Before you write your dissertation, you will be expected to write a dissertation proposal. We have already given some guidance on choosing a topic for your dissertation. The purpose of your proposal is to explain that topic, justify your reasons for choosing it, and lay out how you are going to research it.

There are a number of reasons for the submission of dissertation proposals:

1. Your department and/or tutor have to be convinced that the subject upon which you wish to write is feasible. In other words, they need to know that the breadth of the subject you propose is not too small (to ensure that there is enough to talk about) or too wide (which would mean that you wouldn’t be able to do the subject justice). The department is not doing this to be awkward. It wants you to do well and the proposal is a way of trying to help you go in the right direction before you start to write your dissertation.
2. Your dissertation needs an expert to mark it. The proposal offers the department a ‘snapshot’ of your proposed topic and allows the department to assign a suitable tutor to you who has the knowledge to help and advise you, as well as the expertise to mark the finished piece of work.