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uq thesis example

  • Structuring your thesis
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  • Higher Degree by Research
  • HDR candidature support
  • How to write a thesis

The best structure for your HDR thesis will depend on your discipline and the research you aim to communicate.

Before you begin writing your thesis, make sure you've read our advice on thesis preparation for information on the requirements you'll need to meet.

Once you've done this, you can begin to think about how to structure your thesis. To help you get started, we've outlined a basic structure below, but the requirements for your discipline may be different .

If you need help determining a suitable structure:

  • read other theses in your discipline – you can search for UQ theses on the Library website. For prime examples, search for theses that received commendations from their examiners
  • check with your advisor.

A basic thesis structure includes the following sections:

Introduction and literature review

Results or findings.

An abstract is a summary of your entire thesis and should provide a complete overview of the thesis, including your key results and findings.

An abstract is different to your introduction, and shouldn't be used to advertise your thesis — it should provide enough information to allow readers to understand what they'll learn by reading the thesis.

Your abstract should answer the following questions:

  • What did you do?
  • How did you do it?
  • Why was it worth doing?
  • What were the key results?
  • What are the implications or significance of the results?

As your abstract will have a word limit, you may be unable to answer every question in detail. If you find yourself running out of words, make sure you include your key findings before other information.

All theses require introductions and literature reviews, but the structure and location of these can vary.

In some cases, your literature review will be incorporated into the introduction. You may also review literature in other parts of your thesis, such as in the methods section.

Other options for structuring an introduction and literature review include:

  • a brief introductory chapter with a longer, separate literature review chapter
  • a long introductory chapter with a brief introductory section followed by literature review sections
  • a brief introductory chapter with detailed literature reviews relevant to the topic of each chapter provided separately in each chapter — this is common in a thesis comprised of publications.

If you have a separate introduction and literature review, they should complement, not repeat, each other.

The introduction should outline the background and significance of the broad area of study, as well as your:

  • general aims – what you intend to contribute to the understanding of a topic
  • specific objectives – which particular aspects of that topic you'll be investigating
  • the rationale for proceeding in the way that you did
  • your motivation or the justification for your research – the level of detail can vary depending on how much detail you will be including in a literature review.

The literature review should provide a more detailed analysis of research in the field, and present more specific aims or hypotheses for your research. What's expected for a literature review varies depending on your:

  • program – a PhD thesis requires a more extensive literature review than an MPhil thesis
  • discipline – analyse well-written examples from your discipline to learn the conventions for content and structure.

To get some ideas about how to structure and integrate your literature review, look at how to write a literature review and an example analysis of a literature review , or talk to your advisor.

A possible structure for your methods section is to include an introduction that provides a justification and explanation of the methodological approach you chose, followed by relevant sub-sections. Some standard sub-sections of a methods chapter include:

  • Participants
  • Procedures.

How the methods section is structured can depend on your discipline, so review other theses from your discipline for ideas for structure.

Regardless of structure, the methods section should explain:

  • how you collected and analysed your data – you only need to include enough detail that another expert in the field could repeat what you've done (you don't have to detail field standard techniques or tests)
  • why you chose to collect specific data
  • how this data will help you to answer your research questions
  • why you chose the approach you went with.

You may want to present your results separately to your discussion. If so, use the results section to:

  • specify the data you collected and how it was were prepared for analysis
  • describe the data analysis (e.g. define the type of statistical test that was applied to the data)
  • describe the outcome of the analysis
  • present a summary and descriptive statistics in a table or graph.

Use tables and figures effectively

Reports usually include tables, graphs and other graphics to present data and supplement the text. To learn how to design and use these elements effectively, see our guides to:

  • incorporating tables, figures, statistics and equations (PDF, 1.2MB)
  • graphic presentation (PDF, 2.9MB) .

Use the discussion section to:

  • comment on your results and explain what they mean
  • compare, contrast and relate your results back to theory or the findings of other studies
  • identify and explain any unexpected results
  • identify any limitations to your research and any questions that your research was unable to answer
  • discuss the significance or implications of your results.

If you find that your research ends up in a different direction to what you intended, it can help to explicitly acknowledge this and explain why in this section.

Use the conclusion section to:

  • emphasise that you've met your research aims
  • summarise the main findings of your research
  • restate the limitations of your research and make suggestions for further research.

In some cases, the discussion and conclusion sections can be combined. Check with your advisor if you want to combine these sections.

  • Thesis writing tips

Learning Advisers

Our advisers can help undergraduate and postgraduate students in all programs clarify ideas from workshops, help you develop skills and give feedback on assignments.

How a Learning Adviser can help

Further support

Writing a clear and engaging research paper Thesis and dissertation writing: an examination of published advice and actual practice Scientific writing

Introduction

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uq thesis example

You can discover:

  • what has been written on a topic
  • what others are doing in your field
  • what methodologies are being used.

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  • Last Updated: Sep 9, 2024 9:34 AM
  • URL: https://guides.library.uq.edu.au/how-to-find/theses