HOW TO SET UP YOUR THESIS
FIRST AID IN GETTING STARTED WITH YOUR THESIS
2007 Bernoud Jonker
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A THESIS IS A STRUCTURED RESEARCH PROJECT
Finding subject
Before you start writing it is important to define the subject you want to write about.
Writing a thesis is about solving a (business) problem or adding knowledge to a certain
field. Think in terms of: what problem do I want to solve. If you can find a company you
can work on a real problem. But it is also possible to work on a theoretic case.
Doing research
Writing a thesis is executing a research. Normally a research consist of 4 phases:
Descriptive Analytical Design Change
The thesis is worked out per phase. Per phase you perform the following activities:
Descriptive Where you give an overview on all relevant aspects
(theories, data, interviews, models, etc)
Analytical Where you analyse the input and make conclusions
Design where conclusions from the analysis are processed into a
new strategy/model
Change or
implementation
where the implementation of the new strategy/model is
described.
Main research question and sub questions
If you have defined a main research question, your next task is to define sub questions
per phase. These sub questions guide you through your research. If you do the set-up
right, it will saves you time when executing the research.
An example of a main research question spitted in sub questions per phase is:
Main research question: What strategy fits best for company to export flowers to the
Asian market?
Sub questions:
Descriptive: Description of company
Description of the flower industry
Description of possible export strategies
Description of the Asian flower market
Analytical: What are strengths and weaknesses of the company
What are the pro’s and con’s of the export strategies?
What countries are favourable and which not?
Design: What is the best strategy to export and to which countries
How must the company be adopted to realise
Change: Plan to realise the export of flowers to the Asian market
How to prepare the internal organisation
Setting up a chapterThesis is provided by UK thesis base http://www.ttc-switch.com/
The research phases can be worked in out in chapters. The set-up of chapter can be as
follows:
- Title
- Introduction of sub questions to be answered
- Working out the sub questions
- Summary of answers to sub questions.
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THESIS SET-UP
A good proposal for the frame work of the thesis is:
Preface
(Chapter 0:) Management summary
Chapter 1: Introduction
In this chapter you introduce the organisation, (yourself), the environment of the
organisation and the problem
The introduction contains the following elements:
- Introduction of subject
- History
- Fact and Figures#p#分頁標(biāo)題#e#
- Future developments (or future scenario's)
- Introduction of problem
This can be extended with a quick scan
To get a better impression about the problem it is wise to do a quick scan which results
in a better insight. Based on this you can define the approach.
The Quick Scan contains the following elements:
- More info around problem
- Scan of external environment
- Scan of internal environment
- Other relevant scanning
- Identification of (possible) stakeholders
Chapter 2: Research set-up
A good project set-up is vital to ensure yourself and others that you can manage the
project on time.
The project set-up contains research scheme elements
- Define purpose of the project
- Define scope
- Define problem definition and main research question
- Define research questions for all 4 levels:
Descriptive
Analytical
Design
Change
- Define sources of data
- Define relevant literature
- Define methodology:
Conceptual framework
Concepts to be used, why, limitations
Theories to be used, why, limitations
Research methods, what are you going to use, for example:
Interviews
Data analysis
Literature research
Anticipated problems
Outline of chapters
- Time scheme, including:
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Milestones
- Visualisation of research approach
Chapter 3: (Desriptive chapter)
Chapter 4: (Analytical chapter)
Chapter 5: (Design chapter)
Chapter 6: (Change or implementation chapter)
Chapter 7: Do’s and Don’ts, or areas for further research
Chapter 8: Personal reflection
Appendix A, B, C, etc.

 Thesis is provided by UK thesis base http://www.ttc-switch.com/