How do you create a thesis proposal that gets approved in the first go itself?
An ideal thesis proposal is the one that is robust and flexible at the same time. This is so, because, your thesis proposal is a blueprint for your thesis so it must be not only interesting and unique but also realistic and achievable at the same time so that you are able to accomplish it in available resources and in a reasonable frame of time.
Here you go with 5 easy steps that help you to draft that perfect proposal you have been dreaming about:
Choose the area of research that excites you: In the beginning, when you just begin your journey as a researcher, people around you, especially your supervisor would give you a lot of options with topics for research. One thing that you should be careful about is that, it should be something that creates the passion within you because regardless of what field you are researching in, you would have good days and bad days and during the bad days, it’s only your passion and enthusiasm that would help you to keep moving forward.
The research should be a good blend of novelty and established research:
The short cut here is that, start your research in an area where the methodology has been well established and would teach you the necessary skills that are compulsory for the field and then gives you the arena to expand the basics unexplored domains and novel
zones.
Establish a strong foundation of Literature Review:
You must have a strong base for your research objectives by having a thorough literature review that clearly surfaces out the gaps that you have identified in the existing research and how you intend to fill them. Without relevant and strong literature review, you may not be in a position to validate the objectives you have stated for your research.
The proposal should establish the time frame and methodology:
PhD is a time-consuming process and if you become too ambitious with your topic, you may not be able to anticipate the time frame required to complete the project and it may become unachievable. Your research methodology should be specific and clearly defined so that it is clear that you exactly know how would you achieve your objectives in the stipulated time.
Use simple and unambiguous language:
Ensure that you use simple and unambiguous language for your content. Using heavy or strong words to impress may work the other way round. Rather, you must simplify your content by using very simple and uncomplicated terminology.