Organization

=Organization (Literature Review) (GWU EMSE 216-8000)=

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This extract from the SEAS Doctoral Hanbook (2010-2011) addresses the final dissertation but much is applicable to the proposal organization.

"In general, your first chapter will be an introduction to your research problem. State the problem; briefly state the history of the problem and where research into it stands at the present. Briefly state what you propose to do, how, and why. The last section of your first chapter may be a brief chapter-by-chapter overview of your entire dissertation. When writing your dissertation, you may want to write the introduction chapter last so you can accurately "predict" what you will say in later chapters.

"The second chapter is usually a "literature review." You describe in detail the research that has been done on your problem in the past, how it has influenced subsequent research, how and why past research has led up to your present situation.  "In the third chapter you present your new contribution to the research, explain the theory of how and why your research works, and how it will solve the problem stated in the introduction.

"In the fourth chapter you go over your research step-by-step. Explain how and why you set up your experiment to obtain your results.

"In the fifth chapter you talk about what happened when you actually ran your experiment and talk about your results. Mention any problems you encountered while running the experiment and how you overcame them.

"The sixth chapter is for your conclusions. Were you right or wrong in your approach to your experiment? What went particularly well or badly? How might you have done things differently? What further research might be done to follow up on your results?

"This is not the only acceptable organization, but it is the most common. You may need a totally different organizational approach because of your particular type of research. Just be sure to talk with your advisor about how you should organize your dissertation before you start writing. At each organizational level you need to give a very short descriptive title of what you are writing about in that section. This will also be put in the table of contents." (SEAS Doctoral Handbook 2011)


 * Sources**
 * //School of Engineering and Applied Science //Doctoral Student Handbook 2010-2011, pp. 41-42

Contributors: Sisson