Thesis

Chapter guides

What each chapter usually contains, how long it tends to be, and mistakes to avoid.

Open my thesis plan

General guidance, not university rules. Always follow your university's handbook and your supervisor's advice.

Introduction

Often 5–10% of the thesis

What it contains

  • The broad problem and why it matters (e.g. disease burden, unmet need)
  • What is already known, briefly
  • The specific gap your work addresses
  • Aims, objectives or hypotheses
  • A short map of the chapters

Common mistakes

  • Starting too broad ("Since the dawn of biology…")
  • Aims that don't match what you actually did
  • Repeating the whole literature review

Checklist

  • Gap is stated in one clear sentence
  • Each aim maps to a results section
  • Key terms and abbreviations defined

Literature Review

Often 15–25%

What it contains

  • Themes, not a list of papers
  • Critical comparison of methods and findings
  • Where studies disagree and why
  • How the gaps lead to your aims

Common mistakes

  • Summarising paper by paper
  • Only citing studies that support you
  • Out-of-date sources for fast-moving fields

Checklist

  • Organised by theme
  • Ends by justifying your aims
  • Every claim has a source you have read

Methods

Often 10–20%

What it contains

  • Study design and rationale
  • Materials, reagents, cell lines, strains, animals or participants (with sources/catalog numbers)
  • Procedures in enough detail to repeat
  • Ethics approvals and consent
  • Statistical analysis and software versions

Common mistakes

  • Missing concentrations, timings or replicate numbers
  • No justification for sample size
  • Stats described only as "appropriate tests were used"

Checklist

  • Another lab could repeat it
  • Biological vs technical replicates stated
  • Ethics approval numbers included

Results

Often 25–35%

What it contains

  • Findings in a logical order linked to aims
  • Figures and tables with clear captions
  • Statistics: test, n, effect size, p or confidence intervals
  • Negative or unexpected results

Common mistakes

  • Interpreting results here instead of in the Discussion
  • Repeating every number from a table in the text
  • Figures without units or error-bar definitions

Checklist

  • Every figure is referred to in the text
  • Error bars defined (SD vs SEM)
  • n reported for every experiment

Discussion

Often 15–25%

What it contains

  • Main findings restated briefly
  • Comparison with previous studies
  • Possible mechanisms and explanations
  • Strengths and limitations
  • Implications (e.g. for drug development or practice)

Common mistakes

  • Overclaiming causation from correlation
  • Ignoring limitations
  • Introducing new results

Checklist

  • Each aim answered
  • Limitations named honestly
  • Claims match the strength of the data

Conclusion & Future Work

Often 2–5%

What it contains

  • Your contribution in a few sentences
  • What should be done next and why

Common mistakes

  • Adding new information
  • Vague future work ("more research is needed")

Checklist

  • Contribution stated clearly
  • Future work is specific

Preparing to submit? Use the editable submission checklist inside your thesis plan.