The second School requirement is a 6-page maximum (Queen's thesis format not including references) topic proposal. This document is to be submitted before the end of the third term after the initial registration in the Ph.D. program. Failure to submit the proposal on time is considered unsatisfactory progress.
The document gives a description of a subject area(one paragraph, roughly comparable to a course description), and a proposed topic for research to be conducted within that area. The document then provides a brief survey of the key and most pertinent literature contributions for the proposed topic.
The Ph.D. supervisory committee provides feedback on the document and their expectation for the Ph.D. Research proposal. The feedback from the supervisory committee gives the expected weights of the literature survey and research plans in the PhD research proposal paper. The feedback is communicated to the Ph.D. committee which in turn communicates it to the student.
Note: students admitted prior to September 2013 may complete a research proposal rather than a topic proposal.