Action Thesis: Description of the Parts

You may decide to use a slightly different organizational structure, but below is a description of the parts that are normally in a master's thesis or project. You'll need to have all of the parts, even if they are organized a little differently. The form of the action thesis might be all writing, or it might include a written portion with a portion in a different medium such as a video, web, or CD-ROM.

For information on turning your thesis in to the library, click here.
For some general guidelines about how the thesis is evaluated, click here .

Front Matter (there is no title called "Front Matter," that is just a heading for the material that comes at the front)

Title page (Title, author, Action Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Education, place, month and year you are graduating, then at the bottom: © year, your name, All Rights Reserved.)
Signature page (Title, author, approval signatures by Dean and Graduate Advisor Committee)
Acknowledgements (Here is where you thank people who have helped and supported you along the way)
Abstract (Title, author, place, date, descriptive overview of the action thesis). Write this after you have completed the Action Thesis.
Table of Contents

Statement of Purpose, Rationale, and Overview

This is your introduction. Provide a background and overview for the action thesis. Briefly, what are you doing and why? Why is it important to you? Use some personal narrative as well as connect the main idea to the literature to give people an idea why you did this. If you did a study, what is the scope (i.e., what does the study address and what does it not address)? If you designed a product, who is it for, and for what purpose? Are there any terms you need to define? Are there any limitations to the project that you need to let people know about?

Literature review .

The literature review connects your work with a larger professional conversation that people have having. It is your way of entering that conversation. In this chapter, you should address the following:

What studies or projects have been done that are somewhat similar to what you are doing? Briefly describe them, compare and contrast them.
What literature suggests that what you are doing is worth doing? Who has written about this kinds of project, and what have they said?
What literature gave you guidance? For example, what main theories did you work with?

Methodology

Here, you explain how did you did the action thesis. If you did a study, you should describe:

What research design did you use?
Who were the research subjects? Describe them.
Where did the study take place?
What specific methods did you use to collect data? To analyze the data?

If you developed a project, you should describe:

How did you gather information (besides library research) that informed the project? What community or group of people did you work with to create and implement the project?
How did you go about developing it? Trying it out?

Results if you did a study

In chapter four you present the results of your data analysis. You describe what you found out, with as little of your own interpretation as possible. This may be your longest chapter if you did interviews or observations.

The project itself if you completed a project

This is the main piece, and probably the longest part of your action thesis, the part that you are putting the most work into. It probably is not a chapter, but rather a product, such as a booklet, website, or CD-ROM.

Discussion, Action Plan

Go back to your initial statement of the problem and your purpose. How have you answered your questions or addressed your main purpose?
If you did a study, talk about what you think about the results. What do they mean? So what? What are your conclusions?
If you did a project or created something, how would you use it? How do you recommend that other people use it? How might you refine it as you continue to use it?
Based on what you found, what action are you taking? What action do you recommend others taking? Make this the central point of the whole chapter rather than add-on.

Appendix

Put copies of any relevant documents, such as questionnaires, interview forms, IRB forms, etc. here. Label them Appendix A, Appendix B, etc.

References