I've just been asked to write a thesis

[Guest]

..and, as I had no idea what this meant, I looked it up on Google.

It seems the first paragraph is all important, as it has to grab the reader's interest and make them want to read the rest, even it's not their usual thing.

I guess this is not much different from a novel.

Any advice from people already at university would be welcome.

I don't even know the subject yet, but I'm sure I could do it.

[Sarah]

Asked by whom? If a college student is trying to hire someone to ghostwrite their thesis, this is a VERY, VERY bad idea. They are NOT allowed to have someone else do their work for them.

[Caroline]

You will want to do some research first. The structure differs depending on whether it includes primary research (for example, a scientific experiment) or an argument based on different texts you have read.

Writing a thesis for a student who wants to submit the work as their own is unethical. If the student is caught, they may be expelled from their course or degree. You might also ask what's in it for the writer - if they can produce a genuinely well-researched and useful piece of writing, they should probably submit or publish it themselves.

[Irene]

Writing a thesis on behalf of someone else is a breach of academic integrity (otherwise known as "cheating") and if the student is caught, they could be expelled. If that's what you've been asked to do, be aware that it's unethical.

A thesis is a lot of work and usually will require a lot of research. You'd have to find out what other researchers have discovered on the subject, come up with research questions that will guide the research you're going to do, choose the theoretical framework which you'll use to analyse your data, decide on the research methodology, collect your data, and do the analysis. If you're not the student then I assume the student will discuss some of this with their supervisor and provide you with the information, but if you are unfamiliar with the field of study, it's going to be tough and will require wading through a lot of academic jargon. Academic writing style is also the polar opposite of novel writing.

[Melissa]

Ask your instructor for assistance. If you are planning to write this for another student, don’t.

[Meta]

My dear,

Thesis Report Writing is not something random that you just get started writing at.

You need to know and research the topic thoroughly from multiple blogs and articles or maybe books before you'll start writing a profound Thesis Paper.

Unless you're not intending to use AI tools for this bcz it'll be rejected as will be plagiarised.

So research and learn as much as possible before you pick your pen to write.

[Laura]

I wrote a senior thesis in college as part of my capstone course in 2011. It requires a lot of research, and usually involves quantitative or qualitative data collection. I studied the perceptions of love and romance of female readers of Nicholas Sparks’ books. I had almost a year to write it.

[Judy]

Are you writing this for yourself? Or for someone else? A thesis is a long essay or dissertation involving personal research, usually written for a college degree. Like Elizabeth Hyman, I'd need more information to understand.

[Cecilia]

The first paragraph isn’t about grabbing the reader attention - it’s about laying out your hypothesis and how you will prove it.

For the record it’s very different from writing a novel - it needs to be written in a completely different way. - the library will have books on how to write them. (But most time is spent on researching not writing)

[Gary]

I'd start with a bit of an idea, write out your thoughts and see that as a springboard to build a clear argument on. Write it, then look, retrospectively, at what the best intro for it would be ( now that you have it written).