Thesis Writing Guidelines for

MBS

Rajendra Sharma, Ph. D.

Associate Professor
Mahendra Multiple Campus, Dharan
 Preliminary Part
Preliminary Part

i . Title of the dissertation ii . Certificate of Authorship

iii. Report of Research Committee iv. Approval Sheet

v. Acknowledgements vi. Table of contents

vii. List of tables viii. List of figures

ix . Abbreviations x. Abstracts

(Pagination in Roman numbers at bottom centre of the page)

 Chapters
• Chapter I: INTRODUCTION.
• Chapter II: LITERATURE REVIEW.
• Chapter III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.
• Chapter IV: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION.
• Chapter V: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION.

REFERENCES
APPENDICES
 Chapter I: INTRODUCTION

• 1.1 Background of the study

• 1.2 Problem Statement and research questions
• 1.3 Objectives of the study
• 1.4 Hypotheses
• 1.5 Rationale of the study
• 1.6 Limitations of the study
• 1.7 Chapter plan
 Introduction contd…
• Background of the study
• General background of the study.
• Clear information gaps
• History, Meaning and Concept of the Research title
•  
• Statement of the problem
• Identify the research gaps.
• Questions that are aimed to resolve
• Mother of objectives of the study
•  
• Objectives of the study
• General and specific objectives
• Consistent to the statement of problem
• Stated clearly and logically

• Hypotheses (if any)

• Rationale of the study

  Fundamental justification of the study
• Limitation of the study
 Chapter II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE
• Writing a literature review
•  
• The purpose of a literature review
•  
• Format of literature review
• Introduction
• Define or identify the general topic, issue, or area of concern, thus providing an
appropriate context for reviewing the literature.
• Point out overall trends in what has been published about the topic; or conflicts in
theory, methodology, evidence and conclusions; or gaps in research and scholarship;
or a single problem or new perspective of immediate interest.
• Establish the writer's reason (point of view) for reviewing the literature; explain the
criteria to be used in analyzing and comparing literature and the organization of the
review (sequence); and, when necessary, state why certain literature is included or is
not included (scope).
 REVIEW OF LITERATURE contd …
• Body
• Group research studies and other types of literature (reviews, theoretical
articles, case studies, thesis etc.) according to common denominators such as
qualitative versus quantitative approaches, conclusions of authors, specific
purpose or objective etc.
• Summaries individual studies or articles with as much or as little detail as each
merits according to its comparative importance in the literature, remembering
that space (length) denotes significance.
• Conclusion
• Summaries major contributions of significant studies and articles to the body of
knowledge under review, maintaining the focus established in the introduction.
• Evaluate the current "state of the art" for the body of knowledge reviewed,
pointing out major methodological gaps in research, problems in theory and
findings, and areas or issue left for future study.
 REVIEW OF LITERATURE contd …
• Questions: a literature review will try to answer.
• 1. What do we know about the area of inquiry?
• 2. What are the relationships between key concepts, factors,
and variables?
• 3. What are the current theories?
• 4. What are the inconsistencies and other shortcoming?
• 5. What needs further testing because evidence is lacking,
inconclusive, contradictory and limited?
• 6. What designs or methods are faulty?
• 7. Why is this question studied further?
• 8. What contribution will your work make?
 REVIEW OF LITERATURE contd …
2.1 Conceptual Review
2.2 Review of previous works
2.2.1 Review of research articles
2.2.2 Review of previous theses
2.3 Research gap
 Chapter III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
• It should correspond to the order in which each of the objectives listed are to be attacked in terms of
essential hypothesis to be used, how and what data are to be generated and processed from? What
methods of analysis should be used? What assumptions are being put to effect of the inquiry?
Describes how the study was conducted.
3.1 Research design
• Specifies whether descriptive, explanatory, correlation, comparative, exploratory, evaluative or
combination of two or more designs.

3.2 Population and sample and sampling design:

• (a) Basic design of the experimental study should be explained. It has to stated whether the data is to
be collected from other sources or the primary collection. The use of secondary sources, mail
questionnaires, personal interview or field works which are relevant to the nature of the study are to
be made where possible.
• (b) Sampling techniques:
• Mention the estimated total size of population in the study and the method of sampling should be used
in the proposal. It is necessary that adequately reliable sampling frames and the basic criteria of
selecting them be adopted. The main thrust of the study often centers on the nature of the
questionnaire, selection of respondents as well as the modalities of operation of the study.
 METHODOLOGY contd…
3.3 Nature and Sources of data:
• Specifies the sources of primary and/or secondary data.
 
3.4 The Instrument of data collection:
• Indicates the sampling procedures (if primary data) and the
data collection methods such as survey, questionnaire, and
others.
• Indicate the various tools, techniques used to analyze the data.
• Explain the various financial analysis tools and ratios useful for
research work.
 METHODOLOGY contd…
3.5 Methods of Analysis:
• Indicates the most appropriate tools used
• Mathematical expressions must be italicized and
numbered accordingly.
• All models/equations must be properly numbered.
• All major/key variables must be properly
measured/categorized indicating their specific units of
measure.
• The sources of formulas must be indicated in the text.
• Soft wares etc
 METHODOLOGY contd…
3.6 Research framework
Research framework will be for implementing the steps taken
throughout the research. It is normally used as a guide for
researchers so that they are more focused in the scope of
their studies.
3.7 Definition of variables
Define the variables that are used in the research and are
analyzed using different tools.
 Chapter IV: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
 
4.1 Results:
Present and analyze the collected data to extract
their meaning complying with the research
objectives.
4.2 Discussions:
Evaluate and interpret the results in terms of
theories and findings of other researches.
Chapter V: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Summary
Summary of the whole research including
methodology, analyses and end results.
Conclusion
Listing out of all end results that are intended to
be achieved in accordance to predetermined
objectives of the study.
Recommendations
Suggestions, advices and supportive statements to
pluck the loopholes, if any, for future.
 Bibliography & References

Bibliography is the list of books and journals

referred in the preparation of a 
dissertation or a thesis. This includes all the
sources you have consulted even if you have
not cited them in your paper. On the other
hand, reference list is the list of all the sources
you have actually cited in the paper.
 Technical Format
Font : Times New Roman, 12 pts
Margin : 1” each at the Top, Right and Bottom side while 1.25” at the left
Page numbers : Roman in preliminary pages at bottom centre and Arabic
through out from Introduction to the end of Appendices at Top right corner
Line spacing : 1.5
Table & Figure number : Don’t write ‘No.’ Give chapter-wise Arabic numbers
Indentation : Flush left after heading, sub-heading, tables & figures,
otherwise half inch margin for every paragraph.
Tables : All vertical lines should be omitted
Appendices : Should be numbered Alphabetically

No Justification
 5 Levels of Heading (p.62)
1 Centered, Boldface, Uppercase and Lowercase
2 Flush Left, Boldface, Uppercase and Lowercase
3 Indented, boldface, lowercase paragraph heading
ending with a period.
4 Indented, boldface, Italicized, lowercase paragraph
heading ending with a period.
5 Indented, Italicized, lowercase paragraph heading
ending with a period.