How to Write a Better Thesis

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Chapter 6

Background Chapters

Depending on the nature of your thesis, the background sections or chapters can
take any of several different forms. However, their functions are always the same:
to provide the context for your own work and to be the starting point for an exam-
iner to think about your position in relation to the work, that is, to be the ‘you’ that
you were at the start of the research project. The four most common elements in the
background chapters are:

• Establishment of a context to locate a study in time, location, or culture.


• Identification of current theory, discoveries, and debates, including an evalua-
  tion of those most useful and salient to your topic, as well as a nomination of
  gaps in literature.


• Understanding of current practices and technologies in your field that highlight,
  and perhaps synthesize, a selection of the appropriate methods to gather data for
  your study.


• Preliminary investigations done by you or others to help clarify research tech-
  niques, formulate hypotheses, or focus areas of investigation for the major re-
  search program to follow.

You may have one or more of these, depending on the type of research you are do-
ing. For example, if you were investigating ways that vitamins have been promoted
as a regular dietary supplement, you would certainly need a descriptive section—or,
perhaps a full chapter—on the development of the understanding of vitamins. You
would also have a section (or chapter) that sets out many of the current controversies
that surround the taking of food supplements and surveys a range of expert studies
on the topic. Next, you would need to have a section (again, or chapter) that details
ways in which studies concerning the promotion of vitamin supplements have been
conducted. If these are unsatisfactory in some way, for example, questionnaires in
them are out of date or not applicable to your intended participant group, then you
would need to conduct a preliminary study to clarify instruments and other aspects
of methodology, including research questions. These background sections, or chap-
ters, would provide the basis for the design of your own work, which then could be
understood in context, located within a theoretical framework, and conducted using
techniques backed with solid justification.

D. Evans et al., How to Write a Better Thesis, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-04286-2_6,
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014