A Primer On Your Dissertation Proposal

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A Primer On Your Dissertation Proposal

• Fayetteville State University
• School of Education
• Department of Educational Leadership
• Joseph F. Johnson, Professor

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A Primer On Your Dissertation Proposal

• The purpose of the proposal is to convince your
  committee that there is a tractable research
  question which is worth pursuing.
• An equally important purpose is to convince the
  committee that you are in a position to do a good
  job pursuing the research question.

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A Primer On Your Dissertation Proposal

• The proposal should demonstrate that you
  
• have defined and delimited an interesting
  research question
• can explain the importance of the question to
  someone not intimately familiar with it
• can formulate testable hypotheses and
• have a detail plan for testing the most promising
  hypotheses.

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A Primer On Your Dissertation Proposal

• You do not have to read everything that was ever
  written about anything that might conceivably be
  relevant to a full understanding of the subject
  you are interested in addressing before you write
  the proposal.
• However, you are expected to chase the paper
  and be familiar with the material that is germane
  to your subject.

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A Primer On Your Dissertation Proposal

• The proposal should contain a review of the
  literature in the context of what is known and
  can be documented about the research question.
• There should be a discussion of the lasting
  contributions and shortcomings of previous
  research.

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A Primer On Your Dissertation Proposal

• Do not attempt to define the research question
  explain its importance formulate hypotheses
  nor write a detailed plan before you write the
  proposal. It will be obvious that you are trying
  to get ahead of yourself and can result in
  extending the completion of a quality study.

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A Primer On Your Dissertation Proposal

• Do not write the dissertation before you write
  the proposal or prospectus. If you do , you will
  be treating your hypotheses like conclusions, and
  your proposal will read like a defense of those
  propositions. This is the role of a dissertation
  defense scheduled after testing, writing,
  reviewing, revising, retesting and rewriting.
  This will be obvious and will impede the
  successful completion of the research study.

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A Primer On Your Dissertation Proposal

• Again, do not get ahead of yourself.
• Any attempt to write the dissertation and
  dissertation proposal as if they are the same can
  result in prolonging the process and/or failure
  at this point.

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A Primer On Your Dissertation Proposal

• A dissertation proposal is supposed to describe
  what you propose to do.
• A dissertation proposal is supposed to discuss
  why you propose to do it.
• A dissertation proposal is supposed to explain
  how you propose to do it.

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A Primer On Your Dissertation Proposal

• Your dissertation proposal should answer the
  following questions
• What problem are you going to pursue?
• Why is it a problem?
• Why is it important to address?
• Where are you going to look for answers?
• Why are you going there?

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A Primer On Your Dissertation Proposal

• Postscript 1 It is not enough to say what you
  believe to be true. You need to be clear and
  explicit about what you elevate to writing how
  you make presumptions and cite appropriate
  authorities.
• Postscript 2 Always focus on proposing and
  completing a quality, defensible dissertation,
  not graduation. The latter is merely a
  well-deserved by-product of the former.

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A Primer On Your Dissertation Proposal

• Postscript 3 It is always helpful to think of
  the proposal in relations to the first three
  chapters of the completed study. The proposal
  must be written in the future tense, outlining
  what you are proposing to do the future.
• Postscript 4 The final dissertation is always
  written in the past tense in which Chapter I will
  have only minor changes.

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A Primer On Your Dissertation Proposal

• Postscript 5 Chapter II will change to include
  additional citations to reflect unexpected
  results from the data analysis.
• Postscript 6 If well-designed, Chapter III in
  the final form should be similar to the proposal.
  Except for tense and minor changes, it should
  reflect exactly what happened (not what was
  predicted to happen).

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A Primer On Your Dissertation Proposal

• Fayetteville State University
• School of Education
• Department of Educational Leadership
• Joseph F. Johnson, Professor