I have always thought that the gap that a researcher wants to address becomes evident after he has done his/ her literature review. He/ she will then be in a position to formulate the research questions/ hypotheses based on the gap that exists on a specific problem. But this has not been the case, at least, in students’ dissertations that I have seen in different Universities over the years. Students have always put the research questions/ hypotheses in chapter one. Is there any reason why research questions/ hypotheses should necessarily be in chapter one?
Research; methodology; dissertation
Yes. Readers want to know right away what research question the Ph.D. candidate is addressing and how he or she is attempting to solve it. You need to formulate your problem first and tell your proposed solution before you can use your literature review to justify your solution. Otherwise your literature review, if placed first, will appear to serve no focused purpose. Your reader will find your logic initially fuzzy.
Yes. Readers want to know right away what research question the Ph.D. candidate is addressing and how he or she is attempting to solve it. You need to formulate your problem first and tell your proposed solution before you can use your literature review to justify your solution. Otherwise your literature review, if placed first, will appear to serve no focused purpose. Your reader will find your logic initially fuzzy.
My experience is that the hypotheses along with the aims/objectives usually go in the methodology section, definately after the literature review. Firtsly you need to present the field you will be exploring and then narrow down to specific questions that you are going to address.
Although I am still a graduate student, I think the dissertation timeline doesn't have to follow the research timeline ... does any research proceeds in the linear way needed to present clearly its narrative to the reader ? Another option would be an interactive database to be explored in several ways, but I think this is not an academic dissertation as we know it, now ... but maybe could be in the future ?
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Medical Science Nursing
- Dissertations