Student handbook

Table of contents

Appendix B

Sample format for the M.A. and Ph.D. paper

NOTE: This outline is offered as one suggestion for how to organize your master’s research paper. Other outlines may be appropriate also. Check with your advisor for advice on how to organize your particular paper.

Title page

Title of the work, names of the author, degree(s) of the author, department, and university to which it is submitted, date it is submitted.

Acknowledgments

Acknowledge all academic and technical assistance you obtained at each stage of the study.

Abstract

500 word abstract summarizing the study and its findings.

Table of contents

List all preliminary sections, all chapter titles, all major headings and subheadings of each chapter, reference list, and appendices. Include list of tables and list of figures. Page number of the beginning of each section (subsection) listed is put in the right hand margin.

Chapter I. Introduction

1. General background introduction
2. Purpose of the study, rationale, theory
3. Statement of the problem (i.e., hypothesis to be tested or research questions to be investigated)
4. Limitations of the study
5. Definitions of special terms you will use

Chapter II. Review of the literature

1. Organize and synthesize previously conducted research and scholarly discussion related to the problem being investigated. The goal of this section is to show how each of your hypotheses or research questions are derived from the previous work of others.
2. End chapter with a summary section

Chapter III. Method

Write this chapter before conducting study and present it along with Chapters I and II as the research proposal. After the data analyses are complete, revise this chapter.

1. Sample
2. Procedures and research designs
3. Instruments used/developed and their reliability/validity
4. How each research question/hypothesis will be tested
5. State hypothesis
6. What analysis research design will be carried out?
7. How will the results be organized and presented?

Chapter IV. Results and analysis

1. General data analysis and results
2. Data results specific to each hypothesis are presented
3. Chapter review

Chapter V. Discussion, interpretation, conclusion, summary

Summarize the entire project including what hypothesis/questions were investigated, why they were investigated, how they were investigated, the major findings, and your conclusions.

1. Discuss the findings and the hypothesis in a holistic and integrated fashion.
2. Explain any extraneous factors that may have led to the results you obtained.
3. Discuss the practical and theoretical implications of your findings and precisely how your research supports each implication.
4. State the conclusions to be drawn from your entire study (including review of the literature and empirical findings; i.e., integrate everything).
5. Discuss suggestion for future research, next stages of research, what others might do to follow‑up on your study.

References

List every reference cited in the body of the paper in alphabetical order by last name of author. Use APA style for each entry. List only those references actually cited in the body of the paper.

Appendices

Include long data tables, copy of instrument(s) used, special computer program written especially for this study, supplementary illustrated material, letters soliciting subjects, consent forms, and other material that supplement the text but which are not appropriate for inclusion in the text.

Table of contents

Revised November 2004