Writing A Dissertation Proposal: Tried And True Tips
To plan your dissertation can be extremely stressful. You have many things to worry about and every small detail needs to be perfect. Most of the time your professors will not ask you to make a dissertation proposal, but you should definitely do it if you have the possibility. It’s something that can bring you high marks and it can make any professor be more indulgent with you. If you don’t know how to write a proposal, take a look at these tips:
- Always write your proposal before the actual dissertation. You have to submit it to your teacher and wait for his opinion and feedback. What if he will tell you that you need to change something in your dissertation? It will be very difficult to do something if your project is already completed, edited and corrected. Be open to his suggestions because he is only there to help you.
- Don’t write more than you should. You have to remember that the proposal is a part of the dissertation, not a complete separate project. This means that you can not write dozens of pages because no one will have patience to read all this. Limit yourself to one or two pages, but not more than this.
- Discuss the topic of your dissertation. This is the first element that you have to introduce in your proposal. You need to state very clear the topic and details about this. What made you choose this particular subject? What are you hoping to prove with your dissertation? Do you think that your project is important and valuable for this topic? Answer these questions in the beginning, but make sure you do not give too many details. You do not have enough space to do this.
- Mention the research methods. It is important to state in your proposal what research methods you used to get your information. Of course, this is not the time to make an entire references page or to write down every book that you’ve read. Try to be explicit, but short. You will have time to give the rest of the details in the composition itself.
- Don’t explore complex ideas. This piece is supposed to describe your main project, not to be a smaller project in itself. This means that you should not analyze, explore or describe any idea that is not connected with your dissertation.