M .A .

T h e s is G u id e Anani

HOW TO WRITE AN MA THESIS

IN TEFL
AT SHAHID BEHESHTI UNIVERSITY

BY
DR M. R. ANANI SARAB

June 2005

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HOW TO WRTIE AN MA THESIS IN TEFL

AT SHAHID BEHESHTI UNIVERSITY

The MA students at the English Department of Shahid Beheshti University are

required to follow the guidelines in this booklet when writing an MA thesis in
TEFL.
Thesis Proposal
A thesis proposal includes the following sections:
I. Introduction
II. Statement of the problem
III. Research questions and hypotheses
IV. Rationale of the study
V. Definition of key terms
VI. Literature review
VII. Method
- Design
- Subjects (sampling)
- Instruments
- Procedure
- Data collection and analysis

VIII. Timeline
IX. Tentative outline
X. References

Introduction
This section is a brief overview of the topic of the study.

Statement of the problem

This section states what it is that the study is going to investigate. In other words,
what are the problematic aspects of the topic that would constitute the main focus of
the study?

Research Questions and hypotheses

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The focus of the study is translated into one or more research questions whose role
is to guide the study. Research questions may be followed with hypotheses.
Hypotheses are predictions about the outcomes of the study.

Rationale of the study

This section is an answer to the question why the researcher thinks the study is
worth doing. The answer may include theoretical and practical justifications in
terms of the contributions of the study to theoretical issues and the practical
implications of its results.

Definition of key terms

In this section the key terms included in the title of the study and the research
questions are defined in simple and clear terms.

Literature review
The literature review should provide an interface between the researcher and the
literature. It should indicate where the study stands in the field and what the relevant
issues are which need to be addressed with specific references to empirical research
results taken from the literature.

Method
The method section deals with a delineation of the research strategy selected for the
study followed by a diagrammatic explanation of its design.
- Subjects: This sub-section is concerned with an account of the subjects, their
number and characteristics, the population from which the sample is drawn
and the sampling procedure.
- Instruments: This sub-section is an account of the type of instruments used in
the study, and of their validation procedure.
- Procedures: This sub-section is a description of the way the material and
instruments are going to be used in the study and of the conditions of their use.
- Data collection and analysis: This sub-section is an account of the way the
data for the study is going to be collected and prepared for analysis. It also
deals with the way the data is going to be analysed, that is, the statistical
procedures that would be followed in the process of data analysis.

Timeline
The timeline presents the researcher’s budgeting of the time available for the study.

Tentative outline
This comes in the form of on outline suggesting the titles and sub-titles of the
suggested chapters for the thesis.

References
This is a list of all the references (at least 15) used by the researcher in the process
of developing the proposal.

Thesis
A thesis includes the following chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction

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Chapter 2: Review of literature

Chapter 3: Method
Chapter 4: Results and discussion
Chapter 5: Conclusion
References
Chapter 1: Introduction
The chapter contains the following sub-headings:
Statement of the problem
Research questions and hypotheses
Rationale of the study
Definition of key terms

Chapter 2: Review of literature

The sub-headings in this chapter are determined by the nature of the research topic.

Chapter 3: Method
This chapter contains the following sub-headings:
Research strategy and design
Subjects
Instruments
Procedure
Data Analysis

Chapter 4: Results and discussion

This chapter contain the following sub-headings:
Results
Discussion

Conclusion
This last chapter sums up the major findings of the study in non-technical terms.
The author could also take the opportunity in this chapter to address the reader in a
more direct way while relating the outcomes to more general issues thereby putting
the study in a wider context. The summing up is followed by a sub-section titled
‘Suggestions for Further Research’ in which the researcher provides some
guidelines for further research.

Length of the thesis

The size of an MA thesis including the body, references and appendixes should be
between 18000 and 25000 words.

Font style and size

The font style recommended for an MA thesis is Times New Roman with the
following font sizes:
Text: 12
Indented (Block) quotations: 11
Sub-headings: 13 (Bold)
Titles: 16 (Bold)
References: 11

Margins

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The default margins of the Microsoft Word program are recommended:

Top: 2.54
Bottom: 2.54
Left: 3.17
Right: 3.17
Space between lines
Text: double space
Indented quotations: 1.5 space
References: single space with one extra space between each entry.

General format
The pages of the thesis should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the title
page as the manuscript footer in the centre of each page. The appendices should be
formatted similarly. The chapter titles are centred at the top of the page and all the
chapter headings and sub-headings are numbered (chapter number, dot, heading
number, dot, sub-heading number).

Handling quotations in a thesis

The APA editing style is the basis for the following guidelines.

For in-text citation, the author-date method should be used. This means that the
author’s last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the
text and a complete reference should appear in the reference list at the end of the
thesis.

If you are referencing to an idea from another work but not directly quoting the
material, or making reference to an entire book, article or other work you do not
have to provide page numbers in your in-text citation. If you are paraphrasing an
idea from another work, the APA guidelines encourages you to provide the page
number although it is not required. It is only when you are directly quoting from a
work that you will need to provide page number for the reference.

Examples for referencing to another idea or study:

Jones (1998) compared student performance …
In a recent study of student performance (Jones, 1998), …
In 1998, Jones compared student performance …

Short quotations
To indicate quotations of fewer than 40 words in your text, enclose the quotation
within double quotation marks. Provide the author, year, and specific page citation
in the text, and include a complete reference in the reference list. Punctuation marks
should appear after the parenthetical citation.

Examples:
She stated, “Students often had difficulty using APA style,” (Jones, 1998, p. 199)
but she did not offer an explanation as to why.

According to Jones (1998), “Students often had difficulty using APA style,
especially when it was their first time” (p. 199).

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Jones (1998) found “students often had difficulty using APA style” (p. 199); what
implications does this have for teachers?

Long quotations (block quotes)

Place quotations longer than 40 words in a free-standing block of typewritten lines,
and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, indented five spaces
from the left margin. Type the entire quotation on the new margin. Maintain double-
spacing throughout. The parenthetical citation should come after closing
punctuation mark.

Example:
Jones’s 1993 study found the following:

Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time
citing sources. This difficulty could be attributed to the fact that many students failed to
purchase a style manual or to ask their teacher for help. (p. 199)

Reference list
Your reference list should appear at the end of your paper. It provides the
information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the
body of the paper. Each source you cite in the thesis must appear in your reference
list. Your references should begin on a separate page from the text of the thesis
under the label References, centred at the top of the page.

Basic rules
• Author’s last name is recorded first. Give the last name and initials for all
authors of a particular work.
• Reference list entries should alphabetised by the last name of the first author
of each work.
• If you have more than one article by the same author(s), list them in order by
the year of publication, starting with the earliest.

Example:
Allwright, D. (1983). Classroom-centred research on language teaching and
learning: a brief historical overview. TESOL Quarterly, 17(2), 191-202.
Allwright, R. L. (1984). The importance of interaction in classroom language
learning. Applied Linguistics, 5, 156-171.
Allwright, R. L. (1988). Observation in the language classroom. London: Longman.

• When an author appears both as a sole author and, in another citation, as the
first author of a group, list the one-author entries first.

Example:
Bialystok, E. (1994). Analysis and control in the development in the development of
second language proficiency. Studies in second language acquisition, 16,157-168.
Bialystok, E. and Frohlich, M. (1980). Oral communication strategies for lexical
difficulties. International Studies Bulletin, 5(1), 3-30.

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• If you are using more than one reference by the same author published in the
same year, organize them in the reference list alphabetically by the title of
the article or chapter. Then assign letter suffixes to the year.
Example:
Long, M. H. (1983a). Linguistic and conversational adjustments to non-native
speakers. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 5: 177-93.
Long, M. H. (1983b). Native speaker/non-native speaker conversation and the
negotiation of comprehensible input. Applied Linguistics, 4: 126-41.

• Use “&” instead of “and” when listing multiple authors of a single work.
• All lines after the first line of each entry in your reference list should be
indented one-half inch from the left margin. This is called hanging
indentation.
• When referencing to any work that is not a journal, such as a book, article or
web page, capitalize only the first letter of the first word of a title and sub-
title, the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and proper nouns. Do
not capitalize the first latter of the second word in a hyphenated compound
word.
• Capitalize all major words in journal titles.
• Italicize titles of longer works such as books and journals.
• Do not italicize, underline, or put quotes around the titles of shorter works
such as journal articles or essays in edited collections.
• A book chapter or an article in a collection should cited as follows:
Author, A. & Author, B. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. In A. Editor &
B. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (Pages of chapter). Location: Publisher.

Note: When you list the pages of the chapter or essay in parentheses after the
book title, use “pp.” before the numbers: (pp. 1-21). This abbreviation, however,
does not appear before the page number in periodical reference.
Basic forms for electronic (internet) sources
• Article in an Internet Periodical
Author, A., & Author. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of journal,
volume number (issue number if available). Retrieved month day, year, from
http://web address.

Note: If there is not a date available for the document use (n.d.) for no date.

• Part of non-periodical Internet Document

Author, A. & Author, B. (Date of publication). Title of article. In Title of book or
larger document (chapter or section number). Retrieved from http://web address.

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Departmental rules and regulations

The following rules and regulation apply to the process of developing your thesis:

• Plagiarism: The use of any idea or even a single phrase from other sources
without being acknowledged in the form of parenthetical reference is
considered an act of plagiarism which could fail your thesis and lead to
declination of the award of the MA degree.
• Supervision: Your ‘supervisor’ or ‘thesis advisor’ is the main figure
responsible for guiding you throughout your research. You are supposed to
check with him/her all the steps of you research project making sure that you
are on the right track. Your supervisor will expect you to attend the
supervision meetings scheduled for discussion of the issues raised in your
research. You will also be expected to submit the draft of the chapters of
your thesis and then revise the draft based on the feedback you receive from
your supervisor. Your ‘second reader’ or ‘thesis reader’ is the second figure
assigned to provide you with a second perspective on your research. It is
advisable that you consult your second reader on key issues in your research
before embarking on writing and submit your thesis to him/her after it has
taken shape. Your second reader will provide you with feedback which you
will be supposed to apply on your drafts. When the final draft of your thesis
is approved by your supervisor and second reader, you will be supposed to
submit it in a ‘soft-bound’ form to your ‘thesis examiner’ who is assigned by
the department for the purpose of reading the manuscript and making
comments and corrections for improvement before or after your viva (thesis
defence session). You are obliged to take note of the comments and
corrections and apply them to the manuscript before hard-binding.
• Viva: Viva is an almost one-hour session set up for the evaluation of your
thesis. In this session, first you will have a presentation on your thesis for 20
to 30 minutes. It is suggested that you first acknowledge the contributions of
those who have helped you through your research; second, give an
introduction in which you orient the audience to the problem, your reasons
for its selection, and the questions you have raised to study the problem.
Your introduction can follow with a brief explanation of the method and the
major findings. Finally, you can call the attention of the audience to the
significance of the findings and to what they suggest to be researched next.
The main criteria for evaluation are: the contribution of your research to the
field and the quality of your arguments, the structure of your thesis, your
writing fluency, your confidence in oral presentation and the adequacy of the
responses you provide to the questions raised in your viva session.
• Type of questions asked in the viva session: Some questions might deal with
certain aspects of the methodology of your research. These questions might
demand detailed explanations and justifications of your methodological
decisions. Questions might also be raised about the findings and their
contribution to the field. Your answers to these questions might include
references to the theoretical and practical significance of the findings of your
research. You might also be asked to explain your motives behind doing the
research and your appraisal of the research process. You might answer to
these questions by references to your personal reasons, for example, to your

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interests or practical experiences and also to the challenges of the research

process and the way you have managed to face those challenges.
Time management
Try to budget your time and set strict deadlines for the completion of the different
phases of your research. The following suggestions might help:
1) One month: preparing and submitting your thesis proposal
2) One month: reviewing the literature to refine you research questions and
methodology of your research.
3) Two months: data collection and analysis
4) One month: drafting the chapters of your thesis
5) One month: finalizing the thesis

The order of sections in a thesis

1) Title-page
2) Abstract
3) Acknowledgment
4) Table of contents
5) List of tables
6) List of figures
7) Introduction
8) Review of literature
9) Methodology
10) Results and discussion
11) Conclusion
12) References
13) Appendixes

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Title page
IN THE NAME OF GOD

SHAHID BEHESHTI UNIVERISTY

FACULTY OG LETTERS AND HUMANITIES
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

-------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------
------------------

By
------------------------

Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Master of Arts
in TEFL

Thesis Supervisor: ---------------

Thesis Reader: --------------------

Tehran, Iran
Month Year

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