What does a dissertation proposal include?
The essential parts of a research proposal are generally standard:
- Dissertation title (so far): Aim at making the title short and to the point.
- Overall objectives: If you have more than three objectives, your area of research is probably far too broad and needs to be narrowed. (Some university courses may ask you to include a rationale at this stage.)
- Literature, context, background: You can use any of these words as the title of this section, just make sure that you mention key schools of thought or areas of study that are going to provide information about your dissertation. (Some proposals require you to list specific references at this point, others ask for the bibliography at the end.)
- Details of the research: Here, you can expand the ideas spelt out in your research question. This section is about outlining clearly your area of research.
- Methodologies: Your work may be empirical (with some sort of study and collection of data such as questionnaires) or non-empirical (no such data, all your research comes from already published writing and projects). If your study is non-empirical, this section is likely to be short; longer if you need to collect or look at the empirical data. If you’re allowed to use bullet points in your research proposal, you need do no more than list your intended activities (for example, carrying out interviews, consulting archives or evaluating data).
- Potential outcomes: Avoid second-guessing the result of your dissertation. If you knew the outcomes, it would be pretty pointless doing the dissertation! Here, you’re summarizing the type of outcomes you hope to generate and suggesting a target audience.
- Timeline: If you’re asked to outline how you plan to manage your research, think about including a Gantt chart or some kind of concept map. Whatever you do, make your timeline realistic.
- Bibliography: Check if you’re required to provide a list of references, and if so, find out roughly how many references you’re expected to list.
Notes:
A dissertation proposal is basically a description of the following:
- What your dissertation is about.
- Personal Statement
The Personal Statement provides an opportunity for students to summarise their newly developed skills and professional philosophies. Based on the experiences you’ve gained, how would you describe yourself professionally? Has your practical learning led you to embrace a particular philosophy related to your profession, or subscribe to a certain body of methods? In other words, what kind of practitioner will you be, and how has this been shaped by your practical fieldwork?
- Probable questions that you’re going to be examining.
- Some reference to the theoretical background.
- Research methods/materials (in varied format) I have been using
- Potential outcomes of the study.
- Reasonable length