Recent Question/Assignment

Guidelines for the Confirmation of Candidature Proposal
The thesis proposal should be:
• double-spaced (12 point font size) to allow notation by members of the Confirmation Review Panel;
• a maximum of 20 pages, (including main text, figures and tables). References and appendices may be over above the page limit;
• numbered on each page.
Title page
The title page of a thesis proposal should indicate the following:
• candidate's name;
• student number;
• program;
• faculty;
• school;
• area of study;
• name(s) of Principal Supervisor(s);
• name(s) of Associate Supervisor(s).
Proposal content
The content of the thesis proposal needs to address the following elements, generally in the order as indicated:
1. Focus of the study (research question)/goals/objective.
o You should outline exactly what it is you aim to achieve/discover during your course of study. If you have framed a formal hypothesis, which you will be testing, then it should be stated here.
2. Literature review and scope of project.
o This section should indicate that you have a good working knowledge of the literature relevant to your field of study. In particular you should discuss the current state of knowledge and its present limitations. Finally, in the context of current knowledge, you should briefly describe the main elements of your proposed endeavours. You should demonstrate firstly how your study will fit into the broad framework of theory and knowledge in relevant fields. Then you should indicate the extent to which your work will result in an original contribution to understanding in those fields.

3. Methodology.
o Depending on the discipline and research approach, this section will describe how the goals of the study will be achieved. Hence this section might include a description of experiments to be performed and the statistical principles of their design, data collection method and analyses, anticipated difficulties and alternative approaches to combat them. Any progress made in the first year of study should be reported here.
4. Outcomes and significance.
o This section should focus on a brief description of the expected outcomes of the work in general terms and the likely significance of these outcomes for the discipline and the wider community. Generally it will not be possible to predict specific answers to questions or hypotheses currently being addressed, but it will be possible to outline the benefits of answering them and the unique contribution to knowledge that you expect to make.
5. Timelines.
o A timeline or table detailing the planned progress of the project and provision for time to write up the thesis must be included. Milestones against which progress can be monitored should be identified.
6. Figures, tables, references.
o The inclusion of explanatory figures and tables is encouraged. References to the literature should be provided wherever appropriate and listed in a separate section at the conclusion of the document.

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