Writing a dissertation proposal: Format.
In order to get your masters or doctoral dissertation project approved you have to write a dissertation proposal. Your dissertation proposal should be relevant, convincing and tightly packed with ideas. Writing a dissertation proposal is a way to defend your dissertation project, highlight its contribution, establish its relevance and summarize the dissertation methodology. While composing an effective and convincing dissertation proposal you must have an outline and format to begin with research and writing.
Dissertation Proposal Format.
The Title page: Your dissertation proposal begins with a title page. It should have the complete title along with the subtitle. Make sure you use the same font is the title as used in the dissertation proposal and keep the font size of the title between 12-16. You must write the submission details on the same page. It includes, institute to which the proposal is submitted along with the name of student who submits the dissertation and the Supervisor to whom it is submitted. Their placement is center, left and right respectively.
The Main and the Subsequent Pages: Unlike dissertation or thesis writing where separate space is given to introduction, preface and chapters, A dissertation proposal does not have neat categorization. It reads like a long essay with titles and subtitles. The essay outline is-
Introduction. Begin your proposal with an introduction to your research. Here you can place your narrow and limited research topic into a general context and talk of its placement and relevance. Let it be a simple explanation of your research topic. While writing an introduction, move from general to particular. This shift will bring you to the purpose of your research.
Purpose of study: Explain the purpose of your research. Here you can specify the topic of your research project and explain it.
Developmental context: To delve into the reasons of your choice of particular topic you need to provide the developmental context, a background of the research undertaken on the topic concerned up til now. Refer to all the studies done in recent years and their outcomes. In this context, explain how your study will be different to the ones undertaken in the past years.
Your Argument: State your research argument, explain its relevance and contribution to the past research. State how and why this research is important.
Defence: Once you have stated your research argument, defend it by specifying your research methodology, and other innovative strategies by which you plan to prove your research hypothesis.
Tentative Chapter division: Conclude your dissertation proposal by providing a tentative chapter division. Make sure you provide titles to every chapter along with a summary.
Works cited or Bibliography: References are the vital part of dissertation proposal or dissertation writing. Provide all the references in the required format.
Presentation: Extra care must be given to presentation and lay out your dissertation proposal. Make sure you choose the right Font and Font size. It is essential to follow the MLA/APA/harvard/Chicago or any other writing format guidelines in your dissertation proposal. This reflects your capability to work on the level of writing a dissertation.
