How to Write A Perfect Thesis Paper

When you start writing your thesis paper, it will be easy to remember the specifications that your teacher gave you and get carried away with the focus on content. However, although the content is clearly extremely important, you must also remember the smaller details that might otherwise get lost along the way. Keep these recommendations with your notes when you get started, and this will help you to stay on track and get better grades.

1. Plan what you are going to write about

Without a well-thought-out plan, all you will end up doing is scribbling down all the ideas you have as soon as you have them, leading to an illegible and poor-quality thesis paper. You need to look at the specifications given to you by your lecturer and start jotting down ideas for what you will include in the following sections:

• Title page;
• Abstract: an overview of your thesis;
• Introduction: background, current knowledge and your hypotheses;
• Literature review (sometimes included in the introduction);
• Methods: which ones and why;
• Results: in relation to your methods;
• Discussion: interpretation of your results;
• Conclusions: statement about whether the aims have been reached.

2. Stick to the topic

The inclusion of irrelevant topics causes too many students to lose valuable marks without them even realising it. It is all too easy to get carried away in the moment - especially if you have a personal interest in the topic - and include things that don’t really answer the question. Stick to your plan and constantly ask yourself whether each detail or section adds anything substantial to the thesis paper; if not, leave it out.

3. Remember who your target audience is

The likelihood is that the person reading your thesis paper will be a lecturer, but many thesis papers need to start at a level which can be understood by a non-expert. This means that you shouldn’t dive straight in to the more complicated parts of your thesis, at least not without explaining what they are. And if you personally know the person that will be grading your paper, consider their points of view and interests when writing, as this often gets you more marks.

4. Ensure that your information is in a logical order

Once you have checked that your information is relevant to the topic and will be engaging for the reader, you will need to make sure that it flows. Read through your work slowly, checking that it makes sense and that each part links to the next without any issues. Avoid jumping backwards and forwards between your sub-sections, as this will make it confusing to read; most successful thesis papers start with the more general ideas and gradually become more specific and detailed towards the end.

5. Check your work for errors

There is nothing worse for a teacher than reading a thesis paper that is fantastic in terms of the content, but terrible in terms of spelling and grammatical errors. These small mistakes make a big overall impression on your work, so don’t be tempted to miss out on this final stage. If your language skills aren’t as good as they could be, use an online checker, or ask a trusted friend or family member to cast their eye over your thesis paper.

If you have followed these five recommendations, you are on the right path to creating a high-quality thesis paper. Make an effort to refer back to them as you write, and this will mean that you save yourself time in the long run and complete the assignment exactly as you were asked to. This is an easy way to get yourself the maximum number of marks with the minimum amount of effort!