A synopsis is a short, structured argument that your research question is worth answering and that you have a workable plan for answering it. Committees do not reject synopses because they are badly written. They reject them because the research gap is not established or the methodology does not match the objectives. Work through these nine steps in order.
Before you start, obtain your university’s synopsis format from the research section or your department. Length, section headings and reference style are set by each university’s research board, and that format overrides any general guidance, including this article.
Step 1: Fix the title last, but draft it first
Write a working title now to keep yourself focused, and expect to revise it once the objectives are settled. A workable title names the variables or phenomenon, the context, and where relevant the period.
Weak: “A Study on Employee Performance”. Workable: “Impact of Flexible Work Arrangements on Employee Performance in Selected IT Firms in Bengaluru”.
Expected output: one working title of roughly 12 to 20 words that a committee member can understand without explanation.
Step 2: Write the introduction as a narrowing funnel
Move from the broad field to your specific problem in three or four paragraphs. Start with the domain and why it matters, narrow to the specific area, then to the particular problem you address.
Keep it short. The introduction is context, not a literature review, and committees notice when a candidate pads this section to disguise a thin gap statement later.
Step 3: Review the literature to build an argument, not a list
Organise this section by theme, never by author. A section that runs through studies one at a time reads as a reading log rather than a review.
The workable structure is: what the field has established, where findings conflict, and what remains unaddressed. Group studies by what they collectively show, then use the disagreements as the foundation for your gap.
Expected output: a themed review in which every cited study earns its place by supporting one of those three functions.
Step 4: State the research gap in one sentence
This is the sentence the entire synopsis rests on. If a committee cannot find it, the document will be returned regardless of its other qualities.
Write it explicitly, in a form you can point to:
“While the relationship between flexible work arrangements and employee performance has been extensively examined in Western contexts, and separately in the Indian IT sector without accounting for organisational tenure, no study has examined whether tenure moderates this relationship among Indian IT professionals. This study addresses that gap.”
Notice its shape: what exists, what is missing, and what you will do about it. Three clauses, one sentence, no ambiguity.
Step 5: Write objectives that your methodology can deliver
Objectives must be specific and achievable, and each one must be answerable by something in your methodology. Use precise verbs: examine, measure, compare, develop, evaluate. Avoid vague verbs such as study, explore or understand unless your design genuinely is exploratory.
Keep the count modest. Three to five objectives is typical for doctoral work. A synopsis listing eight objectives signals a scope the candidate cannot complete, and committees read that as a warning rather than as ambition.
Consistency check: number your objectives, then confirm that every one is addressed somewhere in your methodology and that your methodology contains nothing serving no objective.
Step 6: Make the methodology concrete
This is the section committees examine most closely, because it is where feasibility becomes visible. Cover, at minimum:
- Research design and why it suits your objectives.
- Population and sampling, including how you will access respondents. Access is what committees probe hardest, because inaccessible populations end candidatures.
- Sample size and how it was determined, with the calculation shown rather than only the result.
- Instruments or data sources, naming any established instrument you will adapt.
- Analysis techniques, mapped explicitly to each objective.
- Ethical clearance, where human participants or personal data are involved.
Write in the future tense at this stage, since the synopsis is a plan. Convert to past tense when the work is done.
Step 7: Provide a chapter plan
List your proposed chapters with two or three lines describing each. This demonstrates that you have thought through the whole thesis rather than only the first stage, and it gives the committee a structure to comment on.
Keep it realistic. A chapter plan promising four empirical studies within a normal candidature will attract scepticism rather than approval.
Step 8: Format references exactly as required
Reference formatting is where otherwise strong synopses lose marks unnecessarily, because errors here are objective and instantly visible. Indian departments typically require APA in the social sciences and management, and IEEE in engineering and computer science. Confirm which applies to you.
A worked example of the same journal article in both styles:
APA 7th edition:
Sharma, R., & Iyer, A. (2024). Flexible work arrangements and employee performance in Indian IT firms. Journal of Organisational Studies, 18(3), 245–262. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx
IEEE:
[1] R. Sharma and A. Iyer, “Flexible work arrangements and employee performance in Indian IT firms,” Journal of Organisational Studies, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 245–262, 2024.
The differences are not decorative. APA places the year after the authors and uses an ampersand; IEEE numbers references in citation order, initialises given names before surnames, and uses vol., no. and pp. abbreviations. Mixing the two within one document is among the fastest things a committee notices.
The names and details above are illustrative placeholders showing the mechanics of each style. Replace them with your actual sources and verify each against the current style manual.
Step 9: Run the pre-submission consistency check
Before you submit, verify each of these:
- The title reflects the objectives as finally worded.
- The gap statement is present, explicit, and locatable in one sentence.
- Every objective is addressed in the methodology.
- Every analysis technique serves a stated objective.
- Every in-text citation appears in the reference list and every listed reference is cited.
- The reference style is applied consistently throughout.
- The format matches your university’s prescribed template.
- Similarity has been checked against your institution’s requirements.
On that last point, the levels and exclusions that apply nationally are set out in the guide to the UGC plagiarism limit for a PhD thesis. Note particularly that a synopsis is short, so a few reused sentences produce a much higher percentage than the same text would in a full thesis.
Check what has already been done before you submit
Committees expect you to know the existing Indian work on your question. Searching completed theses before submission is the cheapest way to avoid an uncomfortable meeting, and how to do it is covered in the guide on what Shodhganga is and how to search it.
Turning an approved synopsis into chapters
Approval is the beginning of the work, not the end. The synopsis becomes the skeleton of your thesis: the review expands into a full chapter, the methodology gains detail, and the chapter plan becomes the document itself.
Tesify helps you develop each section from the framework you have already defended, keeping objectives, methodology and analysis aligned as the thesis grows. You remain the author and are responsible for every methodological decision and every source.
Develop your synopsis into full chapters in Tesify
Frequently asked questions
How long should a PhD synopsis be?
There is no national standard; each university’s research board sets the length, and requirements vary widely. Obtain your institution’s template before drafting rather than writing to a general expectation and cutting later.
What is the difference between a synopsis and a research proposal?
They overlap heavily and many Indian universities use the terms interchangeably. Where they are distinguished, a proposal is often submitted at admission and a synopsis at a later stage such as pre-submission. Follow your institution’s usage exactly.
How many references should a synopsis contain?
Enough to establish the gap credibly, which usually means the key studies rather than everything you have read. Committees assess whether the important work is present, not the count.
Can objectives change after approval?
Minor refinements are normal as work progresses. Substantial changes typically require committee approval and sometimes a formal amendment. Raise changes when they arise rather than presenting them at submission.
Should I include preliminary results?
If you have pilot data and your format permits it, a short summary strengthens the feasibility case considerably. Label it clearly as preliminary and do not let it displace the gap statement or methodology.
What is the most common reason a synopsis is rejected?
A gap that is asserted rather than demonstrated. Writing that no study has examined something, without a review showing what studies did examine and where they stopped, does not establish a gap. The second most common reason is a methodology that cannot deliver the stated objectives.
Do I need ethical clearance before submitting the synopsis?
Usually you state that clearance will be obtained, with the process named, rather than holding clearance already. Requirements differ by institution and are stricter for clinical research, so confirm with your department.
Can I use my synopsis text in the final thesis?
Yes, and it is expected that the thesis develops from it. Be aware that reused text will register in similarity checks against your own earlier submission, so confirm how your institution handles self-overlap between the two documents.
How do I present my chapter plan if the research is exploratory?
Give a provisional structure and say plainly that it is provisional, with a short note on what might change depending on findings. Committees accept uncertainty that is acknowledged far more readily than a false certainty.
Should the synopsis be written in first or third person?
Follow your discipline and your university’s template. Third person and passive constructions remain common in Indian doctoral writing, though several fields now accept first person. Consistency matters more than the choice.