0.1 The beginnings of writing a thesis paper for a medical master

Writing a thesis paper is a long and complex process. You will have to go through several stages to produce a final draft. The following eleven steps will be discussed through a series of articles to help you develop a medical Master’s thesis paper:

1. What is the purpose of the thesis paper?
2. Who is your target audience?
3. Choose a topic
4. Search and collect peer-reviewed evidence based data
5. Synthesize, analyze and evaluate (Blooms’ Taxonomy levels of learning) collected literature
6. Define the approach of the Master’s thesis paper
7. Develop a thesis statement
8. Outline the body of the thesis paper using logical critical thinking
9. Write the first draft
10. Revise the first draft
11. Final Draft

The purpose of your thesis paper

The purpose of a thesis paper explores the reasons why you are writing this paper and what you hope to accomplish in the end. The purpose of your Master’s thesis paper can:

• Be educational
• Provide insights to new developments or discoveries in the medical field
• Aim to improve the quality of patient health care
• Recommend better alternatives for the prevention, management, detection and treatment of specific diseases or conditions
• Make contributions to patient care in combat theaters or has applications in specific military missions

Your target audience

Your target audience are the people who will read your paper. By knowing who your target audience is, you have an idea about what their background might be and how to tailor the content and language of your Master’s thesis paper. It can also help you narrow down a general topic into a specific subject. The specific subject should be relevant to your target audience interests or to build their knowledge.

In a graduate program, your primary target audience will be your counselor or professors, medical or scientific professionals. Anyone involved in the final grading of your Master’s thesis paper is considered your primary target audience.

The Master’s thesis paper can also be submitted for publication in professional organization journals. For example, two professional organization journals for physician assistants are:

1. Advance for Nurse Practitioners&Physician Assistants ( (External Link) )
2. Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants ( (External Link) )

These professional organization journals accept papers from both students and licensed professionals. Writing articles for publication will be part of your professional medical career. Click on the links above to see what their requirements are for submission of research or Master’s thesis papers. If you are interested in publishing your Master’s thesis paper, please discuss it with your counselor or professors.

When the Master’s thesis paper is published in professional journals or online, your primary target audience can be any medical or scientific professionals or patients searching for a concrete diagnosis or alternative treatments.

Choosing a topic

The topic that you choose must be in the general field of medicine. The topic:

• Must be about something you are interested in
• Has medical value or applications in the medical field
• Is new and innovative rather than overstated
• Requires hard work to develop over a period of time
• Teaches you something new and now you transmit your findings to others
• Builds knowledge or engages the interest of your target audience
• Is manageable and can be narrowed down into a specific subject
• Has plenty of peer-reviewed evidence based data or findings available
• Allows you to make your own interpretations and judgments (synthesis, analysis and evaluation) about an issue