HOW TO WRITE A THESIS PROPOSAL



HOW TO WRITE A THESIS PROPOSAL

This is a suggestion for those who may have difficulties in writing a thesis proposal.

Statement of Intention:

In the first paragraf, it is important that you clearly state your intention, the topic in a brief way. Also it is essential to point out how you aim to contribute to the field in general.

You must have a hypothesis to prove. In good dissertations, it is important that you have some basic questions to prove. Please do state your questions! Such questions should, in general, be in the “mid-range,” meaning that you should avoid answering big questions such as “why Turkey is an underdeveloped country?” or “why there is a state-tradition in this country?” Rather you should put forward interesting questions which may take you to wider questions. In this respect, it is “mid-rangeness” may allow you build a dialogue between empiric/micro world and the theoretical/historiographical macro world.

Do NOT forget that interesting, novel, provacative, original and powerful questions make up the most important starting point in a good dissertation.

Evaluation of the Secondary Literature:

Please evaluate the secondary literature related to your dissertation/thesis topic. A thorough review of the secondary literary is an essential part of your dissertation. How did former scholars handle the issue? What are their methodologies? Findings? What are their empirical as well as theoretical contributions? What kind of changes and shifts in the study of the chose topic do you observe? Why so? In whay ways do you plan to differentiate yourself? And last but not least: What do you think your contributions may be.

It would be desirable that you also compare and contrast the secondary literature related to different country experiences, both at the empirical as well as the theoretical level.

Methodology:

Here it is important that you present the way you aim to pursue your study. Your thesis may be classified, most of the time, as a, say, social history, cultural history, economic history, cultural study, politics etc. It would be helpful for you and your readers to interpret some of the major controversies in those fields and tell the reader why it is appropriate to use the conceptual framework you preferred.

Also important is the presentation of techniques and methods. You can use oral history resources, game theory, ethnographic research techniques, or physch-history and the like. It would be appropriate to link the specific questions to the chosen techniques, methods and sources.

Please remember that scientific endeavours require novelty and creativity. It is very important that you produce a novel knowledge/data or whatever as a contribution. Although it is also important that you make abstractions and involve in theoretical discussions, surely that sort of contributions are made possible most of the time when they are based on and produced after novel production of data, preferably your own data. Please always remember that scientific process and goals do not usually rely on simple speculation, it is a production!

Resources:

It is crucial that you broadly discuss the avaliablity and reliability of your resources. Tell us why and how your resources may help reveal your topic. Present the ways in which former scholars used and abused those resources.

Bibliograhy:

Please present primary and secondary sources separately in a bibliograhical format preferred in the Institute.

Tentative Chapter Outline and Timetable

Please do state a tentative outline of the chapters and clearly indicate the timetable for finishing the dissertation.

FINALLY, a well-written, lucid, grammatically correct English together with a formally fluent flow of thoughts is like a first impression of your dissertation and please never forget that “there is no second first impression.”

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