How to Write a Great Synopsis for Thesis
A synopsis is a structured outline of a research thesis and the steps followed to answer the research question. The goal of writing a synopsis is to clearly and thoroughly explain the need to investigate a certain problem using particular practical methods to conduct the study. One of the main components of this written work is an extensive literature review containing strong evidence that the proposed research is feasible.
Establishing the Background
A supervisor may ask you to write a synopsis for one or more reasons:
- to help you improve your critical thinking and writing skills
- to help you understand how to design a comprehensive synopsis
- to encourage you to write a comprehensive literature review to make sure that the research problem has not been answered yet
- to make you conduct a logical analysis of the steps that should be followed to meet the objectives of the research
A synopsis should be coherent in terms of research design. Thus, you should ensure that the research problem, aims, and research methods are logically linked and well-considered. Note that all synopses should contain answers for several crucial questions:
- Why should research on the proposed problem be undertaken?
- What is expected to be achieved?
- What has been done by other researchers on the proposed topic?
- How will the objectives of the study be achieved?
The Writing Process
Before proceeding, consider answering the following questions:
- Why am I going to study this topic?
- Why do I consider it to be important?
- Have I conducted an extensive literature review on the topic?
- What problem will the research help to solve?
- How do I incorporate previous studies on the topic?
The structure of a synopsis should correspond to the structure of qualifying research work, and the word count should be 2,500–3,000 words (Balu 38). The basic elements of a synopsis include a title page, contents page, an introduction, background, literature review, objectives, methods, experiments and results, conclusions, and references.
Introduction
As this comprises the first part of the main text, the introduction should convince readers that the study addresses a relevant topic and that the expected outcomes will provide important insights. Also, this section should include a brief description of the methods that will be used to answer the research question. Usually, the introduction is written in 1–3 paragraphs and answers the following questions:
- What is the topic of the research?
- What is the research problem that needs to be meaningfully understood or investigated?
- Why is the problem important?
- How will the problem be studied?
In this section, you should set the scene and better introduce the research topic by proving its scientific legitimacy and relevance. It is important to establish a clear focus and avoid broad generalizations and vague statements. If necessary, you may explain key concepts or terms. Consider covering the following points in this section:
- Discuss how the research will contribute to the existing scientific knowledge.
- Provide a detailed description of the research problem and purpose of the research.
- Provide a rationale for the study.
- Explain how the research question will be answered.
- Be sure to discuss the methods chosen and anticipated implications of the research.
Literature Review
A review of existing literature is an important part of a synopsis, as it:
- Gives a more detailed look at scientific information related to the topic
- Familiarizes readers with research conducted by others on a similar subject
- Gives insight into the difficulties faced by other researchers
- Helps identify variables for the research based on similar studies
- Helps double-check the feasibility of the research problem.
When writing the literature review, do not simply present a list of methods researchers have used and conclusions they have drawn. It is important to compare and contrast different opinions and be unafraid to criticize some of them. Pay attention to controversial issues and divergent approaches used to address similar problems. You may discuss which arguments are more persuasive and which methods and techniques seem to be more valid and reliable. In this section, you are expected not to summarize but analyze the previous research while remembering to link it to your own purpose.
Identify the objectives of the research based on the literature review. Provide an overall objective related to the scientific contribution of the study to the subject area. Also include a specific objective that can be measured at the end of the research.
When writing this section, consider that the aim of the research is to produce new knowledge regarding the topic chosen. Therefore, the research methodology forms the core of your project, and your goal is to convince readers that the research design and methods chosen will rationally answer the research questions and provide effective tools to interpret the results correctly. It may be appropriate to incorporate some examples from your literature review into the description of the overall research design.
When describing the research methodology, ensure that you specify the approaches and techniques that will be used to answer the research question. In addition, be specific about applying the chosen methods and what you expect to achieve. Keep in mind that the methods section allows readers to evaluate the validity and feasibility of the study. Therefore, be sure to explain your decision to adopt specific methods and procedures. It is also important to discuss the anticipated barriers and limitations of the study and how they will be addressed. Specify what kind of contribution to the existing knowledge on the topic is expected, and discuss any ethical considerations that are relevant to the research.
Experiments and Results
Logically present and analyze the results of the study using tables or figures.
In this section, you should again state the significance of the research and summarize the study. Be sure to mention the study objectives and methods used to answer the research questions. Also, discuss how the results of the study contribute to the current knowledge on the problem.
A synopsis should contain a list of all references used. Make sure the references are formatted according to the chosen citation style and each source presented in this section is mentioned within the body of the synopsis.
The purpose of writing a synopsis is to show a supervisor a clear picture of a proposed project and allow him or her to find any gaps that have not been considered previously. A concisely written synopsis will help you gain approval to proceed with the actual research. While no rigid rules for writing this type of paper have been established, a synopsis should be constructed in a manner to help a supervisor understand the proposed research at first glance.
Balu, R. “Writing a Good Ph.D Research Synopsis.” International Journal of Research in Science and Technology, vol. 5, no. 4, 2015, pp. 38–48.
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How to Write a Research Synopsis: Template, Examples, & More
Last Updated: October 24, 2024 Fact Checked
- Organizing & Formatting
- Writing Your Synopsis
- Reviewing & Editing
Research Synopsis Template
This article was reviewed by Gerald Posner and by wikiHow staff writer, Raven Minyard, BA . Gerald Posner is an Author & Journalist based in Miami, Florida. With over 35 years of experience, he specializes in investigative journalism, nonfiction books, and editorials. He holds a law degree from UC College of the Law, San Francisco, and a BA in Political Science from the University of California-Berkeley. He’s the author of thirteen books, including several New York Times bestsellers, the winner of the Florida Book Award for General Nonfiction, and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History. He was also shortlisted for the Best Business Book of 2020 by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 293,860 times.
A research synopsis describes the plan for your research project and is typically submitted to professors or department heads so they can approve your project. Most synopses are between 3,000 and 4,000 words and provide your research objectives and methods. While the specific types of information you need to include in your synopsis may vary depending on your department guidelines, most synopses include the same basic sections. In this article, we’ll walk you step-by-step through everything you need to know to write a synopsis for research.
Things You Should Know
- Begin your research synopsis by introducing the question your research will answer and its importance to your field.
- List 2 or 3 specific objectives you hope to achieve and how they will advance your field.
- Discuss your methodology to demonstrate why the study design you chose is appropriate for your research question.
Organizing Your Research Synopsis
- Find out what citation format you’re supposed to use, as well as whether you’re expected to use parenthetical references or footnotes in the body of your synopsis.
- If you have questions about anything in your guidelines, ask your instructor or advisor to ensure you follow them correctly.
- Title: the title of your study
- Abstract: a summary of your research synopsis
- Introduction: identifies and describes your research question
- Literature Review: a review of existing relevant research
- Objectives: goals you hope to accomplish through your study
- Hypotheses: results you expect to find through your research
- Methodology and methods: explains the methods you’ll use to complete your study
- References: a list of any references used in citations
Tip: Your synopsis might have additional sections, depending on your discipline and the type of research you're conducting. Talk to your instructor or advisor about which sections are required for your department.
- Keep in mind that you might not end up using all the sources you initially found. After you've finished your synopsis, go back and delete the ones you didn't use.
Writing Your Research Synopsis
- Your title should be a brief and specific reflection of the main objectives of your study. In general, it should be under 50 words and should avoid unneeded phrases like “an investigation into.”
- On the other hand, avoid a title that’s too short, as well. For example, a title like “A Study of Urban Heating” is too short and doesn’t provide any insight into the specifics of your research.
- The introduction allows you to explain to your reader exactly why the question you’re trying to answer is vital and how your knowledge and experience make you the best researcher to tackle it.
- Support most of the statements in your introduction with other studies in the area that support the importance of your question. For example, you might cite a previous study that mentions your problem as an area where further research needs to be done.
- The length of your introduction will vary depending on the overall length of your synopsis as well as the ultimate length of your eventual paper after you’ve finished your research. Generally, it will cover the first page or two of your synopsis.
- For example, try finding relevant literature through educational journals or bulletins from organizations like WHO and CDC.
- Typically, a thorough literature review discusses 8 to 10 previous studies related to your research problem.
- As with the introduction, the length of your literature review will vary depending on the overall length of your synopsis. Generally, it will be about the same length as your introduction.
- Try to use the most current research available and avoid sources over 5 years old.
- For example, an objective for research on urban heating could be “to compare urban heat modification caused by vegetation of mixed species considering the 5 most common urban trees in an area.”
- Generally, the overall objective doesn’t relate to solving a specific problem or answering a specific question. Rather, it describes how your particular project will advance your field.
- For specific objectives, think in terms of action verbs like “quantify” or “compare.” Here, you’re hoping to gain a better understanding of associations between particular variables.
- Specify the sources you used and the reasons you have arrived at your hypotheses. Typically, these will come from prior studies that have shown similar relationships.
- For example, suppose a prior study showed that children who were home-schooled were less likely to be in fraternities or sororities in college. You might use that study to back up a hypothesis that home-schooled children are more independent and less likely to need strong friendship support networks.
- Expect your methodology to be at least as long as either your introduction or your literature review, if not longer. Include enough detail that your reader can fully understand how you’re going to carry out your study.
- This section of your synopsis may include information about how you plan to collect and analyze your data, the overall design of your study, and your sampling methods, if necessary. Include information about the study setting, like the facilities and equipment that are available to you to carry out your study.
- For example, your research work may take place in a hospital, and you may use cluster sampling to gather data.
- Use between 100 and 200 words to give your readers a basic understanding of your research project.
- Include a clear statement of the problem, the main goals or objectives of your study, the theories or conceptual framework your research relies upon, and the methods you’ll use to reach your goals or objectives.
Tip: Note down a few notes as you draft your other sections that you can compile for your abstract to keep your writing more efficient.
Reviewing and Editing Your Research Synopsis
- If you don’t have that kind of time because you’re up against a deadline, at least take a few hours away from your synopsis before you go back to edit it. Do something entirely unrelated to your research, like taking a walk or going to a movie.
- Eliminate sentences that don’t add any new information. Even the longest synopsis is a brief document—make sure every word needs to be there and counts for something.
- Get rid of jargon and terms of art in your field that could be better explained in plain language. Even though your likely readers are people who are well-versed in your field, providing plain language descriptions shows you know what you’re talking about. Using jargon can seem like you’re trying to sound like you know more than you actually do.
Tip: Free apps, such as Grammarly and Hemingway App, can help you identify grammatical errors as well as areas where your writing could be clearer. However, you shouldn't rely solely on apps since they can miss things.
- Reference list formatting is very particular. Read your references out loud, with the punctuation and spacing, to pick up on errors you wouldn’t have noticed if you’d just read over them.
- Compare your format to the one in the stylebook you’re using and make sure all of your entries are correct.
- Read your synopsis backward by starting on the last word and reading each word separately from the last to the first. This helps isolate spelling errors. Reading backward sentence by sentence helps you isolate grammatical errors without being distracted by the content.
- Print your synopsis and circle every punctuation mark with a red pen. Then, go through them and focus on whether they’re correct.
- Read your synopsis out loud, including the punctuation, as though you were dictating the synopsis.
- Have at least one person who isn’t familiar with your area of study look over your synopsis. If they can understand your project, you know your writing is clear. If any parts confuse them, then that’s an area where you can improve the clarity of your writing.
Expert Q&A
- If you make significant changes to your synopsis after your first or second round of editing, you may need to proofread it again to make sure you didn’t introduce any new errors. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
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- ↑ https://admin.umt.edu.pk/Media/Site/iib1/FileManager/FORMAT%20OF%20SYNOPSIS%2012-10-2018.pdf
- ↑ https://www.scientificstyleandformat.org/Tools/SSF-Citation-Quick-Guide.html
- ↑ https://numspak.edu.pk/upload/media/Guidelines%20for%20Synopsis%20Writing1531455748.pdf
- ↑ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279917593_Research_synopsis_guidelines
- ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/editing-and-proofreading/
- ↑ https://www.cornerstone.edu/blog-post/six-steps-to-really-edit-your-paper/
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Theses and dissertations are already intensive, long-term projects that require a lot of effort and time from their authors. Formatting for submission to the university is often the last thing that graduate students do, and may delay earning the relevant degree if done incorrectly.
Below are some strategies graduate students can use to deal with institutional formatting requirements to earn their degrees on time.
Disciplinary conventions are still paramount.
Scholars in your own discipline are the most common readers of your dissertation; your committee, too, will expect your work to match with their expectations as members of your field. The style guide your field uses most commonly is always the one you should follow, and if your field uses conventions such as including all figures and illustrations at the end of the document, you should do so. After these considerations are met, move on to university formatting. Almost always, university formatting only deals with things like margins, font, numbering of chapters and sections, and illustrations; disciplinary style conventions in content such as APA's directive to use only last names of authors in-text are not interfered with by university formatting at all.
Use your university's formatting guidelines and templates to your advantage.
If your institution has a template for formatting your thesis or dissertation that you can use, do so. Don't look at another student's document and try to replicate it yourself. These templates typically have the necessary section breaks and styles already in the document, and you can copy in your work from your existing draft using the style pane in MS Word to ensure you're using the correct formatting (similarly with software such as Overleaf when writing in LaTeX, templates do a lot of the work for you). It's also often easier for workers in the offices that deal with theses and dissertations to help you with your work if you're using their template — they are familiar with these templates and can often navigate them more proficiently.
These templates also include placeholders for all front matter you will need to include in your thesis or dissertation, and may include guidelines for how to write these. Front matter includes your table of contents, acknowledgements, abstract, abbreviation list, figure list, committee page, and (sometimes) academic history or CV; everything before your introduction is front matter. Since front matter pages such as the author's academic history and dissertation committee are usually for the graduate school and not for your department, your advisor might not remember to have you include them. Knowing about them well before your deposit date means you won't be scrambling to fill in placeholders at the last minute or getting your work returned for revision from the graduate school.
Consider institutional formatting early and often.
Many graduate students leave this aspect of submitting their projects until it's almost too late to work on it, causing delays in obtaining their degree. Simply being aware that this is a task you'll have to complete and making sure you know where templates are, who you can ask for help in your graduate office or your department, and what your institution's guidelines are can help alleviate this issue. Once you know what you'll be expected to do to convert to university formatting, you can set regular check-in times for yourself to do this work in pieces rather than all at once (for instance, when you've completed a chapter and had it approved by your chair).
Consider fair use for images and other third-party content.
Most theses and dissertations are published through ProQuest or another publisher (Harvard, for instance, uses their own open publishing service). For this reason, it may be the case that your institution requires all images or other content obtained from other sources to fall under fair use rules or, if an image is not considered under fair use, you'll have to obtain permission to print it in your dissertation. Your institution should have more guidance on their specific expectations for fair use content; knowing what these guidelines are well in advance of your deposit date means you won't have to make last-minute changes or removals to deposit your work.
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WRITING A GOOD Ph.D RESEARCH SYNOPSIS
Synopsis is a short summary of your Ph.D thesis work. This paper suggests some ideas to motivate the young researchers for effectively writing the Ph.D synopsis with essential tips and tricks.This can act as a reference and help young researcher to going to write Ph.D synopsis.
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Lesson 4: Synopsis
In order to clarify your thoughts about the purpose of your thesis and how you plan to reach your research goals, you should prepare a synopsis. A synopsis is a short, systematic outline of your proposed thesis, made in preparation for your first meeting with your supervisor. It serves to ensure that your supervisor gets a clear picture of your proposed project and allows him or her to spot whether there are gaps or things that you have not taken into account.
Your synopsis will work as a kind of protocol for the further steps you need to take to ensure that your thesis reaches the required academic level – and that you finish on time.
Although there are no rigid rules for how a synopsis should look, it must contain:
- Rationale – should address the gaps/problems/issues observed as part of the background section and thus present the argument/justification for completing the study – as described in the lesson of the same name.
- Problem formulation – the problem you aim to address in your thesis,as described in the lesson of the same name.
- Overall and specific objectives – the actions to be taken in order to address the problem, as described in the lesson of the same name.
- Method outline: What type of study is best suited to support the actions stated in the specific objectives? What kind of data (qualitative, quantitative) will your study require? What is your geographical study area and who is your target group(s)? Are there ethical considerations you have to make? Etc.
- Time plan: In the beginning, a rough timeline showing a plan on how your work will be divided over time. When is your deadline for e.g. literature search, potential fieldwork (e.g. interviews and/or questionnaire administration), data analysis, writing and layout? Once your problem formulation and objectives are approved by your supervisor, all details should be added to your time plan.
- References : Create a short list of the major references on which your rationale is based. Make sure that your in-text citations and reference list are completed correctly, both in support of your subsequent work, but also to demonstrate that you have a serious, scientific and methodical approach to your work. See how to use references correctly in the lesson of the same name in the module: Writing process.
At the beginning of your thesis period, your synopsis will be limited in scope and detail, but as you work your way deeper into your topic and you get a clearer picture of your objectives, methods and references, the more complete and detailed your synopsis will become.
A rule of thumb is that the length of your synopsis can vary from two to five pages, but the precise length and exact requirements of your synopsis can vary from institute to institute and from supervisor to supervisor.
Most study programmes will require that you present a final synopsis before starting data collection. However, the first version of your synopsis for discussion with your supervisor should not be an informal draft. Carefully performed work creates respect and motivation and saves a lot of you and your supervisor’s time.
A good approach from the very beginning is to establish a practice of how to write headings, references, names of species, etc. And be consistent. This will help you save time and importantly, lead to a better overall assessment of your final work.
Do you now know how to write a synopsis. Test yourself in the following.
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A synopsis is a structured outline of a research thesis and the steps followed to answer the research question. The goal of writing a synopsis is to clearly and thoroughly explain the need to investigate a certain problem using particular practical methods to conduct the study.
Given below is an outline for synopsis writing. It provides guidelines for organization and presentation of research in form of synopsis as well as organization of material within each section.
A research synopsis describes the plan for your research project and is typically submitted to professors or department heads so they can approve your project. Most synopses are between 3,000 and 4,000 words and provide your research objectives and methods.
A thesis or dissertation outline is one of the most critical early steps in your writing process. It helps you to lay out and organize your ideas and can provide you with a roadmap for deciding the specifics of your dissertation topic and showcasing its relevance to your field.
How to Write a Thesis Summary. Your thesis summary is the distilled essence of your thesis: a tool to underline the strengths of your research and make yourself recognizable as a competent scholar.
Use your university's formatting guidelines and templates to your advantage. If your institution has a template for formatting your thesis or dissertation that you can use, do so. Don't look at another student's document and try to replicate it yourself.
The synopsis for a thesis is basically the plan for a research project, typically done when pursuing a doctorate. It outlines the focus areas and key components of the research in order to obtain approval for the research.
First, you briefly summarise Chapter 1, then you briefly list the most important achievements and conclusions of Chapters 3 – 10; then, you summarise Chapter 11. Finally, you provide an outlook. What will future work look like, or what will the impact of your thesis be.
This paper adopts a how-to approach when discussing a variety of relevant topics, such as thesis introduction, types of introductions, introduc- tion statements, problem statement, research questions, hypothesis and con- tributions of the study.
Lesson 4: Synopsis. In order to clarify your thoughts about the purpose of your thesis and how you plan to reach your research goals, you should prepare a synopsis. A synopsis is a short, systematic outline of your proposed thesis, made in preparation for your first meeting with your supervisor.