Identifying an area of interest
One of the most interesting theses I have examined was a study of the use of metaphor in education. It had no clearly defined research question, problem or hypothesis. Rather, it simply stated the nature of its interest and
proceeded to explore it. The exploration was unconventional, in that there was not the usual definition of the problem, statement of intention, literature review and
empirical data-gathering and analysis. Instead, the thesis presented itself as a post-modernist text, with a mix of personal statements, autobiographical writing, conventional critical academic analysis, poetry, blank pages, lists
and other types of text. These were not linked together in an explicit way; it was left to the reader to make connections.