Writing the thesis
This video lecture gives an overview of the different elements one should be aware of when writing a thesis or dissertation.
Polishing the thesis
This online workshop guides you through the process of editing your thesis.
Preparing for your thesis oral examination
This video lecture tells you what to expect and how to prepare for your PhD oral exam (viva voce).
You may be required to submit a thesis or dissertation as part of your master's or doctoral degree.
As a Massey doctoral candidate, you can gain a PhD by:
- Doctorate by monograph – a thesis in book form with chapters. The thesis or parts of the thesis may be published after publication.
- Doctorate with publications – generally 2 to 6 research papers that are published, in review or in press at the time of submitting your thesis.
Ask your supervisor for guidance on which pathway is best for your research project.
Publication and authorship of doctoral research (login required)
Your doctoral journey Stream site (login required)
Thesis presentation guide
The Massey Library thesis presentation guide gives advice on:
- submission requirements
- format
- layout
- production
- copyright.
Master's thesis
Massey Master's students can find the most up-to-date information about submitting your thesis and download the forms required online.
Doctoral thesis by monograph
If you are writing a thesis in book form with chapters, your thesis should include an abstract and your research proposal.
Abstract
Learn how to write an abstract and about the purpose, length, types and style.
Research proposal
Learn how to write and structure a research proposal, view online tutorials or check your work against our research proposal checklist.
The principles of article critiques and literature reviews may be helpful when writing your thesis or dissertation.
Literature review
Check your work against our literature review checklist, or dig deeper to learn how to write and structure your literature review.
Article critique
Discover how to write an article critique.
Thesis format and description
Unless the University Librarian approves otherwise, your thesis or dissertation should include 3 key sections:
- preliminaries including your title page and abstract
- text including your research proposal and footnotes
- reference material including your bibliography and appendices.
Preliminaries
Preliminaries The preliminaries are the sections before the main body of your work, including title page, abstract and table of contents.
- Title page
- Abstract
- Preface and acknowledgements
- Table of contents
- List of illustrations and tables.
Text
Text This is the main body of the work, presented in chapters with titles.
Many theses have the sections in this order:
- Introduction
- Literature review
- Materials and methods
- Results
- Discussion
- Conclusion
- Footnotes
Give the chapters meaningful titles with keywords relevant to your thesis. This makes it easier for potential readers to find it when searching online.
Reference material
Reference material Complete your thesis with your reference list or bibliography and any appendices.
Doctoral thesis with publications
The stream site has comprehensive guidelines relating to your doctoral thesis, including:
- preparing, structuring and examining a thesis with publications
- authorship of publications to be submitted as part of your doctoral thesis
- additional guidance on publication and authorship of doctoral research.
Doctoral Thesis with Publications (login required)
Researcher support
Researcher support at Massey University includes advice on how to:
- publish and share research
- learn about metrics that measure the impact of a publication
- request a research report or publication impact report.
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