On writing my PhD research proposal

How everything begins is rooted in this inner hunger FOR knowledge which I acknowledged since I was 10 years. What I am going to do, to the best of my knowledge and belief, is one of milestone of a human life, probably that is why it take me a while to take the decision. Sometimes, there is a concern about how old you are to start with this degree, but as almost everything in life is, it has had both advantages and disadvantages (5).

From some blogs, I have known that pursuing a Ph.D is a sea of emotions (1) which requires three qualities for Ph.D successful students: perseverance, tenacity and cogency (2).

As you might know, I am on the verge of writing my Ph.D research proposal to which as Professor Matt Might (2) suggested that students had created a blog, which actually I did on March 2013, even if no one reads is quite beneficial.

As a result of this, a good point to start with it is by reading some sample dissertation proposals that are divided into three categories: Arts and Humanities, Social Science and Science and Engineering (3). On the other hand, it is important to check out the outline of the dissertation to which many references have been populated the Internet, you just need to google it. However, I have found one that generally entails almost every part of a research proposal (4) which goes as follows:

Title
1. Abstract
2. Contents
3. Introduction
4. Literature Review
5. Notion of original research
6. Key Assertions / Objectives
7. Research Methods
8. Analysis
9. Proposed Chapter Outline
10. Research Limitations
11. Proposed Timescale
12. References

++++Update++++Tue Feb 11 13:25:09 CST 2014

However, what is suggested by A. Bundy et. at. (6) is that we do not have to start writing at the beginning. We have to start by describing the central idea, e.g. your main technique, procedure or proof. Then, decide what
your hypothetical reader has so as to understand this central idea and put this information into the introductory sections/chapters.





References

(1) http://phdlife.warwick.ac.uk/2014/01/13/turning-30-the-phd/
(2) http://matt.might.net/articles/successful-phd-students/
(3) https://webspace.utexas.edu/cherwitz/www/ie/sample_diss.html
(4) http://www.quoteroller.com/proposal-templates/research-proposal/

(5) http://chrisblattman.com/2013/06/12/when-are-you-too-old-for-a-phd/

(6) The Researcher's Bible http://www.cs.duke.edu/~chase/cps300/resbible.pdf