Everything to know about organizing dissertation proposal sections

You will find that most universities have some comprehensive guidelines in writing dissertation manuals on how to set up and even organize the proposal and dissertation. Many of them are usually organized into around four chapters. It is also worth noting that there are many variations in the nature of the chapters and the dissertation committee has the discretion. Here are a few ideas on how to organize the dissertation proposal

Preliminaries

There may be regulation specifying what should appear in the header as well as footer of each of the page as well as other layout details. For instance, the pagination may need to be in the standard form. The title page can include:

Abstract

This is a short summary of the dissertation that provides a researcher who is seeking for research materials using the title of topic whether this is what they are searching for or not. It requires a good craft to write a good one and there isn’t a substitute for going though many of them so as to summarize and pick the important points. In fact the drafting as well as re-drafting of the abstract is a useful exercise not only for the author. Ensure that you check the regulations as there are universities that will give a word limit.

Introduction

The goals of an introduction are to define:

Literature reviews

You should use this part to outline the previous researches that have been done on the topic. In order to plan the literature review well, you will need to think carefully. You will need to ensure that this is comprehensive.

Findings and discussions

You may choose to handle these together or differently. The rule of thumb for the findings is to only include information on your findings. The discussion should show the link between the hypotheses or research question, data that you have found, previous models and research and arguments.

Conclusion

Ensure that you have a conclusion that is brief and to the point.