A SIMPLIFIED ROUTE TO WRITING RESEARCH THESIS/PAPERS
1. Identify your research interest. It should be 4-5 sub-fields or divisions of your field of study.
2. Decide on the most feasible direction of research that is possible within the resources available to you. There are 4/5 directions viz Experimental, Theoretical, Computational, field/observational studies, mixed methods.
3. Go to research databases like Google Scholar, SCIE, SCOPUS, PUBMED etc to search current literature (2022-2026), within your four or five interests. Search 2 per time, using Boolean as separation. E.g. "International Trade" AND "Trade wars", "Talent Management" AND "GenZ Employees". If you are using Google Scholar only, go for papers in Quartiled Journals, lest you pick a work from a predatory journal with no currency.
4. From the studies that pop up from your search in 3 above, open the papers, scroll to the limitation of the studies and suggestion for future studies. Copy out the suggestions for 3-5 studies. If they are all within your interest, you will find a consensus in gap in them.
5. Turn that gap to a problem that needs solution. Propose a possible solution within your cadre of knowledge and capacity.
6. From the gaps you find, and the problem you have seen, synthesize a research topic. A good topic should be within 20 words, express the problem you see, the solution you bring and the application of the solution. You should also mention the method of enquiry I'd you are aiming for a paper publication. This is called the MSPA framework.
7. From the problem you see, frame your problem statement. A one paragraph (within 40 words) summary of the exact problem that is yet to be solved in literature.
8. From the solution you are proposing, frame the 'The Thesis Statement'.
9. If you follow steps 1-8 properly, you should know have 1. A Topic in the MPSA, 2. A problem statement 3. A Thesis Statement.
10. Now find literature that supports the problem you want to solve, the solution you are proposing, the method you want to use, the thesis statement and the questions you are raising. AI models can be used here with high efficiency. Consensus, Ecilit, Claude, DeepSeek, LitMap are specifically ideal for this.
You should find and curate some 50-80 literature here. The papers should have a good distribution of current studies (60%), reviews (20%), seminal work (15%), pre-prints (5%).
11. Strip the literature for what they did, how they did it, what why found, what they concluded and their limitation. This is the STRIP method of literature summarizing. This will reveal literature with common themes that can be group together and synthesized jointly. Google NotbookLM can be a great tool for this, if you know how to use it properly.
12. Now that you have literature for all part of your work, it is now time to find Seed Papers. Get 2 or 3 seed papers, map out the method they used and how they reported it, study them to uncover the direction you will use for your own work. Note, do not copy the methods in the seed, paper, use it as an example to develop your unique method direction. Where the method used is above your knowledge capacity on the subject matter, seek guidance, study the substance of the method from textbooks or see collaboration (where it is a paper). Do not write a paper/Thesis on a Method you are not familiar with.
Once you method is drafted and the route to the results clear, you can now do the introduction. For Beginners, it is advice you should apply the method, get your results, do your visualizations and Data analysis before you go to step 13.
13. Now you write the Introduction section of your Thesis or Paper.
For papers, write your introduction in 3- paragraphs using the Problem - Gaps-Solution (PGS) framework. Write about 1000 words, 30-40 citations. Paragraph 1 should establish the problem using a HOOK opener and downward funnel. Paragraph 2 should summary previous attempts to solve the problem and why they failed. Paragraph 3 should open with the thesis statement and close with your specific contribution to knowledge.
For Thesis, write the Background of the Study in 3 - Concepts (PGS) but in 12 to 15 paragraphs, of about 4000 words, 30-40 citations and establishing the problem properly. Next you write the Statement of the Problem. You already had it at the beginning, so you just develop it into 1000 words of about 10 citations. Your solutions make the Aim and Objectives. Your scope is directed by your research direction and the resource available.
With these steps, you get a good picture of what you are doing and how you are going to get to the end. There are several routes, but this route is what I've sieved from what we do in research and research communication. You may want to borrow this from me.
1. Identify your research interest. It should be 4-5 sub-fields or divisions of your field of study.
2. Decide on the most feasible direction of research that is possible within the resources available to you. There are 4/5 directions viz Experimental, Theoretical, Computational, field/observational studies, mixed methods.
3. Go to research databases like Google Scholar, SCIE, SCOPUS, PUBMED etc to search current literature (2022-2026), within your four or five interests. Search 2 per time, using Boolean as separation. E.g. "International Trade" AND "Trade wars", "Talent Management" AND "GenZ Employees". If you are using Google Scholar only, go for papers in Quartiled Journals, lest you pick a work from a predatory journal with no currency.
4. From the studies that pop up from your search in 3 above, open the papers, scroll to the limitation of the studies and suggestion for future studies. Copy out the suggestions for 3-5 studies. If they are all within your interest, you will find a consensus in gap in them.
5. Turn that gap to a problem that needs solution. Propose a possible solution within your cadre of knowledge and capacity.
6. From the gaps you find, and the problem you have seen, synthesize a research topic. A good topic should be within 20 words, express the problem you see, the solution you bring and the application of the solution. You should also mention the method of enquiry I'd you are aiming for a paper publication. This is called the MSPA framework.
7. From the problem you see, frame your problem statement. A one paragraph (within 40 words) summary of the exact problem that is yet to be solved in literature.
8. From the solution you are proposing, frame the 'The Thesis Statement'.
9. If you follow steps 1-8 properly, you should know have 1. A Topic in the MPSA, 2. A problem statement 3. A Thesis Statement.
10. Now find literature that supports the problem you want to solve, the solution you are proposing, the method you want to use, the thesis statement and the questions you are raising. AI models can be used here with high efficiency. Consensus, Ecilit, Claude, DeepSeek, LitMap are specifically ideal for this.
You should find and curate some 50-80 literature here. The papers should have a good distribution of current studies (60%), reviews (20%), seminal work (15%), pre-prints (5%).
11. Strip the literature for what they did, how they did it, what why found, what they concluded and their limitation. This is the STRIP method of literature summarizing. This will reveal literature with common themes that can be group together and synthesized jointly. Google NotbookLM can be a great tool for this, if you know how to use it properly.
12. Now that you have literature for all part of your work, it is now time to find Seed Papers. Get 2 or 3 seed papers, map out the method they used and how they reported it, study them to uncover the direction you will use for your own work. Note, do not copy the methods in the seed, paper, use it as an example to develop your unique method direction. Where the method used is above your knowledge capacity on the subject matter, seek guidance, study the substance of the method from textbooks or see collaboration (where it is a paper). Do not write a paper/Thesis on a Method you are not familiar with.
Once you method is drafted and the route to the results clear, you can now do the introduction. For Beginners, it is advice you should apply the method, get your results, do your visualizations and Data analysis before you go to step 13.
13. Now you write the Introduction section of your Thesis or Paper.
For papers, write your introduction in 3- paragraphs using the Problem - Gaps-Solution (PGS) framework. Write about 1000 words, 30-40 citations. Paragraph 1 should establish the problem using a HOOK opener and downward funnel. Paragraph 2 should summary previous attempts to solve the problem and why they failed. Paragraph 3 should open with the thesis statement and close with your specific contribution to knowledge.
For Thesis, write the Background of the Study in 3 - Concepts (PGS) but in 12 to 15 paragraphs, of about 4000 words, 30-40 citations and establishing the problem properly. Next you write the Statement of the Problem. You already had it at the beginning, so you just develop it into 1000 words of about 10 citations. Your solutions make the Aim and Objectives. Your scope is directed by your research direction and the resource available.
With these steps, you get a good picture of what you are doing and how you are going to get to the end. There are several routes, but this route is what I've sieved from what we do in research and research communication. You may want to borrow this from me.