Thesis afterword

In the afterword, you look back on the process of writing your thesis and the research you did. In this section, you share how you experienced this phase, mention what you learned and, if necessary, thank people who helped you during the writing process. Read below about what does and does not belong in the afterword of your thesis.

The epilogue is meant to reflect on the process of writing of thesis. You discuss how you experienced the process. In doing so, you could, for example, answer the following questions:

• What did you learn from writing your thesis? 

• What went well and what problems did you run into?

• What would you do differently next time?

• What was it like collaborating with others(if you wrote your thesis together)?

• Did the research encourage you to look at the research question or topic differently?

In addition, you may want to thank people in the afterword. Only do this if you haven't already thanked people in the preface. Otherwise, it will be done twice.
If you have an afterword, it is always before the bibliography and after your conclusion and discussion (and any recommendations).

This varies between study programs. Some studies make an afterword compulsory for every thesis; others leave that choice to the student. In addition, some supervisors explicitly ask you to write only a preface and no afterword.

In some courses, you will see a reflection chapter instead of an afterword. In it, you specifically discuss the writing and research processes. In the reflection, the aim is not to thank people, but only to reflect on your own experiences.

Are you going to write an afterword? These tips may help you with that:

• Always write the afterword in the I form. Make sure it is written personally, i.e. from your own perspective. 

• At the same time, remain professional. Always maintain the academic writing style and do not, for example, elaborate too much on struggles that do not matter that much.

• Assume that the afterword should be about 3-4 paragraphs long.

• In your afterword, do not discuss any limitations to your research. You do this in the discussion. 

• Do not go into the content of the research. You already discuss your research findings in the results chapter. You are not supposed to provide additional information on the subject in the afterword.

• End the afterword with your first and last name and the date at the time of writing.

Further, ask your thesis supervisor about your study program’s requirements for the afterword. Some programmes or supervisors have specific guidelines for this. 

After writing the afterword, have you finally finished your thesis? You might be interested in having an expert critically go through your entire thesis again to check your language, structure and common thread. 

Good news: our editors are happy to do this for you! We will be happy to check your thesis for you so that you can hand it in later with some peace of mind.