If you were planning to go on one of the most important journeys of your life, you’d most likely think it through carefully beforehand. You might consider the objectives of your trip and ask key questions so that you could meet these objectives. You’d probably identify the main problem you faced and find a potential solution to overcome this problem. Ideally, you would plan and make these decisions at the outset of your precious journey.
And so it is when you’re planning your dissertation or thesis, one of the most important academic journeys of your life. You need to identify the research problem and find a diagnosis or potential solution to this problem in the theoretical literature. You need to think through the objectives of your research carefully at the very start and work out research questions that meet these research objectives. No matter how challenging, these decisions are yours to make at the outset, in Chapter 1, your introduction chapter.
Chapter 1 is indeed one of the most challenging chapters to compile as it expects all this, and more, of you as the researcher. You need to convince your reader that you have identified a research problem of social significance, that you have identified its diagnosis or solution in the theoretical literature, and that you are proposing feasible research objectives within doable research. This is a big ask – expect to write, rewrite and re-rewrite this chapter until it flows logically and consistently.
So, let’s consider a structure for Chapter 1 that works for many dissertations and theses.
First, start by briefly describing the background to your research problem. The background will give context to your research problem. It may be a historical background or a broader view of some aspect of your research problem.
Second, describe the foreground or focus of your research. Explain from whose perspective you are viewing the research problem, and why. Here is where you situate the research problem.
Third, couch the problem in the theoretical literature related to your research problem. Here you need to show the reader that you are aware of the main debates or views on your topic. Additionally, you need to recognise a deficiency in the theoretical literature, something that isn’t known or covered on your topic – a knowledge gap in the literature. Although your writing will be at a high level without detail here, the theory you cite will form part of your theoretical or conceptual framework of your study.
Fourth, mention the research methodology that you will use to approach the problem. Note that your description will be at a high level, omitting detail. Plenty of time to expand on your this in your methodology chapter.
Fifth, construct your problem statement. This often entails a few attempts, but the following recipe should help you create a perfect problem statement. In a succinct paragraph of under a page, briefly summarise the preceding three sections (background, foreground and theoretical literature including the knowledge gap). Then state the social significance of addressing the problem, your potential diagnosis/ solution to the problem, and how this diagnosis or solution could be generalised beyond the particulars of your study. Remember that this is a statement of the problem, so focus on the problem and its potential solution rather than on your research.
Sixth is the all-important purpose statement. As this section is about your research, here you need to describe the overall purpose of your research, making sure your description is aligned with addressing the knowledge gap that you provided in the problem statement.
Seventh, state the primary and secondary research questions. This is another critical section of the chapter as the purpose of your research is to answer the research question(s). Thus, you need to ensure that the research questions relate directly to the purpose of your research as you described in the purpose statement. You may have a primary research question and (up to five) secondary research questions that support it. Phrase your research questions carefully so that they require broad, complex answers – they are not simply items of your questionnaire.
Eighth, state the research objectives, although some schools omit this step. Research objectives are derived from the research questions. They are more specific than the purpose statement.
Ninth, state the scope of your study. Distinguish here among the concepts of the scope – what you’re including in your study, the delimitations – what you decide to exclude from your study, and the limitations – the weaknesses of your study that are not under your control.
Tenth, state the potential contribution to knowledge that your study will be making. The contribution is the difference between what your study intends to show versus what is already known. Be realistic and fair about its contribution.
Eleventh, define your key terms, albeit perhaps tentatively in qualitative research.
Finally, present the layout of the following chapters in short paragraphs, not bullet point form.
I have derived this guidance from Bloomberg (2023), Badenhorst (2007), Creswell (2018), and Van de Ven (2007).
