Making a summary of your thesis

In the summary of your thesis it is immediately clear what your thesis is about and what you are researching. It is intended to attract the attention of your readers, so that they become interested in your thesis and want to read the rest of your thesis. For this reason, the most important aspects of your research should be described in the thesis foreword. The summary can be seen as your thesis in miniature.

The summary is a systematic representation of the content of your thesis and should not be longer than 1 A4. It is not the intention that you write it down point by point, but that it becomes a coherent whole in flowing sentences. You write the summary in the past tense! The research has already been carried out by then.

The summary comes after the title and precedes the table of contents. Finally, of course, there should be no new information in the summary and you should not include references, quotations, figures or tables in it.

You start by describing the subject of your thesis. Then you describe the reason, the relevance and the purpose of your research (thesis). Afterwards, you indicate what kind of research it is (for example, a literature study) and describe the (research) method you have used and the working method.

Also describe the target group your research has focused on and the variables you have researched. You can also indicate what your expectations are of the outcome of the research.

When you present the results in the summary, you only describe the most important results. So, for example, the results that corresponded with your expectations and the results that you did not expect. If you compare groups with each other, you can first describe whether the groups differed from each other or not.

Then you can start describing the main effects and then the possible interaction effects. You simply describe the results in words and not in numbers or in statistics.

Finally, the last thing you describe is what your most important conclusion is. The conclusion(s) are given in a short and powerful way. In addition, you can (if present) tell us if there are any comments or recommendations for further research.

Useful example sentences for your thesis summary

• In this study, an attempt was made to get an answer to [ your main question thesis}.
• In this study, the influence of / the effect of / the relationship between [independent and dependent variables] was examined.
• The results showed that [name the most important]
• The main conclusions that can be drawn from the investigation…
• It can be concluded that… provides support for…
• A possible comment on the investigation is that…

Tip:
It’s even better to make a video summary of your thesis, so your audience is captured easier and what you want to tell them in this short time about your thesis will become more clear. Check out Abstract Tube to upload your abstract of check out others!