Normally, whether undergraduate or postgraduate, the thesis is a subject that many students are anxious about. This is increased much more because it is a project that is carried out at the end of our career. The choice of the topic to be developed is one of the first decisions that must be made and it is common that you do not know what to do, who to turn to or where to investigate.
For that we have prepared a list of tips on how to formulate a thesis topic that will be very useful to you. We present them below:
1. Review the subjects that became interesting throughout your career, you may find there a topic that you like and that you can handle comfortably. Ideally, the topic is related to the career you study and master. For example, if you study Accounting, the topics can be Auditing, Taxes, Collections, etc.
2. Define a problem and, of course, its solution: when you work in a company and you detect a problem to which you can suggest a solution, it is the natural or easiest way for this to happen. However, if you are unemployed or if that company seems to have no fault, then create the problem. Talking with some teachers or specialists who can give you suggestions for current problems is also an option.
3. After thinking about the problems you have to identify the individual phenomena it contains. If you thought about what interests you, now it’s your turn to identify those specific facts or phenomena. The trick is to work your way down to the specifics until you get to the variables.
4. Consult publications, magazines, theses that are related to your career. Investigate what supplies you have in the library of your institution or city. Keep in mind that the research sources you choose have to be current. If you use old bibliography, your thesis will be outdated and will not give a substantial contribution. In the case of statistics, we recommend that you never use those that are more than ten years old.
5. It must be an interesting, innovative thesis topic that contributes to the solution of problems, the contribution of new knowledge and is useful to society. We recommend that your final work be a contribution to your professional career. Therefore, you can do research that will later lend itself to writing a book on the subject or completing a project.
6. Make sure you have current and relevant bibliography.
7. In the case of carrying out field work, select a sample with which you do not have difficulties to work (validate your economic possibilities and accessibility of land). Also remember that it is an investment in your education, so if you have the resources, the advice is to select the best sample for your work, even if it involves travel, etc.
8. Take into account that you will not be able to investigate a topic on which there are no previous findings and works. You will use a significant amount of materials and sources to prepare your thesis and create quality work.
Steps to prepare the degree thesis
Once you select the topic, you must complete a series of steps to start the investigation. Meet them below.
1. Write a title
The title must summarize the topic that the work will contain. It needs to be concrete, bounded and clear.
2. Define the problem
Normally, after the title, a section is exposed in which the problem to be evaluated is described, related to the central theme. When making this approach, remember that if there is no problem there is no need for study.
3. Pose a hypothesis
Through one or more arguments you must describe everything that the research problem entails.
4. Establish a methodology
At this point, you decide which tools you will use: surveys, fieldwork, focus groups, bibliographic research, in-depth interviews, market studies, etc.
5. Examples of topics for thesis
The blog http://tesisdegradoenlinea.blogspot.com of university professor Lewis Pereira, offers some examples of topics in the area of Education and Management. Check them out below.
Topics in the Education area
- What is the effect produced by the linguistic performance of the teachers on the process of learning to solve mathematical problems for the students of the faculty “X”, of the university “Y”?
- What is the influence of computer-assisted instruction on the academic performance of students in the subject “Mathematical Analysis” of the first year of food technology of the institute “X” of the city “Y”?
- How does the use of metacognitive strategies associated with the different moments of the reading process influence the academic performance of Spanish in the seventh grade of Basic Education at school “X” in city “Y”, country “Z”?
- Characterization of social interactions and their relationship with the ability to learn to learn in 5th grade students of Educational Unit “X”?
- What is the rate of knowledge learned by students with respect to the knowledge imparted by teachers in school “X”, in city “Y”, country “Z”?
- What relationship exists between performance and repetition with respect to the curricular reform carried out between 1989 and 1993 in the subjects of the Department of Applied Mathematics of the Basic Cycle of Faculty “X” of University “Y”?
- What is the basic configuration structure of the social representations about the university in the professors of the University “X”, of the country “Y”?
- Conceptual Domain of Chemistry in Secondary Education teachers of the city “X”, country “Z”
Topics in the Management area
- What are the administrative factors that determine the quality of the service of the Materials Unit of the Internal Marketing Division of the oil company “X”, of country “Y”?
- What is the relationship between cost accounting systems and business management systems in small and medium-sized industry in city “X”?
- What is the perception of the organizational climate of the teachers of the University Institute of Technology “X” of the city “Y”?
- What are the training needs of the personnel of company “X”, located in city “Y”?
- What are the management strategies used by small companies in the information technology sector to enter the market of zone “X”?
Bibliographic reference managers
Although it goes on the last pages, the bibliography is, along with the topic, one of the first issues you should deal with when it comes to your thesis. That is why, from now on, we share with you some bibliography managers, with whom you can deal with this section, while you advance in your research.
LibraryMaster
It is a bibliographic reference manager that automatically formats the bibliography, footnotes and citations of your work, thesis or books in numerous bibliographic styles. Makes it easy to organize research notes and project records.
CiteUlike
This free website helps you store, organize, and share the academic papers you’re using. When you see a document on the web that interests you, you can add it to your personal library with a simple click and CiteULike will automatically extract the citation details, without you having to write them down yourself.
Mendeley
This academic social network allows you to share bibliographic references with your contacts and allows you to create your own search library, cite as you write and read and annotate your .PDF files from any device.
End note
Its main goodness is that it makes it easy to manage, create and share research. With this bibliographic reference manager you can search for information in databases, retrieve records, manage them, export them in multiple formats, automatically create bibliographies, etc.
Zotero
This open source tool helps collect, organize, analyze and share research in multiple ways. In addition, it has the ability to store the author, title, publication fields and export all that information as formatted references. Zotero sorts references, tags them, and allows advanced searches. This tool is capable of interacting with online resources, since it detects if you are viewing a book, an article or another web object. Automatically extract and save complete bibliographic references.
Choosing a topic that you already have knowledge of or handle, will allow you to go faster and delve into different points around the topic.
