Dissertation Intro Checklist

It’s not a duplicate. Research Focus asks you to state and justify your scope early on; Scope and Limitations later asks you to also spell out the constraints that scope creates and how they might affect your findings. Different job, same word.

Yes. One item checks your aims and objectives are specific, measurable and achievable; a separate one checks that your research questions or hypotheses align with them.

Not necessarily. The checklist item is phrased “if applicable,” acknowledging that some universities want the framework here and others expect it in the literature review.

Yes, under Structure and Organization, whether you’ve outlined how the dissertation is structured and what each chapter covers, so a reader knows what’s coming.

It’s the Final Review item: re-reading your introduction on its own, as if the rest of the thesis didn’t exist, to check it still makes sense and sets up the study properly.

It’s written for the introduction chapter at honors, master’s or doctoral level. Your own university’s specific requirements still come first where they differ.

It’s a Google Doc. Make a copy to your own Drive to edit it directly, or download it as a fully editable file if you’d rather work offline.

Yes, you’re welcome to share it in its original format (no editing allowed). If you post about it on your blog or social media, please reference this page as your source.