Chapter 2 Report Structure
2.1 Preliminary Considerations
Before elaborating on a specific research question you can use a very trivial method of brainstorming.
Start by capturing your thoughts about a topic on a piece of paper. Write down your background knowledge of the topic and all questions that come to your mind while thinking about the topic. After you have collected a sufficient number of words, discard those sections you do not want to focus on within the scope of your report. This step is necessary as you need to narrow down your topic to provide a concise review about one single research question. Keep in mind that there is a trade-off between covering a broad spectrum of topics in a rather superficial elaboration, or covering a narrow topic and providing an in-depth elaboration. Then branch out your map with more specific words and questions that come to your mind. Continue until you have reached the desired level of specificity and complexity. This exercise will help you to structure a mental mindmap of the topic.
Working backwards from the word branch, you will find issues which branch out into more specific issues. Organize issues into categories. If there are too many categories or too many ideas, you may wish to discard some.
Following your brainstorming, make an outline of the thesis based on the contents in section Structure. Therefore, decide on a thesis statement and name your preliminary paragraphs. Write a topic sentence for each paragraph which is specific enough, to still make logical sense, even if taken out of your reports context. Ensure “symmetry” of your outline. That is no section is heavily overweight and the main part of the thesis has the most content. The outline should flow with logical progression.
2.2 Research Question
Since most topics can cover a broad spectrum of subjects and concepts it is highly relevant to narrow down your research topic. Therefore, you want to answer a single (set of) research question(s) which need to be specified writing your report. Subsequently, elaborate on a suitable methodology to answer your research question.
Within your introduction, state your underlying research question and methodology used. You do not have to formulate your research question as explicit question. Rather, report an overall objective that your thesis deals with.
Example:
This thesis serves to investigate the informational differences within the semicovariance components empirically and aims at providing an answer to the question on whether employing realized semicovariances can provide an increased level of forecasting precision for predictions of future realized volatilities. To do so, the underlying theoretical concepts […] will be introduced and validated using […].
2.3 Structure
You can base the outline of your report on the following structure. Section titles should be short and concise but as self-explanatory as possible. Do not use abbreviations in your titles, as this requires the reader another step of interpretation until the content behind a title becomes clear.
Remember that this structure only serves as a general guideline and aims to structure your report. You need to adjust, add or omit sections depending on your research topic and question. For seminar and bachelor theses the sections methodology and discussion are likely to be omitted. A list of figures/tables/abbreviations is only necessary if you have multiple figures/tables/abbreviations in your thesis. A common phrase in academia is that in your academic paper you should “tell your audience what you are going to tell them, tell it to them, then tell them what you told them.” Therefore, it is acceptable to be repetitive. This helps the reader familiarize with the topic and helps you structure your thoughts.
Example:
Title Page
Table of Contents
List of Figures, List of Tables, List of Abbreviations (if applicable)
- Introduction
- Literature Review
- Theoretical Background
- Methodology
- Results
- Discussion
- Conclusion
References
Appendix (if applicable)
Declaration of Authorship
2.3.1 Section Contents
Note that this structure is not definite and needs to be amended based on your topic.
| Introduction | The introduction begins very broadly, and most of the times with a “hook” sentence. In this section you state the relevance of the topic, the research question(s) to be answered and the outline the structure of the thesis (roadmap that summarizes the flow of the rest of the paper). It serves to provide a first concise overview of your thesis and helps you to elaborate a logical structure. |
| Literature Review | This section critically reviews the current state of the art on your topic, mention past literature that relates direct and indirectly to your work, and the gaps in research to link it to your own research. |
| Theoretical Background | This section introduces definitions, theories and models that are relevant or applied within the scope of your thesis and are required to understand methodology and results. To help you identify such definitions, it can make sense to keep track of your personal questions which arise during the process of reading about your topic. It is important to cite every piece of information you take from other sources/authors. |
| Methodology | This section explains how you design your research to answer the underlying research question. It is an important part in empirical papers. If your paper is a seminar paper or a literature review, this section is not applicable. If you write an empirical paper, this section explains what types of data were collected and how, also which types of instruments, tools or software did you use, among other things. It discusses how valid and reliable your data is and which biases might be included. |
| Results / Findings | This section presents your findings in a systematic manner, starting with a set of descriptive statistics. To reduce the degree of abstraction, visualizations are usually advantageous. However, ensure you do not overload your thesis with redundant tables and figures. |
| Discussion & Limitations | Summarize and interpret the research findings and provide an analysis of the results. Explain their significance and implications. Compare your findings to previous studies and mention differences or novelties. Critically discuss your findings given the limitations of your study.Elaborate on how they might have affected the results and provide an (preliminary) outlook on how those limitations could be tackled in future research. |
| Conclusion | The final conclusion serves as a brief summary and evaluation of your thesis. Highlight the most important findings and give an outlook on future research.Do not introduce new topics or concepts in the conclusion. |
When writing your thesis ensure that you determine a suitable line or argumentation and structure. Evaluate whether each sentence does add value with regard to answering your underlying research question. Do not deviate into a narrative style of writing by providing irrelevant information and possible anecdotes to fill your wordcount.
2.3.2 Page Numbering and Organization
All pages except for the title page should contain page numbering. The initial pages of the report (table of contents, lists of figures/tables/abbreviations) should contain Roman page numbering starting with I. The pages of your main content (introduction to conclusion) should contain Arabic page numbering. The final pages (references, appendix) should contain Roman page numbering, continued from the first section of Roman page numbering.
For example, if your list of abbreviations ended with III, then the references should start with IV.
Main chapters should always start on a new page. Do not break lines within a citation, reference or number. We emphasize use of non-breaking spaces.
Only the sections within the main part (introduction to conclusion) need section numbering (e.g., “1. Introduction”), all remaining sections are exempted from section numbering. While the sections list of figures/tables/abbreviations can be optionally included in the table of contents, the sections following the main text (references, appendix) should appear in the table of contents without section numbering.
2.4 Sections and Subsections
To extend your structure to a more granular level, you can introduce additional (sub-) sections. Seminar reports should not have more than two levels at best, bachelor and master theses should not have more than three levels at best. The cleaner and less subdivided the structure of the paper, the better and more readable it is.
Example:
- Theoretical Background
2.1 Brownian Motion
2.2 Covariances
The subsections on the levels should be roughly equally weighted. When starting a subsection there should be a brief description about what the section contains. Make sure that a headline is always followed by text before another headline is inserted. Ensure that whenever you open a subsection (2.1) there should be at least one other subsection (2.2) on the same level. Also ensure consistent capitalization of the section titles across your work.
Inline headlines are not designed to be dedicated sections but they can help to structure longer paragraphs and quickly describe the most important points of the following few sentences. You can introduce a relevant paragraph (which will not be part of the table of content but still has its own seperate content) by putting the title of the paragraph either in bold or italics.
Example:Dennoch ergeben sich Ermessensspielräume hinsichtlich der Selektion des Aktienindex, Renditeintervalls und Betrachtungszeitraumes, welche im folgenden Kapital weiterführend thematisiert werden.
Zeitbezug der Datenbasis Die Schätzung des Betafaktors anhand des CAPM kann explizit anhand historischer Daten oder zukunftsorientiert mittels impliziter Vorgehensweisen vorgenommen werden. […]
Methodische Vorgehensweise Der originäre Betafaktor \(\beta\) bestimmt sich aus dem Verhältnis von Kovarianz der beobachtbaren Rendite der Aktie des Bewertungsobjektes […]
Appendices contain any further information, which is noteworthy but not necessarily needed to be included in the main part of your thesis. Often complex tables and figures created during your research project will be presented in an Appendix. Do not overload your appendix with tables and figures. Only put items into the appendix if you are referencing them in the main part of your text. if they are not referenced within the main text, they cannot be within the appendix.
2.5 Abstract
We require the writing of an abstract for bachelor and master theses. Seminar reports are exempt. The abstract contains a clear and concise overview about your report. The abstract should contain the statement of the problem you are addressing, utilized methods to answer the research question, brief summary of results and a key interpretation of the results. Abstracts are usually limited to 150 to 250 words (200 words is ideal). When writing your abstract avoid jargon, complex concepts unfamiliar to readers and complicated, specific measures of outcomes.