How to Write a Dissertation Literature Review?
August 15, 2022
What Is Dissertation Acknowledgement?
August 17, 2022
What is a dissertation proposal?
In many ways, a dissertation proposal resembles a research proposal. An outline of a student's research interests is written in this document. You will have to submit the proposed idea for approval or rejection to your dissertation advisor.
An effective dissertation proposal presentation also describes the methods for obtaining data and how it will be analyzed. Research proposals are primarily used to convince experts that your research will make a significant impact. To ensure your proposal is well-structured and impressive, make sure to write it well.
A dissertation proposal is an important part of your master's or doctoral dissertation. The plan outlines the work you will have to do to complete the degree in the future.
Dissertation proposals vary in length depending on the field. Nevertheless, longer proposals usually take more than 20 pages, while shorter ones are typically 9 to 10 pages long.
The following should be included in a dissertation proposal:
- The purpose and topic of your paper
- The current state of knowledge is reviewed in a literature review
- Describe the methodology you plan to use
- Implications of the research are discussed
- Resources cited in a bibliography
Pro Tip: Your institution may give you specific guidelines regarding your dissertation proposal's length and structure, so ensure you follow those guidelines and ask your supervisor if you have any questions.
Why is a proposal so important?
An important part of a postgraduate student's dissertation is the dissertation proposal because it shapes the actual dissertation, arguably the most important paper they will ever write. You will have a good template to follow if you have a well-structured dissertation proposal. Postgraduate success depends on the quality of your dissertation, which contributes to your grade.
In addition to developing research and communication skills, writing a dissertation will also help you prepare for future employment and career success. Your dissertation will be a great success if you understand the current research available on your chosen topic and keep your bibliography up to date.
Benefits Of The Dissertation Proposal
Developing a dissertation proposal is the first step of the dissertation process, and this proposal typically focuses on supporting the relevance of the topic chosen and the appropriateness of the research methodology. Here are the advantages dissertation proposals offer for your research.
Providing communication:
Writing a dissertation proposal has a significant outcome. Exactly how? Here's how it works. Proposals serve as a communication tool between you and those who provide advice, consent, or funds to your research.
For the implementation of the research project, the dissertation committee places its final approval on the dissertation proposal. In addition, it facilitates the final confirmation of funding agencies. Your ability to get financial support depends directly on how clear and thorough your proposal is.
It Creates a plan:
You are going to implement your future plans in action based on your proposal. A strict set of observations is preplanned and incorporated into all empirical research included in the proposal. Your dissertation proposal will be judged based on the arguments and explanations you provide.
When you present your proposal, it explains the plan in step-by-step detail.
Pro Tip: Your dissertation methodology will run more smoothly if you have a detailed plan that anticipates problems in advance. Good dissertations are thorough and detail-oriented enough to allow another researcher to continue the study in the future.
Contract:
Your proposal must be approved by the sponsoring committee when you have completed it. It should be possible to produce a complete and acceptable report if the proposal is completed competently and thoroughly. The sponsoring committee and you sign a contract once you get the final confirmation. It is recommended that only minor changes be made once the contract has been made.
Data collection should take place only after the proposal has been finalized.
Note: A contract should not be altered unilaterally by students or faculty members after it has been finalized.
The Process: Steps of Generating a Dissertation Proposal
For each subject, dissertation proposals follow a specific format, but they generally include some or all of the following sections. Our discussion here will focus on the common framework for proposals.
Step 1: Crafting an appealing topic/idea
You should have a strong idea for your dissertation before you begin writing your proposal.
Read some preliminary materials in an area that interests you in your field. How do other researchers view these issues? In your opinion, what are the most interesting gaps in the field, and what do they suggest as areas for further research?
Identify what you would like to accomplish, and then figure out how to narrow it down and frame it. It is crucial that the topic of your dissertation is specific enough to be feasible - don't be too ambitious or too vague. Narrow down your interests from a broad field to a narrow niche.
Example: Poems by Shakespeare > Poems of Shakespeare on Love > Sonnets 102 and 145
Step 2: Coming Up With An Introduction
The introduction of a dissertation proposal also follows the format of other academic assignments. Providing background information, presenting objectives, and outlining research questions are key aspects of the dissertation introduction.
Depending on your topic, you may want to consider writing a hook statement. In order to understand the proposed questions, give more background information and area context. In addition, explain what existing research there is on the topic idea and what your dissertation will contribute to it.
Pro Tip: Do not add too much detail at this stage if you are planning to do a literature review. Briefly summarize the research study instead.
It is also necessary to define and specify the aims and objectives of the research. Do not ask too many or too broad questions.
Step 3: Defining The Scope of Your Research
Specifying your research's scope is the next step. Your research should clearly define what you will cover and, more importantly, what you will NOT cover. To put it simply, this is about narrowing your research topic so that it is laser-focused.
To produce comprehensive research, students often try to cover as many topics as possible. Despite being admirable, this is a mistake. By narrowing your scope, you will be able to go deeper with your research, which will help you earn good grades. Do not be afraid to narrow your scope if it is too broad, or you are likely to produce superficial research (which will not earn you any points).
Step 4: Getting a Preliminary Literature Review Done
You should provide a (relatively) brief overview of the existing literature in this section of your research proposal. You will not be able to cover everything in your literature review, but it will lay the groundwork for the rest of your dissertation. It will be a lot easier to write your literature review chapter if you put in the effort at this stage.
This section requires you to accomplish the following:
- Ensure that you have read your topic area's literature and understand its current state.
- Identify a gap in the existing research for your specific research, i.e. show how your topic adds value.
- Your research design is shaped by the existing research. A scale or questionnaire from a previous study, for instance, could be used.
Your literature review should have a clear purpose and direction if you keep these three objectives in mind, especially the second one (revealing the gap in the literature). There should be some way in which everything you write contributes to achieving one (or more) of these objectives. When it does not, you should ask yourself whether it is really necessary.
Pro Tip: Describe the main points of the literature, not just the main points, for example, "A says this, B says that, and C also says that... " etc. Literature descriptions alone are not useful. Synthesize it, and then use it to meet the above three objectives.
Here is an example:
- Sara and Jeff report a 37% decrease in mechanical failure after applying their new formula.
- The formula Sara and Jeff developed reduced mechanical failures by 37%.
Step 5: Explaining Your Methodology
In the next step, you will outline how you plan to conduct your research: its structure, the methods you plan to use, and the specific things you plan to accomplish.
Make sure you get quite specific in this section - you will need to convince your supervisor that you have carefully considered your approach and are able to execute it realistically. Your field of study will determine how long and how much detail you include in this section.
Your research may be more empirical, focused on gathering data and discovering new information, or more theoretical, focused on adding nuance to an existing conceptual model or developing a new one.
There is often a combination of both approaches in dissertation research, but the content of your methodology section will depend on how important each approach is to your paper.
Empirical research
Research that uses empirical methods involves gathering and evaluating new data in order to answer your research questions. You can either do a quantitative (number-based) or a qualitative (word-based) analysis.
When conducting empirical research, you should describe how you will collect data in detail:
- Are you going to use surveys? Experiments in a laboratory? Are there interviews?
- How will you measure your variables?
- Which representative sample will you choose?
- How will you ensure that other people are treated ethically if they are involved in your research?
- How and why will you use tools (conceptual and physical)?
Citing other research is appropriate here. A text describing the advantages and appropriate use of a particular research method or tool can be cited when you need to justify your choice.
Do not repeat the whole theoretical literature; only what is relevant to your choices should be mentioned.
In addition, you will need to analyze the data after you have collected it for your research. While you may not yet know what the data will look like, it is important to indicate what you are looking for (e.g. statistical tests, thematic analysis).
Theoretical research
In addition to collecting original data, you can also conduct theoretical research. The methodology section in this case will focus on your theoretical approach and relevant conceptual models for your dissertation.
Literature analysis dissertations do not require collecting new data, but it is necessary to describe the theoretical approach you will be taking to the text(s) under discussion, and the parts of the text(s) you will be focusing on.
Step 6: Discussing The Implications
The last section of your dissertation proposal should describe what you hope to accomplish with your research.
The results and conclusions of your study are not yet known, so it is impossible to be too sure. It is better to describe your dissertation's implications and contribution to knowledge instead.
Your research should first be analyzed in terms of its potential implications. Make sure it answers questions like:
- Are you developing or testing a theory?
- Providing businesses and governments with new information?
- Are there any beliefs that need to be challenged?
- Do you have any suggestions for improving a particular process?
It is important to consider the theoretical and practical implications of your dissertation as well. Furthermore, a brief explanation of how the research initiative will contribute to the field's knowledge base, the specific questions you intend to address, and the research gaps that this initiative addresses is good practice.
Step 7: Concluding with a Bibliography
In any academic piece of writing, it is crucial to list all sources used in your dissertation proposal. A properly formatted bibliography or reference list should be added at the end of your proposal.
Harvard, Vancouver, APA, and MHRA are among the most popular referencing styles recommended by different institutions. Make sure you follow the style defined by your department if there are none.
References within your proposal must be included in a reference list. Alternatively, you may include a bibliography regardless of whether or not you cite the source in your dissertation proposal, regardless of whether or not the source is cited in your dissertation proposal.
There is also the possibility of creating an indicative bibliography, which includes material that you have not read yet but plans to read during the research process. Refer to your supervisor for guidance on the type of bibliography or reference list you should use in your proposal.
Get a Dissertation Proposal – Get Going!
Dissertation Proposal Lays Down the Outline of Your Final Dissertation
Get a Dissertation Proposal that matches your requirements, which includes the topic title, research aim and objective, research questions, research gap, literature review, methodology and list of reference papers.
The Dissertation Proposal will be foundation of your final dissertation. It is very important to get this done perfectly to avoid any problems!
Tips and Tricks to Write a Powerful Proposal
Your dissertation proposal's most difficult part is choosing your topic. Make sure you choose a topic you are passionate about, one that has not been covered extensively by other scholars, and that will serve as a base for future scholarship. Additionally, you should practice with your professor or dissertation advisor to make sure that your overall concept and goals are clear to the committee.
Keep your schedule up-to-date
The proposal will show a lack of time management if this is the case. You need to start working on the dissertation proposal as soon as you enter the program so that your advisor can determine whether you are on the right track and all your questions can be answered. Consider your research materials as inspiration when choosing a topic for your proposal.
View Sample Dissertation Proposals
The university library websites have sample dissertation proposals that you can read to get an idea of how your proposal should be written. See if you can find proposals related to your field of study, so you can get an idea of what you should write about. If you are writing a dissertation proposal, you still need to follow the guidelines of your university.
The importance of a literature review
Describe how your dissertation addition will be different from previous research on your topic when you present your dissertation proposal. You can, for example, discuss how your dissertation will explore how Jewish women handle menopause-related emotional issues if your topic is different ethnic groups' treatment of menopause.
Keeping it short is a virtue
Despite the fact that a dissertation proposal is a long and cumbersome process, it is a common pitfall of writing one. Keeping it short and to the point is essential. Be concise even when reviewing literature - do not stray from the main topic. You do not want to have to spend forty pages explaining your plan to your committee.
"A good dissertation is a done dissertation," is something you may have heard before. Your graduate career will eventually lead you there if you have not already. The same applies to your proposal. If your committee accepts your proposal, it is the best proposal. Just make sure it is good enough so you can proceed to the real task: writing the dissertation. It does not need to be perfect.
FAQs About Dissertation Proposal
- A dissertation proposal outlines the research to be conducted
- Your research question will be convincing to the committee
- The statement reflects your potential for success with the topic.
- Detailed plans for testing hypotheses and an explicit research question are included in every dissertation proposal
- Readers are convinced by the research question that it will enrich the field in general and be feasible to pursue
The dissertation is a major task, regardless of whether this is your first or tenth academic endeavor. The first step in completing a dissertation is to draft a dissertation proposal. The proposal marks the first significant milestone in this process. How should a dissertation proposal be written? Our writers have covered that for you.
