PhD Tips: The Dissertation Proposal – Helpful Advice

photo credit: JaseCurtis

Introduction

If you are applying to a dissertation only PhD program (as in the U.K or Europe), your main point of entry will occur through your dissertation proposal.

This document, which is relatively small in size given its importance to your future research, provides a basic outline for the academic inquiry you are planning to carry out during your PhD program.

In this post, I wanted to give you two general tips for creating the dissertation proposal and a special download.

Sample Dissertation Proposal Instructions

For starters, I thought it best to give you some Dissertation Proposal Instructions.  This allows you to see the elements of a proposal and how they should be constructed.

You can download the instructions by clicking on the link here:

Sample Dissertation Proposal Instructions

These are the same instructions I used to create my dissertation proposal for entry into the London School of Theology’s PhD program (well, technically into their masters program and if I convince enough people in due time, they will upgrade me to PhD status!)

Helpful Advice in Preparing Your Dissertation Proposal

#1 – Plan to spend some good quality time on your dissertation proposal

The proposal that I turned in for my research program could not be longer that 5 pages (not counting a one page bibliography).

Wow!  Talk about a challenge.  It was harder writing those five pages than any 30+ exegesis paper I every completed in seminary.

I probably spent a good two months on my dissertation proposal (on and off).

There were a ton of resources I had to look up in order to get a feel for my area of academic inquiry.  I was interested in doing research on leadership in the New Testament and on the Miletus Speech in Acts 20:17-38, specifically.

This required inquiry on Acts in general, the speeches in Acts, and then that particular speech.

Once I did that, then I had to look for a particular research / methodological angle in which I would try to situate my study.

Again, the amount of research I did for that little five-page paper was immense, but so well worth it.  Once I began my program I was already so well-informed on many aspects of my topic.

#2 – Your Dissertation Proposal Is Not Set In Stone

This may sound counterproductive, but don’t worry too much about being locked into your dissertation proposal during your PhD career.  I covered this at length in my post The Dreaded Dissertation Topic (A Flexible Evolution in Thinking).

You will have flexibility to tweak your dissertation inquiry or to change it almost whole cloth once you are in your program.  I don’t know whether that encourages you or deflates you.

Getting a PhD is essentially completing a series of goals.  Your first goal is to get in with a good proposal.  But after that, if a better or slightly different topic comes up through additional research then you have flexibility in changing course.  This is the nature of research and actually demonstrates that you are acquiring the necessary PhD skills.

Conclusion

That’s about all for this post.

Many blessings to those of you who are just starting to think about your PhD.  It is a most exciting (and rewarding venture).

Til next time,

Happy researching!