I will continue to update this Blog with my research on the structure of the thesis.
Research Methodology (1200 words)
Data Analysis (1600-2000 words)
This should describe the basis of your chosen research method.
This is often referred to as your research philosophy.
You should record whether you are using a qualitative or quantitative approach, or a mixture of both and why.
Qualitative.
A measurement of the quality of something.
You may consider this to be part of your research. For example, this may be written feedback on your work.
See here for a more in-depth look at qualitative methods. You might think of this as the numerical part of your research and how this relates to your thesis. This could be how many people choose yes over no in a question.
Please see here for a more in-depth look at quantitative methods.
What you can include in your research methods (these are commonly used methods).
Interviews.
Observation.
Questionnaire surveys.
Literature analysis.
Interviews.
An interview is a guided conversation between the researcher (you) and the person you want to learn. They may be called ‘informants.’
The questions can be structured around pre-prepared questions or general guidelines that the interviewer will follow. It is best to involve only one or two people, as large groups of people may get lost in multiple conversations, or overlapping speakers may make it difficult to gather qualitative data from them.
Interviews are time-consuming, so please be careful when planning them.
Informants should be chosen carefully at all times as they should be specific to your area of research.
Observation.
This can be thought of as research into someone or something in a particular situation.
For example, you may wish to observe someone (or film yourself) creating something from start to finish to understand the process whether it is a rig used to set up an animation or a particle effect. Once the observation process has taken place, markers should be taken that are relevant to your area of research. You may wish to think about the ethical aspects of observation. Do the people being researched know about this? Can they give their consent? If they are not happy to be observed, will they opt out of the arrangement? What would they do?
Questionnaire.
This can be either qualitative or quantitative.
Interviews are more in-depth, whereas questionnaires provide a snapshot of people’s views (generally speaking).
Develop questionnaires with clear and easy-to-understand questions. Not everyone knows about the subject and your data should be able to include more volunteers. Be specific about what the objectives of your questionnaire are.
You may wish to use a pyramid approach, narrowing the focus of the question with each successive question.
You can use these data to compare groups or to measure parameters within groups.
Document analysis.
This is the process of looking at existing documents (articles, books, films, software, etc.) without talking to someone.
Documents such as films, songs or even websites can reveal valuable information about the area you are researching.
In this form of research method, you are using the documents and analysing them in any way you can. Be careful when selecting documents, as some may still be confidential and require permission to use.
In this case, you will need to consult the property holder to grant permission for use. Literature analysis is often compared to a literature review. However, it is the length of this analysis that makes it different. A literature review is more of an overview of the literature that has been prepared for the dissertation.
Document analysis is an in-depth and more extensive analysis of the entire document.
Structure.
As always, be clear and concise.
Make sure there are no problems with sample selection or distillation of results etc.
You can include your research questions here and how you will address them.
It would help if you mentioned whether a research method is a more ‘tried and tested’ method or an experimental method. Are the research methods appropriate for your field of study? Are you testing them to see if they are adequate?
Summarise your research methods.
You may wish to talk about the main challenges in your research.
These are the things you may wish to revisit in your discussion.
Example：
Example：
Here, students use a documentary analysis approach to research a piece of literature in more depth. They will then present their findings and summarise what they have found. They also use a handy picture to demonstrate this qualitative information.
Results / Findings(500)
This is one of the more specific parts of your paper.
You are simply recording your most relevant results and findings.
These results and findings should be presented in a way that is easy to understand and directly related to what you intend to discuss.
A more traditional approach to writing a paper includes only the results and should not discuss the implications of other literature or research findings.
These hints are specific to the discussion section of your paper. This will be discussed in next week’s session.
It would help if you began by outlining any descriptive (qualitative) or exploratory/validation analyses.
These could include the results of interviews or qualitative-based questionnaires.
Next, you should describe the results of the hypothesis testing. These could be the questions listed in your summary/introduction. It would help if you used tables and/or graphs to help illustrate and/or summarise all numerical (quantitative) information.
You can organize these results/findings logically according to the pre-defined themes in the literature review or research methodology. Don’t write down the entire conversation transcript to fill up word space.
Be brutal and reduce the content to the most relevant citations.
If necessary, use them as hyperlinks to specific quotes (not listed, of course, and with the interviewee’s permission if they are from an interview) uploaded to a video sharing platform (i.e., youtube). If the quote is indeed too long, another option is to include it as an image. This will not be put into the word count, which is perfectly permissible!
The summary here is key to your results and findings, as you do not want to reveal everything in this section. Save the full details for your appendix and/or blog!
Discussion (800 words)
The Discussion section of your paper is the section where you discuss the significance, meaning, and relevance of your results.
You will need to explain and evaluate your findings from the Results and Findings section.
Ensure that the results/findings are linked to the research questions and literature review.
This will in turn be used to present arguments to support the conclusions.
The discussion is important because it addresses the following elements.
It answers the questions posed in the introduction
Shows how the results support these answers
Explains how these answers relate to the existing knowledge in the chosen field of study
Overview of the Discussion-Structure :
1. restate your research question. You should then state how your findings (if indeed there are any) answer this question.
2. Relate your findings to the topic or question you raised in your introduction.
3. If there are unexpected findings, you may be able to explain, and sometimes lead to a reconstruction of the hypothesis or even rewrite your introduction, depending on your approach.
4. detail your main findings, which may include an introduction to your research’s theoretical and practical implications. This is essentially an assessment of your findings.
5. You may then discuss how these implications will influence future research and study future researchers. You may even wish to outline the steps they will take.
Discussion-Structure Suggestions :
1. Restate your research question. You should then state how your findings (if indeed there are any) answer this question.
This should be a transitional sentence. For example：
How did the animation industry develop during the New Crown Pneumonia epidemic? The report Animation, VFX and Video Games in Africa: Strategies, Trends and Opportunities (2021-2025) recently surveyed the market size of the global animation, VFX and video games industry, with a result of “USD 261 billion by 2020”. Due to the flu pandemic, one might expect this figure to be significantly lower than in previous years, but compared to $264 billion in 2019, we only see a reduction in the value of $3 billion21.
2. relate your findings to the themes or issues you raised in your presentation.
Compare and contrast similarities and differences, noting any common or different trends.
How does this compare with the findings of previous studies?
Does it support them?
Does it refine them?
Does it confirm them?
Example：
3. If there are unexpected findings, you may be able to interpret them according to your approach, sometimes leading to a reconstruction of the hypothesis or even a rewriting of your presentation.
Note the careful use of language here. The authors point out that the results here are generally unexpected for the post-production sector but equally desirable in terms of the specificity of the actual job role.
4. Detail your main findings, which may include an introduction to your research’s theoretical and practical implications.
The determination of these statements should be absolute.
Even if they contradict your previous plans.
5. You can then discuss how these implications will affect future research and conduct research for future researchers. You may even wish to outline the steps they are going to take.
This could refer to feedback and criticism of the work and how it could be improved.
This is usually the shortest amount of writing in this section.
When redisplaying results.
The current study found that…
The results of this study show that…
The results of this study do not show…/any significant increase in…
In describing your findings.
These results further support…
These results confirm that…
These findings are consistent with…
These match/do not match what was observed in earlier studies…
These findings are consistent with previous studies…
These findings are consistent with the results obtained by…
When assessing the results.
There are several possible explanations for the results…
It seems likely that these results are due to…
The reasons for this are unclear, but may be related to…
The data must be interpreted with caution because…
The present results are significant in at least two main respects…
You may wish to check out these links for further advice and guidance on your dissertation research：
https://users.clas.ufl.edu/msscha/thesiscss/thesis_disc.html
Conclusion (800 words)
Review the main points made in your paper.
Be sure to remind the reader of its relevance to your field of study.
In this case, this will leave the reader or marker with something to think about.
Do not use quotes here!
Conclusion – Structural overview.
Review the main points made in your paper.
Why is your work relevant?
Leave something for the reader to think about: information.
Conclusion – Structure Suggestions.
1. Rewrite your thesis statement.
The structure can be completely different but say the same thing.
Do not sound like you are apologising for a thesis that reads.
“This thesis is an attempt to demonstrate that ……”
Start with a strong statement that reflects your thesis.
2. Read your thesis from beginning to end.
If you have not already done so, take notes on the topic of each paragraph/chapter.
Your choice can be either praise or contrast.
The best practice is to choose both.
What do you want your readers to take away from your dissertation?
3. Why is your work relevant?
Encourage your audience to question themselves.
But don’t leave a loose end to your line.
Be sure to address your question.
Always ask yourself why this is relevant?
4. Leave the reader with something to think about: the message.
Why should we care?
End with something interesting to say.
Perhaps an awareness, a call to action, or a warning.
This will make the audience remember something when they review your work. Make them care!
References / Bibliography
These are the places where you directly quote or cite sources, which must be mentioned in brackets or as a reference in the text. Your reference will be added to the bottom of the page and checked for completeness as a bibliography at the end (you can also call this reference if you have to).