How to Write a PhD Thesis Proposal

To write a PhD thesis proposal is your first step towards creating a monument of your PhD thesis. A PhD thesis proposal should be unique and it should set a stage for thesis writing task. A PhD thesis proposal also provides a plan to create a monument of your PhD thesis. If you are not able to write a PhD thesis to convince the committee members, you can get a custom solution to your PhD thesis proposal from experts of PhD thesis writing services.

How to Write a PhD Thesis Proposal

No doubt, there are certain requirements and limitations of a PhD thesis proposal but you should include at least 2000-3000 words in your PhD thesis proposal. Before writing a thesis proposal, you should read out the guidelines of your advisor and your department. Some essential tips to write a PhD thesis proposal are given below;

Following departmental guidelines

For a quick approval of your PhD thesis proposal, it is necessary for you to follow the requirements and guidelines of your advisor and department. There are different requirements for a department to write a thesis proposal.

The first and most important requirement is to write your thesis proposal within a given interval of time. Most of the students don’t know how to check the timeline to submit a thesis proposal. Most of the universities upload these kinds of information on their websites. Therefore, you can get an idea of this information by visiting their website.

Anyhow, you can also get in touch with your advisor to get an idea about the timeline to submit a thesis proposal. The length of a PhD thesis proposal may also vary from one department to another department. Secondly, you should conform to your thesis proposal length guidelines. Anyhow, the length of a PhD thesis proposal is from 10-20 pages. Thirdly, you should get an idea about the structure of your thesis proposal. 

The structure of a thesis proposal consists of the following components;

1. Title
2. Introduction
3. An overview of the research methodology
4. Literature review
5. Possible findings and results
6. Scope of your thesis
7. Timetable
8. References

After the structure of the thesis proposal, there comes the format of your thesis proposal. You should also take an overview of your program rules and try to find out the answers to these questions;

1. What is the font size and font style of your thesis proposal?
2. What is the citation style for your thesis proposal?
3. What is the possible formatting for notes and bibliography?
4. What are the formatting for the title page and cover sheets?

Now, it’s time to select the committee members for your thesis. In the committee members, there comes your supervisor, two or three members from your faculty and one outside academic advisor. After completing the thesis proposal, you will have to approve it from the committee members. You should also get an idea of what is the possible procedure to approve a thesis proposal from your advisor.

Selecting your topic

The main of writing a thesis proposal is to approve a topic for your thesis. That’s we can say that topic selection is the most crucial step in writing a thesis proposal. You can easily select an interesting and intriguing topic idea for your thesis proposal by following four simple steps.

• Make a list of topics that interests you

The topic of your thesis proposal should be interesting and intriguing not only for you but also for the committee members. Its reason is that the committee members will never approve an odd topic. You should take an overview of your previous academic career and try to get an idea which topics were interesting and intriguing to you. You should make a list of all of these topic ideas.

• Do some preliminary research on these topic ideas

After preparing a list of some potential topic ideas, you should conduct some preliminary research on these topic ideas. This preliminary research is helpful to you to get familiarize with these topic ideas. With the help of this research, you will also get an idea either more research is required on this topic idea or not.

• Talk to your advisor about potential topics

Your academic advisor can provide you with help in selecting the best and potential topic for your thesis. You just need to hold a meeting with him and discuss these potential topics with him. He will provide you with an idea which is the best and feasible topic idea for your thesis.

• Narrow your topic when you have a general topic

If you have selected a broad topic for your thesis, it is almost impossible for you to cover it in your thesis. Therefore, after selecting a general topic idea for your thesis, you should narrow down your focus with the help of in-depth reading relevant to your topic idea.

Organizing and writing your thesis proposal

After that, you should try to create a monument of thesis proposal. Some essential tips to organize and write your thesis proposal are given below;

1. You should select a working title for your thesis and try to make your title as specific as possible.
2. You should write an abstract and the abstract of your thesis proposal should be in between 100 to 300 words.
3. You should start your thesis proposal with the help of writing a general introduction. The introduction of your thesis should be engaging for the audience members.
4. In a thesis, you will have to state a major problem. Therefore, you should also try to address this major problem in your thesis proposal.
5. In a separate section, you should try to discuss all the major aims and objectives of your thesis.
6. In the literature review section of your thesis proposal, you should also try to summarize previous literature on your topic.
7. To write a thesis, you will have to adopt a research methodology. You should provide a complete explanation of this research methodology in your thesis proposal.
8. There should also be a demonstration of the significance of your research in your thesis proposal.
9. At last, never forget to present a list of possible references from where you are going to gather the data for your thesis.

Conclusion

A PhD thesis proposal provides a complete plan and outline to write a thesis. You should write a thesis proposal before the deadline by following the requirements and guidelines of your advisor. While writing a thesis proposal, you should make sure that you are following the required structure and format. Your research proposal should present an outline of your plan of action to write a thesis.