Everything You Should Know About Theoretical Framework and Winning Dissertation


Everything You Should Know About Theoretical Framework and Winning Dissertation

Got stuck with theoretical framework writing? Do not know what to start with, how to proceed, what to cover in work results, and how to write a high-quality paper? No surprize on that matter! Dissertation writing is one of most challenging and complex tasks postgraduate students have to deal with in their education career. The work requires extensive research, in-depth knowledge, and strict following of writing standandards. Knowing general step-by-step approach can solve all problems at once.

What You Should Know about Dissertation Writing

Dissertation writing is aimed at consolidating and expanding practical knowledge of the student. It develops skills of handling a scientific work and shows creative potential. For novice researchers, it is important to have profound knowledge of the topic and at least general theory of methodology and principles of theoretical framework writing. What is important in theoretical frameworks; what information should a theoretical framework contain? What should be covered in there?

Key to Successful Theoretical Framework Writing

It is impossible to write a theoretical framework without studying relevant source database. Even if some literature entries are gathered, far from everyone remembers about them in the process of writing. Sooner or later, volume of information will exceed the ability our consciousness to keep in memory necessary material. Experienced the reader will easily notice the moment when the author is all at sea. This is characterized either by confusion in writing or repetition of some facts.

The first thing you need to know before writing a dissertation is that it should be a complete scientific work containing scientific novelty and / or practical significance, justification of proposed provisions. Thesis should contain all required sections, with no information variables and repetition in them.

Theoretical Framework Writing - Key Points

  1. Before writing a theoretical framework, you need to clearly formulate its general outline, which is an important preparatory stage;
  2. Before writing a theoretical framework, the author must identify specific goal and task to describe the work.   
  3. It is necessary to define possibilities of solving problematic moments when writing a theoretical statement, which the author will have to face in the future.    
  4. Plan and write down key points to prepare your theoretical framework / dissertation and formulate the main idea of your work (a message to be delivered to the reader) in one sentence (20-25 words).  
  5. Before writing a theoretical framework, read various blogs about value and information you want to convey;      
  6. All further contents of the dissertation should be focused around this central principle and idea, which has been formerly mentioned in your theoretical framework;
  7. The section “Materials and methods of research” should be briefly and concisely written. It should cover most important details that characterize studies you conducted.  
  8. Determine basic data and results of your scientific work that is in relationship with other findings
  9. Form problems and questions of your conceptual research
    • What was known about the topic before you started your work;
    • What did you do to answer research questions?

Structuring and Grouping Research Ideas

Think and write down points to be covered in your your thesis. Organize qualitative research data into appropriate groups that are chronologically structured. For this you purpose, you can use cluster maps, tree data design, block diagrams, numbering order, etc. Bring nature sources (references) for each of key points of the dissertation. Make sure that all your claims are fair and proven.

Before writing a theoretical framework, carefully read and summarize all notes you have made earlier. The opening part of your work should include most important information of thesis:

  • What was purpose and objectives of your research?
  • How did you achieve goal in the process of your work?
  • What results, conclusions, and generalizations have you come to after your research?

Planning Your Work

To avoid mess related to the theoretical framework writing process, it would be a good idea to handle the task step by step.

Explore Relevance and Scientific Novelty of Your Work!

Dissertation writing should be thoroughly and consistently thought out. Choosing preliminary theoretical concepts, you can pick up sources and references proving relevance and justification of scientific novelty.

Prepare an Outline

Outline writing may seem to be a tedious and time-consuming process; it will save even more time of yours if you plan your investigation and writing activities in advance. There are not so many people capable of organizing themselves. That is why preparing an outline is an effective way to save time in the process of writing a theoretical framework, without going back to the work structure comprehension. A quality outline is “fixation” of all important elements of the work in a single document.

Decide on a Thesis Statement and Main Points

At this stage, you should have already approved the topic of your theoretical framework, done research, and have a table of contents / a hypothesis base. Before that, it's simply useless to try to formulate a thesis statement and main points supporting it. Your thesis should be based on search findings analysis. It should cover the main idea of your work.

Create a Detailed Structure of the Dissertation

Once you are done with a thesis and main points of your theoretical framework, it is necessary to organize all information in a smooth sequence. That’s why you need to elaborate a detailed dissertation structure. List main ideas and their supporting statements in the order to be followed in a theoretical framework. You will be able to develop winning sequence of contents adapted to the theme you work on.

Do Self-Examination on the Structure of the Dissertation

Having created a voluminous skeleton of your work, you will be able to navigate through it in the future, when writing a theoretical framework. Apart from just going through the plan, it is important to test it yourself. We offer you to review each section attentively and make sure that all statements have logical relationships. Pay attention to the following:

  • check whether all points are reflected;
  • check if the structure of thesis hierarchy is organized by importance to the hypothesis-basis;
  • check if you paid due attention to important theses and discussed them well enough.
  • return to the main idea of your work and reflect whether it has been reflected in full?

The final stage can be ignored; its execution will help you make the text more smooth and better organized.

How to Deal with the Introduction?

The introduction of the dissertation or a theoretical framework is the first structural part of your work, which is supposed to reflect the logic, tasks, and direction of your research. An experienced scientist needs only to read a theoretical framework to understand the level, direction, and value of the study as well as quality of results achieved. There are a lot of requirements to this section of the dissertation. In the introduction, it is necessary to disclose topic definition, key points that characterize the work, prove its relevance and importance.

Elements of Reference Should Be in Place!

The theoretical framework is required to contain a consistent list of regulatory elements. A beginner graduate student or even a scientist who has experience in dissertation writing is recommended to be tightly connected to a reference list brought to discussion further in your writing. What is more, a theoretical framework is not a place for your judgments; there you should provide factual background to your work. This part is necessary for informational purposes, which will help the user to navigate through the paper content.

In addition to the fact that the structure of the theoretical framework should  meet the current requirements, it is worth remembering clarity of wording and completeness of information provided in there.

Make sure the following terms and factors are covered:

  • Relevance of the topic. It should explain importance of the problem, degree of elaboration of its individual proposals and prospects provided that the work is successfully written.
  • Analysis of current scientific works in chosen direction. Here, individual approaches and theories of different scientists are to be checked. It is recommended to use works of modern authoritative scientists and display understanding of “ancient” studies.
  • Subject and object of research. Related processes, problems, similar situations, facts, and other objects of high interest are to be highlighted.
  • Purpose and objectives of the study. The theoretical framework is a place where the main idea (hypothesis) of thesis is formed, a number of tasks are indicated, as well as expected outcome of the work are specified.
  • Scientific novelty. It is the most important thing that indicates the author's specific contribution to the development of the problem being under consideration.

It is important not to miss out any point from the list; each of them contributes greatly to the success of the work.

What to End up with?

Just like in any other type of writing, a conclusion is a paper section where you end up with research results and re-emphasize main points discussed earlier in the text. A conclusion is a place where you can one more time highlight importance of your work and make sure a reader does not forget anything important from its contents.

Practical Recommendations.

There are certain tips that will allow you to write a model theoretical framework with less resources invested from your side. Follow below recommendations that will guide you in writing to reach top productivity:

  • Work on a theoretical framework early in the morning, when you have fresh mind and are not tired.
  • Plan your daily routine to know what and when to do.
  • Divide a huge writing task into small subtasks correctly, think on the right rate for the day. This will help you to avoid delays and reach top writing quality.
  • Each chapter should be written in a different day. If you have finished writing of one section, do not start the next on the same day; it is better to continue the work later when you have new thoughts and inspiration.
  • Do not be afraid that you will not be able to follow the sequence. Since you write a thesis in the electronic format, it will be easy for you to edit text at any time.
  • Do not write on paper manually. In case you do, it is better to transfer this information in electronic format; it will be more productive, and you will be less critical of yourself.
  • Take into account the amount of written text, keep proportionality in the statement of questions and do not write too much. It will be difficult not only to add but also to remove unnecessary text.
  • Do not repeat your thoughts, even if you are making a statement using other words.
An important point in writing a dissertation is to concentrate and write parts of the work that will perfectly fit together and create one whole work. In order to cope better with dissertation writing, several methods of compiling the text are used: compilation, analytical method and synthetic method. Choose the one that fits your needs.

Final Say

Dissertation and theoretical framework writing is a difficult job. This is especially true taking into account that it should contain a new idea and analysis of scientific ideas that have already been voiced out in the scientific world. Contents should not be taken from

the Internet, even if you use several sources. You should write an independent scientific work that has scientific novelty and contributes to the field of knowledge that has been researched. It is hard to find new ideas and set new tasks for what has already been investigated before you. There is always a way out. If you follow a set of rules, your scientific work will not become your nightmare.