Thesis Proposal
In a proposal you tell two people, your adviser and yourself, what you have in mind. Your research adviser can help you write a good proposal, but the first step is yours. Before you approach an adviser for help, write a thesis proposal. This process is central to English 7800: Introduction to Literary Research, a pre-requisite for English 7810: Thesis.
Writing a proposal is not preliminary to research. It is a part of research. To write a good proposal, you should investigate your potential topic before you approach your adviser. One way to do that is to conduct a search for books and articles on the subject using standard bibliographies in your field and reading one or two key books or articles.
Consider your resources and time constraints while developing your initial proposal ideas. The topic you choose depends on a number of things: your own interests; whether your adviser will be on campus while you are working on the project; his or her expertise in your area of study; and the time you have available to complete the research and writing. To narrow or limit a topic usually means giving up some aspect of a topic and concentrating instead on part of it.
The proposal sketch that you write before you meet with your project adviser should explain:
- the topic you expect to investigate,
- the general line of inquiry you intend to pursue or the tentative argument you intend to pose, and
- the plan for doing research.
A proposal is a starting point, not the finished thesis. Include ideas that you feel sure you would like to investigate as well as other related ideas that you think might be worth exploring. But get your ideas down before you approach your adviser. This will give your adviser a sense of your seriousness about doing the project and will give you both a starting point for discussing the project.
When you talk with your research adviser about your tentative proposal, work toward revising it in several specific ways. Consider the following questions:
- How is the project related to what I have learned in previous courses and from my own personal reading and research?
- What question am I trying to answer by doing the project, or what problem am I trying to solve?
- Is the question answerable or the problem soluble? If so, can it be answered or solved in the time I have to work on it?
- Is there a piece of the question or the problem that I could work on that would let me go into greater depth than if I tried to take on the whole thing?
- What should the final project look like (length, format, illustrations, bibliography)?
As you try to answer these questions and develop your proposal, keep in mind that at this stage nothing is engraved in stone. You cannot possibly know in advance everything that will actually happen as you do the project. In fact, the unexpected things that happen as you work are a part of what makes writing theses exciting and rewarding.
The completed final draft of your proposal should include the following:
- A succinct, tentative title. This is a working title. It says what you think the project is about as you begin it. By the time you finish the project your title may change as your understanding of the project changes.
- A statement of the project's central issue stated either as a noun phrase ("Women in Selected Shakespearean Plays" ) or as a question ("What Does Shakespeare Think of Women?").
- A list of central research questions. What do you want to learn? What problem do you want to solve?
- A description of your hypothesis. What do you guess the answer or solution will turn out to be?
- A description of the kinds of things you imagine you will have to do in order to complete the project. What kind of work activities will be involved?
- A description of the resources you think you will draw upon. Explain which of these you will bring to the project yourself (what do you already know that will help?), which resources you will depend on your adviser to contribute, and which resources you will have to go out and find.
- A calendar. This is your work plan. It describes what you imagine you will do at each stage of the work. Set a tentative due date for each stage. Set realistic goals. Make your research project one of your highest priorities, but don't over-commit yourself. Lay your schedule out so that you can successfully complete each stage of the research project on time without neglecting other important parts of your life, like work and family. Research requires commitment, discipline, and organization—so plan wisely.
By the time you complete your proposal (if not before), you should consult with one or more potential thesis advisers. These will be members of the Brooklyn College graduate faculty. Although your instructor in English 7800 will evaluate your thesis proposal for the immediate purposes of that course, the document will also facilitate your discussion with potential thesis advisers as you plan for the following semester.
Be sure to file the "Thesis Title" form on BC WebCentral before the end of January if you plan to graduate in the spring semester, or before the end of May if you plan to graduate in the fall semester. The "Thesis Title" form includes your provisional thesis title and the name and email address of your thesis adviser.
