A proposal essay is usually written by a doctoral student and precedes a full fledged thesis. It is normally meant for the professor who acts as mentor under whose tutelage the thesis is to be written. It is a sense a synopsis of the paper that is to follow. The beginning of a proposal describes the thesis or rationale of the research that is to be done.

Any proposal for an intended dissertation should be original and amply explain the proposed thesis. The dissertation proposal should also explain the methodologies the student intends to use. The proposal also discusses briefly the plan that the student intends to follow, to finish the thesis.

A proposal paper can be in bullet form or it can be in prose form. The form that you actually use will depend on the subject of the thesis. A proposal in bullet form is more readily understood. However not all subjects can be broken down into point form. The downside of a proposal in point form is that you will not be able to give it a personal touch.

The first part of the proposal paper is the introduction. In this paragraph the thesis is introduced. The thesis is only a suggested hypothesis. Even so this suggested thesis should be an original proposition. In addition it should contain an explanation of the importance of the study. The student should clarify briefly how the proposition will be defended / supported.

The proposal paper should also provide information about the direction in which reasoning for the thesis will proceed. It should briefly enumerate the methods and tools that will be used in the research. In case any ethical issues are involved the proposal should explain these.

Invariably a thesis will involve extensive research. The proposal paper must enumerate the kind of data that will be required for analysis and support of the proposal. The proposal should list possible sources for the required information in case of secondary data.

In case the thesis requires primary data, the proposal paper should also state the sources for primary information. In case surveys are involved the proposal paper should explain how the candidate proposes to go about collecting primary data. An explanation of the size of the universe, sample size and the statistical methods proposed to be used must also be given.

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Finally the proposal should have a brief conclusion emphasizing the significance of the proposed study, how it is defendable and the reasons why you consider the study to be important.

As this is not the final dissertation the proposal for the paper should be flexible. Quite often a doctoral student’s guide / mentor will make changes to the proposed paper. This process may go through a couple of iterations before the theme and form of a dissertation is finalized.

Writing a proposal essay is not easy even on the best of days. One way of making it less difficult is to do sufficient advance research and have a sufficient understanding of the subject before you actually get down to the writing.