The first and most important part of any empirical research is to figure out your personal research interest, then to put its results into a thesis and then to operationalize it to turn it into hypotheses. That leads to the next step: based on what you want to achieve with your research, and upon the answers you are looking for and the effect you wish to create with your research, you have to choose the right methods—in other words, put the hypotheses into an operative form. That’s where you have to create your research design: make sure that what you do enables you to get the data you need to find the answers you are seeking, and that what you deal with will give you a universal insight and will not just fit one special case.
Collect the data you need (in whichever way you have chosen), evaluate it, then interpret it and put it down in your thesis or your report.
The structure of a thesis or a report on an empirical study normally follows a certain pattern, regardless of which method has been used. This pattern will be described below: please note that this does not constitute all the requirements of a Bachelor’s thesis, Master’s thesis or a dissertation, the exact requirements of which will be determined by the formalities of your university concerning further structuring of your thesis.