Dissertation Proposal Formatting

Formatting of your dissertation proposal will also depend on your degree programme’s specific guidelines and area of research. Find out the exact guidelines pertaining to formatting of cover sheets and title pages, style of referencing, notes and bibliography, and margin sizes, page numbers and fonts. Again if you are unsure about anything, it is recommended to consult with your project advisor.

Find out About the Exact Acceptance Process

The process of writing your dissertation proposal paper and getting the acceptance from the committee of members of your supervisor is a tricky one.

Consult your department’s academic assistant, your supervisor or the programme chair to find out about all stages of the process. Here are a couple of points you will need to be aware of:

You might be required to have your chosen topic of research approved by your academic supervisor or department chair.

Submit your proposal and have it formally signed and approved so you can continue with your research.

You may find the dissertation proposal writing process to be perplexing and challenging if this is the first time you are preparing such a document. All the essential elements of a dissertation proposal paper need to be present before you submit it for approval.

“Any feedback received from the tutor or the supervising committee should be taken very seriously and incorporated into your planning for dissertation research. Do not start working on your final dissertation paper until the proposal has been accepted by your supervisor.”

To help you organise your dissertation proposal paper correctly, we have put together detailed guidelines on how to structure a dissertation proposal. Irrespective of the degree programme you are developing your dissertation proposal for, you will find these guidelines equally important.

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Select a Topic

Selecting an appropriate topic is the key to having your research work recognised in your field of study. Make sure your chosen topic is relevant, interesting and manageable.

Ideally, you would want to research a topic that has not been explored by previous researchers so you can contribute to knowledge on the academic subject.

But even if your topic has been well-researched previously, you can make your study stand out by tweaking the research design and research questions to add a new dimension to your research. Here are some guidelines on how to choose a suitable research topic.

List all the topics that you find interesting and relevant to your area of study. PhD and Masters level students are already well aware of their academic interests.

Bachelor students can consider unanswered questions that emerged from their past academic assignments and drove them to conduct a detailed investigation to find answers.

Think about all your past academic achievements and associations such as any research notes that you might have written for your classes, any unsettled questions from your previous academic assignments that left you wondering and the material you learnt in classes taught by professors.

For example, you learnt about how natural gas is supplied to households in the UK in one of your coursework assignment, and now eagerly wish to know exactly how natural gas is processed at an industrial scale.

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Conduct initial research on your chosen topic(s). This will include reading authentic text material on the topic(s) to familiarise yourself with each potential topic. Doing so will help you figure out whether there really is a need to further investigate your selected topics.

Visit your university’s library or online academic databases such as ProQuest, EBSCO, QUICKBASE to find articles, journals, books, peer-reviewed articles and thesis/dissertation papers (by other students) written on your possible research topic.

Ignore all academic sources that you find methodologically flawed or obsolete. Visit our online research topics library to choose a topic relevant to your interests.

Consult your academic supervisor and show them your list of potential topics. Their advice will be crucial for you to decide whether the topic you are interested in is appropriate and meets the requirements of your degree programme.

It is recommended to set up an appointment with your supervisor to see them in person to discuss your potential topics, even though you can do the same in email too.

If the topics you are interested in are too broad or lack focus your supervisor will be able to guide you towards academic sources that could help narrow down your research.

Having several topics in your list of potential topics will mean that you will have something to fall back onto in case they don’t approve your first choice.

Narrow the Focus of Your Research - Once a topic has been mutually agreed upon between you and your academic supervisor, it is time to narrow down the focus so your research explores an aspect of the topic that hasn’t been investigated before.

Spend as much time as possible examining different aspects of the topic to establish a research aim that would truly add value to the existing knowledge.

For example, you were initially interested in studying the different natural gas process techniques employed in the UK at industrial scale, but you noticed that the existing literature doesn’t account for one certain advanced gas processing method that is helping industry save millions of pounds every year so you decide to make that the focus of your research.

Your topic could be too broad as you start your research, but as you dig deep into your research the topic will continue to narrow and evolve. TIP – It is better to work on a topic that is too broad rather than on something there is not enough text material to work with.

Follow this process, and you’ll be able to choose the most appropriate topic for your research. Not only will this make your dissertation unique, but also increase chances of your proposal being accepted in the first attempt.

Structure of a Dissertation Proposal

The key elements of a great dissertation proposal are explained in detail under this section ‘structure of a dissertation proposal’. Once you’ve finalized your topic, you need to quickly switch to writing your dissertation proposal paper. As previously mentioned, the exact structure of your proposal paper may vary depending on your university/college requirements.

Title

A good dissertation proposal title will give the reader an insight into the aim/idea of your study. Describe the purpose and/or contents of your dissertation proposal paper in fewest possible words.

A concise and focused title will help you gain the attention of the readers. However, you might need to adjust your title several times as you write the paper because your comprehensive research might continue to add new dimensions to your study.

Your title must be as categorical as possible. For example, instead of “Natural Gas Processing Techniques in the UK”, use a more specific title like, “Investigating various industrial natural gas processing technologies employed in the UK” so the reader can understand exactly what your research is about.

Abstract

Write a brief executive summary or an abstract of your proposal if you have been asked to do so in the structural guidelines. Generally, the abstract is included in the final dissertation paper with a length of around 300-400 words.

If you have to write an abstract for your proposal, here are the key points that it must cover;