Dissertation Proposal
Students must arrange for a supervisor and a dissertation committee, from members of the faculty, and under their guidance prepare a proposal.
A draft of the proposal must be submitted to the committee by the date indicated in that year’s comprehensive exam schedule, normally during the Fall term (term 4 in the program). The final draft of the proposal must be submitted to the Support Services Coordinator two weeks after the written exam (normally in May), at which point a proposal defence will be scheduled.
Guidelines
A dissertation proposal should contain an overview of the entire project of approximately 1000 words, a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of approximately another 1500 words, and a bibliography (of no fixed word count) of both primary and secondary texts. It should include first-page headings with your name, your supervisor’s name, your committee members’ names, and a title. Sections should be clearly signaled with subheads and blank space. Pages should be numbered.
The total word count should not exceed 3000 words, exclusive of bibliography.
The purpose of the document is to illustrate to the candidate's supervisory committee, and to the Graduate Studies Committee, preparedness to begin writing the dissertation. The supervisory committee and the Graduate Studies Committee will provide the candidate with feedback about the project’s feasibility and the coherence of its research goals. Students should submit a complete draft to their supervisory committee by the date announced in that year's exam schedule, and set a date for the review meeting, allowing time for revision (if necessary).
A dissertation proposal should outline the project's major research goals and the corpus of texts or objects to be considered. The proposal should thoroughly contextualize the project within its scholarly domain(s). It is not, however, primarily a literature review.
After Submission
When the proposal is complete, the student submits it to the graduate office for review by the Graduate Studies Committee, by the date indicated in the comprehensive exam schedule. The second half of the comprehensive oral exam is dedicated to the dissertation proposal. This consists of a discussion, and questions, about the proposal and the student’s plans for the dissertation. At the defence, the proposal is assigned one of three outcomes:
- Pass
- Conditional pass (with conditions and resubmission deadline indicated)
- Fail
Once the proposal has been successfully defended, approved proposals and the signed proposal form (PDF) are submitted to the graduate office and the student begins drafting the dissertation.
Failure to submit a proposal results in the loss of satisfactory standing and may result in the termination of internal funding. If the student fails the proposal portion of the comprehensive exam process, the committee will determine the next steps, in consultation with the Graduate Officer. Usually, this means that the “proposal defence” portion of the oral exam will needs to be attempted a second time. Exam components can be attempted at most twice.