What is a proposal?

Your dissertation proposal is an opportunity for you to present your idea and proposed actions for consideration in a shared decision-making situation. You, with all the integrity at your command, are helping your chairperson and/or doctoral committee to see how you view the situation, how the work you propose fills a need, how it builds on what has been done before, how it will proceed, how pitfalls will be avoided, why pitfalls not avoided are not a serious threat, what the consequences of your efforts are likely to be, and what significance they are likely to have. It is a carefully prepared, enthusiastic, interestingly written, skillful presentation. Your presentation displays your ability to assemble the foregoing materials into an internally consistent chain of reasoning. (p. 5)

Krathwohl, D. R. and Smith, N. L. (2005). How to prepare a dissertation proposal: Suggestions for students in education & the social and behavioral sciences. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press.