What about the Introduction, Literature and Discussion parts of my thesis? The Introduction section of any thesis is where you paint the big picture and connect your work into the bigger questions and issues out there. The literature section is where you position your work, and the discussion section is where you take your results and connect them back to the big issues you described in the Introduction. Let's use the puzzle metaphor again. The Introduction is looking at the big picture of the puzzle with 99% of the pieces in place. The literature section is describing the most important pieces of the puzzle and the ones surrounding the missing piece. Your research questions is framing the missing piece, your methodology is describing how you will fill that hole, and your research results or findings is the final missing piece. Then your discussion section at the end of the thesis is stepping back and looking at the big picture of the puzzle now with your little piece in it.
Now Jump-Starting to Thesis Writing;
Introduction
Research Questions
Literature Review
Methodology
Results
Discussion
References
Next, I take each section, and underneath the header, I write in bullet points about each section in detail. If it was necessary to add some detail in sub-section parts I write it in sub-sections For example, under introduction I write in two sub-sections such as
1.Introduction
1.1 Media Framing and Media Frames
1.2 Media Frames; Issue-specific and Generic Frames For each sub-section, I write 3-5 bullet points that describe what should be discussed under the sub-header. Now I have a skeleton of a thesis that will help me address the writing piecemeal. I choose small parts here and there to work on, and that's why I have a good structure to keep the parts together to form the whole thesis. Every now and then I revise the whole super structure to make it balanced and to support my work. I didn't forget to visit my supervisor to check whether she agrees with the structure I have. It was necessary because, some professors require a Conclusions section in the thesis, and some disciplines of research typically separate the analysis of results from the actual Results section.
1.Introduction
Why is this research important? Is there a bigger phenomenon that this research of yours is part of? Why people in your profession should care about this thesis? In my introductory section I have written about my thesis topic and the importance of this topic in today’s world.
2.Research Question
Based on what other people have studied before, what is the question that no one has really answered yet? What is the main question, and what are perhaps the two or three sub-questions that you need to answer to be able to answer the main question? Look twice what you write in your RQ, because you will have to answer these questions :) I have written here the research questions that were linked to my topic. Literature What has been done related to this (mainly in academic publications)? What do the authors say about the topic? How does your research question relate to these previous studies? How do you apply them or add to them? Based on what they say, what do you say? You save weeks of work once you find an expert).
3. Literature Review
In my thesis literature review I have written about media framing in the first section and then about media frames that how they were used for framing in media content according to research scholars. And then I have dicussed that how research scholars linked media framing with public agenda formation. After this I have discussed that how researchers are thinking about development potential in Balochistan through CPEC. After describing all these I have discussed about all previous studies and researches related to media framing and public agenda in Pakistan and described in detail that how they are linked with my thesis. Methodology How do you find an answer to the research question? How do you gather data? From where do you gather data? How do you analyze the data? Out of all the methods in the world, why did you choose this one? What is good about it and what is not? What were the alternative methods, and what were their pros and cons?
4. Research Methodology
I have earlier mentioned about my research methodology that I am going to use qualitative research methodology. I have selected framing analysis +Textual analysis to find out frames in news media for analyzing media framing.
5.Results or Findings
What is the answer to the research question? What are the answers to the sub-questions? Keep this simple and clear. The answer of research questions was that Dawn newspaper published more news about CPEC in reference to Balochistan as compared to The News but the way The News highlighted development potential in Balochistan was different than Dawn. The News has used economic consequences frames the most rather Dawn has used conflict frame.
6.Discussion
How could someone criticize your results? Are they internally valid (the data was gathered and analyzed correctly)? Are the results externally valid (can they be generalized and how)? Based on the results, what can you say about the bigger picture you described in your introduction? How could someone apply your results for further research? Or perhaps apply in a non-research context (e.g., in a company or in everyday life)? I have explained that how my research work is different than previous and that how further research on this topic can be done in future.
