How to Write a Hypothesis?

An ongoing research process requires you to write your goals, hypothesis and reasons for your hypothesis. Among several aspects of your thesis paper, the purpose statement, which is a hypothesis, lets you support your assertion with much evidence gathered in your research. To learn how to write a hypothesis, you need to consider the essential points explained in this page.

What Is a Hypothesis?

A hypothesis is a statement showing prediction or expectation rather than a fact, and has to be proved by research. It is a specific guess, which becomes an integral part of scientific experiments. Writing a hypothesis asks for thorough knowledge of its formulation and elements to avoid any flaw, which could adversely affect the experiment.  

Variables in Hypothesis

A hypothesis consists of independent and dependent variables, where the former is the cause and latter is the effect. An experimenter can change or manipulate the independent variable, which is presumed to have an influence on the dependent variable.

The dependent variable, on the other hand, depends on the independent variable and is tested in an experiment. For example, a dependent variable like depression symptoms depends on a kind of therapy like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which is an independent variable.

Points to Consider When Writing a Hypothesis

A hypothesis should have a precise introduction to research or scientific method and its purpose and possible outcomes. Here are some points to ponder when developing an impressive hypothesis.

• Identify the Question You Want to Answer or Solve

Before you start writing a hypothesis, you have to come up with the research question, which should clearly define the topic, be focused and researchable.

• Write a Hypothesis Statement i.e., if …then Statement

A hypothesis is a testable prediction or expectation about what will be the result. For example, “If you treat a wound with antiseptic solution, then it will heal quickly with less scarring.”

• Research on the Question to Make Assumptions

You can conduct background research on the topic by going through previous studies and theories to make educated assumptions about the goal of your research. Before you start collecting data, you need to develop a conceptual framework, which identifies the related variables and their relationships with each other for your study.

• Formulate Your Hypothesis

Most researchers build a hypothesis on research done earlier or make assumptions from a specific theory. Knowing what you are expected to find, you can write your answer to the research question in a simple and concise sentence. For instance, in case research conducted earlier has proved that stress can affect the immune system, you can write your hypothesis:

“People with high-stress levels will be more likely to contract a common cold after being exposed to the virus than people who have low-stress levels.”

If a researcher formulates a hypothesis from a specific theory, then he or she may write:

“Most people tend to select romantic partners who are similar to them in interests and educational level.”

• Ensure Your Hypothesis Is Testable

A hypothesis you have formulated needs evidence and reason for the audience to believe that it is true. Therefore, you should ensure that your hypothesis is specific, as well as testable. You can phrase a hypothesis in different ways but using clear definitions. Hence, it should contain a study of specific group of related variables, with an expected result of the analysis or experiment.

To ensure that your hypothesis is testable, it should be possible to prove that it is true or false, as well as reproduce its results. Some examples of hypothesis that are testable are:

“Students who attend class have higher grades than students who skip class.”

This statement is testable as you can compare the grades of students who attend and do not attend class to get the resulting data, which is analyzed. If the same research is conducted by another person, he or she could find the same results.

• Proposing Your Hypothesis

You can propose a hypothesis in several ways.

• It can be written in an if-then statement, where the ‘if’ part expresses the independent variable i.e. you take an action, and the ‘then’ part dependent variable i.e. a certain result is expected.
• In scientific research, a hypothesis is generally predicted in terms of a correlation between two variables. Here you have to figure out in percentage the frequency of a change that occurs in variables. For example, “The number of projects done by students has a significant influence on their practical test scores.”
• You need to write a hypothesis that helps you prove or disprove it. For instance, people get pimples, and you cannot prove that they got it by having greasy food. Nevertheless, you can show that there is some relationship between acne and diet.
• You write a null hypothesis if there is hardly any relationship between the two variables. On the contrary, an alternative hypothesis shows a relationship between the variables of the research study, and it gives significant results.

Avoiding Plagiarism During Thesis Writing

Plagiarism is commonly found in scientific writing. When writing a hypothesis most students and even freelance writers copy from the original content to cause plagiarized content. When some students are not aware of plagiarism, there are many who use duplicate content to submit their paper. Educational institutions should educate the students about the consequences of plagiarism.

Before submitting a thesis paper, students should run a plagiarism test to detect plagiarism in the hypothesis statement. An online plagiarism checker allows you to copy-paste the text or upload your thesis paper and check plagiarism button to run the scan. You have to wait for a few seconds for the plagiarism scanner to check the websites on all the available search engines and give a detailed plagiarism report, which includes the percentage of matched text, as well as the unique content.

There are advanced plagiarism detectors that take plagiarism checking to the next level by identifying paraphrased and similarity text in the content. You can revise those matched text and give proper citations to avoid plagiarism. After that, you can use anti-plagiarism tools to find any self-plagiarism or accidental plagiarism issues.

It is important to learn how to write a hypothesis, and the points mentioned will help you create a great hypothesis statement.