A dissertation proposal, essentially, is an academic paper that contains the outline of the dissertation a student has in mind of pursuing. It is the first step the student carries out during the dissertation process, and in most cases, it is what students and professionals find the hardest to complete. If the proposal does not carry enough weight for the dissertation to be further studied, the student will have to revise the proposal or complete another one all over again. If they do not complete the proposal, they do not complete the dissertation; if they do not complete the dissertation, they will not have a degree.
What also makes writing a
dissertation proposal exhausting is the fact that a proposal must be timely and relevant enough to be approved. For that to happen, students have to develop their own take on the issue they wish to investigate, and that involves a lot of in-depth analysis on the issue and research for relevant and relative data. All these processes take a lot of time and effort and this, perhaps, leads to students getting easily frustrated with their dissertation proposal.
For starters, there are skills to remember in writing a dissertation proposal. It must be written with the most effective approach and must be coupled with firm arguments and well-founded evidence. The student has to be completely knowledgeable with the chosen topic as to avoid conflict between arguments and assertions.
A dissertation proposal must have a concrete thesis statement. This states the arguments that the writer should prove with facts and other statistical data. Once the thesis statement is decided, a thorough literature review follows. The
writer summarises all relevant works from other authors to assert the arguments the writer has presented. Accordingly, theories significant to the dissertation proposal are applied, such as applying Marxism in analysing the current global recession.
The literature review and conceptual framework must validate each other. Scientific measurements, which are derived from analysis, surveys, interviews, et al., strengthen and establish the literature review and the overall dissertation proposal. Data accuracy, whether drawn from numbers or analysis, is deemed crucial to the impact of the thesis statement.
However, the facts presented in the dissertation proposal will not carry enough weight if it is not sustained with a concrete methodology. The tools and strategies used for data gathering and data analysis must be relevant for the type of dissertation to be undertaken. It is the organization of facts—of what we know, what we don’t know and how we go about what we do not know—that secures the validity of the dissertation proposal.
Bob Kendall is a professional who also does
dissertation writing. His dissertation works are used as references by over 500 student clients in the UK.
