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Question#6: Five Chapters of a Thesis

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Running head: FIVE CHAPTERS OF A THESIS

DL5: Comprehensive Examination Questions Question #6: The Five Chapters of a Thesis

William Bennett CSUSB EVOC 639: Professional Competencies in Vocational Education April 13, 2010

Question#6: Five Chapters of a Thesis

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Question 6

Describe the five major chapters of a thesis. Your description should also include the value and purpose for each chapter.

The five major chapters of a thesis are: the introduction, review of related literature, design and methodology, findings, and conclusion (College of Education Masters Committee). Chapter 1: The Introduction “The Introduction is not a narrative. It is only a heading under which the following six narrative sections appear: General Statement of the Problem, Significance of the Thesis, Research Question(s), Limitations and Delimitations, Assumptions, and Definitions of Terms. These sections help the reader understand what will be presented in the thesis, and why” (College of Education Masters Committee). “The author(s) should indicate why the study is important” (McMillan & Schumacher, 2010). Chapter 2: Review of Related Literature “This section outlines what you learned from previous contributors to the field. It brings the researcher and the reader up to date on what others did relevant to the topic. The Review of Related Literature section addresses the questions "How unique is this thesis?" "Is it a logical expansion of previous work?" and "Has this already been done?” (College of Education Masters Committee). Chapter 3: Design and Methodology “This is not a narrative, but a heading under which the sections on Subjects, Instrumentation/Data Collection, and Data Treatment Procedures appear” (College of Education Masters Committee). “[T]he method section is to provide sufficient detail about your experiment

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to enable readers to evaluate its appropriateness or to replicate your study

Cited: College of Education Masters Committee. (n.d.). Guide for thesis and projects, 2nd Ed. Retrieved April 13, 2010, from CSUSB: http://www.csusb.edu/coe/programs/correctional_ed/documents/GuideforThesesandProje cts.pdf Locke, L. F., Silverman, S. J., & Spirduso, W. W. (2010). Reading and understanding research, 3rd Ed. Los Angeles: Sage. McMillan, J. H., & Schumacher, S. (2010). Research in education: Evidence-based inquiry, 7th Ed. Boston: Pearson. Smith, R. A., & Davis, S. F. (2007). The psychological detective: An introduction to conducting research in psychology, 4th Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.