Writing a dissertation outline usually necessitates some pre-planning and extensive research, but it isn’t particularly difficult in and of itself. Different schools have different requirements, and there are also differences between disciplines; a dissertation outline in chemistry, for example, will likely take a slightly different form and approach than one in history or the social sciences. The best place to start is usually reading up on any specific instructions from your school or program. Most outlines go from there, with an abstract, an introduction, a literature review, a section for research methodology, and any preliminary conclusions you have or expect.
Basics of Outlining
The main goal of a dissertation outline is to create a roadmap or guide for the project you’re about to embark on, which is writing a dissertation — which, depending on your topic and program, could be a multi-hundred-page undertaking. An outline, on the other hand, is usually much shorter. It should ideally fulfill two functions. First, it should force you to organize your thoughts in a logical and coherent manner, which can both help you recognize what you have and spot areas where you need to improve or gather more information. Second, it will assist your advisors in gaining a better understanding of your plans. This will allow them to provide you with more detailed and useful advice throughout the process. Most schools require all dissertation writers to meet with their advisors at various points throughout the writing process, and submitting your outline is usually one of the first formal steps after your topic has been approved.
Make a List of Your Requirements
It’s a good idea to consult a dissertation manual from your school before starting your outline. Some schools have strict guidelines for the order of sections in dissertation outlines and will expect you to follow a specific format. This type of guide should be available from your advisors or any research library on campus. If you require anything special or must adhere to specific formatting guidelines, the manual will usually state so.
The Importance of an Abstract and a Prologue
In most cases, you’ll begin writing your abstract, which is essentially a summary of your entire research strategy. The abstract’s main purpose is to lay out your objectives, how you’ll get there, and what you’ll conclude. This may change as your research progresses, but it’s important to include as a placeholder at the outset. If you submitted an initial research proposal at the start of the dissertation process, it might look a lot like this.
Following that is usually a brief introduction. This, too, is likely to change as you flesh out your project, but it’s usually a place for a background summary of the topic area you’re researching at the outlining stage. This section usually includes some historical references to help the reader understand your project’s context.
Review of the Literature
The literature review will most likely take up the majority of your time. In this section, you’ll provide a comprehensive list of all the research you’ve done so far on your topic. This section usually contains secondary sources of information, such as books and articles, as well as primary sources, such as interviews and media transcripts, that you’ve used. The goal of a literature review is to show the reader what has been done previously in the field of study. More importantly, you demonstrate in this section which areas lack research and thus must be investigated. This feature comes in handy when you’re considering how much work it will take to turn your outline into a complete dissertation.
Laying the Groundwork for Your Research Methodology
In most cases, a section called “research methodology” follows the literature review. This is where you’ll identify not only where you’re getting your information, but also how you’re synthesizing any data or ideas you come across. Most writers begin identifying a few key research questions and then devising a strategy for answering them. Your research questions will serve as a guide for your overall investigation, so they should be focused and specific. The questions should be straightforward and not overly broad. The type of information needed for the study, such as raw data versus anecdotal, should also be hinted at in the research questions.
The research methodology’s purpose is to provide an overall plan for your research study. Qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methodologies can be used in research. Surveys and interviews are commonly used in qualitative research to study people’s attitudes, behaviors, and experiences. A quantitative methodology, on the other hand, usually entails the application of statistical techniques to analyze data gathered from surveys or previously gathered data sets. This section can also be used to explain why you chose your methodology. It could be based on a methodology that has been used in previous research in the field, or it could be because you believe it is the best fit for the data you need to collect.
Make Room for Conclusions
When they’re just outlining their dissertations, many of them don’t have any conclusions yet. Even if everything you write is speculation, it’s still a good idea to set aside a space for expected results and conclusions. You could also begin considering the broader implications of your proposed research. You can show how your research adds to the field, how it expands on current research threads, and how it explores a new related thread or introduces new directions in the field.
Future work, which is often closely related to your conclusion, is usually reserved for the last section of a dissertation. Normally, you’ll discuss the limitations of your own research study in this section, as well as any questions that arose during your research that weren’t addressed in your dissertation. You could also mention any new areas of interest that arose during the course of your research. Of course, writing this section before you’ve finished your project is nearly impossible, but identifying it in your outline is a good way to remind yourself of it and keep it in mind as you get started.