GUIDELINES IN WRITING CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1. Background of the Study: The background study for a thesis includes a review of the area being
researched, current information surrounding the issue, previous studies on the issue, and relevant
history on the issue. Ideally, the study should effectively set forth the history and background
information on your thesis problem. The purpose of a background study is to help you to prove the
relevance of your thesis question and to further develop your thesis.

 Conduct preliminary research in the beginning stages of formulating a thesis, when many
issues are unclear and thoughts need to be solidified. Conducting preliminary research on
your area of study and specific topic will help you to formulate a research question or thesis
statement that will lead to more specific and relevant research. Visit your library, the internet
and electronic databases to find preliminary sources, such as books and scholarly journals,
for your background study.
 Read the information and develop a research question or thesis statement that will guide
your thesis. You will need to take notes and keep accurate track of the sources that you used
up to this point.
 Write a thesis statement or research question. Think about what you've read and look for
issues, problems or solutions that others have found and determine your own opinion or
stance on the issue. Write out your opinion as an authoritative statement on the issue,
problem or solution.
 Complete your research using your thesis statement and research question as your guide.
You will find relevant sources that will provide insight into your specific thesis issue or
problem. Make sure that your sources provide details on the history and past research related
to your research question.
 Create relevant sections as you write the background study. As you evaluate your research
and begin to write the background study, create five separate sections that cover the key
issues, major findings, and controversies surrounding your thesis, as well as sections that
provide an evaluation and conclusion.
 Conclude by identifying any further study that needs to be done in that area, or provide
possible solutions to the issue that haven't been considered before.
 Revise and edit your background study. Complete several drafts of your work, revising and
filling in information as you go. Each time that you read over your work, try to leave it better
than it was before. It's also a great idea to have your adviser look it over as well.

2. Conceptual Framework

 Coming up with a conceptual framework requires reading and understanding theories that
explain relationships between things. A comprehensive understanding of the research issue,
therefore, can be achieved through an exhaustive review of literature.
 Since research or thesis writing involves the explanation of complex phenomena, there is a
need to simplify or reduce the complexity of the phenomena into measurable items called
variables. Only a portion of the phenomena can be explained at a time.

3. Literature Review: A literature review is not an annotated bibliography in which you summarize
briefly each article that you have reviewed. While a summary of what you have read is contained within
the literature review, it goes well beyond merely summarizing professional literature. It focuses on a
specific topic of interest to you and includes a critical analysis of the relationship among different works,
and relating this research to your work. It may be written as a stand-alone paper or to provide a
theoretical framework and rationale for a research study (such as a thesis or dissertation).

Step 1: Review APA guidelines

Step 2: Decide on a topic

Step 3: Identify the literature that you will review

 Step 4: Analyze the literature: overview the articles, group the articles into categories (e.g. into
topics and subtopics and chronologically within each subtopic), take notes, define key terms,
note key statistics that you may want to use in the introduction to your review, select useful
quotes that you may want to include in your review, note emphases, strengths & weaknesses,
identify major trends or patterns, identify gaps in the literature, and reflect on why these might
exist (based on the understandings that you have gained by reading literature in this field of
study), identify relationships among studies, keep your review focused on your topic and
evaluate your references for currency and coverage.

Step 5: Summarize the literature in table or concept map format

Step 6: Synthesize the literature prior to writing your review

* Consider your purpose and voice before beginning to write.

* Consider how you reassemble your notes.
* Create a topic outline that traces your argument.
* Reorganize your notes according to the path of your argument.
* Within each topic heading, note differences among studies and look for obvious gaps or
areas needing more research.
* Plan to describe relevant theories, to discuss how individual studies relate to and
advance theory, to summarize periodically and, again near the end of the review, to
present conclusions and implications and to suggest specific directions for future research
near the end of the review.
* Flesh out your outline with details from your analysis.

Step 7: Writing the review

* Identify the broad problem area, but avoid global statements.

* Early in the review, indicate why the topic being reviewed is important.
* Distinguish between research finding and other sources of information
* Indicate why certain studies are important.
* If you are commenting on the timeliness of a topic, be specific in describing the time
frame.
* If citing a classic or landmark study, identify it as such.
* If a landmark study was replicated, mention that and indicate the results of the
replication.
* Discuss other literature reviews on your topic.
* Refer the reader to other reviews on issues that you will not be discussing in details.
* Justify comments such as, "no studies were found."
* Avoid long lists of nonspecific references.
* If the results of previous studies are inconsistent or widely varying, cite them separately.
* Cite all relevant references in the review section of thesis, dissertation, or journal article.

Step 8: Developing a coherent essay

* If your review is long, provide an overview near the beginning of the review.
* Near the beginning of a review, state explicitly what will and will not be covered.
* Specify your point of view early in the review: this serves as the thesis statement of the
review.
* Aim for a clear and cohesive essay that integrates the key details of the literature and
communicates your point of view (a literature is not a series of annotated articles).
* Use subheadings, especially in long reviews.
* Use transitions to help trace your argument.
* If your topic teaches across disciplines, consider reviewing studies from each discipline
separately.
* Write a conclusion for the end of the review.
* Check the flow of your argument for coherence.

4. Statement of the Problem: A "Problem Statement" is a description of a difficulty or lack that needs
to be solved or at least researched to see whether a solution can be found. It can also be described as
either a gap between the real and the desired or a contradiction between principle and practice.
 1. What is the goal of a statement of problem? – The ultimate goal of a problem
statement is to transform a generalized problem into a targeted, well-defined problem.
2. What are the key characteristics of a statement of problem? – Address a gap. Be
significant enough to contribute to the existing body of research. Be one that will lead to more
research. Renter itself to be investigated via collection of data. Be interesting to the
researcher and suit his/her skills, time and resources. Be ethical.
3. What is the format (parts of a problem statement)? – It consists of three parts: a)
the ideal, b) the reality, and c) the consequences.

 Construct statement 1 by describing a goal or desired state of a given situation, phenomenon

etc. This will build the ideal situation (what should be, what is expected, desired)
 Describe a condition that prevents the goal, state, or value discussed in step 1 from being
achieved or realized at the present time. This will build the reality, the situation as it is and
establish a gap between what ought to be and what is
 Connect steps 1 and 2 using a term such as "but," "however," "Unfortunately," or "in spite of"
 Using specific details show how the situation in step 2 contains little promise of improvement
unless something is done. Then emphasize the benefits of research by projecting the
consequences of possible solutions as well.