Dissertation Proposal.... *sobs*

[EricNorthmansFangBanger]

I've been trying, and failing, to start my dissertation proposal for the past fortnight. It's got to be in for the 4th November, which is Monday. Eeek. I honestly have no idea what I'm doing. We have a guideline for what sections we need to put in and it has to be 1500 - 2000 words long but other than that, I'm utterly screwed [hconfused]

I don't know why I thought I could do this, my brain is currently mush. I have my working title for my dissertation but there just seems to be so much to put into this proposal that my head hurts

Sorry for ranting, just saves me having a bit of a mini breakdown at some point today [hgrin]

5th November even....silly brain [hangry]

Just start writing.

Have a word document with headings for each section. Put in brief notes to remind yourself what might go into each section. CHoose a small part that you can make a start on and GO.

Keep writing. Set yourself mini-targets (eg 200 words then I can have a cup of tea).

This method got me through my PhD write up!

Good luck!

Thank you for the encouragement GupX

I've got the word document open, my front page typed out and the contents page. I keep staring at the blinking cursor hoping it may magic some words up for me [hgrin]

Good idea about the mini-targets, sounds like a good plan [hsmile]

Ah sympathy. I'm just trying to finish my PhD. It's tough getting words on paper.

My top tip is to write bullet points. It seems less daunting. If you have section headings already start with those. Write a few bullet points under each. Go back and write a couple of sentences explaining your bullet point, go back and add a reference to each bullet point etc. keep going back and adding a new dimension and you'll have the whole thing laid out and good to go in no time!

Good Luck!

x post!

I haven't started mine and it's due on Friday!

Have to get off couch, off mumsnet and start working.

I don't have a research question but have done a fair bit of reading around my topic and did a brainstorm for topics for my lit review last week but feel totally unmotivated

Hi,

I don't have any words of advice but I just wanted to say as a big True Blood fan, I love your nickname and I am sure you'll get the proposal done.

xChanx

How's it going now, proposal writers? I have a tutorial about mine on Friday - I am going to say I have started the lit review but really this was just printing out a whole stack of journal articles containing my keywords, so I'm not sure that really counts as research. I will have to read them all at some point! I was on the verge of jacking it all in and looking for a job again this half term but have decided to give it a last push. Hope it's going OK.

Thank you

The deadline was moved forward to this coming Monday. You'd think I'd have at least almost finished by now but ooooh no. Still procrastinating aplenty here! The main bit I'm stuck on is the bloody literature review. As it's a proposal, one lecturer said that it should be a summary of what you are going to look at. Another lecturer said that you need to go in-depth with each piece. So I'm currently sitting here looking like this -->

The problem is, no-one has actually shown us how this should be all set out, which is shite quite frankly. I'm annoyed at myself for leaving this til last minute but also annoyed that it's making me feel very stupid.