Introduction
A dissertation proposal outlines the study you want to do, including its purpose and methodology. You will also have to justify the research you are doing. As an undergraduate or graduate student, you will undoubtedly need to create a proposal before beginning your dissertation. On the other hand, once you have attained eligibility and are getting ready to switch to the dissertation as your full-time assignment, the dissertation prospectus is the official document you submit to your PhD Supervisors Panel. This article will tell you the difference between a dissertation prospectus and a dissertation proposal.
What is a dissertation proposal?
A dissertation proposal is a formal document you present to the supervisory committee to get approval for your research. The proposal includes a brief overview of the research problem and questions you want to explore. It includes a brief literature review that identifies the existing studies’ gaps and includes a justification of how your research will address those gaps. Furthermore, a dissertation proposal includes anticipated findings and preliminary outcomes of your research. You also must include the limitations of your research, ethical concerns and data validity and reliability mechanisms. In a nutshell, a proposal is a document which helps convince the supervisory committee to permit you to conduct research. You can take help from dissertation proposal help online to take guidance for writing a structured proposal:
- Introduction of your topic, including background study, research problem and questions and aims and objectives of the study
- A critical Literature Review
- Research Methodology
- A discussion of the research’s possible consequences
- List of references
Dissertation proposals vary in length and structure according to different institutional and subject-specific requirements. You should ensure that you follow the guidelines provided by your institution and consult your supervisor. There is also an option to hire the best dissertation proposal writing services.
What is a dissertation prospectus?
A dissertation prospectus is different from a dissertation proposal because researchers write a prospectus after gaining candidacy for PhD. Drafting a dissertation prospectus is difficult because it is neither a condensed version of your dissertation nor as long as the dissertation. You must write a balanced document and a prospectus is between 20 to 30 pages. It also includes ten more pages of bibliography. A dissertation prospectus must have the following features:
- A well-thought-out title that concisely describes the scope and purpose of your research
- A properly crafted statement of the main question your dissertation will cover in one paragraph. Every dissertation is essentially an answer to a single issue; therefore, before you can start thinking about a solution, you must first formulate the question. Given the typical length of dissertations, it is fair to infer that the question is certainly intricate and has been formulated knowledgeably and intelligently.
- The relationship between your dissertation and earlier research in the field should be further explained in a section. It must include a review of sources relevant to your topic and pertinent to the theoretical, critical, and methodological issues you want to answer in your dissertation.
- The next section provides a detailed overview of the research methodology to help you answer the research questions. Define and justify the research methods for answering the research questions. You must explain whether it is a theoretical model or a case study research design.
- The next section in a dissertation prospectus includes a feasibility analysis of your dissertation. You must justify whether you can conduct the research. Do you have the necessary resources and materials? How will you acquire the data? Can you complete everything on time? Do you have all the necessary tools for acquiring the information?
- The rationale of the research must be strong and convince the readers that your research is worthy. It is imperative to discuss the practical and theoretical implications of your research. Also, you must explain the tentative findings of your research along with limitations and weaknesses.
- A prospectus must have a recommendations section and at the end the references section. The references must be in the proper academic formatting.
What is the purpose of a dissertation prospectus?
The prospectus aims to ascertain whether the prospective thesis’s argument is sound, meaning that with reasonable effort, it certainly appears to result in a significant contribution to knowledge in a format suitable for a PhD dissertation. Thus, the prospectus protects students from the risk of making a significant time commitment without the committee’s agreement that the project has potential, and that the candidate is sufficiently qualified to carry it out. A suitable dissertation prospectus must provide strong reasons for conducting the research. It also entails specifying the flaws in the research and the limitations of the study. The arguments must be coherent and properly structured. The ideas must be consistent.
The prospectus should then carefully articulate justifications for claiming that some fair measure may adequately address the queries you seek to pose. This section will typically comprise investigative and initial research, such as preliminary literature and data analysis. To use a new data collection, you must show that you have full rights to it and understand it well enough to feel confident using it for the objectives you suggest. Doing some preliminary data analysis with the collected data is one approach to accomplish this persuasively. If you plan to gather additional data, you should explain why you believe it will enable you to test your hypotheses. It benefits if you are clear about which specific hypothesis will be evaluated.
Conclusion
When considering how to write your dissertation prospectus, put yourself in the shoes of an expert in your subject who holds a different opinion from yours but is not unsympathetic to your case. Consider every argument that an informed critic could make. You won’t likely be able to address all of these problems, so your prospectus should be open about any areas where you have reservations. Alternatively, the committee might wrongly approve it and send you on two-year research that will produce an unwarranted dissertation. So, it is imperative to provide a strong justification in the prospectus.
