Everything You Need To Know About The Structure Of Dissertation Chapters

This article provides you with concise and easy to follow overview of everything you need to know about the structure of dissertation chapters. This should help you determine exactly what needs to be included as well as where things should be placed in terms of proper order.

Dissertation Basic Section Order

Each section should start on a separate page and form the basic structure for your main chapters. Some sections, which we will go study in-depth later in this article, will have separate sub sections. Most disciplines will require you include the following sections in this specific order:

• Cover or Title Page
• Acknowledgements
• Dedication
• Abstract
• Table of Contents (Including List of Tables and List of Figures)
• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Methodology (See below)
• Results (See below)
• Discussion (See below)
• Conclusion
• Recommendations
• References and Bibliography
• Appendix

Methodology Section In-Depth

This section should include an appropriate rationale behind the testing methods you have chosen. For instance, if you chose a survey explain why you selected specific questions as well as why you have selected a specific sample group. Sub-sections found in the methodology section generally include:

• Philosophy
• Approach
• Strategy
• Data Collection
• Data Analysis
• Limitations

Results Section In-Depth

Depending on your specific discipline, the results section may have any one of these two sections: the quantitative results or the qualitative results. Each will be structured differently as follows:

• Quantitative – In this type of study you will want to include all figures or data, as well as a clear description of the results. Don’t discuss the results, just provide the content factually as you have discovered in your work.
• Qualitative (Case Study) – In this type of study you will want to include all of the relevant findings in a descriptive format. For instance, if you are writing a literature dissertation you will want to describe what you have found within the specific books, journals, articles, or literary texts in which your study focused on.

Discussion Section In-Depth

The discussion section might also have several sub-sections you will want to organize to make your work easier to understand. These sub-sections are as follows:

• Justification of Research – Provide reasons for why you chose your topic.
• Literature Review / Methodology Recap – Remind the reader of the resources used and the reasons for choosing them as well as the reasons behind the way tests were performed.
• Justification of Samples – Explain how the resources used fit your study’s needs.
• Results Recap – Remind the reader of the results of your study.
• Analysis – Finally, provide a discussion of whether or not you have answered the research question.