How to Write a Thesis in Family and Consumer Science: The Purpose of the Dissertation

Starting from primary school, children have to submit papers that allow their teachers to evaluate knowledge. The same story is in high school when your GPA dictates the choice of college or university. And, at last, the latter institutions will for sure predetermine the writing of a thesis to see how well you mastered knowledge from the studied course or degree. Compared to other papers, a thesis is not the one you can finish in one day or week. It is because of the length of the work that can be both 200 and 30 pages depending on the institution, the difficulty of methodology, and research. On average, students start preparing the sketches, and a plan one or half of the year in advance. So, those who leave it for the last moment face missed deadlines and bad grades.

The thesis or else called the dissertation is a paper prepared at the end of the course that demonstrates the writer’s position and opinion on selected work. Its length allows you to demonstrate all the skills you earned during the semesters, and prove to the professors that you have succeeded in getting a degree. Sometimes, a thesis name is referred to the Master’s degrees, and dissertation to the doctoral programs but such a difference does not affect the requirements, they are both the same.

As of now, plenty of graduate schools post online the syllabus or instructions with the basic tips on how to pass this examination with no trouble. But, students who do not have any auxiliary material may refer to standard requirements found on various online sources.

How to Write a Thesis in Family and Consumer Science: Subject Identification

Whenever you are assigned a thesis on this subject, there are no obstacles in choosing topics. It encompasses various fields of life, so you have a choice of unique and interesting objects to focus your paper on. For example, the path of the least resistance is to speak of Kids Education or Diets. They are well-researched, and you probably won’t find questions you cannot answer. So, when selecting your stellar project, research Google. For instance, take such a topic as Personal and Family Finance and type it in the search engine. If there are many results, especially with essays and papers based on this topic, avoid writing it.

Another reason for skipping it is that banal topics will be the choice of lazy students who will only copy the content or paraphrase the sentences, and submit this work as their own one. However, even they should not mark it as easy. Nowadays, many programs can detect plagiarism. And, if an essay was plagiarised, you still have a chance to redo it. But, regarding the thesis that is the main work of all your course or degree, you can be even expelled from the institution.

Prewriting Tips on How to Write a Thesis in Family and Consumer Science

If you belong to the group of students who think of a dissertation one year in advance, you have much time even for organizing preparation approaches. Take a look at some of them:

• Track online or within your environment, the most problematic cases or what bothers people the most. For instance, education level in private and state schools, gluten-free ‘fever’, detoxes, domestic violence. Then, survey your friends or family members to find out their vision on solutions. It helps to research how much evidence and facts you will then attach to your work. If all the opinions are the same, probably it is a limited topic that you will find hard to write, especially on 200 pages;
• Speak with a faculty advisor of the previous year’s topics. No one wants to repeat them and be banal. But, to not look helpless, bring your list of desired topics with you. It will help your supervisor to understand that you are still looking for some ideas but need the right direction;
• Check the dissertations that gained the medals or prizes in Olympiads. Their variety you can find again online. However, do not think to repeat the same research. It may serve as inspiration only to understand what is the stellar project;
• Once you have a topic, check whether you can find tests, quizzes, or other methods to conduct research and attach it to your work. As far as a thesis contains a methodology chapter, a supervisor will appreciate more your unique approach to showing the significance of the subject;
• Gather together with other students from your course, and discuss the topics they selected. Such an event can rarely happen because of being busy or lazy but it will help to understand if your topic is interesting compared to others.

At last, you can find Facebook groups where students from around the world share their ideas on various papers. There you may find out tips or poor-researched themes.

How to Write a Thesis in Family and Consumer Science: Master the Format

Depending on the educational establishment, the requirements radically differ. Some colleges are strict about the length, some may ban your work because of a citation style.

Type and Spacing

The standard requirement is a 12-point font of Times New Roman. All the text should be obligatorily double-spaced, the only exception is for quotations blocks, captions, footnotes. They are single-spaced.

Number of Pages

Note, all the pages even the blank ones should contain a number except for the title page that is assigned with a number but does not show it. Center it at the foot of the page.

Most thesis papers include preliminary pages that are numbered using Roman numerals. They are usually composed using the next order:

1. Title (no number)
2. Copyright Page (optional, no number)
3. Signature Page
4. CV
5. Acknowledgments

Take a look, Curriculum Vitae is optional but it shows your biography, including information about the faculty and degree. In some universities, students practice attaching their honors. But, please do not mention unnecessary details such as your date of birth or mobile number to contact you.

Note, there should be no headers on each page but you may use them only as appropriate. Allocate them to the center and make an uppercase.

Besides, there should be a date when you submit the work. In some cases, a faculty advisor may say what to put. It should look like – March of 2020.

Abstract

Any thesis should be accompanied by an abstract. It helps a supervisor to understand the significance of your work, to address the problem you will study or research. Moreover, a student should mention shortly what methods or materials will be used for surveying. Note, in this chapter, you do not use formulas, diagrams, or any illustrative materials. As for the format, make it double-spaced and do not exceed 350 words.

All in all, your full table of content will include the next chapters:

• Title
• Abstract
• Table of Content or Outline
• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Methodology or Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgments
• Reference List
• Appendices

In the introduction, a student has to attach a hook that will trigger a reader to learn something new. Thus, it is important to choose an interesting topic. For your convenience, check the topics that might be of interest to you:

• Food Production in Various Countries;
• Nutrition in School;
• Domestic Violence in Successful and Employed Families;
• Detox Versus a Healthy Lifestyle;
• Health Management;
• Wellness Industry: Secrets of Manufacturers;
• Financial Education for Children;
• Religious Education in Families;
• Families With Two Parents of the Same-Sex;
• Hospitality Tricks on Nutrition.

Once you have a clear idea of a topic, move to the literature review where you mention the materials you used for research. Keep in mind, the more books you attach over online sources, the more a faculty advisor will appreciate such an intention that may somehow positively affect your grade.

Methodology or Results will require you to provide some instruments that helped you to research and find out the significance of the topic toward the studied degree. And, the discussion serves the core of your work. Feel free to write your ideas, results, but do not forget about the language you use. There should be no slang.

When you reach the conclusion, here it is essential to avoid adding new information. Your reader will get puzzled and ask himself for what he read the whole thesis and why now he sees new details. Make it short but precise. One to two pages are more than enough if your paper consists of more than 200 pages.

Acknowledgment, Reference List and Appendices

The acknowledgment is usually optional chapter but some students want to add it to thank their professors who contributed during the study to their knowledge. Or else, they mention parents, friends, or surveyed people who helped to research the topic.

The reference list must obligatorily consist of ONLY used sources. There should be books or links even to the definitions or one sentence if you took it from one website. Such intentions allow students to avoid plagiarism.

The appendix is a part where you can attach illustrative materials or graphs, tables.

Post Writing Tips on How to Write a Thesis in Family and Consumer Science

Proofreading is one of the most important stages before submitting work to the supervisor. As far as a thesis is a kind of a final exam, there will be no chance to redo it or ask to give it back for revision. Thanks to modern technologies and the era of the Internet, you can find helpful such services as Grammarly or Hemingway App that both are aimed to correct the mistakes or find out the readability of your sentences. Other tips are:

• Share your work with reliable independent people. Some students read it to their families or friends but they sometimes hide the truth about their real opinion just not to hurt your feelings. Again, refer to Facebook and ask people to read at least a small part of your thesis. Such advice will help to continue writing or fixing the chapters;
• When reading the parts such as an introduction or discussion, ask yourself whether you find it useful or if it contributes to demonstrating the significance of the topic or subject itself;
• Check the style of your language. No slang. The only exception concerns the topics that predetermine its usage but you should ask for your supervisor’s approval;
• Do not exceed the required length of the work. If it is 200 pages, the only fluctuation possible is one to two pages only. The same concerns when you lack some pages. In this case, do never try to add irrelevant information hoping the supervisor will not notice. Usually, they are trained well and have experienced hand to spot any lack of sense or ‘watery’ information;
• Check your headers. Some colleges ask to use designated citations. Find online tools that do it for you. Also, take a look at the length of your headers. If they are too long, a reader may lose track of their meaning;
• Sentences. One sentence should not exceed the limit of 10 words. It again affects the readability;
• No colored text;
• No irrelevant pictures;
• Your research must demonstrate the pillars of Family and Consumer Science. So, be very careful when touching similar subjects for example of Hospitality and Tourism;
• If possible, after finishing your paper, spend one to two days apart from it. It helps you to spot the mistakes faster and clear your mind for changing some chapters that have previously seemed very logical and correct.

At last, after you submitted your thesis, do not think about it 24/7. Give yourself some time to relax and distract on other important things. Students who stuck thinking about possible mistakes or results may have severe stress. If you follow all the above-mentioned tips, you do not need to worry about the results. And, keep always in your mind that such a practice of writing this kind of paper is a good exercise for your future career. Some students use dissertations for attaching to the CV.

References:

1. Biggam, J. (2011). Succeeding with your master’s dissertation. Maidenhead: McGrawHill/Open University.
2. Bolker, J. (2009). Writing your dissertation in fifteen minutes a day. New York: Holt.
3. Aafcs.org. (2020). Home – American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences. [online] Available at: https://www.aafcs.org/home [Accessed 21 Jan. 2020].