Hello,

I've just found out that the best university for me (in terms of supervision) is offering scholarships. I have two weeks left to apply but I'm struggling for the proposal. As required, I've defined my project + scope, the methods I wish to use, and made a bibliography (a selected one though: it does not fit within the page-limit).

But how on earth do you do a chapter outline and a timescale?

My topic falls into the field of English Studies. I have different themes, and different genre distinctions, but these are no chapters and I don't want to present them as such as that'd be... lame, to say the least.

As for the timescale, I've only managed to write: "obtaining and analyzing primary sources, obtaining and analyzing secondary sources, writing - all simultaneously if possible, as the first informs the second, the second the third, and so on". If possible, even more lame than my chapter outline.

Does anyone have any advice? Can I just say how unsure I am? Or how aware I am that this is going to change anyway? I won't be able to see a former lecturer for help before the deadline :(

Hi Nadia,
I had a similar problem when I wrote my proposal, and the work I'm doing now does not relate at all to what I proposed to do! The reason they ask for chapter outlines and timescale is not to hold you to it, but rather to assess whether your project is 'doable' and that you can complete it within a reasonable amount of time. So my advice would be avoid vagueness and try to state what you will actually do under various chapter headings (it doesnt matter so much what they are) and try to be specific about what you will read etc its all about convinving them that you are serious and worth getting their money!!
Im not sure if that helps but good luck!!

Hi Ruby :)

Many thanks for your answer. I don't know to what extent it helps, but it certainly is comforting ;)

Technically, they do ask for the chapter outline, and I reckon I'm going to have to work my way around this somehow...

For the timescale, I'm not so sure how to prove it is doable within three years, but then I am more than convinced it is, so I guess it's a good sign and I should be able to find a way to do this.

Chapter outline done

Well, it's more like 3 vast areas to investigate. I guess each of them would be good enough for a long MA dissertation, so that probably starts to show that my project is fine length-wise (and hopefully implicitly that it can't be bad time-wise...). I'll try to improve it all but would not be too upset if I had to leave it like this for now, especially as there is a nice progression from part to part.

I am still totally at sea with the timescale... I've come up with cool things though, like how much time I plan to spend drinking coffee, or how much time I expect to waste thinking about how much more I wanted done at a given point etc. Yet for some reason I don't think I'll include these in the proposal, hem.

Any further help/advice still welcome...

hello fellow Englisher :D As far as timescale goes, you just want to have some idea of what sections will be finished and when. Generally, you'll not be doing research and then writing everything up as in a science PhD, but writing as you go. As an example, at the end of my first year I'd completed about one third of my first draft, and that centred around one of the three main areas of my thesis. They just need to be sure that you've got SOME kind of a coherent argument and plan (or can just pretend you have!) even if it's entirely provisional.

Hi Alice,

Thanks for your answer. You've made me see the light, hehe.

Seriously, this is fantastic: the plan I have come up with will be really good to draw a timescale from if I think about time-management in terms of content first, rather than activity. I assume I was just over-complicating things...

Whoohoo. I'm on a roll. Time to write it all nicely and go to work in between, I should have a decent proposal by Sunday