Dissertation Template or Outline
Dissertation Template or Outline
Name:
Banner ID:
Write a paragraph here acknowledging everyone who has helped you while you
have been preparing the content of your dissertation.
This may be your supervisor or other academic staff that have provided guidance
and support, interviewees, librarians, or perhaps any internal and/or external
bodies that have given you assistance, such as access to data.
1
Abstract
The abstract is a summarised version of your complete paper. A reader could get
the main ideas from just the abstract, or use the abstract to decide whether to
read the rest of the paper. Briefly outline what your dissertation aims to do, the
results and the conclusions you have drawn from the data you collected.
2
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Abstract
Contents
1. Introduction 1
2. Literature Review 2
3. Methodology 3
3.1 Subsection 1 3
3.1.1 Topic 3
3.1.2 Topic 3
3.1.3 Topic 3
4. Results and Discussion 4
Appendices 10
3
List of Tables
4
List of Figures
Note:
‘Figures’ refers to all charts, graphs, photographs, drawings and other illustrations.
Number everything in the sequence it appears in the text
1
Chapter 1. Introduction
2
Chapter 2. Literature Review
In this section you should provide a summary of the reading that you have done
into your topic area, remembering to accurately reference (i.e. through citations)
the sources where you have acquired all of this information from. This requires you
to pay attention to referencing guidelines (see below). This means your literature
review should include the following items/ structure:-
3. Separate sections detailing ‘what is currently known’ about each of the key
topic areas in your research (i.e., Leadership as trait; leadership as behaviour;
leadership as process). This should include direct reference to key theorists in
each; what they have said and how they understand the problem.
4. Your literature review section should finish with some conclusions about
what is known versus what is not known (i.e., which leads to some preliminary
questions that need to be answered and which you will examine in your planned
research)
3
Chapter 3. Methodology
The purpose of the methodology section is to explain the nature and purpose of
your planned research and any proposed methods you intend to use. This means
that you have to explore all the different options that might be relevant to your
research (i.e., demonstrating some understanding of what you could do, given
adequate time and resources), before actually selecting your chosen approach and
justifying why this is the best, given the time and resources you have available
you.
3.1 Introduction
3.10 Conclusion
4
Chapter 4. Results and Discussion
Presentation of Findings
You may choose to use tables, pie charts or graphs to show your results. Or if you
conducted interviews, direct quotes from participants. Again, ensure there is
chapter introduction.
5
Discussion of Findings
In this section you give your own explanation of what the results of your research
show in comparison with previous literature. You need to make interpretations and
judgements in this section.
Paragraph.
Paragraph
Paragraph
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Chapter 5. Conclusions and Recommendations
5.1 Introduction
In this section you apply your own reasoning and judgement on the findings of your
research in order to draw conclusions.
The important element here is to ensure that you draw some of your own, unique
conclusions from your work.
5.4 Recommendations
Make sure your recommendations are based on the findings you have presented in
the earlier chapter. You can present the recommendation based on the research
questions. Be explicit who the stakeholders are for the recommendations.
In this section, you can provide the limitation of your research and directions for
future studies.
5.6 Conclusion
7
Reference list / Bibliography
Etc.