New York University
Department of Media, Culture, and Communication
Dissertation Proposal Seminar
MCC-GE 3201-001
The purpose of this course to write a dissertation proposal. We will operate as a writer’s
workshop, tackling different parts of the proposal week by week. Students will take turns reading
and discussing each other's drafts. As a group we will offer advice, criticism, and encouragement
in order for you to draft an excellent proposal by semester’s end.
Specific goals:
Problem -- state your research problem clearly
Rationale -- present a rationale and theoretical base for conducting the study
Data -- determine a corpus, archive, or source of information that you will collect and
consult
Committee -- put together a suitable faculty committee based on your dissertation topic
and your own academic profile
Lit Review -- research and draft a literature review covering the field in question
Methodology -- review and consider useful methods of data collection, archival research,
sampling, measurement and analysis, specific to your project and field of study
Schedule -- develop an overall plan and timeline for the writing phase of the dissertation,
including chapter descriptions
Finished Proposal -- finish drafting a proposal worthy of submitting to your committee.
Required Readings
Sonja K. Foss and William Waters, Destination Dissertation: A Traveler’s Guide to a
Done Dissertation (Boulder: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007), marked as DD below.
Other materials will be made available in class.
Page 1 of 5
Parts of the Proposal
The dissertation proposal is a significant document. To make the writing of the proposal more
manageable, the document can be divided into a series of discrete parts:
1) Statement of the Problem: All dissertations must be original. How do you intend to create
new knowledge? What is the subject of your study? Why is it important? How will the
dissertation contribute to your field of study? How will you approach the problem theoretically?
What makes it original?
2) Literature Review: What existing theories help you conceive your problem? What scholarly
literature supports this study? How have others successfully or inadequately addressed the
problem raised in your study? What holes are left that you plan to fill? How can you refine and
clarify the statement of the problem through the literature in the field? What kinds of theoretical
questions are mandated by your project and literature?
3) Data & Method: What precisely is your object of study (corpus, archive, data)? What
methodological strategies will you employ to collect and analyze your data? What special skills,
training, or tools will you need to employ to do your research? Where and how will you be
collecting information?
4) Overall Plan: How will you organize the written dissertation itself? How will you organize
your chapters? How can you ask the largest possible questions of your data, and yet make this
project doable?
Written Assignments
You will submit four different pieces of writing during the course:
1) a statement of the research project, including research questions (6-8 pages)
2) a literature review and expansion of theoretical problems (10-15 pages)
3) a review of methods, approaches, and data (10-15 pages)
4) an overall plan for the study, including an overview of chapters (6-8 pages).
Plus
5) By the end of the semester, you will combine these four parts into a reasonably polished
proposal draft of approximately 30-45 pages.
Note: All written assignments are due by noon on Monday. This will give us time to read and
consider everyone's work prior to Tuesday's class.
Page 2 of 5
Schedule
September 3 -- Introduction and Overview
September 10 -- Review Existing Proposals and Getting Started
Read DD Chapters 1, 2, 11, 12
Read the sections of the MCC Doctoral Handbook devoted to the dissertation
Read some proposals by previous MCC students (TBA)
September 17 -- Mini Seminar on What Makes Good Writing
Read the following:
Przeworski & Salomon “On the Art of Writing Proposals” (PDF)
George Orwell, “Why I Write” (PDF)
Joan Didion, “Why I Write” (PDF)
George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language" (PDF)
Fredric Jameson, “On Jargon” (PDF)
Pre-Proposal
September 24
Read DD Chapters 3, 4
oral responses and discussion (three students)
October 1
oral responses and discussion (three students)
I. Statement of Problem & Faculty Committee
October 8
Read DD Chapter 6
writing assignment due (two students)
October 22
writing assignment due (two students)
October 29
writing assignment due (two students)
II. Literature Review
November 5
Read DD Chapter 5
writing assignment due (three students)
Page 3 of 5
November 12
writing assignment due (three students)
III. Theory and Methods
November 19 -- Mini Seminar on Method
Read the following:
Vilém Flusser, “Criteria--Crisis--Criticism” (PDF)
Bruno Latour, “Why Has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to
Matters of Concern” (PDF)
writing assignment due (three students)
November 26
Read DD Chapter 7, re-read chapter 6.
writing assignment due (three students)
IV. Overall Plan and Organization of Chapters
December 3
Read DD Chapters 3, 4
re-read Przeworski & Salomon
writing assignment due (three students)
December 10
writing assignment due (three students)
Friday, December 13, 5pm -- Dissertation Proposal due
Page 4 of 5
Grading
Class discussions will constitute 10% of your grade;
Assignments 1-4 will constitute 60% of your grade;
Assignment 5, the proposal draft, will constitute 30% of your grade.
Guidelines for the Formal Dissertation Proposal
The proposal should address and include the following:
1. Title page (The same format as for the dissertation. See Doctoral Handbook.)
2. Table of Contents
3. Title
4. Problem Statement
5. Statement of Subproblems
6. Definitions
7. Delimitations/Limitations
8. Need for Study
9. Discussion of Related Literature
10. Discussion of Method as related to each sub-problem
11. A Project overview
12. Bibliography
13. Appendices
Helpful Questions
In my dissertation I want to argue that . . .
The way to make this argument is to . . .
I am a good person to do this project because . . .
I’ll feel I am done addressing it when . . .
In trying to answer this question, some of the things that could go wrong include . . .
This project matters because . . .
This project is bigger than its object of study; it is also about the larger issues of…
What about this has not been done yet?
Which aspects are doable and worth doing?
Where might this project go?
How will I position myself as a media scholar??
Page 5 of 5