Getting Started
These five steps cover planning and writing a thesis in all four programs (BAIS, BAKS, MAAS, MAIR). Work through them in order when you start, and return to a step when your project changes. Click a step to expand it. Each one ends with an exercise that gives you something concrete to bring to your supervisor, and Templates & Checklists has working documents to go with them.
The Five Steps
Step 1: Developing Your Research Question
Your research question decides which sources you read and how you analyze them.
Objectives
- Know what makes a good research question and how a puzzle justifies it
- Draft a working question for your first supervision meeting
What makes a strong research question?
- Clear: a reader understands it without further explanation
- Focused: it is narrow enough to answer within your thesis
- Relevant: it connects to an existing scholarly debate
- Researchable: it can be answered with data and methods you can access
From topic to puzzle
A puzzle is the reason your question is worth asking. Something happens despite what existing knowledge leads us to expect. A gap in the literature can be a useful starting point, but you still have to say why it matters. Your research question is then one simple why or how question, and the literature offers two or three rival answers to it.
Puzzles and Questions explains each step, with examples and BA and MA expectations.
Your question will change. It almost always does as you read more. Start with a working question that gives you direction and expect to revise it.
Ask yourself
- Which topic interests you most?
- What do scholars expect, and what doesn't fit?
- Can you answer the question with the data and methods available to you?
- Is the scope realistic for your program's word count?
Exercise
Draft a working research question (1–2 sentences). Then write 150–250 words that explain the following.
- The puzzle behind your question or, at BA level, the gap and why it matters
- Two or three possible answers from the literature
- How you might begin to answer it
Bring this to your first supervision meeting.
Step 2: Data and Sources
This step covers where to look for evidence and how to manage what you find.
Objectives
- Distinguish primary from secondary sources and apply the FAIR principles
- Draft a preliminary data collection plan
Primary vs. secondary sources
Primary sources are the original materials you analyze, such as policy documents, news articles, speeches, literary works, statistical datasets, survey results, interview transcripts, archival records, and social media content. Secondary sources are scholarly works that interpret such material, including journal articles, monographs, book chapters, and review essays. Most theses use both, and the balance depends on your question and method.
The FAIR Principles
| Principle | In practice |
|---|---|
| Findable | Organize and label your sources with reference management software (Zotero, Mendeley) |
| Accessible | Make sure you can legally and practically access the sources you need |
| Interoperable | Use standard formats and consistent naming conventions |
| Reusable | Document your sources, methods, and any transformations so others can use them |
Ask yourself
- What data do you need to answer your research question?
- Is it available and accessible, and does it require language skills?
- Does the project raise ethical issues, such as human participants or sensitive data? See the Ethics page.
- How will you collect the data and keep it organized throughout the project?
Exercise
Write a data collection plan (300–500 words) that covers these points.
- The primary and secondary sources you will use
- How you will find and access them
- How the plan follows the FAIR principles
- Likely problems or limits in data access
Step 3: Conducting a Literature Review
A literature review maps what scholars have established on your topic and shows what they have left open.
Objectives
- Connect the literature to your research question and rival answers
- Start an annotated bibliography
What a literature review does
A literature review is an argument about existing work. It shows that your question has more than one plausible answer and weighs the strengths and weaknesses of each. This justifies your question and approach.
Stay focused. Engage closely with the few debates most relevant to your question instead of cataloging everything written on the topic.
How to organize your review
Group sources by the answer they support, not one scholar after another. For some projects a theoretical, historical, or methodological structure fits better.
Literature Review covers skimming, grouping by answer, and writing, and it has a practice exercise.
Ask yourself
- What are the main debates, and where do scholars agree or disagree?
- Which methods have been used, and which are missing?
- Are there geographic or temporal blind spots in the scholarship?
- What does your question address that the literature has not?
Exercise
Part A: Create an annotated bibliography of 8–12 key sources. For each, write 3–4 sentences on its main argument or finding and its methods, and on how it relates to your research question.
Part B: Outline your literature review by answer, or by another principle if it fits your sources better.
Step 4: Building Your Analytical Framework
Your analytical framework links your research question to your findings.
Objectives
- Select and justify methods that fit your question and data
- Turn that justification into a methods outline
How it fits together
The framework should follow from your literature review. Your rival answers motivate your research design, so ask what evidence could separate them. Your methods should suit the type of data you are working with. The framework states what you are analyzing (your data or cases), how you will analyze it, and why that approach suits your question.
Choosing a method
Use the Methods Guide to match your project to a method. It has a chooser, a page on each method I supervise most often, and a list of other methods some projects need. Analytical Framework sets out what your framework should contain.
Mixed methods combine qualitative and quantitative approaches. They can strengthen an analysis but add complexity, so discuss with your supervisor whether they suit your project.
Justifying your choices
Your thesis should explain why you chose your method, how it suits your question and data, what its limitations are and how you account for them, and how the analysis is structured. The exercise below is a first draft of that explanation.
Ask yourself
- What type of analysis does your research question require?
- Which methods does your field usually use for this type of question?
- Do you have the skills and resources to apply your chosen method?
- How will you structure your findings chapter?
Exercise
Write a methods outline (300–500 words) that covers these points.
- Your research design (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed)
- Your specific method(s) and why they are appropriate
- How you will structure the analysis
- Key limitations and how you plan to address them
Step 5: Writing and Reporting Findings
The findings chapter presents what your analysis shows. This step covers how to structure it and how to plan the writing of the whole thesis.
Objectives
- Structure your findings and connect them to your research question and the literature
- Develop a practical writing strategy
Structuring your findings
| Structure | How it works |
|---|---|
| By theme | Group results around the key themes from your analysis |
| By case | Present findings for each case separately, then compare |
| By sub-question | Address each research sub-question in turn |
| Chronologically | Trace developments over time |
Whatever structure you choose, each section should do the following.
- State what you found
- Present the evidence (quotes, data, examples)
- Analyze what the evidence means
- Connect it to your research question and existing literature
From findings to conclusions
Your conclusion summarizes the main findings in relation to the research question and states what your research adds to the field. It also acknowledges what you could not do and why, and names the questions that remain open.
Do not introduce new evidence or arguments in the conclusion. It should synthesize what you have already presented.
Practical writing strategies
- Start with what you know best: you do not have to write chapters in order, and many students begin with the literature review or methods.
- Write regularly: steady daily or weekly sessions work better than marathon sessions before a deadline.
- Revise iteratively: write a rough first draft, then improve it.
- Get feedback early: bring drafts to supervision meetings, where early feedback is most useful.
- Cite as you write: use reference management software (Zotero, Mendeley) from the start.
Formatting
Citation styles vary by program, so check your program overview and apply your style consistently throughout the thesis. The Leiden University Library citing page has citation guides.
Ask yourself
- How will you organize your findings?
- What is the key evidence for each of your main points?
- How do your findings relate to the literature you reviewed?
- What does your research contribute, and what limitations should you acknowledge?
Exercise
Part A: Outline your findings chapter, with section headings and brief notes on the evidence for each section.
Part B: Write a rough draft of your conclusion (500–750 words) that covers your findings, contributions, limitations, and future research.
Next Steps
When you have finished these five steps you will have a refined research question, a plan for collecting data, an annotated bibliography and an outline of your literature review, a methods outline, and a plan for your findings and conclusion. Bring these to your supervision meetings so that your supervisor can help you refine them and meet your deadline.
Your program page (BAIS, BAKS, MAAS, MAIR) has the requirements and deadlines for your thesis. The BAKS page also links to the Thesis Seminar site.
Other resources:
- Assessment Standards (how your thesis will be evaluated)
- Ethics (ethics review plus the plagiarism and GenAI policies that govern your thesis)
- Working with AI (when AI use is permitted and how to disclose it)
- Writing Lab (additional writing support)