WU

Practical plans

Feasibility

Evaluate what you anticipate to be feasible as early as possible. Check if the study concept and methodologies are practicable and executable given your restrictions in time, money, and people. This helps to determine the study plan's real-world feasibility, allowing you to eliminate unrealistic options in the planning stage and make any appropriate revisions and refinements.

Do a budget

Draw up a budget if your research incurs expenditure. Some researches have no financial outlay, while others might have substantial costs. A budget will be also be useful in your methodology chapter, and might be used for funding approvals.

Will you have research assistants?

If you plan to use research assistants, draw up a plan for recruiting and training them. This will also be useful in your methodology chapter.

Permission

List any permissions that you will need. For example, if you are doing research inside an organization you will normally need permission. With your supervisor's approval, get any necessary permissions. They will be necessary for your proposal to be acceptable.

Plan a schedule

Plan your goals and make a schedule for each of the steps. If you don't already have a deadline, make yourself one. The recommendations below give percentages of the total time for each stage:

Choose your topic and narrow it down: 10%
Proposal and review literature: 20%
Fieldwork and rough draft: 40%
Revise draft and prepare it for submission: 30%

In most institutions, it is unrealistic to complete a doctoral dissertation in only one year. However, if you wanted to finish a small project in a twelve-month period starting in August and finishing in May, here are some possible deadlines:

Topic finalized with supervisor: End of August
Proposal and literature review submitted: End of October
Fieldwork done and rough draft mostly complete: End of January
Final draft submitted ready for assessment: End of April
Assessment completed: End of May

💡 Scheduling tips

Presenting a timeline in a proposal is not difficult; it is just a set of deadlines and the activity to be finished by each one.
Keep your schedule tentative and don't make promises that you might not be able to keep. The trick is to provide caveats because you will almost certainly miss some deadlines due to unforeseeable delays, and you don't want to be blamed for missing deadlines.
If you plan to work with people who are usually suspicious of outsiders (e.g. as an ethnographer or linguist), you should normally plan for extra time to do some kind of orientation and build some kind of basic credibility. Your work will be easier if you can build relationships of friendship and trust.
You might be asked for a risk assessment with contingency plans, which will help with anything that doesn't go to plan. For anyone checking your timeline, it will demonstrate that you have planned well.
If the proposal and timeline is tied to a funding or industry contract, there could be other reasons that make the timeline relatively inflexible.

⚠ When you set your schedule, consider the consequences of going over time limits:

In fee-paying programs, students incur extra fees for each semester; if they take a long time, they simply pay extra fees and a low-fee program can become exceedingly expensive.
In funded programs and programs with fee reduction scholarships, the funding might hit a time limit, making the program more difficult for both the student and the institution.
Students who often miss schedule goals are at an increased risk of failing. They might be discouraged, stuck on a problem, or losing interest.
Many programs have an absolute time limit, and students are automatically failed if they don’t finish by that deadline. There is no chance of extension if an accreditor has set the time limit.

Full draft & submission

If you have followed this process so far, you should have all elements below. Assemble them to make a full first draft of your proposal. Although outlines and contents vary a little, it is fairly normal for a major proposal:

Introduction

The topic, written clearly, concisely and exactly.

The topic expressed as a research question or as a hypothesis (perhaps with sub-questions or sub-hypotheses)
The problem you will address
Background
Your reasons for selecting this particular topic, including:

The research gap.
Statement of significance

The purpose statement (This may be much narrower than the entire problem.)
Statement of scope or delimitations of your topic

Theoretical framework and any specific assumptions
Defined population(s)
Possible findings or outcomes
Definitions of any terminology that is either unique or has multiple meanings
Any other assumptions or delineations that arose as you go

Literature review
Methodology

Written notes of your methodology plan
Plan for research methods
Plan for developing and trialling any data collection tools
Method for selecting respondents
Plan for data analysis
Defined ethical compliance

Specific planning

A tentative schedule
A budget (if needed)
All permits (if needed)

Bibliography

Proposal submission

Then edit it all into one harmonious document. Put transitions between sections and paragraphs and check the layout so that it reads easily.

Polish your proposal ready to submit for approval. Edit it carefully, including all details of spelling, grammar, punctuation, language style, and layout. Check that you have accurately defined any specific terminology and concepts that would otherwise be ambiguous. Run it through a spell-checker and a grammar checker. Check the logic so that it all hangs together well.

When you submit your proposal, allow committee members at least a week to read it and get any ethical approvals.

Presentation

Some institutions also require students to give an oral presentation as well as their written proposal. It will probably only last about thirty minutes, and the committee may ask questions.

More (Link opens new window.)

Theses and dissertations

Finalizing a longer proposal