Hey guys, welcome to another episode of
Grad Coach TV, where we demystify the
ivory tower world of academia and show
you how to work smart and earn the big
marks! In this video we're going to be
looking at how to write up a research
proposal, whether that's for a thesis or
a dissertation at undergraduate, masters
PhD level. Whatever level, we're going to
be looking at how to write up a solid
research proposal. Now this video is
based on a chapter from our free
dissertation ebook, which you can
download at the Grad Coach website. I'll
share the link to that below this
video. So without any delay let's get
right into it. Now, before we jump into
how to write a research proposal, it's
important for us to take a step back and
ask the bigger question of why. In other
words, what is the purpose, what is the
function of a research proposal? If you
understand the why, then the how and the
what everything becomes a lot clearer, a
lot simpler to execute on. So what is the
function of the research proposal?
Quite simply, it's to communicate, in a
very clear and concise way, to
communicate what your research is all
about and convince the reader, whoever
they might be, 
convince them that they should approve
the research. Now convincing is the key
word here. If you don't have a convincing
proposal, you don't really have any
chance of getting approved. So what do
you need to convince the reader of?
Obviously I can't speak for every
university, but I can't say there are a
few common things that they're looking
for. So there are at least three things
that you need to convince the reader of.
Number one - you need to convince them
that your research focus is clearly
articulated. In other words, is it crystal
crystal clear what exactly you're going
to be researching? What are your research
questions? Where will you be focusing?
What will you be covering? What will you
not be covering? So you need to
communicate that you know exactly what
it is that you're going to be focusing
on. The second thing that you need to
convince them of is that your research
is well justified. In other words, are you filling a gap in the
research, or are you just doing the same
thing that everyone else has done? Does
your research have clear justification in
terms of originality? Is it something new
or at least is it something within a new
context and importantly, is it something
that is worth figuring out? If your
research questions are answered, are they
going to add some value to the body of
knowledge to to whatever industry that
you're working in? So that's another
important requirement. The third thing
that you need to convince them of is
that your research is doable. Now what I
mean by doable is that you can execute
on this research within the constraints
that you have. Constraints such as time,
constraints such as money, constraints
such as your own research skills. So you
need to show them that not only is this
research worth doing, but you are the
right man or woman for the job and that
this is very doable within the time
frame. Even the best research ideas
won't be approved if they're not
achievable, if they're not plausible
within your context. So make sure that
you're convincing on that front as well.
If you're not convincing the reader on
at least these three criteria, your
chances of getting approved are really
really slim. So give some thought to
these three things. If you can't answer
these these questions, if you can't hit
back with responses on these three
points at this at this stage, you might
want to just go back and think a little
bit more about what exactly you're going
to be doing and whether that's doable
and whether it's worth doing before you
start writing a research proposal.
Otherwise you're just going to be
wasting time. So make sure you cover
those three bases. Right, now that we've
covered the why, let's move on to how to
write a solid research proposal for your
dissertation or thesis.
So I'm going to explain how to write a
dissertation or thesis proposal by
looking at the essential components - the
the essential ingredients if we can - of a
solid research proposal. Now it's important to note that there are variances between
schools and some schools might want a little extra, so make sure that while you take
in whatever is covered in this video,
make sure that your consulting whatever
brief, or whatever workshop notes, or
whatever your university has provided, so
that you are 100% aware of exactly what
they expect in the research proposal.
Right, so enough about that. Let's have a
look at the essential ingredients of a
rock-solid research proposal. Ingredient
number one is a provisional title or a
working title. Provisional is the key word here,
because this is something that might
change, probably will change as you work
through your dissertation or thesis or
research project. So don't get too stuck
up in conjuring up the perfect research
title at this point in time, but
nevertheless give it some thought. So
what makes for a good research title? A
good research title should convey the
essence of what exactly you're going to
be focusing on, as concisely as possible.
So let's take a look at an example - an
example here is: a quantitative study
into the drivers of consumer trust in
Robo advisors: a British context. Within 15 words here this title clearly
communicates a few things. The first
thing it communicates is the broad topic
of consumer trust. So we already have an
idea - this topic or this
dissertation or thesis is broadly about
consumer trust. It fits within that
category. The next thing that it
communicates is the focal topic. So it
narrows down the focus to the drivers of
consumer trust in online Robo
advisors. So now we're narrowing that
down to a specific industry. It also sets
the context. So it's very clear from this
title that this is within a British
context within the UK and another thing
that it sets is that it's online. Robo
advisors are online products and so we
already know that now we are talking
about a British context and an online
environment, which is is naturally quite
different from an offline environment.
The last thing that it communicates
is the methodology - or at least it gives
a hint as to the research design - and
that is quantitative. In other words this
is going to be a study that hinges on
numbers, that hinges on statistics, on
some sort of statistical analysis. So
that's a good example of a research
title that conveys quite a bit in 15
words or so. Now it's important to state
here that your university might have
some limitations in terms of how long a
title should be. They might even have
their own convention - so make sure that
you check in and that you check your
notes, check your your workshop notes,
your study guide, etc. Make sure that
you're not missing some specific
requirements in terms of your university.
But as I say don't get too wrapped up in
terms of working title, because it is
just something to put down in the
interim. Of course, whoever is going
to approve your your research proposal
is not going to just look at the working
title and make a decision on that, so
don't get too stuck in it. You might
want to take this example as a nice way
of laying out - as a nice nomenclature for
a title. Alright, let's get on to the next
ingredient of a solid dissertation or
thesis proposal. The second ingredient of
a solid research proposal is an
introduction and a research problem. These might take the form of chapters or
just sections, depending on whatever
format your university prefers - but you
definitely need to include both of them.
So how do you go about writing up this
section? The first thing that you need to
do is you need to provide a broad view
of the topic and the context that you're
looking at. In other words introduce the
reader to the broader topic. For example
consumer trust, in the in the previous
example that I gave you. You're going to
provide a broad overview of the topic,
introduce key terminology, introduce any
jargon, and introduce anything that's
required for the reader to wrap their
head around the big picture of whatever
you're going to be focusing on. Once
you've done that, you then need to narrow
it down to your specific focus. In other
words, what exactly are you going to be
researching, what are you going to be
sinking your teeth into in your
dissertation or thesis? What's really
important here is to not just get stuck
in the what, but to also focus on the why.
In fact, the why is arguably even more
important. In other words, how is your
dissertation or your your thesis topic
justified? What is the gap in
the research that you're going to be
filling? For example, you might argue that
there is a wealth of existing research
on topic X, but that that topic has not
been covered in your specific country or
within your specific industry. And within
your specific country, within your
specific industry, there's reason that
the existing research might not be
applicable. It might be down to
cultural components, it might be down to
regulatory components, but if you're
going to make an argument that there is
a wealth of existing research but it
doesn't necessarily apply in industry X
or country X, then make sure that you
justify why that is. Another angle that
you might take is that there is a wealth
of research on topic X already and that
that was done quite some time ago and
the context has changed quite
significantly. So we live in a world
where there is just consistent
change, a lot of which is driven by
technology - and that might have some
impact on whatever topic you're looking
at and you might say, well, times have
changed and therefore we need to revisit
this topic we need to to reassess the
validity
of the state of research there, because
there are these new variables that
potentially throw things into a new
state. Another argument that you might
make is that the existing research has
methodological limitations. Now this
would require that you have a pretty
solid understanding of of research
design, so be careful with this one.
You might argue that existing research
is lacking in terms of sampling. You
might argue that it's lacking in terms
of the approach that was taken - 
qualitative or quantitative. Lacking in
some way. So again, you would justify that
your research is warranted, that it's
worth doing because of some sort of
methodological limitation. Whichever way
you go, and I'm just presenting a few,
justifications - but whichever way you go,
make sure that you really focus on both
the what (in other words what are you
going to be researching) and the why (why
is it important that this gets
researched - why is it that this hasn't
been done before in other words how are
you going to be original). So make sure
that you cover both the what and the why
in this section of introduction and
research problem. Right once you've
narrowed down that topic and you got
that down into your introduction section
the next thing the next logical thing
that you need to include there is your
research aims and your research
questions. So let's take a look at what
an example of that might look like.
Following from the previous example,
we had about consumer trust. Research
aims might look something like this.
Your research aim might be: to identify
the key factors that influence UK
consumers trust in Robo advisors and how
these factors vary between demographic
groups. So it's just a clear line
indicating what your research aims are.
Your research questions would then
echo that, so you might have two research
questions. Number one what are the main
antecedents or the the main drivers of
consumer trust in Robo advisors in the
UK and your second question might be how
does this vary between demographic
groups. What you can see there's is a
very tight link between the research aims and the research questions.
Essentially they're presenting the same
thing in a different format. The last
thing you need to cover in this in this
introduction section is scope. Scope
is is essentially just creating a
boundary, just creating a ring-fence to
say this is what I'm going to cover and
this is what I'm not going to cover.
Obviously any topic that you look at, it's going to be a rabbit hole -
you can go on and on and on and on you
can connect a to B to C to D and very
quickly your research can become very
unfocused, can become very diluted. So the
scope section here is just an
opportunity for you to say that I am
aware that these connections exist, that
this links to that links to that, but
this research is going to focus on just
this piece over here - and this is why
it's going to focus on this piece. Quite simply the
justification is that you need to go
deep within a dissertation or thesis. You
need to narrow your focus and you need
to do one thing really well. Don't feel
the need to solve the world's problems.
Don't feel the need to create a life's
work. This is a dissertation or a thesis
and going deep, going narrow is what it's
all about. So don't be afraid to
ring-fence don't be afraid to cut the
the non focus out because it's
completely acceptable and in fact it's
expected. Right let's move on to the next
ingredient. The third essential
ingredient of a winning dissertation or
thesis proposal is the literature review.
Now that you've covered in your
introduction chapter or in your
introduction section, now that you've
covered what it is that that you're
going to be focusing your research on,
the literature review is your
opportunity to delve into and to
provide a synthesis of all the existing
research in relation to your research
aims. So, what you're doing here is
presenting a clear narrative, a clear
discussion of what the existing research
says in relation to your research aims
and to your research objectives. Now I'm
not going to go into depth about how to
full of a literature review - we've got a
separate video on that and I'll include
the link to that below this video, but I
will just quickly speak about the why. If
you understand the why, then the actual
what of pulling off a literature review
is much simpler. So what is the why, what
are the three important functions of a
literature review, or at least my three
important functions of a literature
review. So, the first thing that you
need to demonstrate in your literature
review is that you are very familiar and
you understand the current state of the
research. You can't take on, within an
academic world you certainly, can't take
on any sort of research without really
understanding what's already been done. So the first function of the
literature review is for you to show
that you've done your reading, that
you've done your homework and that you
know exactly what's been done, who said
what, how it all fits together. That is
very important. The second function
of the literature review is to
demonstrate the gap. So, just as I
mentioned in your your introduction, how
you're going to be talking about your
gap you're going to build onto that here,
or potentially rehash on that a little
bit and show how there is a genuine need
for the research that you're going to be
doing. So, it plays into the justification
of your research. You need to show that
you've done the reading and you found
the gap. That you found the the missing piece,
or one of the many many missing pieces,
in terms of the existing research. The
third function of the literature review
is to inform any sort of methodological
decision making. When it comes to 
your research design, whether you're
going to do qualitative or quantitative,
that should be informed at least in part
by the existing research. In other words,
what have people done in the
past? How are they, how other researchers
have, other authors approach this? You
might build on that, or you might say,
well therein lies the problem.
Regardless, you want to be paying
attention to the methodological
approaches of previous researchers in
your space and you want to be showing
that you are aware of what they've done.  Also
you might be able to borrow from the
existing research. Very often, at least
with quantitative studies, very often
they will publish their question sets,
they'll publish the the scales, etc. 
and these have had a lot of work that
has already gone into them and you can
make use of them without having to go
and design your own. Or of course you
could build onto them. So it's
important to understand those three
components, or at least those three
objectives of a good literature review,
because those will ensure that you write
something that is touching on all the
essential requirements. One thing to be
really careful about when you are
writing up this literature review
section is that you don't fall into the
trap of descriptive writing. In other
words, it's it's very easy to go and
write up a literature review which is
basically just a history of what
everyone has said. That is not what
a good literature review is about. What a
good literal view is about is
synthesizing what everyone has said in
relation to whatever your research
questions are. So if your research
questions are, let's just take the
previous example, if you're looking into
the drivers, the antecedents of
consumer trust, what you want to be
looking for in a literature review is to
flesh out the drivers that
people have previously found in the
research. Which ones of these are
agreed on, which of these are disagreed
on? Where is there some contention? How
has that developed over time? How is it
potentially relevant or irrelevant? How
is it creating a gap in the research for
for my specific research? so you want to
be providing a synthesis of everything
that's been said - not just a pure account
of it. Your writing needs to be
analytical, not just descriptive. We
do have a great post on the Grad Coach
blog which provides a good breakdown of
a comparison between analytical writing
and descriptive writing - and that is a
great way of sort of assessing where you
where you fit in terms your writing. Assessing whether or not
you you're playing too much to one side
or the other. Again I'll include a
link to that below this video. 
Regardless of whether you look at that
or not, keep in mind the trap of
descriptive writing. Do not just provide
an account of what everyone said. You
need to pull that back to how is it
relevant to my literature, or rather to
my research question? How is it a
potential answer? How is it a potential
problem in light of my research
questions and my aims? So bring
everything back, bring it together,
synthesize everything and and tie it
back to your specific research. Don't
just provide a descriptive account of
what everyone said. Right, so that's the
literature review component or
ingredient covered. Let's have a look at
the next essential ingredient. The fourth
essential ingredient of a winning
dissertation proposal or thesis proposal
is the research design (or sometimes
referred to as the methodology). So far in your research proposal you've
covered the what and you've covered the
why. What exactly are you going to be
focusing on and why is that important?
Why is that original? And in your
literature review you expanded on that
to see what else other people had to say
about your what what. What you haven't
covered so far is the how - in other words
how are you going to be approaching this
research? How are you going to be
executing on it to identify or least
try to identify the answers to your
research questions? That is what the
research design or the methodology
chapter is all about. Explaining in
detail how you're going to be
approaching this and and why you've
decided to approach it in the way that
you have. Now much like the working title,
methodology and your specific approach
might change as you sink
your teeth into your dissertation. You
might find that you end up doing, if
you were going a quantitative approach,
you might find that you end up doing a
slightly different set of analysis
depending on the outcomes of the data
etc. So don't get too hung up in
specifying, or thinking that
whatever you put down on paper here, you
are committed to. Obviously you wouldn't
want to switch drastically - you wouldn't
want to go from say a quant study to a
qual study, although I have seen that
happen - but you don't need to feel like
if you write here that you're going to
do analysis X, Y and Z, three different types
of statistical analysis you don't need
to feel like it's gonna be the end of
the world if you if you don't stick 100%
to those. Very often the data comes out
in a different way from from what we
expected. For example, perhaps a little
statistical, but you might expect to have
a normal distribution of data and you
end up with non-normal distribution and
therefore you need to apply a different
set of analyses. Don't don't stress
out if none of this makes since just
yet - the important thing to understand is
that the methodology is is somewhat
tentative. Don't get too wrapped up in
fearing that you're ultra
committed once you put it down. In
terms of discussing the how of your
research design, there are a few things
that you'll need to look at. So let's
take a look at what those are. The first
thing you want to look at is your
research philosophy. In other words are
you taking an interpretivist approach
are you in taking an empirical approach
etc. You want to cover that up front. The
second thing you want to look at is your
methodological approach. In other words
is it a qualitative study, is it a
quantitative study, or you perhaps going
to go a mixed method route, where you
incorporate a bit of both. You want to
have a look at that. Your sampling is
really important. In other words, who will
your sample be, who will you be
collecting data from, how many
people will you be speaking to,
what sample do they represent in terms
of their generalizability, etc? Another
important point is what data you plan to
collect. Data about what?  in what form are
you going to be collecting that data? How
do you plan to collect it? Are you going
to be using surveys or are you're going to
be using interviews or you're going to
be holding focus groups? Then very
importantly how do you plan to analyze
it? So if you're taking
a quantitative approach, are you going to
perhaps use regression analysis? Are you
going to use structural equation
modeling? Are you going to, in a
qualitative environment, are you going to
be using thematic analysis or QDA? These
are all potential design choices that
you need to make and most importantly,
not just discuss what you will be doing,
in other words what you'll be choosing
for each of these variables, but why
you've chosen. In other words, what your justification? Throughout
your proposal you need to justify
everything. You need to explain why it is
that you've chosen to go this route and
not that route. Remember that your
dissertation or thesis is assessing
research skills. It's assessing
whether or not you can undertake
rigorous research - so they want to
see when you are proposing that you're
going to cover X and you're going to do
it in this way, they want to see that you
understand why - that you understand why
those are the appropriate
choices. Now to be fair, depending on
your level of research, your research
design choices your methodological
choices might be more constrained by
practical issues - in other words who do
you have access to? What data do you have access to? - as opposed to
methodological research design theory. 
Regardless, whatever your
constraints are, whatever the reasons are
for you choosing whichever way you go,
make sure that you clarify not just what
you're going to do and how you're going
to do it, but why you're going to do or
why you're planning to do it that way.
Include the justification in everything.
It's worth saying that if you're not
100% certain about your methodology. If
you're not 100% certain about your
research design, it makes sense to
consult with someone who does know more than you do. Hopefully is an expert
in the space. So it might be someone at
your university, it might be someone that
you know in your private capacity. You
could certainly reach out to one of us
here Grad Coach, but consult with
someone
who is certain. Someone who does understand
whatever methodological approach you you're going to use. Because if you
make any mistakes here, they will get
spotted very quickly and and best case
they still approve your research and 
just give you a feedback that you need
to change X, Y and Z. But worst case, if you
don't really understand what you're
doing here, you might be proposing
something that isn't really achievable
given your skill set. You might be
committing to something which is far
bigger than then you originally
anticipated, that's not doable with
the data that you have. You can create
some significant problems down the road
once you've already been approved
that you're not even aware of. So my
advice is just make sure that whatever
you're putting down in your methodology
section, whatever you're putting down in
the research design section, make sure
that you fully understand what you're
doing. Don't just use what big words
and technical words that you don't fully
understand. Consult with someone who
does know what they're doing. That
will save you a lot of pain down the
road. Of course you can have a free
consultation with any of our research
specialists here at Grad Coach. I'll include
the link to that below this video. Right
let's move on to the next ingredient.
ingredient number five of a winning
dissertation or thesis research proposal
is the reference list. Now this might go
without saying, but being an academic
document you need to have a 100% on
point reference list at the end of your
research proposal. You might get away
with with slightly shoddy referencing in
in assignments or coursework, but as I
said, what they're looking for in a
dissertation or in a thesis and and
specifically in the proposal, is
for you to demonstrate research
skills - and one of those research skills
in an academic environment is
technically correct referencing. So make
sure that you understand exactly what
the referencing requirements are from
your school, for example Harvard or APA
format what whatever specific format
they require, and then use some sort of referencing
software - whether that's Mendeley or Zotero or EndNote, Refworks - whatever the
case might be, use some software to take
care of that. Certainly don't try and
handle referencing in any manual fashion
 - it might sound like that's pretty
obvious, but you'll be surprised what
I've seen in some dissertations and
theses. So make sure that you're
referencing is 100% on point. Make use of
some referencing software. We've got
how to videos on both
Mendeley and Zotero. I'm quite a big
fan of Mendeley - I'll include the links
to those below this video. One point
to make about this reference section is
that you shouldn't fall into the trap of
thinking that your references and
referencing only happens in the
literature review section. Your
referencing should happen pretty much
throughout all the sections that we've
discussed. So in your introduction you'll
be speaking about context you'll be
speaking about the theoretical need for
your research. Make sure that you have
tons of references there. In your
methodological section, you're going to
be talking about what you've
decided to do in terms of methods, what
you've decided to do in terms of
research design. Again those decisions
need to be backed up with some sort of
justification and those justifications
should be built on some theory. So you
should have references, you should have
citations. Make sure that you have
a flow of citations throughout the document and
therefore a solid reference list in your
research proposal. Don't let these
things only sit in the literature review
section. Right, so that's referencing.
Let's get on to the final ingredient and
that is ingredient number six. Ingredient
number six is practicalities. 
Practicalities can can be a few
different things that can vary from
school to school, university to
university. For practicalities,
I'm bundling a few different things into
ingredient number six. Essentially we're
talking about anything that relates to
the practical components, the implementation,
the pulling off of your research
project. Some of the things that you
might look at here are, for example, a
project plan. This might be something
like a Gantt chart or some sort of
project plan, whether that's just in
Excel or any sort of project planning
software. A clear outline of what is it
that you're going to do through the
various phases of your research. How are
you going to do it,  how much time are you going to spend on X, how much time you're going
to spend on Y, what buffers have you put
in, have you allowed for communication
with your supervisor or adviser? 
Basically just showing that you have
given clear thought to how you're going
to pull this thing off and that your
plan is is reasonable and achievable
within the time that you have. So a
project plan is something that you might
have a look at here. Another component is
a resource plan or a budget. Not
every piece of research will necessarily
require additional resources, but some
some pieces of research will require a
budget, will require some sort of
financial resources and some of them
might require physical resources such as
lab equipment. Or you might need access
to two rooms to have focus groups etc. So,
again, what you want to show hereis that
you've given thought to what it is that you
need in order to pull off your research
and how you're going to get that and and
potentially what you're going to do if
you can't get that. What are your backup
plans? Another thing that you might want
to look at here or you might be required
to look at here is risk management. Sso as
as I've just mentioned you'll
have a need for resources, you'll have a
need for for budgetary requirements,
potentially you'll have a project plan
that you're working with. All of these
things are ideals. They're there if
everything goes right - but that's not how
it works in the real world. So you want
to potentially present a risk management
plan, or at least just a risk register to
show that you are aware of what the
potential risks are, the potential things
that could fall through and and most
importantly what are your plans
if if those do fall through. What are
your responses to the potential risks in
your instance? Give some thought to
how things might not go according to
plan and what you'll do in those in
those events. A final thing that might be
required is some sort of discussion
about ethical adherence. Universities
always have ethical standards or ethical
compliance requirements in terms of any
research that's done under their banner
and so you should provide some
discussion of how your research will
comply with with those ethical
guidelines or ethical requirements - and
and if there are any potential issues
how you're going to deal with them, how
you're going to seek approval for
any specific requirements. So make sure
that you cover those potential bases in
in terms of of the practicalities of
your research. So those are the six
essential ingredients of how to write a
winning dissertation or thesis proposal.
Before we wrap up I just want to touch
on three additional tips that are useful
to keep in mind when you are writing up
your proposal. The first thing I'll say
is make sure that you have really
thought things through. In other words,
make sure that you have undertaken the
homework in terms of research literature
review, understanding what is the state
of the research, understanding where are
things currently, what is the need for
the research? Make sure that you really
have spent your time and have a very clear argument for why
your research is necessary. If you
haven't spent your time in the
literature review stage, if you haven't
spent your time familiarizing yourself
with the literature, it's very easy
to get caught out by a supervisor or an
adviser that knows the area and will
very quickly say "oh but so-and-so
already covered this" or "your arguments
invalid because this was already
discussed". 
So you really need to know your
stuff in terms of the literature. If
you're covering a topic, make sure you
understand that topic well before you
start making claims about where the gaps
in the literature are and and how your
research is warranted. Make sure that you
understand those components and the same applies for your research methodology,
for your research design. I touched on
this earlier - make sure you understand
the methodology that you plan to use.
Don't take a half-baked idea or
half-baked understanding and trial it
without a methodological plan or a
research design. Know your stuff. The
second tip is don't rush. So this sounds
pretty obvious, but it's important to say.
Research proposals usually take some
time to get approved and that can be
anything from a few days to a few weeks
and not uncommonly a month to get
approval on research because the
university needs to allocate it to
suitable supervisors, etc.
So there is a long lead time in
terms of getting your research approved
and students tend to rush through this
process and then they don't know their
stuff (as per my previous point) and then
they end up submitting something, waiting
a month and then getting a no. This is
(1) soul-destroying and (2) putting a
serious delay on completion of the
dissertation - it can leave you with
very little time to actually complete
the research. Naturally,
we live in a world of deadlines and and
you need to adhere to those, but don't
rush through this thing. Take the time to
really understand the state of the
literature and really understand what it
is that you're proposing. Very often
students come with a preconceived idea
of what they want to research without
having done the the literature review.
They end up rushing through it just
kind of picking up the pieces of the
literature that support the argument.
They rush through because they have an
idea that they're already in love with
and they really just want to get a
a research proposal approved. Then of
course that that falls on its face. So
don't rush - take the time to
understand the literature. Take the time
to understand whatever research design
you're gonna do or consult with someone
that can really confirm that
for you and and don't rush through this
thing. Put in the time and effort and aim
for first-time approval rather than
pushing a half-baked thing through and
then getting pushed back on that - and
then having to go back and forth back
and forth until you finally get approval
and then land up with a very small
amount of time to to actually do your
dissertation or thesis. The last tip is
that you should ensure that whatever you
submit is well polished. What I mean
by well polished is apart from
everything I've just discussed, make sure
that your entire product is is well designed that it's clean and
and accurate in terms of English
language, in terms of grammar, in terms of
presenting clear lines of argument, etc. I
would really suggest that you invest in
some sort of editing or proofreading or
at least just get someone else to - just
a friend - to proofread your work. But
make sure that you are not submitting
something that has typos, that has
grammar issues, that has a weak English
because there is just nothing more
off-putting to to to a marker than
reading a document that's full of those
errors. What it just says is the
student hasn't really put in the time
and the effort and and therefore
it sends signals about how
much time and effort they put into
actually understanding the research
proposal, or understanding the research
problem, understanding the literature etc
etc. So sloppy presentation brings into
question the credibility and the
legitimacy of everything else you've
done. So my final tip is make sure
your document is polished. You might
want to, if you have the resources, you
might want to get someone to edit
and to proofread it and pay them for it. 
Or you might just want to ask a friend
for a favor. Generally any set of second
eyes will spot things that you didn't spot.
So you might not have a perfect
document, but you'll definitely have
something improved. There you have it
how to write a dissertation or thesis
proposal in six pretty straightforward
steps, or at least six essential
ingredients. As I said right upfront, make
sure that you understand the why of the
research proposal. Make sure you
understand what you're trying to
convince the person on the other end of.
If you if you keep that front of mind,
you're going to present or you're going
to develop a solid research proposal and
you're going to have the best chances of
first-time approval. If you have any
questions about how to write a research
proposal for your dissertation or thesis,
you're welcome to drop us an email 
hello@grad.coach. I'll include that email
address in this video, or below this
video. You're also welcome to book a free
consultation with any of our PhD
qualified research specialists and you
can have a chat with them about your
research topic your research questions
etc. Hopefully they can provide you
with with some guidance there - free of
charge, no obligation. Lastly if you've
enjoyed this video, please do give us a
thumbs up, leave a comment below. If you
have any questions you're welcome to
comment below as well and subscribe to
our YouTube channel for more
dissertation thesis related content. We
will be doing additional videos on how
to write a research proposal, how to
write a literature review, all of these
components that will hopefully help you
write your research and help you pull
off a great piece of work. So we do hope
to see you again - that's all for today -
this is Grad Coach signing out.
