Ghosh,

The writing of a doctoral thesis should be a novelty and the findings that expands the frontiers of knowledge is key. However, particular attention must be paid to the means through which the findings are sought (Methodology). This pivots the research and if it is not robust, everything falls apart. To be able to know the appropriate methods, the literature review when it is thorough and recent can unearth the appropriate and effective methodologies successful researchers have adopted. But the search for the right literature to be reviewed also depends on sound articulation of the research questions which are couched from well defined and straightforward statement of the problem that neccesitated the research. This indicates that a doctoral thesis is a beautiful mosaic portrait and each piece is very important and must be treated with the greatest skill.

A good introduction of a doctoral thesis gives readers the conviction of the worth of the research you want to undertake or have undertaken (after the completion of the work). It must contain the background or preliminary search or inquiry that assisted the researcher to unveil the existing problem that merited an investigation (research). Then, there is the need to comb the existing literature via a rigorous search for current researches to justify the existence of the problem (academic vacuum or gap) that your research will fill when it is executed. Otherwise your research problem would probably not be necessary because a researcher would have already solved it. Then, point out the objectives that drives the study and the benefits (who, which agencies etc) from your research (importance). 

If these are properly written at the introductory section of your doctoral thesis, you would have fulfilled its intention that is you introducing your research to the global community in an appetizing manner.

Thanks

Dickson Adom

A doctoral thesis must be a significant, original contribution to our knowledge base.

Don't start writing the introduction until you know what your research question is, how you are going to solve it, what the literature says, and your preliminary findings. 

I would say that doctoral thesis are like a good research article, but just expanded! It is tge same for ths introduction part.

Ghosh,

The writing of a doctoral thesis should be a novelty and the findings that expands the frontiers of knowledge is key. However, particular attention must be paid to the means through which the findings are sought (Methodology). This pivots the research and if it is not robust, everything falls apart. To be able to know the appropriate methods, the literature review when it is thorough and recent can unearth the appropriate and effective methodologies successful researchers have adopted. But the search for the right literature to be reviewed also depends on sound articulation of the research questions which are couched from well defined and straightforward statement of the problem that neccesitated the research. This indicates that a doctoral thesis is a beautiful mosaic portrait and each piece is very important and must be treated with the greatest skill.

A good introduction of a doctoral thesis gives readers the conviction of the worth of the research you want to undertake or have undertaken (after the completion of the work). It must contain the background or preliminary search or inquiry that assisted the researcher to unveil the existing problem that merited an investigation (research). Then, there is the need to comb the existing literature via a rigorous search for current researches to justify the existence of the problem (academic vacuum or gap) that your research will fill when it is executed. Otherwise your research problem would probably not be necessary because a researcher would have already solved it. Then, point out the objectives that drives the study and the benefits (who, which agencies etc) from your research (importance). 

If these are properly written at the introductory section of your doctoral thesis, you would have fulfilled its intention that is you introducing your research to the global community in an appetizing manner.

Thanks

Dickson Adom

for better Doctoral thesis your content and your topic and research methodology are important. Statistical tools are important one.

like to send the thesis manual along with this.

My sincere thanks to all of you for these valuable suggestions.

From all of these it is clear that the most important thing is the concept, novel contribution which is basically extended version of the published research in the journal.

If any other things I have missed please help me to find it out .

My sincere gratitude to you all

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Bhaskar

I do agree with the answer given by Dickson Adom. Actually it differs from pure sciences to social sciences,but one must pay attention to research methodology and yes the results.Though there are many formats available you should follow the standard one and defined by the University where your doctoral research  is going on.

The same strict scientific content and methodological criteria that applies to the design, execution, analysis and writing of a research article. Special attention to hypothesis derived from a comprehensive literature review, study objectives and methods, Crucial methodological issues involve criteria related to selection of the study population, primary/secondary endpoints, definition and analysis of variables.

Well, you asked the key question. All the previous answers are very important, indeed, doctoral thesis requires methodological rigor.  I would add that the subject must be passionate to you. It also helps a lot to choose a very specific topic, focused on a defined place and period of time. It is a common mistake to try to embrace the entire universe; on the contrary: one investigates a point of sand.

On the other hand, the introduction is the last thing you write when the thesis is already done, do not try to start with the introduction because you are going to block. The writing of a thesis is rather chaotic: you start with one chapter, you leave it, then you follow another, then you take back the previous one.But then everything makes sense, you edit and there is something consistent, do not worry.

I hope I have been able to help, I have hundreds of students in my university who have the same concern as you. Good luck and enjoy your research.

Thank you Marina Fucito Maam,

Your response is very much helpful.

The parameter that best defines a doctoral thesis as any thesis is the unity of ideas. What is expressed throughout the work must respond to a central idea.

Secondly I always recommend writing the introduction at the end, after everything is done. It is the best way to give a general idea of all the work done.

Dissertations can be idiosyncratic In addition to the previous answers, it is important to keep in touch with your adviser. We have jokingly tell our students to make sure they read all their adviser's publications, but probably the most important is to keep in touch with your adviser and possibly your committee and get as much feedback as possible. 

Agree with Andrey Hernández Batista the Introduction chapter should be written last - it tells the story of your research and clearly you need to do the research before you can tell its story.  Within the standard five chapters you will no doubt receive guidance from your institution and supervisor on what needs to be included but I also recommend keeping a 'journal' a hard back lined book into which you write your thoughts, keep a note of references, jot down something you might hear on the TV or radio, record details of problems you encountered and how you overcame them and so on.  Keep this journal with you all the time - you never know when some gem of an idea will emerge! 

It is helpful Jyoti ji.

Thank you very much.

regards

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Bhaskar

Bhaskar, With respect to my comment on leaving the Introduction to the last - let me expand.  Once you have carried out your lit review, methodology chapter, your analysis and established your findings - the introduction chapter almost writes itself as you can take elements from all these chapters  to compose your introduction - plus of course an introductory section and some signposting to tell the reader the structure of your work.  Also bear in mind that as you start your doctoral dissertation journey you do not know what you will find - if you do then it is not research!   You will almost certainly have a focus for your research but as you conduct a thorough lit review your ideas may change and you will certainly become more informed about your topic.  So with this in mind I return to my original position - until you complete all the other parts of your research you cannot really draft an introduction.  Also I suggest it is a really good idea to tell all your friends and colleagues what you are doing and if you are taking your dissertation seriously (and who doesn't) that you will be disappearing from the social scene for a while.  Good luck.

In the first place, I thank Bhaskar for posing this very important question and erudite scholars for responding to his query .This is how I have written my doctoral thesis .(See Anirban Banerjee :STUDENTS & RADICAL SOCIAL CHANGE , (Department of Sociology, Calcutta University 1991).Bhaskar may follow my method.

Before writing the thesis you should first plan the chapters ,what you should include and what you should exclude.There are some very good  guidebooks books on the subject , like Anderson ,Durston and Poole: THESIS AND ASSIGNMENT WRITING.

Let me now discuss how I wrote my thesis. My  thesis is divided into eight chapters. But Bhaskar may increase or decrease the number of chapters , depending on his requirements.

Now let us look at the thesis.

1) Introduction .This chapter introduces the subject, in my case "student radicalism". I have discussed what is radical social change .I have also given a brief review of the extant literature .Here I discussed the objective of my study .That apart,  at the end , I have given a brief overview of what I propose to do in the chapters that will follow  and their contents.

2) The second chapter was an extensive survey of literature on  student radicalism.

3)In the third chapter, I discussed the concept of radicalism

4) In the fourth  chapter, I discussed my methodology. Methodology is a combination of philosophy or logic of research along with techniques of research. Apart from my philosophy of research,  I also discussed how I collected data .

5) In  Chapters 5, 6,and 7,I presented the empirical findings of the study .

6)in the last chapter, I discussed the findings and drew significant conclusions from my study .

I have more or less followed the same method in writing the final reports of two  UGC sponsored major research projects which I undertook  (CHANGE & CONTINUITY IN STUDENT RADICALISM[20007-2009]  and STUDENT RADICALISM IN POST-LEFT BENGAL [ 2013-2015]).

A revised version of my dissertation was published in book form .It is available in the market (See Anirban Banerjee: STUDENTS & RADICAL SOCIAL CHANGE ,The University of Burdwan, Burdwan 2003, Price INR 100/-).This book  may serve as a guide to Bhaskar and other students doing sociological research.

Thank you Dr. Banerjee for such guidance. My sincerely thanks to you. The information you have provided is really very helpful.

Thank you again sir.

With gratitude

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Bhaskar

Thank you Dr. McDermott for your valuable suggestion. It will be very helpful towards writing the thesis. One line you have used in the answer which made my query clearer: "you do not know what you will find - if you do then it is not research!". Thanks a lot sir.

Regards

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Bhaskar

go through the following link...maybe these are useful for you. 

http://coral.wcupa.edu/other/APA6thEdition.pdf

http://www.mtroyal.ca/library/files/citation/apa.pdf

http://www.psych.uncc.edu/pagoolka/seminar/Ch5WritingResearch.pdf