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

The structure of theses and disser tations
Recent years have seen increased attention being given to thesis and disserta-
tion writing in the literature on teaching English for specific purposes. Clearly,
though, a thesis or dissertation is more than its organizational structure.
Equally, there are many factors which influence decisions a student makes
about the form of their text. These include the research perspective taken in
the study, the purpose of the text, and the extent to which the student has been
given advice on the positioning and organization of their text (Prior 1995).
The form of the thesis or dissertation is also influenced by the values and
expectations of the academic discipline in which it is produced and will be
assessed. The structure of a text is, nevertheless, a central issue in text pro-
cessing and production (Johns 1995) and one which is important for
students to have an awareness of so they can make choices from the range of
patterns of textual organization that are typically associated with instances
of the particular genre.
A number of researchers have discussed the organization of different thesis
types. Dudley-Evans (1999) terms the typical ‘IMRAD’ (introduction–
methods–results–discussion) type thesis a ‘traditional’ thesis. Thompson
(1999) further refines this category by dividing traditional theses into those
which have ‘simple’ and those which have ‘complex’ patterns of organization.
A thesis with a ‘simple’ traditional pattern is one which reports on a single
study and has a typical organizational structure of ‘introduction’, ‘review of
the literature’, ‘materials and methods’, ‘results’, ‘discussion’ and ‘conclusion’.
The table of contents of a typical ‘simple’ traditional thesis is shown in Box
5.1 (on p.68). This thesis is an examination of rater consistency in the assess-
ment of second-language writing.
A thesis with a ‘complex’ internal structure is one that reports on more
than one study. It typically commences with ‘introduction’ and ‘review of the
literature’ sections, as with the simple traditional thesis. It might then have a
‘general methods’ section which is followed by a series of sections that report
on each of the individual studies. The thesis ends with a general overall con-
clusions section (Thompson 1999).
The overall shape of theses and dissertations
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68
The overall shape of theses and dissertations
Box 5.1 A ‘simple’ traditional thesis
Degree: MEd
Study area: Education
Title: Rater consistency and judgment in the direct assessment of second-language 
writing ability
Chapter 1: Introduction
The nature of the problem
Origins of the study
Focus and structure of the thesis
Chapter 2: Literature review
Introduction
Performance assessment
Performance assessment and reliability
Conclusion
Chapter 3: Methodology
Introduction
Selection of research design, setting, informants and texts
Data collection and analysis
Conclusion
Chapter 4: Results
Introduction
Degree of rater consistency
Interpretation and application of performance criteria
Raters’ reading strategies
Influences on rater judgments of writing ability
Conclusion
Chapter 5: Discussion
Introduction
Degree of rater consistency
Interpretation and application of performance criteria
Raters’ reading strategies
Influences on rater judgments of writing ability
Conclusion
Chapter 6: Conclusions and recommendations
Source: Paltridge 2002: 138–139
A sample ‘complex’ traditional thesis is shown in Box 5.2. The thesis reports
on community perceptions of the notion of town character in a small coastal
town in Australia. Even though the thesis is titled ‘a case study’, it actually
reports on a number of case studies (five in all), each related to its overall
topic. The thesis starts with a general introductory chapter which presents

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Box 5.2 A ‘complex’ traditional thesis
Degree: PhD 
Study area: Architecture, building and planning
Title: Community perceptions of town character: a case study of Byron Bay
Chapter 1: Introduction
The concept of town character
Research strategy
Thesis structure
Chapter 2: Byron Bay: from sacred site to tourist attraction
Regional setting, natural history and cultural history
Concern with maintaining town character
Chapter 3: Place character: a theoretical framework
Spirit and concept of place
Models of place
Dimensions of place character
Chapter 4: Methodological considerations
Community involvement in assessing town character
Landscape assessment paradigms and methods
Research design
Chapter 5: A threat to town character
Club Med development proposal
Research questions
Method
Results
Conclusions
Limitations and future research
Chapter 6: Community description of town character
Survey aims and research questions
Method
Results
Discussion
Chapter 7: Identifying town character features
Research questions
Method
Results
Discussion

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70
The overall shape of theses and dissertations
key notions relevant to the study, a general description of the research strat-
egy employed, and an overview of the thesis. This is followed by two chapters
which provide further background to the study. The five case studies are then
presented. The thesis concludes with a general discussion chapter which
draws the findings of the study together and makes suggestions for future
application of the findings, as well as discussing limitations to these findings.
Dudley-Evans (1999) refers to a further kind of thesis, which he terms a
‘topic-based’ thesis. This kind of thesis typically commences with an intro-
ductory chapter which is then followed by a series of chapters that have
titles based on sub-topics of the topic under investigation. The thesis then
ends with a ‘conclusions’ chapter. The PhD thesis he reports on, written in
the field of electronic engineering, is made up of nine chapters, seven of
which are topic based. The example of a topic-based master’s thesis shown
in Box 5.3 was written in the area of cultural studies. It examines pink and
white marble terraces in New Zealand which were covered by volcanic
eruption in the late 1800s and are now an historical and ‘museumised’
tourist attraction.
Dong (1998) describes doctoral theses which are based on a compilation of
publishable research articles. These are quite different from other sorts of theses.
The research article chapters are more concise than typical thesis chapters, with
less of the ‘display of knowledge’ that is often found in a thesis or dissertation.
Further, in terms of audience, they are written more as ‘experts writing for
experts’, than novices ‘writing for admission to the academy’. In this sense, they
are quite different from the ‘traditional: complex’ type thesis described above.
Dong found that 38 per cent of the graduate students at the two US universities
where she carried out her study were writing a thesis based on publishable
Chapter 8: Relating landscape features to town character
Research questions
Inventory of town character features
Randomly selected landscape scenes