Thesis Outline
As indicated on the introductory pages, when the Research Overview has internal consistency and the various elements are sound, and there is agreement between student and supervisor, the focus of attention should turn to the Thesis Outline. Like the Overview, the Thesis Outline is a working document that develops over time. However, developing the Thesis Outline is relatively easy to do as most of the hard work in developing the concept of the PhD has been done in preparing the Overview. A good Research Overview makes the rest of the thesis easy.
The first step is for the student to insert their intended chapter headings in place of the generic headings in the thesis outline template and perhaps to write a brief paragraph about the type of content that will appear in each chapter. The second stage is to develop this paragraph statement about each chapter into a coherent dotpoint outline of that chapter. This takes quite some time, and should be done chapter by chapter. It is quite acceptable that it is rough/vague at first, although over time it needs to become tight.
Finally, the student progresses to writing the thesis. Writing the thesis should begin early in the candidature, not left to the last year. Writing is made much easier by having the Thesis Outline. Note that much of the work in writing the thesis, and in developing the outline, has already been done in the development of the Research Overview.
The Abstract has already been written, but will need revision at several points in time.
The Introduction is an overview of the whole thesis, but it will draw on the Problem Context.
The Literature Review will need to include the various discourses that were identified.
The Methodology has been outlined in the Research Overview and will just need to be expanded for the thesis and changed from an intention to what actually occurred.
The Results and Discussion will need to be written after you have got some results.
If all goes according to plan, the Conclusion can utilize much of the sudent's expectations about findings (hypotheses) and the various recommendations the sutdent conceived of along the way.
Note that if a thesis by publication is proposed, the benefit of having a Thesis Outline is perhaps less, but there is still great value in working through the Research Overview.
The thesis progress tracker tool can be used to ensure there is a shared understanding of where the progress of the student's writing of their thesis.