To be successful with your PhD dissertation, you need to have thought about it even before entering your PhD program. In fact you should present your dissertation proposal to the administrative personnel immediately upon entering the program of your choice. The University needs to be sure that they have someone on staff that has experience in the field and who can serve as advisor. In fact, in some Universities acceptance relies heavily on the availability of an adequate advisor for a research proposal.



The importance of the dissertation advisor

Your advisor is the most important factor in regards to your research proposal and you should establish a strong relationship with him or her. Your advisor should be willing to listen to your questions, doubts and yes, even your ramblings in regard to your dissertation and you need to listen carefully to what his opinions are. Remember he has much more experience in the field than you do. Take advantage of the time you have with your advisor, plan these meetings carefully and keep track of what is said and suggested at each meeting. The advice he gives you will be invaluable in the writing of your dissertation.

Other reasons why a University will base its admissions decisions on the dissertation proposal:

?A University will also base its admittance on your proposal based on their availability of resources. The question they will ask themselves is: ?Do we have enough research resources for this type of research proposal??

?If you present a dissertation proposal at the time of admission, the staff will consider that you have seriously thought about all that is involved in a PhD program.

Now that you have established the importance of the research proposal at the time of admission to a PhD program you are faced with choosing the topic. There are several aspects you should keep in mind when choosing a topic for your dissertation.

?It must be chosen according to the work you are doing and must be in concordance with advanced research techniques and study.

?It should contain original work that is considered to be of professional quality and of publishing quality.

?Your subject should be narrowed down to a particular subject, and not a broad subject

Choosing your thesis

You should first choose your subject and then your topic. The more you research a certain subject the more you will see certain patterns and results; you can then start focusing on one of these areas. Your advisor will also help you narrow your topic. Another option is to expand your Masters thesis into a dissertation. After all you are already familiar with the topic.

Make sure your topic is interesting

Both you and the advisor need to be interested in the topic for the project to be done well. The advisors enthusiasm will allow him to read, support and give you feedback in a timely manner.

Your topic needs to be solvable

The topic should be narrow enough that you can solve the problem in a short time period. A step in the right direction to finding a new research topic is to be well informed. Most things have been studied previously, so staying informed about current trends in your field allows you to see areas that need further research.

In conclusion, your topic for the dissertation proposal should be well thought out before entering into the PhD program of your choice. Then it should be done by you and your advisor as your research in the area progresses. After all this process is the most important in the dissertation process.