An Instruction for Writing a Dissertation Proposal
The dissertation is an academic paper that many students need to deal with during their studies at any university. Based on the field of a study, they need to look for and find the most interesting, exciting or worthwhile topics for further investigation. As soon as a student decides on the topic, he or she may start preparing a dissertation proposal.
The proposal is like a practical scheme that helps you plan to write a dissertation, detect main issues for your research, and show the reader what you will investigate in general. You do not have to plan everything precisely since in the research process the topic might be changed.
The Structure of the Dissertation Proposal
Before we get down to considering the structure of a proposal, it would be nice to think about its scope. The dissertation proposal serves as the outline of its topic, and it should be between 2 and 5 pages long and consisting at least 1000 words. Such a length will be enough to cover all chapters and elements of a dissertation.
The structure of the proposal contains an introduction, the body, and the conclusion. In the first part, you need to specify a research question and explain the topic and major issues in a few sentences. Usually, the researchers put an original sentence at the beginning to catch the attention of the reader. Moving on to the body, we advise to break it into several sections. The first section represents the concept of the dissertation, the methods you have used, while the second one consists of chapters of your piece of writing. Finally, in the conclusion, you write a short opinion on what you want to inform in the dissertation.
What Should I Include in My Proposal?
Obviously, the structure is an essential part of a dissertation proposal, but there are some other important aspects that every student should know. Those are an abstract, the methodology, the objectives, a literature review, and the constraints.
The students or researchers use an abstract to give the main points of the topic and tell in brief the content of the dissertation proposal. Usually, the abstract takes only a small paragraph.
The next significant aspect you need to include in your dissertation proposal is a methodology. You simply demonstrate how you will investigate the topic and conduct your research. For instance, indicate the sources of information you find appropriate and credible for the academic paper, the important and current data or facts, the methods and tools you have chosen.
When preparing a proposal to the dissertation, be ready to collect all your aims and objectives. First of all, write the reasons for choosing a certain topic, its usefulness, and problems. Moreover, explain the audience what you want to achieve with this research, and whether the results and outcomes would have a value.
The literature review implies a list of books, journals, articles, online sources and other materials you have used while working on a dissertation. The reader has to make sure you have read and explored the specified sources, have noted some things that worth sharing. Remember to use the sources wisely and write a piece of writing from scratch using original ideas and own thoughts.
The constraints of a research are as much important as all the things mentioned above. Plenty of topics consist large and complicated issues, and when you state the constraints, you show that you understand how extensive those issues are, and how you have deeply examined only their one specific direction.