Before students can start their bachelor’s thesis, they need a professor who will supports the throughout the duration of their project. Before they commit, however, they must first be convinced of the bachelor’s thesis topic. An email or a personal conversation is not enough; supervisors want something tangible. This something is called an exposé, or synopsis. By requesting an exposé about the bachelor’s thesis project, the question and answer session is initiated. But what exactly is an an exposé anyway? What belongs in an exposé? How is it structured? Where can you find good examples? And are there professionals who understand what writing an exposé entails? Since so much depends on the persuasive power of an exposé, we can provide the answers to all these questions.
Exposé – The hypothesis of your bachelor’s thesis
An exposé fulfils a simple but very important purpose: it introduces the ideas behind the bachelor’s thesis. These include the topic, the research question and a working hypothesis as well as a rationale about the choice and relevance of the topic and the research question. Students should not only pass on facts and explain the project briefly, but at the same time arouse the interest and attention of their desired supervisor. Particularly successful exposés are those that point to the topicality of the selected subject and include information about the state-of the-art. In addition, every good exposé provides information about the objectives of the bachelor’s thesis and the methods with which these goals are to be achieved.
So far so good! In theory, that sounds relatively easy. In practice, however, many questions arise. For one thing: there is no fixed uniform structure of an exposé! This depends largely on the subject area and the topic. When writing an exposé, students should nevertheless pay particular attention to a few essentials. Firstly, the aim of an exposé is to arouse interest in the bachelor’s thesis project. Secondly, it should be crisp and logical and comprehensible to others. Third, in an exposé, certain things should never be left out. These include the introduction to the topic, the presentation of the research question, a working hypothesis, the objectives, the analysis of the state of research, a preview of the working process, an overview of the methods used to tackle the research question and the details about which technical literature is used. And fourthly, every exposé should be convincing, linguistically and stylistically.
The fact that an exposé can be freely designed has advantages and disadvantages. Of course, it’s certainly nice to structure your own work individually. However, there are certain uncertainties about whether the chosen path is the right one. This needn’t be the case! You can thank the internet for that one! Meanwhile, there are a whole series of good examples on the web of what a successful synopsis can look like. So it’s worth taking the time to search the internet to sift through such examples. Therefore – fire up that search engine!
Good Exposé – Good bachelor’s thesis
Examining various examples helps students develop a sense of how to write an exposé. On numerous websites you will not only find samples and templates but also tips for a successful expose. Whether in biology, literary studies, business administration, engineering or international business studies – students from any subject area find what they are looking for on the internet and quickly realise that they are not alone. There is a lot of discussion on all sides about the perfect exposé and different examples can be examined. On the basis of this, it becomes clear that exposés can have many faces. Thus, in addition to the content already mentioned, students can allow their own motivation to flow into an exposé. There are also examples in which students specify a timetable for working on their bachelor’s thesis. This is particularly useful if students intend to collect and evaluate their own data for their bachelor’s thesis. In such a case, it’s important to inform the supervisor how much time is needed approximately for data collection and analysis. In addition, an exposé may already contain the structure of the bachelor’s thesis.
It turns out, therefore, that there are very different examples of successful exposés and that students have the freedom to design their own exposés for the bachelor’s thesis. However, the preparation of the synopsis should also be discussed with the potential supervisor as should the specific requirements needed for it. If you don’t have enough time to deal with different examples, and if you’re looking for more support, you can also try taking a look on the internet. Those looking for help can find it under the term “ghostwriter”. The internet has a whole universe of professional authors who can be commissioned to create the exposé. However, regardless of whether it is based on various examples of exposés or by the involvement of a ghostwriter, one thing is important: in the end, the bachelor’s thesis project must be successful!