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How to Write a Literature Review for a Dissertation Proposal

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A dissertation proposal describes the research you want to practice: what information technology's about, how you'll carry it, and why it's worthwhile. Y'all will probably have to write a proposal before starting your dissertation every bit an undergraduate or postgraduate student.

A dissertation proposal should generally include:

  • An introduction to your topic and aims
  • A literature reviewof the current state of cognition
  • An outline of your proposed methodology
  • A discussion of the possible implications of the research
  • A bibliographyof relevant sources

Dissertation proposals vary a lot in terms of length and structure, so make sure to follow whatever guidelines given to yous by your institution, and check with your supervisor when you're unsure.

Stride 1: Coming up with an thought

Before writing your proposal, it's important to come up up with a strong idea for your dissertation.

Find an area of your field that interests yous and exercise some preliminary reading in that area. What are the fundamental concerns of other researchers? What do they suggest every bit areas for further research, and what strikes you personally as an interesting gap in the field?

Once you have an idea, consider how to narrow information technology down and the best way to frame it. Don't be too ambitious or besides vague – a dissertation topic needs to be specific enough to exist feasible. Move from a wide field of involvement to a specific niche:

  • Russian literature 19th century Russian literature The novels of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky
  • Social media Mental health effects of social media Influence of social media on young adults suffering from anxiety

Step 2: Presenting your thought in the introduction

Like most academic texts, a dissertation proposal begins with an introduction. This is where you introduce the topic of your research, provide some background, and most importantly, present your aim, objectives and enquiry question(southward).

Hook

Try to dive straight into your chosen topic: What's at stake in your research? Why is information technology interesting? Don't spend too long on generalisations or grand statements:

  • Social media is the almost important technological trend of the 21st century. It has changed the world and influences our lives every day.
  • Psychologists generally agree that the ubiquity of social media in the lives of young adults today has a profound bear upon on their mental health. Nevertheless, the exact nature of this impact needs further investigation.

Context

Once your area of inquiry is clear, y'all can nowadays more groundwork and context. What does the reader need to know to empathize your proposed questions? What's the current state of research on this topic, and what will your dissertation contribute to the field?

If you're including a literature review, you don't demand to go into too much item at this point, but give the reader a full general sense of the debates that you're intervening in.

Aims

This leads you into the most important office of the introduction: your aim, objectives and research question(s). These should be clearly identifiable and stand out from the text – for instance, you lot could present them using bullet points or assuming font.

Brand sure that your inquiry questions are specific and workable – something you tin can reasonably respond inside the scope of your dissertation. Avoid beingness too broad or having too many dissimilar questions. Recall that your goal in a dissertation proposal is to convince the reader that your research is valuable and feasible:

  • Does social media impairment mental health?
  • What is the bear on of daily social media utilise on 18– to 25–yr–olds suffering from general anxiety disorder?

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Now that your topic is clear, it's time to explore existing research roofing similar ideas. This is important considering it shows you what is missing from other inquiry in the field and ensures that you're not request a question someone else has already answered.

You've probably already done some preliminary reading, but now that your topic is more clearly defined, you need to thoroughly analyse and evaluate the most relevant sources in your literature review.

Hither you should summarise the findings of other researchers and comment on gaps and problems in their studies. In that location may exist a lot of research to cover, and so brand effective use of paraphrasing to write concisely:

  • Smith and Prakash state that 'our results indicate a 25% decrease in the incidence of mechanical failure after the new formula was practical'.
  • Smith and Prakash's formula reduced mechanical failures by 25%.

The betoken is to identify findings and theories that will influence your own inquiry, but likewise to highlight gaps and limitations in previous research which your dissertation tin can address:

  • Subsequent research has failed to replicate this effect, even so, suggesting a flaw in Smith and Prakash's methods. It is likely that the failure resulted from…

Step 4: Describing your methodology

Next, y'all'll draw your proposed methodology: the specific things you lot hope to do, the construction of your research and the methods that you will utilize to assemble and analyse data.

Y'all should get quite specific in this section – y'all need to convince your supervisor that y'all've thought through your approach to the inquiry and tin can realistically carry information technology out. This section will expect quite different, and vary in length, depending on your bailiwick.

You may be engaged in more than empirical research, focusing on data drove and discovering new data, or more theoretical research, attempting to develop a new conceptual model or add nuance to an existing one.

Dissertation inquiry often involves both, but the content of your methodology department volition vary according to how important each approach is to your dissertation.

Empirical research

Empirical research involves collecting new data and analysing it in order to respond your research questions. It can exist quantitative (focused on numbers), qualitative (focused on words and meanings), or a combination of both.

With empirical inquiry, it's important to describe in item how yous plan to collect your data:

  • Will you use surveys? A lab experiment? Interviews?
  • What variables will you measure out?
  • How will you select a representative sample?
  • If other people will participate in your research, what measures will y'all accept to ensure they are treated ethically?
  • What tools (conceptual and physical) will you use, and why?

Information technology'south appropriate to cite other inquiry here. When you need to justify your choice of a particular research method or tool, for example, you tin can cite a text describing the advantages and advisable usage of that method.

Don't overdo this, though; you don't need to reiterate the whole theoretical literature, just what's relevant to the choices you have made.

Moreover, your research will necessarily involve analysing the data after you lot have collected information technology. Though you lot don't know yet what the data will look like, it'due south important to know what you're looking for and indicate what methods (e.g. statistical tests, thematic analysis) you will use.

Theoretical enquiry

You can also do theoretical research that doesn't involve original information collection. In this case, your methodology department will focus more on the theory you programme to work with in your dissertation: relevant conceptual models and the approach you intend to take.

For case, a literary analysis dissertation rarely involves collecting new data, but it's still necessary to explain the theoretical approach that will be taken to the text(due south) under discussion, every bit well as which parts of the text(south) you will focus on:

  • This dissertation will utilise Foucault's theory of panopticism to explore the theme of surveillance in Orwell'due south 1984 and Kafka's The Trial…

Here, you may refer to the same theorists you have already discussed in the literature review. In this case, the accent is placed on how y'all plan to use their contributions in your own research.

Stride five: Outlining the potential implications of your research

You'll usually conclude your dissertation proposal with a section discussing what you lot expect your research to achieve.

You patently tin can't exist too certain: you don't know yet what your results and conclusions will be. Instead, you should describe the projected implications and contribution to cognition of your dissertation.

First, consider the potential implications of your research. Will you:

  • Develop or test a theory?
  • Provide new information to governments or businesses?
  • Challenge a ordinarily held conventionalities?
  • Suggest an comeback to a specific process?

Describe the intended issue of your inquiry and the theoretical or practical impact it will take:

It is hoped that this research will contribute to the growing body of cognition apropos the link betwixt general anxiety disorder and social media usage. Its conclusions will have to potential to inform not but time to come inquiry but also clinical practise and outreach.

Finally, it's sensible to conclude by briefly restating the contribution to knowledge yous hope to brand: the specific question(southward) you promise to answer and the gap the answer(due south) will fill up in existing noesis:

The purpose of this dissertation is to reliably quantify the impact of daily social media apply on the mental wellbeing of young adults with general anxiety disorder. The effects of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram volition be measured separately, something which has not been achieved in the existing enquiry. This volition facilitate a more precise understanding of social media's relationship with anxiety.

Stride 6: Creating a reference list or bibliography

Like any academic text, it'due south of import that your dissertation proposal effectively references all the sources yous have used. Y'all need to include a properly formatted reference list or bibliography at the terminate of your proposal.

Different institutions recommend unlike styles of referencing – commonly used styles include Harvard, Vancouver, APA, or MHRA. If your department does non have specific requirements, cull a style and employ it consistently.

A reference listing includes only the sources that y'all cited in your proposal. A bibliography is slightly different: it can include every source you lot consulted in preparing the proposal, even if yous didn't mention it in the text. In the example of a dissertation proposal, a bibliography may also list relevant sources that you oasis't yet read, but that you intend to use during the research itself.

Check with your supervisor what type of bibliography or reference list you should include.

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Source: https://www.scribbr.co.uk/thesis-dissertation/proposal/

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