Tips How to Write a Thesis Proposal
If you have the task to write a thesis, it is truly necessary to make an excellent thesis proposal. This brief document includes information about the subject you investigate, issues that are of high importance, the type of research, main problems and suggested solutions.
Only if you prepare a good-quality and well-written proposal, your thesis will be a success.
Such a piece of writing as thesis implies an extensive research that has proved to be a great way to check the student’s abilities and knowledge. A proposal to the thesis describes the aims of the research, its value, and results, the author’s original ideas and thoughts. Furthermore, it is required to indicate your research adviser, appropriate sources of information, methods you have used, and your concise predictions about the outcomes in the thesis proposal.
Main Features of a Thesis Proposal
It would be nice to clear up the major characteristics of a simple thesis proposal:
- A proposal to the thesis shows what things you are going to investigate, the research topic, and questions related to it.
- It presents the significance of a chosen topic, and reasons for its deep examination.
- A thesis proposal explains a well-known concept or theory with arguments and examples or brings to pass a new hypothesis.
- It contains a list of techniques, as well as sources of information, to show the reader on what the investigation was based.
- It should be written in a simple language, and proof-read to avoid any grammar or lexical errors or misunderstandings.
- A proposal must refer to the reliable resources and include some citations.
Make a Perfect Structure of Your Proposal
The thesis proposal has a specific structure that any writer should be aware of. It comprises a title page, an abstract, table of contents, the introduction, thesis statement, methods, preliminary results and discussion, a work plan with a time table, and bibliography. Let’s consider each element separately.
- Title Page
A first page containing a title of the thesis, and information about the writer, the institution he or she represents, the department, mentors, a course of academic studies, and the delivery date.
- Abstract
An abstract is a short synopsis of your thesis proposal, and its total length should be around 200 words. In the abstract, you indicate the passphrase of your thesis and a brief accession, as well as tell what issues you have studied and the inferences of your work.
- Table of Contents (Outline)
A table of contents means a list of headings and subheadings together with page numbers usually placed before the introduction of a written work.
- Introduction
The key role of introduction is to grab the attention of a reader with an interesting sentence, also to explain the framework of your study and the research topic and mention the relevant references.
- Thesis Statement
You may write a thesis statement in the introduction or give it an individual section. You need to state the thesis in a few sentences in a form of a question, theory or hypothesis to relate the core of your research.
- Approach and Methods
In this section, you enumerate all the materials, methods, graphs, calculations and techniques you have used in research, include presumptions and limitations but not the results of your research.
- Results and Discussion
Here you can put the results you have come up, report the consequences of the investigation and discuss their positive and negative features.
- Work Plan
A work plan is usually written with a time table, which is made up of the stages of the project and deadlines for completing each stage.
- Bibliography and References
In the last element of a structure, you cite data, ideas, texts, articles, theories, and concepts of other authors in alphabetical order.