How to Write a Thesis Proposal Outline

Having a good thesis proposal is essential for a number of reasons. First of all, it is the very first step of long and demanding work on your thesis or dissertation. Secondly, it includes the plan of the research, which you are going to conduct, so a decent outline will set the tone of your work and will make it organized and systematized. Finally, your proposal should be approved by your supervisor, and having a thorough outline will only increase your chances.

Topic

The thesis proposal aims at creating a particular and explicit topic that you can study thoroughly or set a specific question that you will seek to answer by conducting a research. In order to narrow your topic down, you can appeal to the technique of topic analysis. Take a wide subject and cut it down by brainstorming what particular part of it is interesting for you and at the same time has a strong potential for being researched.

Here are some questions regarding your topic that you need to cover in your thesis proposal:

• the issue, state of events, or the question you are going to study;
• how important it is to conduct exactly this research;
• whether there have been any previous researches of this particular topic and what their results were;
• which research methods and techniques you are going to use to make the analysis productive;
• what results you are expecting for and how they can be applied for further researches in the field or solving the problem.

Novelty

Remember that the best subject you can choose is the one balancing between novelty and sufficient amount of prior research. By doing this, you will be able to base your personal research on some background information and established methods and at the same time introduce some new and cutting edge vision.

Questions

Before asking questions in your thesis proposal, think of possible answers you might get. The questions that will make your research valuable are not the ones that give simple yes/no answers. Instead, come up with such questions that will give interesting and elaborate results.

Writing a thesis proposal is not the easiest thing to do. However, provided you make a plan and stick to it, you will be able to tackle this question successfully.