Your Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Is Much Easier Said Than Done

If you have your Bachelor's Degree and also a Master's degree, you might be considering doctoral education. Anyone who studies for a PhD, especially where it's not the culmination of a taught course, will eventually need to produce a dissertation proposal.

A PhD is a research degree, whether you are dealing with a point in literature that may have been overlooked, or some empirical research that has yet to be undertaken. At this level, a proposal has to go before a research degree's committee who will decide whether the proposal is of great work where it would provide a contribution to someone's knowledge.

A doctoral dissertation is an extended piece of writing, often as long as a novel and some textbooks, and requires as much, if not more work than some. The shape and substance of your doctoral proposal will, to some extent, depend on the conventions of the university you wish to study at. Unlike a first degree or even a Masters', a PhD is an internationally recognized qualification, one that is often published, and so the finished document needs to be of publishable quality.

Writing a doctoral proposal can be difficult but if the research committee agrees that the work would be a contribution to knowledge in a particular area of study, you will be able to work on that proposal until it confirms with that particular institution's guidelines.

There are certain things that most proposals will contain, which is evidence that you have researched your chosen area and have substantial reason to believe that there is a gap in that particular body of knowledge. If, for example, your chosen area was bereavement studies, you might have established that there's insufficient ecclesiastical and community support for the recently bereaved.

Once you believe you have established this gap of insufficient knowledge, you will need to demonstrate in your proposal that it is the case, by showing that you have made a thorough search of the most up to date literature on bereavement support.

Most dissertation proposals will need to contain the following elements in whatever form your college requires. A proposal needs an introduction that includes your research question and possible title for the study (again titles and even research questions are not written in stone as they can change over time with the discovery of new information).

You will need to add a review of the literature in your chosen area of study and an identification of what you believe is missing from a particular body of knowledge. A proposal usually contains the aims and objectives of your research, which will define how you are going to go about answering the question you have set yourself. If your work involves interviewing people or sending out questionnaires, then you will need to provide a breakdown of your research methods.

Most proposals should contain some sort of time frame e.g. when you expect each stage of the research to be completed, including the writing up. If your final proposal is accepted by the research committee at the college you have chosen, you should be given the green light to get on with your education.

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