How to create PhD theses: materials and methods


It is one of the most challenging tasks in a student’s academic career to write a dissertation. Students find it very hard to do the research on their own and create a thesis all by themselves. However it is a critical writing task that cannot be avoided if one has to get his post graduate degree. The process is very lengthy and demands complete devotion. Students who complain that the thesis writing is a tough job must understand the requirements. If you are hoping to get an advanced level degree after 14 years of education there must be some effort to it.

Materials and Methods Section

A thesis consists of many portions and the one we are going to discuss today is the methods and material section. In this portion a student is supposed to enlist the methods and tools he used for his research and the materials that helped him in reaching a conclusion for his research.

The materials are enlisted in order to help your readers in finding the data that you have used. It gives them an opportunity to the readers to access the origin of the research work on their own. The methods you state must be justified by you as well. This means you should explain why you used a certain methodology and why did you prefer it over others. Below is the definition and importance of both these components of your thesis.

  • Materials: this means all the research material that you have used in your research work. You cannot exclude anything from it. You will have to include all the data sources whether they were first hand data i.e. collected by yourself or the secondary data that is already available in the newspapers, books, journals and the internet. it is important to state these sources for making your thesis valid. You should tell your readers how many authenticated places you have searched for answering a certain question or providing a solution to the problem on hand. If the research materials are credible and quoted properly it will surely help in making your thesis strong.

  • Methods: this means all the tools and research methodology you followed for getting to the conclusion. It is very important part of the thesis and must explain your choice and preference for a certain method over the other. It is important to add details while writing about the methods you used.
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