I completed my proposal process in early April 2007. I learned a bit through the process, and decided to document some of it. I know enough not to actually discuss my proposed topic here, though — Go scoop someone else!

I believe that this document is not universally applicable. It may only apply to a very small group of other graduate students. In order for you to decide if my experience applies to your situation, I’m including some relevant facts about me:

I am a fourth-year graduate student. This leads to several important pieces of information. I am no longer taking classes. I know my way around the department, and know many of the faculty quite well. It also means that I’ve seen many of the ups and downs of grad-student life — sometimes it seems I’ve seen more of the downs than the ups.

At UNC, proposals come at varying times within dissertation work. I heard some described as “Propose one week; defend the next.” Mine is of the opposite variety: I have performed little-to-none of the work I proposed. My advisor recommends this path.

Let me continue now with my experiences and advice.

Lesson 1: Rocky Balboa was Right

Particularly in Rocky III when he’s fighting Clubber Lang for the second time, and he wears out his opponent by letting himself be hit over and over and over again. As I worked on my proposal document, I would bring my writing to my advisor. He and I would sit in silence while he read and marked up the page. The only sound was his pen scratching on the page. After these meetings, I often felt like I’d been hit in the gut. They were hard to sit through. But I did improve through them.

First part of this lesson: My advisor was trying to help! I had to remind myself of this many times. He is trying to point out where my writing (and by implication, my thinking) is weak. He is trying to help me to refine my ideas. I was never threatened with a loss of pay, prestige, or anything else. These were actually the best place to find out where I’m wrong, unclear, or unspecific. I can fix them over the next week — then find out where else I was wrong. (Aside: My advisor changed from red pen to green a few years back. He felt it softened the blow.)

Second part of this lesson: Don’t take it personally! I had a tendency to believe that my writing is excellent (I know better now). Early on, I felt like each correction was a failure on my part. They were not. They were part of my process of improving. The punch-in-the-gut feeling is not only not intended (see first part of this lesson), but within my own head.

Third part of this lesson: Write down specifics — but mark where you are uncertain! “It’s much better to be wrong than to be vague!” My advisor believes this, so for me it’s better to be specific and wrong than vague — make sure your advisor agrees before you run too far with this lesson. Why? Because no one can know if the vague one is right or wrong. However, in a draft, it’s a good idea to include notes in your text where you are still developing a thought. An example: I was trying to define a gamepad in terms of inputs and outputs. I couldn’t decide on a word for the thumbsticks (directionals, vector-inputs, 2DOF analogs, …). So, I wrote one, and put the others in brackets afterwards. My advisor crossed out those he didn’t like and suggested another.

So, Rocky was right: You write something, submit it, get hit around a bit (but don’t let it hurt you!), then get up and try again. Eventually, you’ll get a better idea out of it … or wear down your advisor. And the less down time you have after you hear back, the quicker the process may go.

Lesson 2: Build One to Throw Away

This is a common software engineering technique. My proposal went through a similar process. After three months and something like 10 revisions, I hated my proposal draft. Over the months of work, I had re-written, grown sentences to paragraphs, added sections, removed text, etc. The original organization no longer held. My thinking had changed.

Let me compare this with attempting to design an animal. I come in originally with something small, simple, and interesting. My advisor points out the lack of a circulatory system, or how an extra leg would sure help. I spend a week trying to add the required ideas. My advisor points out small problems with what I just added, and some new problem (let’s say a missing ear). I work on it for another week. This process continues for months. Over this time, a problem becomes clear: The design in my brain doesn’t show clearly on the paper. This is because you can only stretch, push, and tug at a simple organization for so long in attempting to create a complex organization.

So, I scrapped that early draft, and in a month’s time, I wrote a new draft. Approximately 5% of the text was from the first draft. Almost all of the rest was new. I was able to stop and reconsider each paragraph, each sentence, so that the reader knew what he needed to know early on what he needed to know.

Lesson 3: Set a Date

Don’t do this too early, but don’t wait around all year for your advisor to say “You should propose next week.” You are in charge of scheduling. You go to your advisor and say, “I want to propose next month. Do you think this will be ready in time?” If he says yes, then you try to start scheduling. When that date is set, you work your butt off to get to it. Nothing inspires like a deadline.

Remember, scheduling is an NP-Hard problem, and when it’s five or more faculty, that makes it even harder! I think I was lucky to be able to schedule a date only three weeks ahead.

Lesson 4: Be Prepared at the Presentation

Your presentation cannot be a simple memorized script. Your committee will interrupt you. They will ask for more information about one specific topic. They will want to discuss this, that, and the other thing. You need to be ready to give your presentation, put it down, talk about something tangential, and then pick your presentation back up again. This requires that you are very familiar with what you are talking about. If you don’t know something, say you don’t know. This isn’t your oral exam.

Lesson 5: Principal Questions

At the end of my proposal, my advisor addressed the rest of the committee. He asked three questions:

  1. Is this a viable topic (i.e. is it enough for a dissertation)?
  2. Is it too much work (i.e. is it too much for a dissertation)?
  3. What worries do you have about it?

These may be questions you have discussed with your advisor before hand. Your advisor is only one of five or more committee members, though, so don’t be surprised if other members disagree. Not all outcomes of these questions are bad. A friend walked out of his proposal with less work to do than when he walked in.

A Final Note

I did not go through the “pre-Proposal” meeting. I know one grad student who did. She is only in her second year, but has her general idea about her work. She said it was a relatively painless meeting (only a week or two to prep vs. months for the Proposal), and she got good feedback out of it. You may consider just making this setp first thing if you are having trouble jump-starting your proposal.

Hope these help!