dissertation to book proposal

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After many years of hard work, a dissertation is a monumental accomplishment. With so much time and effort coupled with the desire to add to scholarly discourse, many people hope to transform their dissertations into a book. Graduate writing has equipped scholars with extensive information about their discipline-specific genres, but the genre of book - and certainly a book hoping to appeal to audience outside of their field - requires new ways of writing. This page provides information and considerations aiding one’s efforts in a “publish or perish” world

Before you Begin

Many people feel the pressure of publication, especially of a book valued by scholars in your field, as they add that “Dr.” to their email signature. The truth is, book publication is still considered the standard even though many entities like the Modern Language Association (MLA) suggest moving away from a book as being the standard for tenure, instead giving articles and chapters more weight. Despite this pressure, it is highly recommended that you take some time (ideally at least a year) away from your dissertation. After dedicating so much time to such a specific topic over the past years, it can be difficult to look at your dissertation with the fresh eyes necessary to reshape it into a book without taking time away. 

Once you have taken this break and are able to greet your research anew, critically think about whether this should be a book. Trying to be objective, ask yourself if you really need a book-number of pages to convey your argument or if it would perhaps be better suited for an article or series of articles. Consider that the dissertation may actually have potential for both articles and a book. Another consideration for this choice is timeliness - articles come out much quicker whereas books can take a few years until they hit the shelves. If you think something might be old news in a few years, an article is the way to go. 

You may also consider researching subsidies. As a new author, you are a risk to your editor. Coming with funding to offset printing costs will make you less of a risk and ideally have your editor look at your proposal a little more deeply. 

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, remember to resource yourself. With workshops, grants, editors, senior scholars, and presses, you are not alone on this journey. While you may consider avoiding your committee so that your feedback is coming from fresh eyes, colleagues often have words of wisdom regarding the book-publishing process. Throughout the process, you’ll also get feedback from your editor and anonymous peer reviews. While it’s easy to get defensive, it’s important to acknowledge and value their opinions and explain your reasoning if you decide not to incorporate a suggestion. You and your editor are on a team, so you both may make compromises throughout the process. Remember - they are on your so team, so go in with a growth mindset and you’re next academic accomplishment will be more in reach. 

During the Process

Once you’ve decided that you are, in fact, going to make a book out of your dissertation, it’s time to prepare for the practicalities of this process. First, you need to figure out how you are going to make it possible for you to accomplish such a feat. Writing a book takes intense discipline, so it’s important to create clear goals and plans by considering all the steps it will take you to get to that finish line. Simple actions like scheduling protected writing time can make a huge difference in success. Perhaps you set a goal of writing one page every day. Remember that writing constructs knowledge and the act will get you closer to your final product, even if it isn’t writing that actually ends up in your book,

The process of transforming your dissertation into a book is centered around audience, so you’ll want to keep that audience at the forefront of your mind throughout the writing process. Consider very carefully who your ideal reader(s) are. There may be multiple, and that’s great. Is it scholars in your field? An “intelligent layperson” (Luey, 2004) outside of your field? Whatever group of ideal readers you end up with, review your writing from each individual perspective. People often dream of a broad audience of people outside of academia without actually seeking feedback from anyone outside of the academy. If you’re telling your editor that you believe this will appeal to a history buff outside of the academy, get feedback from someone in that group and have them note places where your writing is not clear. This generalist perspective will help you see what items like jargon are confusing or what information feels boring, increasing the chances of success for this book. 

When considering your new audience, remember that you no long need to share everything you know about your topic in this document. While you did have to prove yourself to your committee, this audience automatically assumes you are an expert, so sections that were proving you’re reliable can be ditched or significantly parsed down. This means your literature review will be significantly cut, if not deleted altogether. This is also true of methodologies unless your methodology is exceptionally groundbreaking and interesting. 

Your old audience had to listen to you - it’s part of their job description. This new audience will need to be actively reached. Even if your main goal is people in your field, to make a book broad enough to sell - which your editor is going to look for - you’ll need to write for a wider audience which may require you to let go of any anxiety about being “taken seriously in your field.” 

A book will require broadening the appeal of your topic. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways such as: 

• Humanizing your subject - this may take additional research (such as interviewing the people who make up your statistics) or be as simple as adding personal elements about your topic (such as adding personal life information that was outside of the scope of your dissertation focused on a person’s political career).
• Adding narrative elements - plot, characters, setting, your own voice, and a beginning, middle, and end that pushes the reader forward are all key to marketability.
• Finding a new angle - an angle that directly impacts your reader such as financial or navigation of a life event is going to reach a larger audience.
• Expanding the topic culturally and temporally - take a broad topic related to your subject and see the impacts and/or comparisons of contexts such as religions, race, communities, geographical region, politics, time period, etc. perhaps referencing other studies in your field.
• Justifying your topic’s value - you may hope to create a guide showing your topic’s influence in hopes of affecting mindsets, policy, and funding of stakeholders and those in power. 

While your presses’ and editors’ feedback trumps all, there are some general considerations all editors are looking for. As you walk the line between theory and narrative, you’ll want to consider items such as: 

• Transitions - does the book flow in a way that keeps the reader interested? 
• Chapter length - are the chapters similar in length? If not, what can be combined or split up? 
• Repetition - do you find places where facts, stories, or claims are being repeated? Where do those best fit? 
• Hyperquotation - do you have too many or too long of quotes? How can you reframe that information with a focus on your work? 
• Bibliography/End Notes - is this information necessary? Does your editor/press have limitations on these sections? 
• Hagiography - are you ever writing about a subject without criticism? How can you make sure your argument is balanced? 
• Tables and Graphs - Does the chart fit without having to turn the book sideways? Does it repeat what’s in the prose making it not worth the cost? Can charts be combined? 

Now That You Have a Book

While some people may not have a completed book when they submit a proposal, many have at least a large chunk written and certainly a general outline and thesis. If you do have a whole book complete, you may consider the following advice in the “before you begin” part of the process. 

With the reality of budget cuts, editors are accepting fewer and fewer book proposals, making it more imperative than ever that your proposal sticks out. If you are an emerging scholar in your field, you probably won’t have the benefit of being actively sought out by publishers. This means you’ll need to do your research to find the right press and editor for you. Editors tend to have niche areas of topics they like to publish. Check out who published resources you used or check out the list of latest book releases in your field to see who is publishing work in your subject area. These are the publishers that you should propose to. 

First, make sure that you follow proposal formatting and content requirements. If you don’t, an editor may disregard your proposal due to the inability to fit within their genre guidelines. Furthermore, if you write more than they ask for, they may assume you cannot write in a concise and clear way and choose to put it in the “no” pile. Beyond this, to make your proposal attention-grabbing, you’ll want to draw them in with a title, table of contents, and abstract or first chapter that are clear, concise, and interesting to someone who may not share your natural enthusiasm for your topic. Typically, the more concisely you can get your points across, the more faith they’ll have in you as a writer. 

This also ties in with something academics may feel uncomfortable facing - this book needs to make money. Editors often look to see if their writers are able to get their point across concisely because fewer pages means less printing cost. Similarly, having low numbers of pictures, graphs, and charts, which cost more to print, can make your book feel less risky to an editor. Being upfront about what costs you anticipate and which you can avoid will help your editor calculate if this book is worth taking the risk of taking on a new voice to the field. 

Final Thoughts

The transformation from dissertation to book can be very exciting. Oftentimes, creating a broader appeal brings out engaging, compelling writing that will be more readily available to the masses. With this book, you have something to say instead of something to prove. Enjoy your new status as an expert as you get to share your unique findings with the world, moving your discipline forward. There will most likely be obstacles and frustrations along the way, but remember that you have already completed the monumental task of writing a dissertation and you are also capable of this. Best of luck on this journey!

LUEY, B. (Ed.). (2008). Revising Your Dissertation: Advice from Leading Editors (2nd ed.). University of California Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt13x1g8x

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From Dissertation to Book, Second Edition (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing) Second Edition

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• ISBN-10 022606204X
• ISBN-13 978-0226062044
• Edition Second
• Publisher University of Chicago Press
• Publication date October 18, 2013
• Part of series Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing
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Editorial Reviews

About the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved., from dissertation to book, the university of chicago press.

Why This Book

The morning after defending the doctoral thesis is the first dayof a scholar's brave new world. But aside from recommendingthat you publish, graduate schools rarely take the time to explainjust what you should do with your dissertation. There'san expectation that the student is on the brink, or that thisexcellent piece of new scholarship will naturally find its placein the academic firmament. But how to get it there? And inwhat form?

Senior professors are often too far from the process to giveuseful advice. Junior faculty are usually just as puzzled asgraduate students by the mechanics of scholarly publication.But each year, many dissertations are written, and some arepublished. Among those, a few become widely read works thattransform not only what but how we think.

To the new PhD's eager question—"What do I do now thatI'm done?"—this book offers answers rather than an answer.There can't be just one. The key to any of them, though, is revision.

Revision can mean a lot of different things, maybe especiallyfor scholars. Young academics talk about revising their dissertationswhen they mean they will do hardly anything at all, orrewrite every sentence, or settle for something in between. Thisbook is in part about what can be done with a doctoral dissertation,choosing among your options, and moving forward. Whereveryou begin, and whatever investment of time and energyyou plan to make, your goal is to take something already writtenand make it more.

Taking that dissertation and making it "more" isn't a straightpath. It's a curving route with loops and off-ramps. Yet onceyou know where you want to go, there are more and less efficientways of getting there. From Dissertation to Book is itselfmeant to be a map, charting out your possibilities and givingyou driving instructions.

In more than twenty-five years as an editor of scholarlybooks, I saw hundreds of books through to publication. As anyeditor knows, you whittle down thousands of proposals to getto those chosen hundreds. My job also gave me the chance towork with other editors on the books that they were consideringfor publication. Sometimes I learned most from reviewinga thick stack of proposals other editors were keen to put forward.This part of the job is what I've described as editing fromten thousand feet up. An editor-in-chief has a few minutes tostudy how an editor presents a rationale, a marketing strategy,and a financial analysis, as well as what outside reviewershave to say, and what the author's own words tell about clarityand purpose. In ways I could hardly articulate, this bookis a product of my engagements with all those manuscriptsand proposals. When I formally left publishing for academia,I found that publishing hadn't quite left me. I've continued togive workshops and lead seminars on scholarly publishing andhave been fortunate to be invited to speak at institutions of differentscale and with different missions. But however diversethose colleges and universities may be, they have one thingin common: all are inhabited by scholars with ideas and thedesire to see those ideas brought to light for the use of others.

The difficult academic market has dispersed ambitious andtalented young scholars more thoroughly than ever before. Toland a tenure-track job at an institution one has never visited—orperhaps even heard of—before the on-campus interviewis no longer strange. The consequence of the shortage in fulltimejobs is that highly desirable candidates are being takenup by institutions that might never have had a crack at thema long generation ago. In recent years I have had more thanone conversation with a university administrator expressingdelight (bordering on disbelief) that the upside of the terriblejob market has been that that institution landed its first hiringchoices—a privilege very few colleges and universities can enjoyand none can take for granted.

For readers of From Dissertation to Book this state of affairshas two consequences.

First, we—scholars, their advisors, hiring committees, andpublishers—need to be reminded that there are talented, productiveteacher-scholars across a broad compass of institutions.There have always been fine teachers at every level ofacademia, but this market is now sending them into every cornerof the scholarly world. New PhDs will go into think tanksand research libraries and other organizations affiliated withcolleges and universities. Some will take positions at collegesand universities that are not teaching slots—as student advisors,foreign program directors, registrars, fundraisers, communicationsspecialists. Into those nonteaching positions will goscholars eager to see their research interests turn into scholarlypublications.

Second, the rising tide of adjunct faculty is a direct consequenceof the paucity of full-time slots. As the percentage ofpart-time faculty increases, so there will necessarily be an increasein the sheer number of part-time faculty with scholarlyprojects in search of publishers. One of the unresolved politicalissues within the modern academy is the conflict between institutionalmission and a reliance on part-time appointments. From Dissertation to Book aims to function as a sort of writingcoach. This book can't resolve the larger structural conflictswithin the academy. But it's important to recognize that asdoctoral students earn their degrees and face a market thatoffers even fewer full-time positions than it did an academicgeneration ago, there will be more scholarly labor in danger ofdisappearing off the academic face of the earth.

At exactly the same time that the academic labor force isstruggling to determine what opportunities lie ahead, scholarlypublishing struggles with its own survival issues as it facesquestions of technology and dissemination, declining institutionalsupport and shifting outlets, changes in reading habitsand access, and the clamor for free open access.

It's hard to write a dissertation, a challenge to transform itinto a publishable manuscript, and a matter of skill and luck toget it published. In the second decade of the twenty-first centuryit's also a challenge for scholarly publishers to make spacewithin their publishing programs for first books.

Both the professoriate and the scholarly publishing worldseem always to be operating in crisis mode. It would be funnyif it weren't true. The process of transforming dissertationsinto books involves more than accommodating the needs ofyoung professionals and assessing the realities of the marketplace.It's also part of a larger effort to identify and preserveadvances in knowledge. Not every dissertation moves forwardour knowledge of a subject, but it's impossible to know twentyyears in advance which early works in a scholar's career willopen doors for the big breakthroughs.

The mechanisms by which publishers select first books forpublication are closely bound up with the ways in which dissertationsare rethought and reshaped. In making their selections,publishers are not only choosing what projects best fitthe market. They're also quietly making bets on what new constructionsof ideas will become foundational for the work infields we know well and fields we can't even name yet.

Publishers and academic authors view books in ways that overlap,but that are hardly identical. Academics, like all writers,tend to think that a great book idea is its own justification.Publishers want something that can stand as a book, not justa good idea indifferently presented. That means getting somekey things right—shape, length, voice—so that the audiencethe author believes is out there will want the result enough tobuy it.

It can be a shock to hear that your wonderful thesis nowneeds to be entirely rethought. A young scholar's writing life beginswith an apparent contradiction: a dissertation needs to bewritten, yet no publisher has to want it when it's done. I meeta lot of scholars frustrated that academic publishers seem tobrush off what graduate schools oblige their students to produce.But scholarly publishers look for at least two things in aproposal beyond a great idea and dandy prose. One is the author'scredentials—how an academic's training and appointmentenabled him or her to write the book in the first place. Thesecond is what we call the author's platform. By that we meanthe reputation and visibility the author has already established,and how, acting together, they will help get the intended bookto its audience. You don't have much of a platform comingstraight out of graduate school, but during a career of writingand publishing and lecturing, you can build a wider base andon it build broader ideas for broader audiences. Revising yourdissertation, as unglamorous an activity as it may be, is the firststep in creating a structure to climb.

Scholars know that our appetite for knowledge, right alongsideour ignorance, grows daily. But what we call "the market"continues to undergo radical changes, making access toideas increasingly challenging. The appeal of digital formatsand the highly complex issue of open access put greater andgreater pressure on traditional scholarly publishers. Librariesbuy books (the things with paper pages) ever more cautiously.Readers read differently. We look for answers or information,preferring a short ride on a search engine to the slower andmore complex demands of a book. Independent bookstores,once a haven for scholarly works, are an endangered speciesof commercial life. Neither campus stores nor the chain giants(often the same thing) can provide all that the academic communitywould like to see on the shelf. It's much harder for ascholarly book to be published today than it was thirty—oreven five—years ago, and increasingly unlikely that, once published,it will appear on a bookstore shelf.

Faculty members now approaching retirement came of agewhen it was possible to have highly specialized work publishedby a leading university press. These days, young scholars are oftenthinking about the second book before tenure —even thoughthere are senior faculty in their departments who were tenuredon a handful of articles and never went on to write a book at all.Buddhist calm might be the best response to this inequity; bitternessand resentment certainly won't help. The best advice Ican offer is to be pragmatic: take your own strengths and makethem stronger.

These are hard times for scholars and for their publishers.Yet even in hard times, it's important to remember that manydissertations can become manuscripts strong enough to beconsidered for publication, and a good number of them canbecome books. It's possible to revise a dissertation and to turnit into something more, but to do this well means first takingstock of what one has and what it might become. Turning adissertation into a book manuscript is one option facing therecent PhD. But it isn't the only one. A dissertation can becomemany things—a single scholarly article, a handful of them, aspecialized monograph, a broader scholarly work, a trade book,even the seeds of two or more distinct projects that could occupythe author for decades.

Some dissertations do get turned into books that attract asizeable readership. Those dissertations keep on speaking yearsafter publication. Martin Jay's Dialectical Imagination and KateMillett's Sexual Politics began as doctoral theses. So did DanielGoldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners , Mitchell Duneier's Slim's Table , and Jill Lepore's The Name of War .

Each year scholarly publishers present the reading publicwith first books that may become essential reading in theirfields. A few recent titles by authors who began with dissertationsand finished with successful books: Leor Halevi's Muhammad'sGrave: Death Rites and the Making of Islamic Society (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007), Isaac WilliamMartin's The Permanent Tax Revolt: How the Property Tax TransformedAmerican Politics (Stanford: Stanford University Press,2008), Karen Ho's Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street (Durham:Duke University Press, 2009), and Alondra Nelson's Bodyand Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight against Medical Discrimination (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011).

However much publishers may complain about the surfeitof PhD theses, however much editors may say they rarelyconsider them, there are always hunter-gatherers at scholarlyhouses who want the exceptional dissertation. Of course, editorspay particular attention to award-winning dissertationsin their commissioning fields. But word of mouth is still theeditor's secret weapon. Every successful scholarly editor relieson a network. Trusted faculty advisors can identify the mostpromising dissertations being written in the discipline, andif you're writing one of them an energetic editor may be intouch with you before you've hammered out chapter 3. Whatto do if an editor approaches you while you're still writing yourthesis? Listen, discuss, and be appreciative, but don't be distractedby even the most persistent editor's enthusiasms. Gettingyour dissertation written, approved, and filed is your firstand most important responsibility. After that comes the set ofquestions this book will address. Yes, the academic market isa harsh place, but if you're working on a dissertation aboutwhich you're genuinely excited, don't panic. If you have writtenan outstanding doctoral thesis, chances are still very good thatat least one publisher would like to talk to you about it.

But what makes a dissertation outstanding to a publisherisn't exactly the same thing that makes it outstanding to thescholarly community. The winner of the prize for the year'soutstanding thesis in the field of Kwakiutl grammar may havemade a signal contribution to the study of linguistics. A publisher,however, will see the prize only as a validation of the dissertation'sacademic quality. That might be enough to get a footin the door. An outstanding book would be something more, aswell as something different.

Perhaps the author has explained a feature of this languagein such a way that those of us who haven't studied Kwakiutlcan understand something new about the way speech expressesnotions of space and time. Maybe the author has gonefurther and posited something that shifts, if only by a few degrees,how we understand language acquisition. In that readjustmentcould lie a revolution in a discipline's thought. In orderto accomplish this, though, an author would have to thinkin terms of more than the usual two dimensions of academicwriting—page length and density of footnotes.

The dissertation is usually the longest work the youngscholar has ever written, an exhausting trek across the scholarlytundra. At some level, it's natural for that young scholarto see the dissertation's length itself as in some way symbolicof her achievement. After all, every book any of us picks uphas a heft in our hands: whether it's a physical book in physicalhands or a digital book in our metaphorical hands, a bookis a substantial thing. All writers want their books to be substantial,to have the weight capable of conveying the richnessof the author's thoughts. But—and it's the biggest but a first-timeacademic author must grapple with—the length of a bookmanuscript must be the result of the thought working insideit, not the thought's precondition. Nobody should set out towrite a 350-page dissertation, even if that turns out to be exactlywhat the writer produces. In the early nineteenth centurya German scholar published a dissertation in biblical studiesthat changed thinking about the composition of Deuteronomy.It was some eighteen pages long. In our day a dissertation onMichelangelo by the art historian James Elkins ran to six volumes(three for text, two for illustrations, and one for notes).The length of a dissertation, however, has nothing to do withreaching a broader academic readership; real books are different.

Getting length right is only part of revising the dissertation.Moving from dissertation manuscript to book manuscript involvesfinding within the thesis what can be of value to abroader readership. It also means finding what will interestyou, the author. This process is neither magical nor mysterious.It involves taking that interesting material you wrote andshaping it, lopping off the boring bits required to demonstratehow well you know your subject, and assessing the utility of allthose different scenarios in which you apply your particularinsight. It also involves stretching your interesting material inways you may not have originally foreseen. Remember howSilly Putty, that venerable semisolid entertainment, lifted a cartoonimage from the newspaper so you could stretch the figureinto new and unintended shapes? The stretching was the funpart. In rethinking your dissertation, imagine your subject interms of its plasticity. Revision offers a kind of freedom. Try tohave some fun with it. (Continues...) Excerpted from From Dissertation to Book by William Germano . Copyright © 2013 William Germano. Excerpted by permission of THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Chicago Press; Second edition (October 18, 2013)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 184 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 022606204X
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0226062044
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.98 x 5.12 x 0.45 inches
• #31 in Editing Writing Reference (Books)
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About the author

William germano.

William Germano is professor of English literature at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, where he has also served as dean of the faculty of humanities and social sciences. Previously, he was vice-president and publishing director at Routledge and editor-in-chief at Columbia University Press.

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• Dissertation

How to Write a Dissertation Proposal | A Step-by-Step Guide

Published on 14 February 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on 11 November 2022.

A dissertation proposal describes the research you want to do: what it’s about, how you’ll conduct it, and why it’s worthwhile. You will probably have to write a proposal before starting your dissertation as an undergraduate or postgraduate student.

A dissertation proposal should generally include:

• An introduction to your topic and aims
• A literature review  of the current state of knowledge
• An outline of your proposed methodology
• A discussion of the possible implications of the research
• A bibliography  of relevant sources

Dissertation proposals vary a lot in terms of length and structure, so make sure to follow any guidelines given to you by your institution, and check with your supervisor when you’re unsure.

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Step 1: coming up with an idea, step 2: presenting your idea in the introduction, step 3: exploring related research in the literature review, step 4: describing your methodology, step 5: outlining the potential implications of your research, step 6: creating a reference list or bibliography.

Before writing your proposal, it’s important to come up with a strong idea for your dissertation.

Find an area of your field that interests you and do some preliminary reading in that area. What are the key concerns of other researchers? What do they suggest as areas for further research, and what strikes you personally as an interesting gap in the field?

Once you have an idea, consider how to narrow it down and the best way to frame it. Don’t be too ambitious or too vague – a dissertation topic needs to be specific enough to be feasible. Move from a broad field of interest to a specific niche:

• Russian literature 19th century Russian literature The novels of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky
• Social media Mental health effects of social media Influence of social media on young adults suffering from anxiety

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Like most academic texts, a dissertation proposal begins with an introduction . This is where you introduce the topic of your research, provide some background, and most importantly, present your aim , objectives and research question(s) .

Try to dive straight into your chosen topic: What’s at stake in your research? Why is it interesting? Don’t spend too long on generalisations or grand statements:

• Social media is the most important technological trend of the 21st century. It has changed the world and influences our lives every day.
• Psychologists generally agree that the ubiquity of social media in the lives of young adults today has a profound impact on their mental health. However, the exact nature of this impact needs further investigation.

Once your area of research is clear, you can present more background and context. What does the reader need to know to understand your proposed questions? What’s the current state of research on this topic, and what will your dissertation contribute to the field?

If you’re including a literature review, you don’t need to go into too much detail at this point, but give the reader a general sense of the debates that you’re intervening in.

This leads you into the most important part of the introduction: your aim, objectives and research question(s) . These should be clearly identifiable and stand out from the text – for example, you could present them using bullet points or bold font.

Make sure that your research questions are specific and workable – something you can reasonably answer within the scope of your dissertation. Avoid being too broad or having too many different questions. Remember that your goal in a dissertation proposal is to convince the reader that your research is valuable and feasible:

• Does social media harm mental health?
• What is the impact of daily social media use on 18– to 25–year–olds suffering from general anxiety disorder?

Now that your topic is clear, it’s time to explore existing research covering similar ideas. This is important because it shows you what is missing from other research in the field and ensures that you’re not asking a question someone else has already answered.

You’ve probably already done some preliminary reading, but now that your topic is more clearly defined, you need to thoroughly analyse and evaluate the most relevant sources in your literature review .

Here you should summarise the findings of other researchers and comment on gaps and problems in their studies. There may be a lot of research to cover, so make effective use of paraphrasing to write concisely:

• Smith and Prakash state that ‘our results indicate a 25% decrease in the incidence of mechanical failure after the new formula was applied’.
• Smith and Prakash’s formula reduced mechanical failures by 25%.

The point is to identify findings and theories that will influence your own research, but also to highlight gaps and limitations in previous research which your dissertation can address:

• Subsequent research has failed to replicate this result, however, suggesting a flaw in Smith and Prakash’s methods. It is likely that the failure resulted from…

Next, you’ll describe your proposed methodology : the specific things you hope to do, the structure of your research and the methods that you will use to gather and analyse data.

You should get quite specific in this section – you need to convince your supervisor that you’ve thought through your approach to the research and can realistically carry it out. This section will look quite different, and vary in length, depending on your field of study.

You may be engaged in more empirical research, focusing on data collection and discovering new information, or more theoretical research, attempting to develop a new conceptual model or add nuance to an existing one.

Dissertation research often involves both, but the content of your methodology section will vary according to how important each approach is to your dissertation.

Empirical research

Empirical research involves collecting new data and analysing it in order to answer your research questions. It can be quantitative (focused on numbers), qualitative (focused on words and meanings), or a combination of both.

With empirical research, it’s important to describe in detail how you plan to collect your data:

• Will you use surveys ? A lab experiment ? Interviews?
• What variables will you measure?
• How will you select a representative sample ?
• If other people will participate in your research, what measures will you take to ensure they are treated ethically?
• What tools (conceptual and physical) will you use, and why?

It’s appropriate to cite other research here. When you need to justify your choice of a particular research method or tool, for example, you can cite a text describing the advantages and appropriate usage of that method.

Don’t overdo this, though; you don’t need to reiterate the whole theoretical literature, just what’s relevant to the choices you have made.

Moreover, your research will necessarily involve analysing the data after you have collected it. Though you don’t know yet what the data will look like, it’s important to know what you’re looking for and indicate what methods (e.g. statistical tests , thematic analysis ) you will use.

Theoretical research

You can also do theoretical research that doesn’t involve original data collection. In this case, your methodology section will focus more on the theory you plan to work with in your dissertation: relevant conceptual models and the approach you intend to take.

For example, a literary analysis dissertation rarely involves collecting new data, but it’s still necessary to explain the theoretical approach that will be taken to the text(s) under discussion, as well as which parts of the text(s) you will focus on:

• This dissertation will utilise Foucault’s theory of panopticism to explore the theme of surveillance in Orwell’s 1984 and Kafka’s The Trial…

Here, you may refer to the same theorists you have already discussed in the literature review. In this case, the emphasis is placed on how you plan to use their contributions in your own research.

You’ll usually conclude your dissertation proposal with a section discussing what you expect your research to achieve.

You obviously can’t be too sure: you don’t know yet what your results and conclusions will be. Instead, you should describe the projected implications and contribution to knowledge of your dissertation.

First, consider the potential implications of your research. Will you:

• Develop or test a theory?
• Provide new information to governments or businesses?
• Challenge a commonly held belief?
• Suggest an improvement to a specific process?

Describe the intended result of your research and the theoretical or practical impact it will have:

Finally, it’s sensible to conclude by briefly restating the contribution to knowledge you hope to make: the specific question(s) you hope to answer and the gap the answer(s) will fill in existing knowledge:

Like any academic text, it’s important that your dissertation proposal effectively references all the sources you have used. You need to include a properly formatted reference list or bibliography at the end of your proposal.

Different institutions recommend different styles of referencing – commonly used styles include Harvard , Vancouver , APA , or MHRA . If your department does not have specific requirements, choose a style and apply it consistently.

A reference list includes only the sources that you cited in your proposal. A bibliography is slightly different: it can include every source you consulted in preparing the proposal, even if you didn’t mention it in the text. In the case of a dissertation proposal, a bibliography may also list relevant sources that you haven’t yet read, but that you intend to use during the research itself.

Check with your supervisor what type of bibliography or reference list you should include.

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Writing a dissertation proposal.

What is a dissertation proposal?

Dissertation proposals are like the table of contents for your research project , and will help you explain what it is you intend to examine, and roughly, how you intend to go about collecting and analysing your data. You won’t be required to have everything planned out exactly, as your topic may change slightly in the course of your research, but for the most part, writing your proposal should help you better identify the direction for your dissertation.

When you’ve chosen a topic for your dissertation , you’ll need to make sure that it is both appropriate to your field of study and narrow enough to be completed by the end of your course. Your dissertation proposal will help you define and determine both of these things and will also allow your department and instructors to make sure that you are being advised by the best person to help you complete your research.

A dissertation proposal should include:

• An introduction to your dissertation topic
• Aims and objectives of your dissertation
• A literature review of the current research undertaken in your field
• Proposed methodology to be used
• Implications of your research
• Limitations of your research
• Bibliography 

Although this content all needs to be included in your dissertation proposal, the content isn’t set in stone so it can be changed later if necessary, depending on your topic of study, university or degree. Think of your dissertation proposal as more of a guide to writing your dissertation rather than something to be strictly adhered to – this will be discussed later. 

Why is a dissertation proposal important?

A dissertation proposal is very important because it helps shape the actual dissertation, which is arguably the most important piece of writing a postgraduate student will undertake. By having a well-structured dissertation proposal, you will have a strong foundation for your dissertation and a good template to follow. The dissertation itself is key to postgraduate success as it will contribute to your overall grade . Writing your dissertation will also help you to develop research and communication skills, which could become invaluable in your employment success and future career. By making sure you’re fully briefed on the current research available in your chosen dissertation topic, as well as keeping details of your bibliography up to date, you will be in a great position to write an excellent dissertation.

Next, we’ll be outlining things you can do to help you produce the best postgraduate dissertation proposal possible.

How to begin your dissertation proposal

1. Narrow the topic down  

It’s important that when you sit down to draft your proposal, you’ve carefully thought out your topic and are able to narrow it down enough to present a clear and succinct understanding of what you aim to do and hope to accomplish in your dissertation.

How do I decide on a dissertation topic?

A simple way to begin choosing a topic for your dissertation is to go back through your assignments and lectures. Was there a topic that stood out to you? Was there an idea that wasn’t fully explored? If the answer to either of these questions is yes, then you have a great starting point! If not, then consider one of your more personal interests. Use Google Scholar to explore studies and journals on your topic to find any areas that could go into more detail or explore a more niche topic within your personal interest. 

Keep track of all publications

It’s important to keep track of all the publications that you use while you research. You can use this in your literature review.

You need to keep track of:

• The title of the study/research paper/book/journal
• Who wrote/took part in the study/research paper
• Chapter title
• Page number(s)

The more research you do, the more you should be able to narrow down your topic and find an interesting area to focus on. You’ll also be able to write about everything you find in your literature review which will make your proposal stronger.

While doing your research, consider the following:

• When was your source published? Is the information outdated? Has new information come to light since?
• Can you determine if any of the methodologies could have been carried out more efficiently? Are there any errors or gaps?
• Are there any ethical concerns that should be considered in future studies on the same topic?
• Could anything external (for example new events happening) have influenced the research?

Read more about picking a topic for your dissertation . 

How long should the dissertation proposal be?

There is usually no set length for a dissertation proposal, but you should aim for 1,000 words or more. Your dissertation proposal will give an outline of the topic of your dissertation, some of the questions you hope to answer with your research, what sort of studies and type of data you aim to employ in your research, and the sort of analysis you will carry out.

Different courses may have different requirements for things like length and the specific information to include, as well as what structure is preferred, so be sure to check what special requirements your course has.  

2. What should I include in a dissertation proposal?

Your dissertation proposal should have several key aspects regardless of the structure. The introduction, the methodology, aims and objectives, the literature review, and the constraints of your research all need to be included to ensure that you provide your supervisor with a comprehensive proposal. But what are they? Here's a checklist to get you started.

• Introduction

The introduction will state your central research question and give background on the subject, as well as relating it contextually to any broader issues surrounding it. 

The dissertation proposal introduction should outline exactly what you intend to investigate in your final research project.

Make sure you outline the structure of the dissertation proposal in your introduction, i.e. part one covers methodology, part two covers a literature review, part three covers research limitations, and so forth.

Your introduction should also include the working title for your dissertation – although don't worry if you want to change this at a later stage as your supervisors will not expect this to be set in stone.

Dissertation methodology

The dissertation methodology will break down what sources you aim to use for your research and what sort of data you will collect from it, either quantitative or qualitative. You may also want to include how you will analyse the data you gather and what, if any, bias there may be in your chosen methods.

Depending on the level of detail that your specific course requires, you may also want to explain why your chosen approaches to gathering data are more appropriate to your research than others.

Consider and explain how you will conduct empirical research. For example, will you use interviews? Surveys? Observation? Lab experiments?

In your dissertation methodology, outline the variables that you will measure in your research and how you will select your data or participant sample to ensure valid results.

Finally, are there any specific tools that you will use for your methodology? If so, make sure you provide this information in the methodology section of your dissertation proposal.

• Aims and objectives

Your aim should not be too broad but should equally not be too specific.

An example of a dissertation aim could be: ‘To examine the key content features and social contexts that construct successful viral marketing content distribution on X’.

In comparison, an example of a dissertation aim that is perhaps too broad would be: ‘To investigate how things go viral on X’.

The aim of your dissertation proposal should relate directly to your research question.

• Literature review

The literature review will list the books and materials that you will be using to do your research. This is where you can list materials that gave you more background on your topic, or contain research carried out previously that you referred to in your own studies. 

The literature review is also a good place to demonstrate how your research connects to previous academic studies and how your methods may differ from or build upon those used by other researchers. While it’s important to give enough information about the materials to show that you have read and understood them, don’t forget to include your analysis of their value to your work.

Where there are shortfalls in other pieces of academic work, identify these and address how you will overcome these shortcomings in your own research.

Constraints and limitations of your research

Lastly, you will also need to include the constraints of your research. Many topics will have broad links to numerous larger and more complex issues, so by clearly stating the constraints of your research, you are displaying your understanding and acknowledgment of these larger issues, and the role they play by focusing your research on just one section or part of the subject.

In this section it is important to Include examples of possible limitations, for example, issues with sample size, participant drop out, lack of existing research on the topic, time constraints, and other factors that may affect your study.

• Ethical considerations

Confidentiality and ethical concerns are an important part of any research.

Ethics are key, as your dissertation will need to undergo ethical approval if you are working with participants. This means that it’s important to allow for and explain ethical considerations in your dissertation proposal.

Keep confidentiality in mind and keep your participants informed, so they are aware of how the data provided is being used and are assured that all personal information is being kept confidential.

Consider how involved your patients will be with your research, this will help you think about what ethical considerations to take and discuss them fully in your dissertation proposal. For example, face-to-face participant interview methods could require more ethical measures and confidentiality considerations than methods that do not require participants, such as corpus data (a collection of existing written texts) analysis. 

3. Dissertation proposal example

Once you know what sections you need or do not need to include, it may help focus your writing to break the proposal up into separate headings, and tackle each piece individually. You may also want to consider including a title. Writing a title for your proposal will help you make sure that your topic is narrow enough, as well as help keep your writing focused and on topic.

One example of a dissertation proposal structure is using the following headings, either broken up into sections or chapters depending on the required word count:

• Methodology
• Research constraints

In any dissertation proposal example, you’ll want to make it clear why you’re doing the research and what positives could come from your contribution. 

Dissertation proposal example table

This table outlines the various stages of your dissertation proposal.

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How To Write A Dissertation Or Thesis

8 straightforward steps to craft an a-grade dissertation.

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) Expert Reviewed By: Dr Eunice Rautenbach | June 2020

Writing a dissertation or thesis is not a simple task. It takes time, energy and a lot of will power to get you across the finish line. It’s not easy – but it doesn’t necessarily need to be a painful process. If you understand the big-picture process of how to write a dissertation or thesis, your research journey will be a lot smoother.  

In this post, I’m going to outline the big-picture process of how to write a high-quality dissertation or thesis, without losing your mind along the way. If you’re just starting your research, this post is perfect for you. Alternatively, if you’ve already submitted your proposal, this article which covers how to structure a dissertation might be more helpful.

How To Write A Dissertation: 8 Steps

• Clearly understand what a dissertation (or thesis) is
• Find a unique and valuable research topic
• Craft a convincing research proposal
• Write up a strong introduction chapter
• Review the existing literature and compile a literature review
• Design a rigorous research strategy and undertake your own research
• Present the findings of your research
• Draw a conclusion and discuss the implications

Step 1: Understand exactly what a dissertation is

This probably sounds like a no-brainer, but all too often, students come to us for help with their research and the underlying issue is that they don’t fully understand what a dissertation (or thesis) actually is.

So, what is a dissertation?

At its simplest, a dissertation or thesis is a formal piece of research , reflecting the standard research process . But what is the standard research process, you ask? The research process involves 4 key steps:

• Ask a very specific, well-articulated question (s) (your research topic)
• See what other researchers have said about it (if they’ve already answered it)
• If they haven’t answered it adequately, undertake your own data collection and analysis in a scientifically rigorous fashion
• Answer your original question(s), based on your analysis findings

In short, the research process is simply about asking and answering questions in a systematic fashion . This probably sounds pretty obvious, but people often think they’ve done “research”, when in fact what they have done is:

• Started with a vague, poorly articulated question
• Not taken the time to see what research has already been done regarding the question
• Collected data and opinions that support their gut and undertaken a flimsy analysis
• Drawn a shaky conclusion, based on that analysis

If you want to see the perfect example of this in action, look out for the next Facebook post where someone claims they’ve done “research”… All too often, people consider reading a few blog posts to constitute research. Its no surprise then that what they end up with is an opinion piece, not research. Okay, okay – I’ll climb off my soapbox now.

The key takeaway here is that a dissertation (or thesis) is a formal piece of research, reflecting the research process. It’s not an opinion piece , nor a place to push your agenda or try to convince someone of your position. Writing a good dissertation involves asking a question and taking a systematic, rigorous approach to answering it.

If you understand this and are comfortable leaving your opinions or preconceived ideas at the door, you’re already off to a good start!

Step 2: Find a unique, valuable research topic

As we saw, the first step of the research process is to ask a specific, well-articulated question. In other words, you need to find a research topic that asks a specific question or set of questions (these are called research questions ). Sounds easy enough, right? All you’ve got to do is identify a question or two and you’ve got a winning research topic. Well, not quite…

A good dissertation or thesis topic has a few important attributes. Specifically, a solid research topic should be:

Let’s take a closer look at these:

Attribute #1: Clear

Your research topic needs to be crystal clear about what you’re planning to research, what you want to know, and within what context. There shouldn’t be any ambiguity or vagueness about what you’ll research.

Here’s an example of a clearly articulated research topic:

An analysis of consumer-based factors influencing organisational trust in British low-cost online equity brokerage firms.

As you can see in the example, its crystal clear what will be analysed (factors impacting organisational trust), amongst who (consumers) and in what context (British low-cost equity brokerage firms, based online).

Need a helping hand?

Attribute #2:   Unique

Your research should be asking a question(s) that hasn’t been asked before, or that hasn’t been asked in a specific context (for example, in a specific country or industry).

For example, sticking organisational trust topic above, it’s quite likely that organisational trust factors in the UK have been investigated before, but the context (online low-cost equity brokerages) could make this research unique. Therefore, the context makes this research original.

One caveat when using context as the basis for originality – you need to have a good reason to suspect that your findings in this context might be different from the existing research – otherwise, there’s no reason to warrant researching it.

Attribute #3: Important

Simply asking a unique or original question is not enough – the question needs to create value. In other words, successfully answering your research questions should provide some value to the field of research or the industry. You can’t research something just to satisfy your curiosity. It needs to make some form of contribution either to research or industry.

For example, researching the factors influencing consumer trust would create value by enabling businesses to tailor their operations and marketing to leverage factors that promote trust. In other words, it would have a clear benefit to industry.

So, how do you go about finding a unique and valuable research topic? We explain that in detail in this video post – How To Find A Research Topic . Yeah, we’ve got you covered 😊

Step 3: Write a convincing research proposal

Once you’ve pinned down a high-quality research topic, the next step is to convince your university to let you research it. No matter how awesome you think your topic is, it still needs to get the rubber stamp before you can move forward with your research. The research proposal is the tool you’ll use for this job.

So, what’s in a research proposal?

The main “job” of a research proposal is to convince your university, advisor or committee that your research topic is worthy of approval. But convince them of what? Well, this varies from university to university, but generally, they want to see that:

• You have a clearly articulated, unique and important topic (this might sound familiar…)
• You’ve done some initial reading of the existing literature relevant to your topic (i.e. a literature review)
• You have a provisional plan in terms of how you will collect data and analyse it (i.e. a methodology)

At the proposal stage, it’s (generally) not expected that you’ve extensively reviewed the existing literature , but you will need to show that you’ve done enough reading to identify a clear gap for original (unique) research. Similarly, they generally don’t expect that you have a rock-solid research methodology mapped out, but you should have an idea of whether you’ll be undertaking qualitative or quantitative analysis , and how you’ll collect your data (we’ll discuss this in more detail later).

Long story short – don’t stress about having every detail of your research meticulously thought out at the proposal stage – this will develop as you progress through your research. However, you do need to show that you’ve “done your homework” and that your research is worthy of approval .

So, how do you go about crafting a high-quality, convincing proposal? We cover that in detail in this video post – How To Write A Top-Class Research Proposal . We’ve also got a video walkthrough of two proposal examples here .

Step 4: Craft a strong introduction chapter

Once your proposal’s been approved, its time to get writing your actual dissertation or thesis! The good news is that if you put the time into crafting a high-quality proposal, you’ve already got a head start on your first three chapters – introduction, literature review and methodology – as you can use your proposal as the basis for these.

Handy sidenote – our free dissertation & thesis template is a great way to speed up your dissertation writing journey.

What’s the introduction chapter all about?

The purpose of the introduction chapter is to set the scene for your research (dare I say, to introduce it…) so that the reader understands what you’ll be researching and why it’s important. In other words, it covers the same ground as the research proposal in that it justifies your research topic.

What goes into the introduction chapter?

This can vary slightly between universities and degrees, but generally, the introduction chapter will include the following:

• A brief background to the study, explaining the overall area of research
• A problem statement , explaining what the problem is with the current state of research (in other words, where the knowledge gap exists)
• Your research questions – in other words, the specific questions your study will seek to answer (based on the knowledge gap)
• The significance of your study – in other words, why it’s important and how its findings will be useful in the world

As you can see, this all about explaining the “what” and the “why” of your research (as opposed to the “how”). So, your introduction chapter is basically the salesman of your study, “selling” your research to the first-time reader and (hopefully) getting them interested to read more.

How do I write the introduction chapter, you ask? We cover that in detail in this post .

Step 5: Undertake an in-depth literature review

As I mentioned earlier, you’ll need to do some initial review of the literature in Steps 2 and 3 to find your research gap and craft a convincing research proposal – but that’s just scratching the surface. Once you reach the literature review stage of your dissertation or thesis, you need to dig a lot deeper into the existing research and write up a comprehensive literature review chapter.

What’s the literature review all about?

There are two main stages in the literature review process:

Literature Review Step 1: Reading up

The first stage is for you to deep dive into the existing literature (journal articles, textbook chapters, industry reports, etc) to gain an in-depth understanding of the current state of research regarding your topic. While you don’t need to read every single article, you do need to ensure that you cover all literature that is related to your core research questions, and create a comprehensive catalogue of that literature , which you’ll use in the next step.

Reading and digesting all the relevant literature is a time consuming and intellectually demanding process. Many students underestimate just how much work goes into this step, so make sure that you allocate a good amount of time for this when planning out your research. Thankfully, there are ways to fast track the process – be sure to check out this article covering how to read journal articles quickly .

Literature Review Step 2: Writing up

Once you’ve worked through the literature and digested it all, you’ll need to write up your literature review chapter. Many students make the mistake of thinking that the literature review chapter is simply a summary of what other researchers have said. While this is partly true, a literature review is much more than just a summary. To pull off a good literature review chapter, you’ll need to achieve at least 3 things:

• You need to synthesise the existing research , not just summarise it. In other words, you need to show how different pieces of theory fit together, what’s agreed on by researchers, what’s not.
• You need to highlight a research gap that your research is going to fill. In other words, you’ve got to outline the problem so that your research topic can provide a solution.
• You need to use the existing research to inform your methodology and approach to your own research design. For example, you might use questions or Likert scales from previous studies in your your own survey design .

As you can see, a good literature review is more than just a summary of the published research. It’s the foundation on which your own research is built, so it deserves a lot of love and attention. Take the time to craft a comprehensive literature review with a suitable structure .

But, how do I actually write the literature review chapter, you ask? We cover that in detail in this video post .

Step 6: Carry out your own research

Once you’ve completed your literature review and have a sound understanding of the existing research, its time to develop your own research (finally!). You’ll design this research specifically so that you can find the answers to your unique research question.

There are two steps here – designing your research strategy and executing on it:

1 – Design your research strategy

The first step is to design your research strategy and craft a methodology chapter . I won’t get into the technicalities of the methodology chapter here, but in simple terms, this chapter is about explaining the “how” of your research. If you recall, the introduction and literature review chapters discussed the “what” and the “why”, so it makes sense that the next point to cover is the “how” –that’s what the methodology chapter is all about.

In this section, you’ll need to make firm decisions about your research design. This includes things like:

• Your research philosophy (e.g. positivism or interpretivism )
• Your overall methodology (e.g. qualitative , quantitative or mixed methods)
• Your data collection strategy (e.g. interviews , focus groups, surveys)
• Your data analysis strategy (e.g. content analysis , correlation analysis, regression)

If these words have got your head spinning, don’t worry! We’ll explain these in plain language in other posts. It’s not essential that you understand the intricacies of research design (yet!). The key takeaway here is that you’ll need to make decisions about how you’ll design your own research, and you’ll need to describe (and justify) your decisions in your methodology chapter.

2 – Execute: Collect and analyse your data

Once you’ve worked out your research design, you’ll put it into action and start collecting your data. This might mean undertaking interviews, hosting an online survey or any other data collection method. Data collection can take quite a bit of time (especially if you host in-person interviews), so be sure to factor sufficient time into your project plan for this. Oftentimes, things don’t go 100% to plan (for example, you don’t get as many survey responses as you hoped for), so bake a little extra time into your budget here.

Once you’ve collected your data, you’ll need to do some data preparation before you can sink your teeth into the analysis. For example:

• If you carry out interviews or focus groups, you’ll need to transcribe your audio data to text (i.e. a Word document).
• If you collect quantitative survey data, you’ll need to clean up your data and get it into the right format for whichever analysis software you use (for example, SPSS, R or STATA).

Once you’ve completed your data prep, you’ll undertake your analysis, using the techniques that you described in your methodology. Depending on what you find in your analysis, you might also do some additional forms of analysis that you hadn’t planned for. For example, you might see something in the data that raises new questions or that requires clarification with further analysis.

The type(s) of analysis that you’ll use depend entirely on the nature of your research and your research questions. For example:

• If your research if exploratory in nature, you’ll often use qualitative analysis techniques .
• If your research is confirmatory in nature, you’ll often use quantitative analysis techniques
• If your research involves a mix of both, you might use a mixed methods approach

Again, if these words have got your head spinning, don’t worry! We’ll explain these concepts and techniques in other posts. The key takeaway is simply that there’s no “one size fits all” for research design and methodology – it all depends on your topic, your research questions and your data. So, don’t be surprised if your study colleagues take a completely different approach to yours.

Step 7: Present your findings

Once you’ve completed your analysis, it’s time to present your findings (finally!). In a dissertation or thesis, you’ll typically present your findings in two chapters – the results chapter and the discussion chapter .

What’s the difference between the results chapter and the discussion chapter?

While these two chapters are similar, the results chapter generally just presents the processed data neatly and clearly without interpretation, while the discussion chapter explains the story the data are telling  – in other words, it provides your interpretation of the results.

For example, if you were researching the factors that influence consumer trust, you might have used a quantitative approach to identify the relationship between potential factors (e.g. perceived integrity and competence of the organisation) and consumer trust. In this case:

• Your results chapter would just present the results of the statistical tests. For example, correlation results or differences between groups. In other words, the processed numbers.
• Your discussion chapter would explain what the numbers mean in relation to your research question(s). For example, Factor 1 has a weak relationship with consumer trust, while Factor 2 has a strong relationship.

Depending on the university and degree, these two chapters (results and discussion) are sometimes merged into one , so be sure to check with your institution what their preference is. Regardless of the chapter structure, this section is about presenting the findings of your research in a clear, easy to understand fashion.

Importantly, your discussion here needs to link back to your research questions (which you outlined in the introduction or literature review chapter). In other words, it needs to answer the key questions you asked (or at least attempt to answer them).

For example, if we look at the sample research topic:

In this case, the discussion section would clearly outline which factors seem to have a noteworthy influence on organisational trust. By doing so, they are answering the overarching question and fulfilling the purpose of the research .

For more information about the results chapter , check out this post for qualitative studies and this post for quantitative studies .

Step 8: The Final Step Draw a conclusion and discuss the implications

Last but not least, you’ll need to wrap up your research with the conclusion chapter . In this chapter, you’ll bring your research full circle by highlighting the key findings of your study and explaining what the implications of these findings are.

What exactly are key findings? The key findings are those findings which directly relate to your original research questions and overall research objectives (which you discussed in your introduction chapter). The implications, on the other hand, explain what your findings mean for industry, or for research in your area.

Sticking with the consumer trust topic example, the conclusion might look something like this:

Key findings

This study set out to identify which factors influence consumer-based trust in British low-cost online equity brokerage firms. The results suggest that the following factors have a large impact on consumer trust:

While the following factors have a very limited impact on consumer trust:

Notably, within the 25-30 age groups, Factors E had a noticeably larger impact, which may be explained by…

Implications

The findings having noteworthy implications for British low-cost online equity brokers. Specifically:

The large impact of Factors X and Y implies that brokers need to consider….

The limited impact of Factor E implies that brokers need to…

As you can see, the conclusion chapter is basically explaining the “what” (what your study found) and the “so what?” (what the findings mean for the industry or research). This brings the study full circle and closes off the document.

Let’s recap – how to write a dissertation or thesis

You’re still with me? Impressive! I know that this post was a long one, but hopefully you’ve learnt a thing or two about how to write a dissertation or thesis, and are now better equipped to start your own research.

To recap, the 8 steps to writing a quality dissertation (or thesis) are as follows:

• Understand what a dissertation (or thesis) is – a research project that follows the research process.
• Find a unique (original) and important research topic
• Craft a convincing dissertation or thesis research proposal
• Write a clear, compelling introduction chapter
• Undertake a thorough review of the existing research and write up a literature review
• Undertake your own research
• Present and interpret your findings

Once you’ve wrapped up the core chapters, all that’s typically left is the abstract , reference list and appendices. As always, be sure to check with your university if they have any additional requirements in terms of structure or content.  

Psst... there’s more!

This post was based on one of our popular Research Bootcamps . If you're working on a research project, you'll definitely want to check this out ...

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20 Comments

thankfull >>>this is very useful

Thank you, it was really helpful

unquestionably, this amazing simplified way of teaching. Really , I couldn’t find in the literature words that fully explicit my great thanks to you. However, I could only say thanks a-lot.

Great to hear that – thanks for the feedback. Good luck writing your dissertation/thesis.

This is the most comprehensive explanation of how to write a dissertation. Many thanks for sharing it free of charge.

Very rich presentation. Thank you

Thanks Derek Jansen|GRADCOACH, I find it very useful guide to arrange my activities and proceed to research!

Thank you so much for such a marvelous teaching .I am so convinced that am going to write a comprehensive and a distinct masters dissertation

It is an amazing comprehensive explanation

This was straightforward. Thank you!

I can say that your explanations are simple and enlightening – understanding what you have done here is easy for me. Could you write more about the different types of research methods specific to the three methodologies: quan, qual and MM. I look forward to interacting with this website more in the future.

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions 🙂

Hello, your write ups is quite educative. However, l have challenges in going about my research questions which is below; *Building the enablers of organisational growth through effective governance and purposeful leadership.*

Very educating.

Just listening to the name of the dissertation makes the student nervous. As writing a top-quality dissertation is a difficult task as it is a lengthy topic, requires a lot of research and understanding and is usually around 10,000 to 15000 words. Sometimes due to studies, unbalanced workload or lack of research and writing skill students look for dissertation submission from professional writers.

Thank you 💕😊 very much. I was confused but your comprehensive explanation has cleared my doubts of ever presenting a good thesis. Thank you.

thank you so much, that was so useful

Hi. Where is the excel spread sheet ark?

could you please help me look at your thesis paper to enable me to do the portion that has to do with the specification

my topic is “the impact of domestic revenue mobilization.

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How to Design, Write, and Present a Successful Dissertation Proposal

• Elizabeth A. Wentz - Arizona State University, USA
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See what’s new to this edition by selecting the Features tab on this page. Should you need additional information or have questions regarding the HEOA information provided for this title, including what is new to this edition, please email [email protected] . Please include your name, contact information, and the name of the title for which you would like more information. For information on the HEOA, please go to http://ed.gov/policy/highered/leg/hea08/index.html .

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“Excellent book for a doctoral and/or orientation program.”

“The inclusion of the author’s personal anecdotes brings the text to the student in a friendly manner.”

“The activities to help students conceptualize the major elements of an effective proposal will be well received by graduate students at the master’s and doctoral levels.”

“After reading MANY books on the dissertation process, I was still as confused and frustrated as before reading them, as they were not very helpful. Most of them just broadly mention the content of the chapters without going into details. Fortunately, I came across the reference for your book, How to Design, Write and Present a Successful Dissertation Proposal. I was amazed. I am gaining so much insight on the process of writing the proposal. I like your approach in this book. In addition to your very clear explanation of the process and suggestions, the To Do List , Quick Task and Action Item are great guides in helping me to think through what I am doing.”

This is a great text for geography graduate students. It provided the framework for my graduate course on research and writing and is a great source for class exercises that I successfully implemented in my course.

I teach a methods course for doctoral students. This book was very appropriate for students this semester.

Practical and helpful for students moving into dissertation stage

KEY FEATURES:

• Guidance on how to analyze the dissertation proposal draft , both in terms of content and style to help students fine-tune their final proposal.
• In-depth literature review section goes beyond simply describing what a literature review is by providing concrete information on how to structure a review of the literature.
• A unique activity works to help students understand the types and ranges of research questions and to evaluate what makes a research question good or bad.
• Coverage of the academic village describes the structure of the university and the career stages of professors, demonstrating how they can potentially affect graduate student success.

For instructors

Select a purchasing option.

This title is also available on SAGE Research Methods , the ultimate digital methods library. If your library doesn’t have access, ask your librarian to start a trial .

How to Submit a Book Proposal

To have your project considered for publication by SUNY Press, please submit a book proposal as a Word or PDF document attached to an email. Please do not send an entire manuscript. Our editors will invite you to send your entire manuscript based on their reaction to your initial samples. Your proposal should include the following:

A brief cover letter

Your cover letter should describe why you feel SUNY Press would be a good publisher for your work. Please note in your cover letter if there is a series for which you would like your project considered, as well as any other information you think we should know (e.g., if you met one of our editors at a conference, etc.).

Your proposal

A strong proposal will include the following components:

• Brief abstract (about 150 words)
• Your current curriculum vitae
• Description of the project : Please discuss the book’s purpose and how it will be achieved, the book’s specific contribution, and any distinctive or unique features that bear highlighting.
• Table of contents/chapter outline with a paragraph-length description of each chapter
• Format : Please provide the estimated word count of the completed manuscript (including notes, references, and appendices) and descriptions of any illustrations (figures, tables, photos, etc.).
• Market : Questions to consider include: Is your book intended for scholars/specialists? In what fields and at what levels (e.g., undergraduate majors or non-majors, graduate students, etc.)? Are there specific courses in which it might be used? Will it appeal to general readers? Please also include any information about your author platform (e.g., social media presence, public engagement) and ways you might promote the book.
• List of recent comparable and competing titles : Include a brief description of each one, noting how it relates to and/or differs from your own book. You might think of these as books alongside which yours would belong on a bookshelf.
• Status of the Work : Please indicate your timeline for completion, whether any of the chapters have been previously published, and whether you anticipate needing to obtain any permissions, as well as how you plan to do so.
• A list of contributors and their affiliations (if the book is an edited volume)
• A sample chapter : Please send an introduction and/or other sample chapter if one is ready and available. Please do not send a full manuscript unless requested to do so by an editor.

Direct your proposal to one of the acquisitions editors listed here , or send it to the attention of James Peltz , Editor-in-Chief.

Policy on Dissertations

SUNY Press does not publish unrevised dissertations. We do, however, consider proposals for books that have their origins in dissertation research and are suitably revised. For guidance on transforming your dissertation into a book, we recommend  The Thesis and the Book: A Guide for First-Time Academic Authors , 2nd edition, edited by Eleanor Harman et al.,  From Dissertation to Book, Second Edition , by William Germano, and  Revising Your Dissertation: Advice from Leading Editors , 2nd edition, edited by Beth Luey.

Policy on Generative AI

SUNY Press recognizes the value and risks of generative AI (GenAI) and large-language models (LLMs) as they relate to scholarship and research for authors. The following is our policy regarding GenAI for all of our publications.

• Authors are legally responsible for the entirety of their work. The author accepts full responsibility and is solely accountable for any liability that may result from the use of GenAI or LLMs.
• GenAI and LLMs do not qualify as authors and cannot be listed as such on any publication. The Press will not accept any work that is substantially generated by GenAI or an LLM.
• A general statement at the beginning of an article, in the frontmatter of a book, or in another prominent place in the work about the use of GenAI or LLMs must be included.
• As with any other external source, the use of GenAI or LLMs in text, images, graphs, tables, or other parts of the work must be cited. Specific citation styles for GenAI can be found in the Chicago Manual of Style and the MLA and APA style guides.
• Authors must ensure that their work is original, accurate, does not violate any intellectual property rights, and properly cites and references others’ work, including any content that is generated by GenAI or LLMs.

We will continue to monitor developments with these rapidly evolving technologies and are committed to adapting our policies accordingly.

Advice from our Editors: Revising the Dissertation into a Monograph

Palgrave Macmillan will consider submissions containing material that has previously formed part of a PhD or other academic thesis including those that have been made publicly available according to the requirements of the institution awarding the qualification. Prospective authors should bear in mind that every PhD thesis will need to undergo rigorous revision in order to be published as a monograph with our press. To help with this revision, our editors have put together the following advice:

How do I go about planning the revisions and when should I start?

• Be aware that transforming your dissertation into a publishable book is a complex process, which will take time and require some careful planning. Time will be an issue, especially if you need to juggle the work on the book with full-time teaching and/or other research activities. Most authors take at least a year to complete a PhD-based book, but this could also take longer if the book requires fresh data and new research.  
• You should endeavor to begin working on the book proposal only after having submitted your thesis and successfully completing your PhD program. This will allow you to look at the thesis with a fresh eye and to take into account any helpful feedback from your examiners as you develop your proposal.
• Consider all the available formats.  Depending on the subject and breadth of the topic, some proposals may develop into a full-length monograph (c.90,000 words), whilst for others a shorter format like Palgrave Pivot  (25,000 to 50,000 words) may be suitable – for example a single-case or single-country study once they have been extracted out of any redundant or unnecessary content.

What’s the difference between the PhD thesis and a monograph?

• Audience .  While a PhD thesis is meant to be read and scrutinized by your supervisors and examiners, the readership of your book will extend to the broader academic community, scholars and practitioners, who may not be specialized on or even familiar with your research topic.
• Rationale . The motivation behind writing your book will need to be rethought to reflect the expectations of your new audience and should clearly unfold in the introduction. The objective is not to convince your examiners that you have what it takes to complete a PhD, but to make sure the book is coherent and your conclusions are persuasive. 
• Structure . Your introductory chapter should also offer readers a concise ‘preview’ of the various chapters. The conclusion should summarize your key findings and identify avenues for further research. Look over the table of contents in books which you would consider as related literature or competitors. How does that differ from the structure of your thesis? You should simplify and optimize your table of contents so as to articulate the material in a logical and accessible fashion.
• Length . Monographs are normally much shorter than PhD theses. Separate chapters about the review of literature and research methodologies may be vital in a thesis, but will not be necessary in a book, as readers and experts in your field will be familiar already with both. References to the relevant literature can be moved to the endnotes of individual chapters, and what is not pertinent to advancing your own arguments can be cut out. The methodology chapter should be reduced and merged with the introduction if not omitted altogether.

How do I write a proposal for a PhD-based book?

• Think of it as a brand new project which builds on rather than derives from your PhD research. 
• Avoid mentioning phrases like ‘this PhD’ or ‘this thesis’ throughout the proposal.
• Identify your USPs (unique selling points) and build your proposal around them so as to highlight what is really original about your research, its contribution to the field and what makes the book ‘stand out of the crowd.
• Avoid recommending your supervisors or examiners as potential peer reviewers.
• Keep footnotes and endnotes to a minimum.
• Be mindful that you will need to obtain permission to include quotes from interviewees if they were not informed at the time of the interview that these could appear in print. Otherwise, these quotes must be attributed anonymously or removed completely.
• Reduce third-party materials as much as possible, as obtaining permission for this content is the responsibility of the author and can be a time-consuming process.
• Select illustrations/tables/diagrams that further the argument of the text, rather than are illustrative.  
• Informally ask colleagues or mentors to read your chapters before submission. An outside perspective can help refine the work for final publication. If English is not your first language, it might be useful to ask a native speaker to read-through the manuscript as well. 

In addition, a number of our authors who have gone through this process themselves have been kind enough to share their experiences. All of these advice articles can be found on the Early Career Researcher Hub .

A monograph is a very different body of work to a thesis. So, rather than sending out a proposal at once, and simply rewriting a chapter of the thesis to go with it, I ignored the advice and decided to think of the book as a new project. This involved taking key concepts from the thesis, but significantly reworking and developing them. This approach took a long time (three years, post-viva) because the work was undertaken alongside HPL teaching and summer work, which slowed the project down considerably.

However, the proposal I eventually submitted to Palgrave was a book proposal, rather than a modified thesis proposal. As such, the submission process was significantly easier; the project was accepted, a contract issued, and the completed manuscript took just three months to finish and submit. The book appeared in print just eight months later (less than a year after I first submitted the proposal.) I have no doubt that this was because I took that time to develop the project.

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If you are ready to submit your proposal to us you can do so using this submissions form .

What to include in your book proposal : submission checklist

For all book submissions, please submit a proposal including the following information:

• Title of the proposed book (pick the right title by placing the most important keywords first)
• 3-6 keywords that encapsulate the principal topics of the book or chapter - read our SEO Guide for Authors to help you choose your keywords
• Full name and affiliation of each volume author/editor
• A brief explanation of what the book is about and why the topic is of theoretical and methodological importance
• A proposed structure of the book along with a brief summary of each chapter
• A brief description of the target audience/proposed market
• A brief description of any similar or competing publications on the market
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The Dissertation Writing Retreat is offered by the Graduate School and the Willis Writing Center to provide structured writing time and resources for graduate students who are completing dissertation writing.

The retreat leader will offer writing tips, resources, one-on-one consultations, peer feedback, and focused writing time.

June 10-14, 2024 8:30am-1:30pm Sanford Hall 209

Open to post-candidacy doctoral students.

Registration is available to the first 20 students to register.

To register you must submit a letter of support from your major professor or dissertation chair on letterhead indicating you are in good standing and eligible for the retreat by confirming date of candidacy/proposal acceptance.

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