Future Plan

The Future Plan appears as the final chapter of a Confirmation Report and usually contains a timetable or outline of tasks necessary to complete the thesis with key milestones indicated. There may also be some indication of anticipated research outcomes, if this has not been covered in the Significance and Implications and a reiteration of the potential significance of the research. The schedule for conducting the proposed activities can help to convince the examination panel that the PhD study can be completed within the required time.

This chapter tends to be quite short and may vary from one paragraph to one page. The content of the Work Schedule is often placed in a table, but can also be written in bullet points or continuous text. The author should check with the supervisor for the preferred format.

The title for the Future Plan may vary and alternatives include:

• Future Plan and Schedule
• Plan for Future Work
• Future Work
• Proposed Future Work

The purpose, structure and language use of the Future Plan will depend on what the author intends to include and how it is organised. The following items may be included.

• The tasks that need to be completed with clear reference to the research areas.
• The estimated timeframe for each task or key experiments.
• Timetable for PhD thesis drafts and intended submission dates.

Important considerations for writing the Future Plan

1. Write a short introductory paragraph before the table or list.
2. Keep each point informative but brief.
3. Include key dates for each task.
4. If in a table form, use a parallel grammatical structure to describe the tasks to be completed. The parallel structure can be:
   • bare infinitives (analyse, examine, study, experiment) or
   • gerunds (analysing, examining studying, experimenting).
5. If in a list form, write each item with subject + Future Passive Voice (e.g. The performance will be investigated…).

Example 1
Below is an extract taken from the Future Plan of a Computing Confirmation Report which shows an example of how this section may be approached by using a table.

Some of the key features have been highlighted in different colours. Click on the coloured text to read an explanation.

Example 2
Below is an extract taken from the Future Plan of a Mechanical Engineering Confirmation Report which focuses on tasks to be completed.

Roll your mouse over the coloured text to read a description of the key features.