The dissertation proposal is a notice of the intention to conduct a research. Students with research courses prepare dissertation proposals the previous semester. They get the approval for doing the research if they satisfy the required criteria. The tutor you get will be responsible for recommending corrections if there are errors.
Undertaking research can be a daunting task and it dictates that a student should prepare well enough. Objectivity of the research is outlined by how well the proposal is prepared and presented. This process can be quite challenging to a lot of students, especially those carrying out research for the first time.
Excellent proposal writing necessitates that you understand that a dissertation proposal is neither an essay nor a mini dissertation. Making this distinction will enable you to improve your write up and pass it out as professional work.
Here are some tips on how to write an excellent dissertation proposal. Follow these tips and you’ll be well on your way to writing an excellent dissertation.
Identify the Research Methodology
Your first step should be identifying how you will go about conducting the research. You need to have a thorough understanding of the variables involved. Should you get mixed up, you will lose direction, and your research will flop. Choosing a methodology that’s difficult to comprehend will result in you failing to achieve your objectives. You will not be able to achieve the desired results if you have no idea of how the various research methods available to you work.
You will choose what methods to use in your research according to how your research is designed and what objectives you want to achieve. It’s wise to apply simple methodologies for researches with simple designs and few objectives. Complex designs with several objectives require complex methods and at times may require a combination of two methods.
Excellent dissertation proposals clearly show the methods to be used and the logic behind the choice as well. This shows that you understand what’s going on and what you’re doing.
Understand the Analyzing Software
Your research will make sense after the findings are analyzed and processed into meaningful information. If you carried out a complex research and you need some specialized formatting and applications, it is necessary to understand them well.
Some applications have been developed for this purpose. Some specialized research requires the development of custom software, but some of the basic examples include SPSS, SAS, Minitab, Matlab, and E-Views.
These software require some level of training and understanding of their workability. If you don’t understand how to apply the software in your research, its quality can be compromised to some degree. But this doesn’t mean your research will fail. You can hire someone who will do the data analysis for you.
For your dissertation to be approved, you will be required to indicate which software you will use for your data analysis. Choose the most efficient software according to the design of your research. Also, always choose the application that you’re most comfortable using or the one you have the best understanding of. Choosing something difficult will result in reduced efficiency.
Take a Look at Online Samples
The internet provides endless samples of different research formats. Apart from your book references and consultations, you can examine online sources too. There are samples that have already been approved, and these are the best sources for reference as they offer an understanding of how your document should be structured.
For every proposal that you’re going to prepare, you will be presented with different sets of regulations. Referring to a proposal that has already been approved can give you a highlight of the kind of flexibility you can adopt and implement into your proposal. Look for samples with high rates and rankings as well as samples from reputable individuals.
Consult your fellow students and colleagues about where to get the best links to the best samples. You should check out all the links that you’re given before you dismiss or lose them.
Be Original
Your proposal is one amongst many. In the offices of admissions agencies and funding organizations, there are hundreds of proposals. Your proposal must stand out for it to be noticed.
Ensure your work is original by eliminating plagiarism. Plagiarized work can result in disqualification and discontinuation. You should use online plagiarism checkers such as Copyscape or the plagiarism check function on Grammarly. Above this, you should ensure that you’ve laid emphasis on how creative, resourceful, and innovative you are. These are the points and features that will enhance the approval chances for your proposal. If possible, put in a few details to spice up your proposal.
Excellent dissertation proposals must portray the effort that the author will put into the work. A proposal that appears to be lifted from somewhere else snuffles out all chances you have at impressing the reader.
Plan
Successfully completing any task presented to you takes lots of planning. It needs identifying what needs to be done, establishing a timeframe and finally, knowing what resources are at your disposal. The same applies to writing your dissertation proposal.
Writing your proposal isn’t something you just wake up and do. You will need to carefully plot out a map of how you will go about writing your proposal. Taking time to carefully plan your work is an effective way of minimizing the chances of you leaving out important material. Planning helps with knowing when to do what. As a plus, you get to avoid a last-minute rush to do your proposal. When planning, you get to set deadlines for completing the various sections of your dissertation. It is at this stage that you get to identify the various sections that will constitute your dissertation.
Preparing an excellent dissertation comes down to how much planning and execution we put into it. We all love a good presentation; no one is a fan of half-baked work. Therefore, plan to the smallest of detail to ensure that you don’t leave anything out.
Consult With Your Supervisor
When preparing your dissertation proposal, set aside some time for consulting with your assigned supervisor. Your supervisor certainly has more experience than you do. Explore this opportunity to your advantage. Supervisors are meant to guide you and correct you when you make mistakes and so on. If what you truly seek is excellence, then you’ll need all the help that you can get. The role of your supervisor isn’t to make your life difficult, but rather to make it more bearable. It would be foolish not to tap into that opportunity.
In life, we all need that mentor or guide to help us out when we are stranded or are in a fix or just need inspiration. Being successful in all that you undertake takes a team effort. You may not see it yet, but in everything you have done, you have gotten some assistance in one way or another, no matter how minute it may seem. Therefore, be ready to get all the help you can when you set out to do your dissertation proposal. Your supervisor is on your team and you will need their help to prepare an excellent document.
Proofread Your Work
Take time to go through your work thoroughly. When preparing your document, you may have made mistakes – that’s why you should always have a rough draft and a final document. Your rough draft is the raw work without any editing which means it may have spelling and grammar errors, different fonts and spacing, and generally any mistakes that you may expect in a document. Getting rid of these mistakes is quite simple, just read and reread your work when you’re done. Picture proofreading as a refining process. Nothing beats a proposal that’s free of mistakes and has flow. It’s fun to read such a document.
Proofreading has become easy to do. All thanks to the internet that offers a large number of online tools and platforms offering proofreading services. These tools can provide a broad range of services including plagiarism checking, grammar and spell checks, and sentence flow check. These tools are a timesaver for you.
Research Extensively
You’ll need to have a grasp of the material that you’re writing about. Be knowledgeable. The best way to do so is by doing thorough and extensive research before you start writing. Get all the information that will be relevant to your work. It’s such a disappointment to present incorrect information in your dissertation proposal.
Be ready to defend your work. The research will help you have all the relevant information at your fingertips. Should anything you put down in proposal be challenged, you will have no problem defending it. Researching helps you include information that’s current and accurate. How well you have mastered your content inspires confidence and makes you write even better.
Conclusion
The assumption that most people have is that writing a dissertation proposal is a difficult task to accomplish. But as you see, it’s really not. Planning is the key to preparing an excellent proposal. The most common mistake we all tend to make is that we begin writing prematurely. Prepare yourself by researching and taking the time to proofread your work after you are done. And please don’t ignore your supervisor, they play a significant role in the success of your proposal.
The internet is bursting with a myriad of materials you can use to improve the quality of your dissertation proposal. Before starting on your work, you can check the web for samples to understand what will be expected of you. Custom writing services are also available! Exploit all the resources at your disposal – time, the internet, your supervisor, and your abilities. Excellence is achievable when you are dedicated to attaining it.
Kevin Nelson started his career as a research analyst and has changed his sphere of activity to writing services and content marketing. Apart from writing, he spends a lot of time reading psychology and management literature searching for the keystones of motivation ideas. Feel free to connect with him on Twitter, Linkedin & Google+.
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