
1.3 
Sailfish in the Gulf
1.4 Research 
Objectives
1.5 Thesis 
Structure
2 
Movement and Migration
2.1 Introduction
2.2 
Materials and Methods
2.2.1 ERWDA cooperative tagging program
2.2.2 Legacy 
data
2.2.3 Modeling 
analyses
2.3 Results
2.3.1  Release and encounter history
2.3.2  Estimates of survival and recovery
2.4 Discussion
3 
Pop-up Satellite Tagging
3.1 Introduction
3.2 
Materials and Methods
3.3 Results
3.3.1  Summary of individual pop-up tags
3.4 Discussion
3.4.1 Vertical 
distribution
3.4.2 Temperature 
distribution
Source: Hoolihan 2005: ix

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116
Writing the Methodology chapter
chapter may have a more metaphorical title or there may be no
Methodology component at all. In the extract in Box 8.2, from a PhD the-
sis in linguistics, Chapter 3 is titled ‘Theoretical framework and
methodology’, emphasizing explicitly the relationship between the
Methodology and the theoretical component of the thesis. Box 8.3 contains
the first page of the table of contents from a recent sociology thesis. There
is no immediately obvious Methodology component and the slightly cryp-
tic chapter titles are characteristic of the ‘new humanities’ (see Chapter 5).
Chapter 3 is titled ‘Sensing the other: The catch of the surrendering self’
yet is where the author ‘outline[s] my methodological stance and the meth-
ods through which I undertook fieldwork and analysed data’ (Robinson
2002: 14) – in other words, the typical components of a Methodology chap-
ter. The sub-headings such as ‘conducting research’ provide a clearer
indication of the chapter’s concerns.
Box 8.2 Extract from table of contents of a PhD thesis in linguistics
Table of Contents
List of Tables and Figures
Acknowledgements
Abstract
Chapter 1 Why history?
1.0 Introduction: research objectives
1.1 Background for research
1.2 Parameters of research study
1.3 Organisation of the discussion
Chapter 2 History as discourse: a review of the literature
2.0 Introduction
2.1 History as discourse
2.2 Temporal meaning in history: a review of the literature
2.3 Causal meaning in history: a review of the literature
2.4 Appraising the past – history as evaluation: a review of the literature
Chapter 3 Theoretical framework and methodology
3.0 Introduction
3.1 Selecting a theoretical framework
3.2 The research process
Chapter 4 The genres of school history
4.0 Introduction
4.1 Modelling text structure
4.2 The genres of school history – the preliminary investigation
4.3 The key genres of history: concluding comments
Source: Coffin 2000: i–ii

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Box 8.3 Extract from table of contents of a PhD thesis in sociology
Table of Contents
Abstract
i
Acknowledgements
ii
Table of contents
iv
Introduction: Being somewhere
1
Moving towards somewhere
5
Young homeless people in inner-city Sydney
7
Inhabiting the field of homelessness: Thinking conjuncture
10
The chapters
13
Chapter One: House and home: The ‘problem’ of homelessness
17
The problem of the ‘problem’: Homed or homeless?
20
Broader literature and the ‘problem’ of homelessness
23
Homes or houses?
25
Subjective or objective?
29
Social policy and homelessness
35
Chapter Two: ‘Getting back into place’: Researching homelessness
through the framework of place relations
43
Home 46
Bourdieu and Casey: Getting back into place
50
Bourdieu: The discordant habitus
52
Casey: Phenomenology and ‘getting back into place’
60
Chapter Three: Sensing the other: The catch of the surrendering self
66
Becoming part of the field of homelessness
70
i Reflexivity and the location of the subject
71
ii Outreach: An introduction to the field
74
iii Surrender and catch
79
Conducting Research
83
i Setting up: Introductions, ethics and limations
83
ii In-depth interviewing and participant observation
89
Moving towards the catch: Analysis of interview data
96
Chapter Four: Grieving home
100
Relating to place through grief: Participant observation 
and working with young homeless people
103
Places of grief: ‘Home’
107
Sue 109
Ben
112
Crystal
115
Source: Robinson 2002: iv

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118
Writing the Methodology chapter
Alternatively, the chapter heading may be ‘Research Design’ (see Box 8.4).
At the beginning of this chapter, the writer outlines the rationale for his
choice of research paradigm.
Box 8.4 Extract from Research Design chapter of a PhD thesis in history
Note title of