How to write a dissertation proposal, what is dissertation proposal.

First, consider the potential implications of your research. Will you:

Different institutions recommend different styles of referencing – commonly used styles include Harvard, Vancouver, APA, or MHRA. If your department does not have specific requirements, choose a style and apply it consistently.

The point is to identify findings and theories that will influence your own research, but also to highlight gaps and limitations in previous research which your dissertation can address:

• Does social media harm mental health?
• What is the impact of daily social media use on 18– to 25–year–olds suffering from general anxiety disorder?

Theoretical research

Once your area of research is clear, you can present more background and context. What does the reader need to know to understand your proposed questions? What’s the current state of research on this topic, and what will your dissertation contribute to the field?

With empirical research, it’s important to describe in detail how you plan to collect your data:

Find an area of your field that interests you and do some preliminary reading in that area. What are the key concerns of other researchers? What do they suggest as areas for further research, and what strikes you personally as an interesting gap in the field?

You may be engaged in more empirical research, focusing on data collection and discovering new information, or more theoretical research, attempting to develop a new conceptual model or add nuance to an existing one.

Methodology. The structure of this section can be different, except for its beginning and end. You can start it with the introduction, research design and questions, describe the setting and participants of the study, provide information on data collection and analysis, and finish it with the conclusion. There can also be such sections as a research hypothesis, as well as setting and sample.

There are several parts that are used in dissertation proposals but the structure can be different. That is why you should not use the first structure you find from the Internet. Instead, you should choose a structure that works best for your paper. Make sure you have the main sections that help you show your paper’s basic points, the goals you are going to reach, the methods you are going to use, and sections like literature and bibliography.

Introduction. Most academic papers usually start with this section. You can use it to demonstrate the background of the topic to your readers, provide a thesis statement, and your study’s objectives. You should also outline questions that you are going to answer in your dissertation research proposal.

Here, you can give a summary of your paper as well as your goals and objectives. Despite the size of the paper, its abstract is usually small and helps your readers to understand what your project is about quickly.

What Does A Dissertation Proposal Include?

A dissertation proposal is an academic paper that is usually written to give readers more information about your dissertation. It lets the students, instructors, and other people find out what your dissertation will be about, what questions will be examined, what the theoretical background will be, what your methodology will be, and how students and researchers will use its results.

You can use this basic structure for writing dissertations for different subjects. Don’t forget to proofread your paper before sending it to your instructors to check its grammar. If there are any requirements given by your professor, you should follow them to get good results.

After that, you have to organize information in several sections. This is an example of a structure for such a dissertation proposal:

The title page includes the research title, student and supervisor’s name, along with the submission date.

A good proposal will prove that your thesis or dissertation is relevant and important. Similarly, it shows that you have adopted the right approach and tools to solve the problem.

The following is the primary purpose of writing a thesis proposal.

• Completion of research
• The first draft of the thesis
• Final draft
• Defense

References

Table of Contents

Many students fear writing lengthy papers. Therefore, writing a complete thesis is quite difficult for them. It is not a question, a topic, an opinion, or a fact. Instead, thesis writing is an essential part of a student’s research.

Sample Statement of the Problem in Thesis Proposal

It briefly discusses how the research findings and outcomes will be evaluated.

“To analyze the mytho-perceptions on use of pumpkins in history, as brought out in different works of literature, textual criticism within a Marxist deconstructionist framework will be used. To further analyze the rat-pumpkin relationship, the Freudian approach will be employed.”

The experts have been writing thesis proposals and other tasks that students fund tough to handle. In addition to being experts in different fields, they know what works and what does not. So, they are your best bet to crafting a great proposal and, finally, the best thesis to impress the evaluation committee.

“Pumpkins are crucial Jungian symbols used to indicate the desire of the subconscious mind to control and change the feeling of horror and fear of the people’s desire to understand the unknowable. This study will expand the field of pumpkinology, while fellowship with rats will further be expanded. This will herald a new era of plague-less companionship.”

The methodology is another crucial element of a thesis proposal, which involves analyzing the theoretical approaches and methods that will be used to do the study. Here, you need to highlight the initial data that you might have collected and the expected implications of the findings. Here are the things you can discuss in this section.

How to Write a Thesis Proposal

This is the first and the most important step in writing your proposal for a thesis. When selecting a topic, consider starting broadly and narrowing down to a specific area of interest. Furthermore, the topic should help to fill a gap in knowledge and be something that you can manage and write about.

“What effect does daily use of Facebook have on the Attention span of adolescents?” “What effect do legal approaches have on people who drink and drive in the UK?”

This is a brief summary of the entire proposal. We recommend that you do the abstract as the last item after completing the proposal. A single paragraph should be okay for your abstract. See a sample abstract in the paragraph below:

A thesis proposal is the link-bridge to the main thesis, laying out the plan of how you will conduct the research. This way, the professors (assessment committee) will know that you are on the right path and got the right tools to get to the final destination.

Every thesis proposal will vary slightly. In many cases, the structure of the thesis proposal will depend on the subject matter of the thesis and your area of study. However, all thesis proposals focus on two key areas – the background of the subject of the thesis, and the methodology that you, as the author of the thesis, will use to research and discuss the subject.

The thesis proposal has a strict structure that must be followed. You will want to be sure your writing tone is businesslike and technical in nature when it comes to your thesis proposal, so consider a basic paragraph and essay writing course as well. The various sections of the thesis proposal may include:

This can be included in the introduction, or it can have its own section. State the thesis and clarify the hypothesis (or theory) that you are going to attempt to prove with the thesis. This is going to be the focus of your work and give the reader a chance to understand the scope of your overall thesis paper.

The title page is the first page of your thesis and lays out what the thesis is about, which school you are representing, who your mentors are and your course of study. This page has a specific layout and may be signed by the mentors themselves. One example is:

Table of Contents or Outline

A thesis proposal is a short document that explains what the thesis you want to write will be about, what type of research you would do to write it, and what sort of problem you are attempting to solve by writing it. You can take a thesis writing course on Udemy to learn how to write a great thesis, but before you even get to that point you must learn how to write a great thesis proposal.

You are not required to type “introduction” for your intro, but many people like to do this. If you want to use this approach, you must keep this approach for all the points in the proposal.

Though it is short compared to other academic papers you may write, it can still be quite lengthy. If it is not well written or well researched, or you don’t clearly make your point, it may be rejected. You would then need to submit a new thesis proposal. Research and writing the project cannot start until the proposal has been approved.

Now that you know what the problem statement is and why it is so important for your dissertation, it’s time to go on to the next step. Let’s show you how to write a problem statement for a dissertation in just 4 steps. Our experienced dissertation writers have put together this guide to help you compose your statement as fast as possible. After all, you have plenty of work to do with research, analysis, writing, editing, etc. We advise you to check our tips to learn more about these steps. Without further ado, the 4 steps to write a problem statement for dissertation:

Do you want to write a dissertation problem statement for your academic paper? In this case, you probably know already that the dissertation problem statement is the first step towards writing the research proposal. And yes, it is a very important part of your dissertation. Truth be told, everyone working on a complex paper such as a dissertation, that requires extensive research, should start with a dissertation problem statement. You will learn why in just a bit. For now, let’s explain what problem statements really are, how you write them, and then show you a couple of excellent examples. We believe that you will be able to do a far better job writing the problem statement if you read a couple of examples.

Here are three dissertation problem statement examples that should make it clear how your statement should be organized:

1. Think about the ideal situation or the desired goal. Start the statement with how things should be, in an ideal case.
2. Think about what prevents this ideal situation. This is the problem you want to solve! Describe what is preventing the goal from being achieved and what stands in the way. In other words, use the second part of the statement to show your reader the problem you will be solving with your dissertation research and with your work.
3. Enumerate all the consequences of your solution (if the solution works, of course). How will your work improve the situation? What do you aim to achieve? This is the last part of the statement

   What Is the Dissertation Problem Statement?

   First, we would like to make sure you understand what a problem statement is and what it is used for. Basically, the dissertation problem statement is a short paragraph of condensed ideas that show your readers how your research project will solve a problem. In other words, you will need to briefly state the current problem or problems, and then explain how your work solves them. You need to clearly define the problem and to show how you will address it, in a very clear and concise manner. You can then use this statement to write the research proposal. Of course, you can also integrate it into the introduction of your dissertation. Bottom line, the research statement, is considered by many academics and thesis writers to be the heart of your dissertation.

   • According to various studies, university students are more focused and more efficient when their dorms are equipped with modern facilities (Ideal Situation). Students in Dorm B currently don’t have AC units and temperatures are exceeding 90 degrees Fahrenheit during summer months (Problem). My study plans to discover if students become more focused after AC units are installed in their dorm rooms (Solution).
   • All children must feel safe on the playground, regardless of where the playground is located in the city (Ideal Situation). Yet children in the northern part of the city fear playing on the playground after 6PM because of hooligans (Problem). My research shows that proper policing around playgrounds after 6PM greatly decreases violence against children (Solution).
   • Nonprofits need adequate funding and a supporting legal system to be able to help communities (Ideal Situation). The lack of funds and severe legal requirements are preventing certain foundation in the city from providing help to specific populations (Problem). My research demonstrates that softening regulations and increasing funding helps nonprofits provide assistance to 30% more people (Solution).

   This is how a statement of the problem in thesis generally looks like. To make things even easier for you, we have 3 examples for you.