In the end, I finished my upgrade report a few months after my first son was born. I was writing in the gaps between feeds, on no sleep, rereading the same paragraph because I was so unsure if what I was meant to be doing. I was learning how to be a mum and how to write a kind of document I’d frankly never heard of until I had to produce one.
So let me save you some of that confusion.
What I wish I’d understood back then: what an upgrade report (or prospectus in the US) actually is, and how to write one.
An upgrade report is a genre
That’s the first thing. An upgrade report is its own kind of writing, with its own purpose (well, a dual purpose) and its own expectations. It isn’t just a long draft. It does two specific jobs, and once you understand what those are, the whole thing gets easier to write.
It has two purposes
An upgrade report does two things at once, so make sure you do both.
One: it shows your reader that your project is worth doing
Your reader here is your supervisor or your panel. They want to know you’ve made progress, that there’s a genuine gap in the research, and crucially, why anyone should care about that gap.
Take an example. Say you’re an applied linguist and you’ve found a gap in the research on seminar discussions at universities. You’ve noticed that seminar discussion is almost always treated as debate. It isn’t enough to say that nobody has really looked at seminar discussion before. You need to show what we know, what we don’t know, and why that gap matters. Say that discussion is only ever taught as debate, and that we need to know whether there are other types of discussion so we can better teach our students (yeah, that was my research gap and reasoning!).
Two: it shows your reader that you’re the person to do the research
You want to show them you can synthesise the work you’re building on. That you have the research skills to present an argument.
Secondly, that you can engage with the processes of becoming an academic: publications, training, conferences, the professional development that comes with the role. In short, that you can hold your own with the wider academic community.
The exact shape of this second part differs from person to person, and it depends on what your institution asks for.
But the underlying question for both parts is the same for everyone: how can you convince your reader that you’re the right person to do this research?
How do you actually write an upgrade report?
Every institution does this slightly differently, so your first job isn’t writing. It’s finding your own department’s guidelines and reading them properly. They’ll hopefully tell you the word count, the sections you need, and the deadline (if there is one). Everything else follows from that.
Most upgrade reports pull together the same handful of parts. An overview of your project and your research questions. A literature review that makes the case for your gap – this is the heart of it, and it needs to build an argument, so your reader sees the gap the way you do. Your methodology, and why it fits the questions you’re asking. What you’ve done so far, with any early findings. And a plan and timeline for the rest.
That plan matters more than people expect. Treat the plan as a real plan, not a box to tick because your panel reads it closely.
Some institutions also ask for a sample chapter or a piece of your actual thesis writing. Check whether yours does, because it changes how long the whole thing takes.
On length: it varies enormously. Anywhere from a few thousand words to something close to a small dissertation. Don’t guess – your guidelines will tell you.
On timing: it takes longer than you think. Give yourself more runway than feels necessary, and try starting with the literature review, because that’s the part that shapes everything else. You don’t have to write it top to bottom. Draft the section you’re clearest on, and let the rest grow from there.
Want a hand with yours?
If you’ve got an upgrade report coming up and you’d like some guidance on how to approach it, I’m putting together something to help.
Over the years I’ve helped numerous doctoral researchers write their own upgrade reports and I know where people get stuck.
I’m planning a small group course for doctoral researchers writing their upgrade reports. You’ll get momentum from working alongside others, feedback on your own writing, and clear guidance on how to get the report done, rather than staring at a blank page wondering where to begin.
The first cohort is small, so places are limited to 6.
Join the waitlist to be first to hear when it opens.