Requirements for submitting a reasonable proposal: 1.

A PhD should be original, in the sense that it should handle a new topic or an old one from a totally new perspective, both in depth and/or expansive coverage. An MA is an exercise in research. Novelty is not a requirement, but the combination of topic and approach should be new. The proposal should not exceed 24 pages, A-4 size with single-1 space. Once registered, the proposals title may not be changed, unless a the candidate is prepared to wait a year after such a change before sitting for his final examination. Any other part, including the sub-title may be changed in the course of research. As for the general requirements for research at the Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, the following items must be covered in your proposal: the title page should contain a title which clearly reflects the subject of the study (and sub-title if necessary), name of researcher, proposal for a PhD. Thesis, submitted to ., supervised by ., and date; an introduction which summarises the area and scope of research and what you intend to do; the problem of the research; the importance of/rationale for the study; a brief review of the relevant literature which shows where the gap in the present state of the art that you intend to fill; the aim of the study; the research questions and sub-questions (which in the case of linguistic empirical studies research should be measurable and will be clearly answered in your Conclusion when the research is done); hypotheses; limitations of the study (the area that your research intends to cover and other areas and details that it does not intend to cover and why, etc.); data and method of approach and analysis (if applicable); a rather short sample analysis to show how your method will be applied to the data; organization of the study (specifying the number of chapters and tentative content; and finally a reference list/bibliography section (which shows what you have so far been reading and what you may have prepared to read). Let me explain how the development goes: after the short introduction, you will present the problem, why it is a problem and, therefore, the importance of dealing with it. This is followed by a short review of the literature to show what has already been done in this area and the gap in research that you intend to fill, which logically leads to the aim of the study, the research questions, and the limitations that present the boundaries of the study and what would be excluded from it. The description of the data used in the study as well as the methodology come next, followed by a very brief demonstration of how the latter would be applied to the former. Two more sections are needed: one that describes the organization of the thesis and what each chapter is intended to present, titles are acceptable in this case, and a final bibliography section which in the first place lists ALL the references mentioned in the proposal (known as Works Cited in the finished thesis) and in addition to these maybe lists a small number of important and accessible and essential references that you intend to read and/or use.

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