Are you allowing the Sync process time to complete?
In my experience the dotted circle means that the song is in the queue, waiting its turn to be downloaded. Look at the following screenshots (it may help you if you right-click the picture and open in new window - the picture will be larger). In both shots, the view is looking on the device itself:

in the screenshot above, look specifically at two songs; Miss Moral and In The Trees (indicated by the orange arrows):
- "Miss Moral" is grey and there is a dotted circle - the song is awaiting download
- "In The Trees" is in grey and the circle has part blue in it - the song is in the process of being copied onto the device
Now look again, just a few seconds later:

- "Miss Moral" is still in grey, but the circle now has the part blue in it - this song is in the process of being copied onto the device
- "In The Trees" is now in black - the song has been downloaded
Note also that all the other songs that were in grey are now in black, so they too, have been downloaded onto the device.
The small panel at the top of the iTunes window indicates the status of a Sync, as indicated by the message in it at the time of both screenshots. be aware that the message n the panel constantly changes, even while a Sync is in progress, so makes sure you see all of the messages.