“Chapter 1: Understanding the Structure of a Graduate Research Paper/Thesis”
Chapter 1: Understanding the Structure of a Graduate Research Paper/Thesis
To complete a graduate research paper/thesis, understanding the structure of each chapter of the graduate research paper/thesis is helpful in preparing for what to write and how to write. The structure of a graduate research paper/thesis is pretty much the same as the studies published in academic peer-reviewed journals [1] . In peer-reviewed journals, an Abstract is the first part shown under the title and presents a summary of the entire parts of the study. When we see an Abstract of the peer-reviewed journal articles as shown in Figure 1-1, in many cases, the Abstract generally consists of the following four parts: Introduction/Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusion/Implication. Although Abstract in other studies doesn’t have bold headings or have different headings like Objectives for Background, and Discussion and/or Implications for Conclusion as shown in Figure 1-1, Abstracts contain similar key information in the same order.
Figure 1-1. Examples of Abstract
Sources : Jackson, D. B., Testa, A., & Fox, B. (2021). Adverse childhood experiences and digital media use among US children. American journal of preventive medicine , 60 (4), 462-470 (1st); Rovira, M., Lega, L., Suso-Ribera, C., & Orue, I. (2022). The role of women's traditional gender beliefs in depression, intimate partner violence and stress: insights from a Spanish abbreviated multicultural measure. BMC women's health , 22 (1), 17 (2nd); Nesi, J., Rothenberg, W. A., Bettis, A. H., Massing-Schaffer, M., Fox, K. A., Telzer, E. H., ... & Prinstein, M. J. (2022). Emotional responses to social media experiences among adolescents: Longitudinal associations with depressive symptoms. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology , 51 (6), 907-922 (3rd).
As the abstract is a summary of each part of the entire study, the body content of the studies is composed of summaries with one or two sentences on Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusion in general. Here, the Introduction/Background/Objectives is a summary of the Introduction and Literature Review that provides an overview of existing study findings on the research topic that we examine. In actual studies, authors provide an Introduction to explain what topics they examine before presenting a review of the literature. The Methods section is on the research methodology of the study in terms of research design, sampling, data collection, measures, and quantitative and/or qualitative data analysis. The Results section is a space for presenting the study findings with statistical test results and/or narrative in-depth descriptions of findings. The Discussion before presenting the Conclusion is to compare their study findings with existing study findings before closing their study.
In short, academic study papers and graduate theses are composed of 1) Introduction, 2) Literature Review, 3) Methods, 4) Results, 5) Discussion, and 6) Conclusion. Thus, to complete a graduate research paper, students are required to write these six parts. Table 1-1 below briefly overviews each part of a graduate research paper/thesis. Each section of the paper/thesis will be reviewed in detail.
Table 1-1. Overview of The Structure of a Graduate Research Paper/Thesis | |
Introduction | Introduce and overview the study topic with a background of the problem and significance of the problem in social work practice that justifies the study based on the scope of the issue and negative impact on the population highlighting the significance of the study to readers. |
Literature Review | Provide a synthesized review of existing study findings on the study hypotheses basically about the relationship between independent and dependent variables. |
Methods | Explain the research methods about the way data were collected in terms of research design, sampling, data collection, measures, and data analysis. For a secondary study, the research methods section is a summary of the original study that collected the data that we are using in our secondary data analysis. |
Results | Present statistical test outputs from data analyses that we conducted to test study hypotheses. In general, univariate findings are reported as sample characteristics followed by bivariate and multivariate analyses, if you go this far. Findings need to be presented in the text and in tables. |
Discussion | Discuss our study findings by comparing other existing study findings presented in the Literature Review section in addition to study limitations, strengths, and implications of the study on study methods, practice, and policy. |
Conclusion | Conclude the study with key takeaway messages addressing contributions of the present study to an expansion of the knowledge base and recommendations for future research. |
[1] Peer-reviewed journals indicate academic journals that publish research manuscripts approved by multiple peers/experts in the same academic field who review the manuscripts on the accuracy, soundness of scientific methods, and research ethics.
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