Five Things to Ensure Before Submitting Your Dissertation Proposal
Thursday, January 21st, 2010Writing a dissertation proposal is the most significant task in a student’s career. There is constant pressure of outstanding performance, as acceptance or rejection of a student for higher studies depends on it. A Dissertation proposal is a proposal submitted for approval to the university research committee for conducting dissertation research, either on masters or doctoral level. A student has to present the thesis statement, aims and objectives of the research which he/she aims to take up for a further research.
Under constant pressure of performance and upcoming deadlines, many students submit dissertation without carefully editing or proofreading. Since dissertations are written in an established writing format, novice dissertation writers run at the constant risk of committing grave errors. To submit an error free dissertation proposal, it is indispensable to ensure the following aspects:
Checklist before submitting your dissertation proposal
Referencing: Make sure to proofread your dissertation for missing references. All the research literature used for dissertation writing must be properly cited. Check the accurate use of quotation marks, parenthetical references and make sure they are in the right format. There should be a consistency in the writing format used. If you have made use of MLA writing format, tally all the specifications implemented in your dissertation. Bibliographic entries must be alphabetically arranged and should be on a separate page. Any carelessness with references must be carefully avoided, as this may lead to plagiarism.
Foot noting: Citations of a quotation or an idea, is generally marked with numbers and placed at the bottom of the relevant page. The citations are called footnotes. Footnotes are an essential feature of APA writing format. If you have used footnotes as a means of citations, make sure they are in the required format and on the relevant page.
Paragraphing: Effective use of paragraph break makes a proposal effective and organized. If you have drafted your dissertation on a computer, check the paragraph breaks which might have occurred while formatting. There should be adequate line spacing between paragraphs.
Formatting: Since dissertation proposals are smaller projects they are submitted in clip folders which are non bound. To assure that all the papers are organized methodically and chronologically, re-check them before final submission. If you have worked on a computer, check the document for print smudges, sentence overlap and pagination. If your dissertation has hand made diagrams or statistics, do not forget to insert them into the dissertation before submission.
Well punctuated sentences: Final read your dissertation proposal to check for abrupt endings, missing information and use of language. A small change in punctuation mark can alter the meaning of your sentence. Also, it may falter your impression on the research committee and hamper your chances of getting a research approval.
