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Writing a Prospectus
There are many different kinds of prospectuses for different purposes. Ph.D. students are asked to submit dissertation prospectuses to their committees; most research grant applications require them; academic job candidates often include short prospectuses with their application materials; and book publishers request them as part of the process of considering a manuscript for publication. Editors of journals and essay volumes may also request a prospectus of a proposed article. These different kinds of prospectuses differ mostly in regard to the length and detail with which the project is described. Dissertation prospectuses can run anywhere from 5 to 30 pages, depending on the amount of detail requested of the student, while grant and job applications generally require brevity (1-2 single-spaced pages for a job application; 3-5 single-spaced pages for many grants). It is highly likely that before a major project is published, 3 or 4 different kinds of prospectuses will have been written for it.
A dissertation prospectus is a Ph.D. students attempt to describe a dissertation project, including the central problem, puzzle or question to be addressed, the existing literature, and how the project might add to that literature.
Below you will find general information. When in doubt you should always consult your department and faculty advisors. Academic writing is discipline specific, so one size definately doesn't fit all.
Think about your audience. Most of the members of your dissertation committee will know a lot about your area of research. But this may not be true, for example, of committee members from outside the department. It is even less likely that readers of job or grant applications or book editors will be familiar with the particular area of scholarship in which you work. It is therefore important that your prospectus convey its subject matter in as clear a fashion as possible, and that it not make too many demands upon its readers in regard to knowing specialized terminology or about debates within a given field. Your prospectus should be meaningful and interesting to an intelligent general reader. What readers look for in a good prospectus. In most cases, prospectuses are being reviewed because people are considering entrusting you with something: the freedom of advancing to candidacy; a job; grant money; a book contract. They need to know if their trust will be well placed, and that you are a good bet to follow through on your proposed work. Questions that often arise in this regard are as follows:
Your prospectus should address the first of these concerns head-on and show the reader exactly why your project is important, interesting, and, if possible, relevant to broad (human/social/political/cultural) concerns. The second two questions are a little tougher to address. Often, they emerge because the project appears to be too broad or ambitious in scope or not yet completely formulated. Or perhaps the readers have concerns about the author's scholarship. If you are concerned that your dissertation prospectus describes a project that appears too big to be successfully completed, you should discuss this with your dissertation director; this might be a signal that you need to reconsider your project's structure. As for the scholarship issue, you can best address this by making sure to show that you are completely in charge of the scholarly apparatus of your project: you know what you're talking about in regard to the scholarly debates, and you give sufficient (and the right) citations. (A negative example: if you say you're the first person to study a particular topic, you had better be right!) Dissertations are works in progress. If you have read these suggestions in preparation for writing a dissertation prospectus, you may be feeling overwhelmed. Perhaps you worry that you don't know how to address all the issues raised in the five key questions outlined above. This is probably because your dissertation topic and/or organization has not been thoroughly worked out yet. Indeed, many students find it hard to be decisive about the shape, topic, and issues in a dissertation until they are well into the writing (which is why more advanced students tend to write better prospectuses than those just starting their research, and, not coincidentally, compete better for jobs and grants). If your dissertation is still in its early stages, you may have to bluff a little to produce a cogent prospectus, and even resign yourself to remaining a bit speculative in places about features of your project. But you should also see whatever difficulties you have in writing your prospectus as diagnostic of the work have yet to do in planning your dissertation: if you are having trouble articulating the topic, you probably need to think it through more thoroughly; if you are uncomfortable with your rationale for undertaking the project, perhaps you need to do more research on previous approaches; if you have trouble summarizing your chapters, perhaps you need to spend some time on either the organization of the dissertation or on the content of the individual chapters. This exercise is worth the effort: a dissertation prospectus will probably be the first draft of all the other prospectuses to follow.
Sample Lists of texts in J. Willard Marriott Library
Dissertation proposal guidebook : how to prepare a research proposal and get it accepted ( LB2369 .G26)
Theses and dissertations : a guide to writing in the social and physical sciences ( LB2369 .T44 1997)
Theses and dissertations : a guide to planning, research, and writing ( LB2369 .T458 2000)
Completing dissertations in the behavioral sciences and education ( LB2369 .L65 1985)
Proposals that work : a guide for planning dissertations and grant proposals ( Q180.55.P7 L63 2007)
Dissertation solutions : a concise guide to planning, implementing, and surviving the dissertation process ( LB2369 .A94 2012)
Avoiding thesis and dissertation pitfalls : 61 cases of problems and solutions ( LB2369 .T457 2001)
Faq- prospectus.
A dissertation prospectus is a document that shows the researcher’s plan for the dissertation project. This document should provide enough information to verify the need for their study, the way it is situated amongst existing literature, and how the research will be facilitated. A committee will use this document to verify the viability of a study and to start the conversation regarding where the research could go or other potential avenues to explore.
Note: The prospectus is only the initial starting point, so the focus of the study may change as you continue to research and develop your ideas.
The dissertation will follow the format of the prospectus template . It is primarily modeled after the professional version of APA 7th edition, but does require minor deviations.
The prospectus is generally a minimum of 15 pages, is double-spaced, and includes an extensive reference section. Remember that the prospectus is the initial plan. While a fair amount of information and evidence is necessary to show a firm foundation, it should not be exhaustive. Provide the information that is necessary in a concise and clear manner.
The prospectus will consist of the following sections/components:
The title of your dissertation should be relevant, clear, concise, and informative.
Focus: Can your readers determine the focus and topic of your research?
Approach: Does indicating your approach help the reader to determine the overall impact on your results?
Specificity: Were you specific enough about the factors or aspects studied?
Examples: UNDERSTANDING THE EXPERIENCES OF WOMEN STUDENT VETERANS DURING THEIR TRANSITION PROCESS FROM THE MILITARY INTO HIGHER EDUCATION: IDENTITY, BELONGING, AND VOICE IN WRITING COURSES AND WRITING ASSIGNMENTS IN OTHER DISCIPLINES (Broding, 2020)
THREE CASE STUDIES IN QUANTITATIVE APPROACHES TO AGROECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT (Baird, 2019)
What is the central problem that your research will address? The existence and extent of this problem should be verified with research.
Context: Explain the depth of the problem with enough information for readers to understand the reason it is an issue
Issue: State the problem clearly and precisely
Importance: Indicate who it influences or what would happen if this problem were not solved.
Objective: Situate your research here. What will you achieve with your research? What is your aim? ( tense: future simple – This study will…. )
From the context of your problem background, identify specific problems that your research aims to address. These should be stated in a single sentence format (at most two) and be supported with a citation.
Note: The problem statements should link to the research questions
The purpose of the study will explain, in simple terms, what the point of the study is. You can think of this as identifying the research type, direction, purpose (reason for it), and what the overall goal is.
Begin the sentence with: “The purpose of this (qualitative/quantitative/mixed methods) study is to (insert action verb).
Action verbs for qualitative studies: explore, understand, describe, etc.
Action verbs for quantitative studies: examine, analyze, predict, etc.
The framework will indicate the structure and basis of your proposed research. For more information on frameworks, see the framework page.
Indicate a research question(s) that derive from the problem statements previously mentioned.
Specific: Does each question focus on one issue/problem?
Clear: Does your reader understand what you are researching?
Legitimate: Is it a question (open-ended) and not a statement?
Answerable: Can you answer the question that you have asked with the resources and time you have available?
What is the long-term benefit of outdoor recreation treatment facilities in the treatment of alcohol abuse and how much time is needed for this benefit to become viable for participants? (2 questions) | What is the long-term benefit of outdoor recreation treatment facilities in the treatment of alcohol abuse? What is the duration needed for a participant to complete in an outdoor treatment facility to attain the long term benefits of the program? | |
Why are social networking sites harmful? | How do social networking sites contribute to instances of bullying in adolescents from 12-17? | |
Are wise strategies impactful on student motivation to revise assignments? (yes/no question) | How impactful are wise strategies on student motivation to revise assignments? | |
How will the world’s economy recover after the COVID-19 pandemic? (think of time and scope) | How was the American economy impacted by the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic? |
Explain your proposed method, research design, required data, data collection method, and data analysis methodology.
Note: This is a plan for a future study, so future simple is used.
Method: Qualitative, quantitative, mixed
Research design: Evaluation, action research, correlational, quasi-experimental, grounded theory, phenomenological, etc.
Data: What data is needed? (Primary/secondary?)
Data collection method: Survey, questionnaire, interview, observation, focus group, etc.
Data analysis methodology: exploratory analysis, descriptive analysis, regression analysis, etc.
Consider aspects like: location of study, time frame, participants, sampling, etc.
Indicate the potential impact of your study.
Contribution: How will your findings contribute to your field?
Gap: What will your research add to the gap you identified?
Benefit: Who will benefit most from this research?
The references typically span 3-5 pages. All references should be formatted using APA 7th edition. See the APA page for further information on properly formatting your references.
Samples of Prospectuses
The prospectus will be completed in the second year of your doctoral program during the RES721 course.
For suggestions on what you can be working on now to prepare for your dissertation, please see here .
For help on the prospectus, you can see the list of services the Doctoral Writing Center provides here .
In the third year doctoral students prepare a dissertation prospectus and present it at the prospectus conference, which is held yearly during the third week in January.
The conference is a forum in which students share their ideas with faculty and colleagues, and receive suggestions as they begin to research and write their dissertation.
Following the conference, advisors may either approve the prospectus, or ask the student to revise it. It is suggested that students begin working on the prospectus immediately after passing the general exam , so that they are adequately prepared.
Statement of thesis.
What is the problem you wish to study and what is its interest or significance in current historical thinking? State clearly and concisely how you presently conceive this problem and how you suppose it can be resolved.
What work has, and has not, been done in this field and on this problem? Discuss relevant scholarship critically. It is not necessary to criticize specific failings; but show what is understood to be the merits and limitations of relevant works. How do you propose to develop, challenge, or depart from existing positions or themes in historical literature?
Outline an approach to the subject. If the conception has theoretical aspects, discuss them critically. Have scholars in other fields developed concepts of potential interest to the topic? Think about method and theory, even if there is a decision not to engage much with external perspectives and theory. The faculty neither encourages nor discourages such engagement, but cautions that original historical work should not simply illustrate other people's ideas.
Give an account of the sources for the subject. Stress primary sources, the difficulties they present, their location (print, manuscript, or any other form), and their accessibility. Identify the principal libraries and repositories as well as other locations and persons. Do not overlook unpublished doctoral or master's research.
Draft a tentative chapter outline and schedule of tasks and stages for the writing of the dissertation. Allow time for research, travel to collections, writing, and revision.
List the primary and secondary sources used to develop the prospectus.
Presentations last for 30 minutes. For the first 15 minutes students present their prospectus, and the remaining 15 minutes are reserved for questions from the audience. By December 2nd, the graduate coordinator will ask for three pieces of information as a prelude to the conference:
1. Provisional title of the presentation 2. Requests for audio/visual equipment 3. Names of faculty members who should be invited to the presentation.
By January 13 candidates will submit a 15-20 page written prospectus to the graduate coordinator that forms the basis of the presentation. The prospectus should include a select bibliography and the names of archives in which research will be conducted. For examples of last year's conference see the Graduate Student Resources site.
Before spring break in the G3 year, and after the G3 conference has occurred, the graduate student will initiate a meeting of their dissertation committee. The goal of this meeting is to generate additional feedback on the prospectus and set norms and milestones for the research and writing of the dissertation. If necessary, the chair of the dissertation committee may ask for revisions of the prospectus. The final version of the prospectus must be submitted to the Graduate Coordinator no later than June 30 (preferably much earlier) along with the approval form signed by the advisor.
The Education Resource Center recently held a workshop on preparing prospectuses and research proposals.
They’ve sent the slides and the recording so that we can use it as an additional resource.
If you have any questions, please contact the Anthropology Department Admin Team, and/or the current Director of Graduate Services.
Slides: How to write a Dissertation Prospectus_Proposal
Recording: the recording (with the chat and the video transcript) .
We also encourage you to take a look at the Level 2 PhD Progression Communication courses , since they can help you at different stages of your PhD (e.g., literature review, dissertation planning, etc.) and your writing (e.g. dealing with the writer’s block, editing, peer-review, etc.).
Please sign up here before taking any courses .
– Anthropology Graduate Programme Administrator
A dissertation prospectus is a paradoxical piece of writing. It is not an abstract (which is to say, a summary of a completed dissertation) or an introductory chapter of a dissertation, but rather an attempt to describe what is planned before it has actually been done. Since it is meant to be submitted soon after completion of the candidacy examination, it need not be a huge document. Indeed, it could be around fifteen double-spaced pages in length (roughly 3500-4000 words) with up to ten further pages of bibliography. As indicated, the prospectus should provide a preliminary description of the proposed dissertation. It should delineate what topic and area the dissertation will explore; discuss why this topic and area merit such exploration; and include a provisional chapter outline and as complete a bibliography as possible. The outline should be as precise as possible, even if it is very likely to be modified in the course of writing the dissertation.
Finding, defining, and communicating a topic that is at once significant and of realistic scope are tasks that require discussion and cooperation between the dissertation writer and faculty members. Therefore, the dissertation writer is encouraged to show drafts of the prospectus to his or her dissertation committee and other faculty members. After these initial consultations, the writer will submit the final version of the prospectus for formal approval by the committee. The committee will then meet collectively with the candidate to discuss the project and its implementation.
There is no single recipe for a good dissertation prospectus. But all writers should answer, to the best of their abilities at this early stage of research, certain fundamental questions:
· What is the central problem that the dissertation will address? This problem can be theoretical, critical, or historical; but it should, in most cases, be presented as a question or related set of questions to which the dissertation will attempt to find answers. It is important that the problem and hypothetical answers be stated from the outset, so that your research will not risk becoming random, and your exposition will not lapse into mere description. The sense that an argument is being made should be constantly kept in mind.
· To persuade your reader that you are not just reinventing the wheel or restating what has already been said, you should include a brief review of the present “state of the art” with respect to your topic. Has this topic been treated before? How does your approach differ from earlier ones? Has new evidence appeared (for example, a new primary source) since previous treatments?
Outlining a sequence of potential chapters will help you clarify the argument of your dissertation and check the balance of its parts in relation to one another. A chapter should be conceived as approximately 30-40 double-spaced pages. If the major sections of your dissertation seem likely to exceed this length, plan to subdivide them. A finished dissertation is generally 200-300 pages long. You will find that developing an outline helps your thinking to move forward substantially, so that the actual writing of the dissertation is more clearly focused.
Once you have drafted your prospectus under the guidance of your dissertation committee, you might want to have it read by someone who knows nothing about your topic, to see whether you have clearly set out your problem and defined a workable method. Seeking out a general reader right at the start is a good reminder that although you may be writing on a specialized topic, your dissertation should be written in clear, intelligible prose. Make sure you define the theoretical categories you are introducing, and try to avoid technical jargon unless it is necessary to the intricacies of your argument.
Prospectuses and dissertations tend to either lose themselves in detail, or to be too general. To avoid this, try to do what you would in any paper you write: make sure that your main argument remains clearly above ground, and that each paragraph has a clear connection with the ones preceding and following it. The prospectus is not a mini-dissertation, and need not involve more time in writing and revising than another paper of comparable length. Yet enough care and stylistic grace should be exercised so that the prospectus clearly and concisely articulates the project, its arguments, methods, and special considerations in a manner that anyone in interdisciplinary studies can grasp.
Writing a dissertation or thesis proposal, what is a proposal, what is the purpose of a proposal.
The proposal, sometimes called the prospectus, is composed mainly of the Introduction, Research Questions, Literature Review, Research Significance and Methodology. It may also include a dissertation/thesis outline and a timeline for your proposed research. You will be able to reuse the proposal when you actually write the entire dissertation or thesis.
In the graduate student timeline, the proposal comes after successfully passing qualifying or comprehensive exams and before starting the research for a dissertation or thesis.
Each UNT department has slightly different proposal requirements, so be sure to check with your advisor or the department's graduate advisor before you start!
The purpose of a proposal is to convince your dissertation or thesis committee that you are ready to start your research project and to create a plan for your dissertation or thesis work. You will submit your proposal to your committee for review and then you will do your proposal defense, during which you present your plan and the committee asks questions about it. The committee wants to know if your research questions have academic merit and whether you have chosen the right methods to answer the questions.
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A dissertation prospectus is a paradoxical piece of writing. It is not an abstract (which is to say, a summary of a completed dissertation) or an introductory chapter of a dissertation, but rather an attempt to describe what is planned before it has actually been done. Since it is meant to be submitted within six months after completion of the general examination, it need not be a huge document. Indeed, it could be around ten double-spaced pages in length (roughly 2500-3000 words) with up to ten further pages of bibliography. As indicated, the prospectus should provide a preliminary description of the proposed dissertation. It should delineate what topic and area the dissertation will explore; discuss why this topic and area merit such exploration; and include a provisional chapter outline. The outline, which can be in narrative form, should be as precise as possible, even if it is likely to be modified in the course of writing the dissertation.
Finding, defining, and communicating a topic that is at once significant and of realistic scope are tasks that require discussion and cooperation between the dissertation writer and faculty members. Therefore, the dissertation writer is encouraged to show drafts of the prospectus to his or her dissertation committee and other faculty members. After these initial consultations, the writer will submit the final version of the prospectus for formal approval by the committee. The committee will then meet collectively with the candidate to discuss the project and its implementation.
There is no single recipe for a good dissertation prospectus. But all writers should answer, to the best of their abilities at this early stage of research, certain fundamental questions:
• What is the central problem that the dissertation will address? This problem can be theoretical, critical, or historical; but it should, in most cases, be presented as a question or related set of questions to which the dissertation will attempt to find answers. It is important that the problem and hypothetical answers be stated from the outset, so that your research will not risk becoming random, and your exposition will not lapse into mere description. The sense that an argument is being made should be constantly kept in mind.
• To persuade your reader that you are not just reinventing the wheel or restating what has already been said, you should include a brief review of the present “state of the art” with respect to your topic. Has this topic been treated before? How does your approach differ from earlier ones? Has new evidence appeared (for example, a new primary source) since previous treatments? However, to preserve collegiality with previous generations of scholars, it is essential not to play games of upstaging for the sake of self-promotion. (“My predecessor blundered [or even made a mistake] in not noticing what I have noticed.”)
• Outlining a sequence of potential chapters will help you clarify the argument of your thesis and check the balance of its parts in relation to one another. A chapter should be conceived as approximately 30-40 double-spaced pages. If the major sections of your dissertation seem likely to exceed this length, plan to subdivide them. A finished dissertation is generally 200-300 pages long. You will find that developing an outline helps your thinking to move forward substantially, so that the actual writing of the dissertation is more clearly focused.
• Once you have drafted your prospectus under the guidance of your thesis committee, you might want to have it read by someone who knows nothing about your topic, to see whether you have clearly set out your problem and defined a workable method. Seeking out a general reader right at the start is a good reminder that although you may be writing on a specialized topic, your thesis should be written in clear, intelligible prose. Make sure you define the theoretical categories you are introducing, and try to avoid technical jargon unless it is necessary to the intricacies of your argument.
• Remember that you are undertaking to write a book . You ought therefore to think about that book as a whole, rather than as merely a series of separate essays. What overall message would you like the reader to take away from reading your book? Try to formulate your subject and your intended destination in a simple sentence or two; make sure that you locate this statement in a prominent place within your introduction.
In thinking about your future book, you would do well to try to place it in a broader field than the one it addresses. That is, as of now, you have a rather good command of current thinking with regard to your book’s overall field. Indeed, you are currently something of an authority. How is your book going to change peoples’ ideas, add to the present picture, or revise commonly held views? Thinking in these terms should help you formulate your project for someone who is not immersed in its field.
Prospectuses and theses tend to either lose themselves in detail, or to be too general. To avoid this, try to do what you would in any paper you write: make sure that your main argument remains clearly above ground, and that each paragraph has a clear connection with the ones preceding and following it. The prospectus is not a mini-dissertation, and need not involve more time in writing and revising than another paper of comparable length. Yet enough care and stylistic grace should be exercised so that the prospectus clearly and concisely articulates the project, its arguments, methods, and special considerations in a manner that anyone in literary studies can grasp.
Kathy Hanley (Graduate Program Coordinator)
A prospectus is a formal proposal of a research project developed to convince a reader (a professor or research committee, or later in life, a project coordinator, funding agency, or the like) that the research can be carried out and will yield worthwhile results. It should provide:
A prospectus is normally accompanied by a bibliography, often annotated, which lists sources you have consulted or plan to consult for your research. In cases where the texts studied exist in multiple editions or in translation, the bibliography should normally state which edition, text, or translation you will be using and why. You also should include a Prospectus Cover Sheet (Word) , complete with the signature of your director and second reader.
Contents: In most cases, a prospectus will begin with an overview of existing scholarship, summarizing basic arguments relevant to the project. It will then position the project with reference to this scholarship. For this reason, the prospectus will demonstrate that you have conducted enough preliminary research to be able to design a relevant project and carry it through relatively independently. Since at this stage much research remains to be done, a thesis statement usually does not follow this introduction. Instead, include a statement of hypothesis or of the central research questions. The prospectus should then offer an overview of the project organization. If the project is large enough for chapters, include a breakdown of them. If special skills or assistance such as foreign language competency, access to archives or special collections, technical skills, or access to technical equipment are needed to complete your project, the prospectus should address your preparation in these areas. Part of your goal is, in essence, to "sell" your research supervisors on both your project and yourself as a researcher. Cover the ground well, presenting yourself and your project as intellectually convincing.
Developing an initial prospectus will help faculty understand where you are in the research process and help you bring focus to your research throughout the experience. Because it lays out a framework for your project, the prospectus can provide you with direction during the inevitable moments when you feel overwhelmed or lost. And because you have already clearly demonstrated your ability to carry out your research project, the prospectus can serve to reinforce your confidence and help keep you on track for a timely completion.
Beyond its relevance to your current research project, a prospectus helps you sharpen several important skills. Because a good prospectus demands concise, informative writing, composing one will help hone your writing style. In asking you to persuasively describe a compelling project and establish your ability to carry it out, it draws on abilities applicable to a variety of situations in and out of the academy, such as scholarship and funding applications, proposals for research forums, conferences, or publications, job applications, and preparation for larger and more complex research projects such as those found in Ph.D. programs and a variety of professional settings. The skill is so important that some people—grant writers—make a profession out of writing prospectuses.
All candidates must, in consultation with their advisors, select a dissertation topic and describe their proposed doctoral research in a prospectus. The prospectus should:
The prospectus will normally be written in the G3 year after the general examination , drawing on their work in the Research Design/Proposal Writing course.
The candidate will discuss and defend the prospectus before his or her dissertation committee. The prospectus defense should take place prior to the beginning of dissertation fieldwork. Completion of the Human Subjects compliance forms and approval of them by Harvard’s Institutional Review Board must be completed before dissertation field work can begin (see the IRB website ).
No more than 25-30 double-spaced pages, exclusive of the bibliography and any figures.
Upon successful defense of the prospectus, all students are required to present their prospectus projects in the Spring Anthropology Prospectus Symposium normally held annually in early May.
Center for Digital Scholarship
Dissertations must comply with the specifications set by the Library, by the author's department, and by the University. Departments, divisions, and schools may have requirements in addition to those described in this booklet. Students are responsible for informing themselves of these additional requirements.
The Dissertation Office provides information on the University’s dissertation policies. We help doctoral students understand dissertation formatting and submission requirements, and we assist with the submission process. Students are welcome to contact us with questions.
Web: phd.lib.uchicago.edu Email: [email protected] Phone: 773-702-7404 Visit: Suite 104D, Center for Digital Scholarship, Regenstein Library
Routine Hours: Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Actual hours vary to accommodate meetings, workshops, and training. The office is often closed during the interim between quarters.
Doctoral dissertations are original contributions to scholarship. As a condition for receipt of the doctorate, all students are required to submit their dissertations to Knowledge@UChicago, the University’s open access repository. If a dissertation includes copyrighted material beyond fair use, the author must obtain permission from the holder of the copyright.
The public sharing of original dissertation research is a principle to which the University is deeply committed, and dissertations should be made available to the scholarly community at the University of Chicago and elsewhere in a timely manner. If dissertation authors are concerned that making their research publicly available might endanger research subjects or themselves, jeopardize a pending patent, complicate publication of a revised dissertation, or otherwise be unadvisable, they may, in consultation with faculty in their field (and as appropriate, research collaborators), restrict access to their dissertation for a limited period of time according to the guidelines outlined by the Dissertation Office. If a dissertation author needs to renew an embargo at the end of its term or initiate an embargo after graduation, the author must contact the Dissertation Office with the embargo request. Embargo renewals may be approved only in rare instances, and in general no more than one renewal will be allowed.
All dissertations must follow the formatting and submission requirements stated in the University-Wide Requirements for the Ph.D. Dissertation , available from the Dissertation Office on the first floor of the Joseph Regenstein Library in the Center for Digital Scholarship.
Academic Policies
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Normative time schedule.
Year | Term | Goals |
---|---|---|
First Year | First Semester | Coursework, including 200A |
Second Semester | Coursework, including 200B (for human geographers). Identify the main advisor and theme for the analytical field. | |
Second Year | First Semester | Coursework, including 200C (for human geographers). Meet w/advisors systematically. Identify the qualifying exam committee. |
Second Semester | Coursework. Finalize qualifying exam/ dissertation committee. Identify three fields for oral exams and prepare qualifying exam lists. Start work on the prospectus. Start work on analytic field statement (human geographers) or analytic paper (physical geographers). | |
Third Year | First Semester | Coursework, if appropriate. Continue preparing for the qualifying exam. Apply for dissertation research grants. |
Second Semester | Finalize analytic field statement (or analytic paper) and prospectus. Take the qualifying exam. Finalize dissertation committee Hold dissertation prospectus meeting. File application to advance to candidacy. | |
Fourth Year | First Semester | Begin dissertation research. |
Second Semester | Continue dissertation research. | |
Fifth Year | First Semester | Continue dissertation research if needed. Begin dissertation writing. |
Second Semester | Dissertation writing. | |
Sixth Year | First Semester | Dissertation writing. |
Second Semester | Finish dissertation and file. Exit talk. |
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
In this article, I'll provide an example outline of a dissertation prospectus, discuss the basics of how to write a dissertation prospectus, and also explore the similarities between writing a prospectus and asking someone on a date.
A dissertation prospectus or proposal describes what or who you plan to research for your dissertation: as well as why, when, where, and how.
Put most simply, the dissertation prospectus should offer a provisional account of (1) what your argument is, (2) why it matters, and (3) what body of evidence you will draw on to substantiate it. Your "argument" might be expressed as a focused research question, as a hypothesis, or as a tentative thesis.
Expect a few rounds of revisions! Use this as practice for the dissertation. Start identifying recurring feedback. Practice asking for high and low-order feedback. Createaccountability- deadlines, writing. groups. Steps 5 & 6: Submit and Approve!
When starting your thesis or dissertation process, one of the first requirements is a research proposal or a prospectus. It describes what or who you want to examine, delving into why, when, where, and how you will do so, stemming from your research question and a relevant topic.
The prospectus, or proposal, is the first step of your dissertation. It serves as a plan for your project, an identification of your research goals and method (s), and an articulation of the importance of your work. Alongside its preparation, you will also select members of your committee, who will provide you with important feedback.
Dividing the dissertation prospectus into smaller sections and writing one section at a time in a logical order and addressing all instructor feedback for each section allows students to complete the prospectus in a more manageable way.
A dissertation prospectus or proposal describes what or who you plan to research for your dissertation. It delves into why, when, where, and how you will do your research, as well as helps you choose a type of research to pursue.
A dissertation prospectus is a Ph.D. students attempt to describe a dissertation project, including the central problem, puzzle or question to be addressed, the existing literature, and how the project might add to that literature.
Dissertation Prospectus. After successful completion of the A.C.E. examinations, a dissertation research prospectus is to be submitted for provisional approval by each of the three faculty members working with the student. This prospectus is longer and more detailed than the proposals submitted to granting agencies to obtain research funds.
The prospectus is an overview of your vision for your dissertation: its major claims and contributions, and how you will complete the research and writing.
A dissertation prospectus is a document that shows the researcher's plan for the dissertation project. This document should provide enough information to verify the need for their study, the way it is situated amongst existing literature, and how the research will be facilitated. A committee will use this document to verify the viability of a ...
In the third year doctoral students prepare a dissertation prospectus and present it at the prospectus conference, which is held yearly during the third week in January. The conference is a forum in which students share their ideas with faculty and colleagues, and receive suggestions as they begin to research and write their dissertation.
How to Write a Dissertation Prospectus/Proposal The Education Resource Center recently held a workshop on preparing prospectuses and research proposals.
Dissertation Prospectus The dissertation prospectus is specific to each discipline, but in its broadest outline it is a document that explains in detail the thesis project, the critical and theoretical instruments used to approach it, the existing scholarship on the subject, and the original contribution that the proposed project entails. The aim of the prospectus is to persuade a panel of ...
Dissertation Prospectus. A dissertation prospectus is a paradoxical piece of writing. It is not an abstract (which is to say, a summary of a completed dissertation) or an introductory chapter of a dissertation, but rather an attempt to describe what is planned before it has actually been done. Since it is meant to be submitted soon after ...
What Is a Proposal? The proposal, sometimes called the prospectus, is composed mainly of the Introduction, Research Questions, Literature Review, Research Significance and Methodology. It may also include a dissertation/thesis outline and a timeline for your proposed research. You will be able to reuse the proposal when you actually write the entire dissertation or thesis.
The Prospectus Brief should be between five and ten pages, double-spaced, excluding the bibliography. It should have a title for the research project (not necessarily the definitive title of the dissertation) and consists of a summary of the research area to be covered by the Comprehensive Exam plus a working bibliography.
The dissertation prospectus is the formal document you present to your PhD Supervisory Committee once you have achieved candidacy and are preparing to move on to the dissertation as your full-time project. Normally you should plan to make this prospectus available to your committee soon after you are officially designated a candidate for the ...
Prospectus Guidelines A dissertation prospectus is a paradoxical piece of writing. It is not an abstract (which is to say, a summary of a completed dissertation) or an introductory chapter of a dissertation, but rather an attempt to describe what is planned before it has actually been done.
The dissertation prospectus is a 20-25 page document that gives a road map for the proposed dissertation, arguing for its feasibility and significance to the field. Below you will find a template outlining the elements of a strong prospectus. Please be advised that one of the crucial ingredients of a successful
GUIDELINES FOR PREPARING A DISSERTATION PROSPECTUS Length requirements: 5-10 pages, double-spaced. Students are encouraged to write about their proposed dissertation research as concisely as possible while outlining the central research question/problem, methodology, and organization. The prospectus demonstrates the student's potential ability to undertake the research required to complete ...
Writing a Research Prospectus. A prospectus is a formal proposal of a research project developed to convince a reader (a professor or research committee, or later in life, a project coordinator, funding agency, or the like) that the research can be carried out and will yield worthwhile results. It should provide: a working title for your project,
Dissertation Prospectus - Social Anthropology All candidates must, in consultation with their advisors, select a dissertation topic and describe their proposed doctoral research in a prospectus. The prospectus should: Give a concise statement of the problem to be addressed in the dissertation or of the hypotheses it proposes to test.
or three hours (for a dissertation). • If you apply for . Degree Only, your deadlines are different from those of other degree candidates. During your graduating semester, the Graduate School must have approved your thesis or dissertation by the final day for adding a class in the semester of graduation. See the Graduate Calendar. Submit your ...
If dissertation authors are concerned that making their research publicly available might endanger research subjects or themselves, jeopardize a pending patent, complicate publication of a revised dissertation, or otherwise be unadvisable, they may, in consultation with faculty in their field (and as appropriate, research collaborators ...
dissertation proposal should be held in the fourth year, or earlier. The dissertation itself should be completed by the end of the fifth year. ... As they begin to prepare their prospectus, students can discuss their topic ideas with their mentor. The mentor can assist with topic identification and conceptualization.
EDD Prospectus Form Students | Complete your EDD project study or EdD dissertation prospectus using this form. Write using a scholarly tone and include in-text citations and APA 7 reference entries, where appropriate.The stem sentence prompts should not be altered or removed as this helps you to write a grammatically correct problem and purpose statements.
Apply for dissertation research grants. Second Semester: Finalize analytic field statement (or analytic paper) and prospectus. Take the qualifying exam. Finalize dissertation committee Hold dissertation prospectus meeting. File application to advance to candidacy. Fourth Year: First Semester: Begin dissertation research. Second Semester
The dissertation prospectus and workshop requirements can generally be fulf illed by satisfactorily presenting a "second" paper in a department workshop. This paper must be "significantly distinct" from the paper presented for the oral component of the comprehensive exam. The dissertation advisor determines the nature of dissertation