WU

Tracking progress in research writing

Ross Woods. Rev. 2020

To track progress reports from students writing theses and dissertations, institutions normally break them into stages: topic, proposal, literature review, methodology, data collection, analysis, implications, conclusion, and introduction. Depending on the methodology, students commonly do advanced edits of earlier sections while still writing rough notes of advanced sections. For example, the student might have polished the chapter on methodology while still writing the first draft of the analysis.

Both supervisors and students can monitor progress by assigning stages of development for each section, making an array or table. The table below is a simplification, because research papers usually go through more than three drafts.

Date of
Rough draft Date of
Developed draft Date of
Final draft

Topic

Proposal

Literature review

Methodology

Data collection

Analysis

Implications

Conclusion

Introduction

	Date of Rough draft	Date of Developed draft	Date of Final draft
Topic
Proposal
Literature review
Methodology
Data collection
Analysis
Implications
Conclusion
Introduction