This isn’t our first book on thesis writing; we are also the authors of the companionvolume, How to Write a Better Thesis, originally written by David Evans andpublished in 1995, and revised by us in 2003 and 2011. That book is primarilyintended for senior research students undertaking a thesis across a period of years.In writing this new book, we focus solely on first theses. Although we have reliedon content from the other volume (from which about half of this book is taken),we have observed that the challenges of writing a minor thesis, especially giventhe time and resource constraints, are very different. Another factor is that seniorresearch projects such as PhDs take a range of forms, whereas a minor thesis is—and should be—the product of a more or less standard approach. Our goal here is to help guide you through your first piece of substantial research.