Suggestions on the Structure of a Research Thesis

Introduction

• Describe in a nutshell the hypothesis of your work; i.e., describe the major area of research and how your specific topic relates to the major area.

• Write a short justification of why your work is of value and why the reader might be interested in it.

• Present a guide to reading the rest of the thesis.

Review of the Literature

• Precisely define the area with which your work deals. Also introduce definitions and vocabulary that are needed in comprehending and communicating in this area.

• Survey representative books and articles that deal with this area. For each of these, state how your work compares with the concepts/work that is described in the article and why your work is an advance to the state of the art.

Your Work

• Describe the research paradigm and the manner in which it is applied in your work.

• Give an overview of your work.

Present the detail

• proofs for a theory thesis, and/or

• experimental design, procedures, and experiments in an experimental thesis, and/or

• design, implementation, and validation in a design thesis.

Conclusions

• Describe the value of your work to others and how your work has advanced the state of the art of computing sciences.

• Describe possible extensions of what you have done.