Doctoral Proposal Guidelines

THE DOCTORAL RESEARCH "PROPOSAL" * Basic idea: a proposal is a very abbreviated version of your "prospectus" (first three chapters of a dissertation)

* As such, it is intended to be a "rough skeletal outline" of key parts of the prospectus

* Its subheadings will be expanded upon, and new ones added, for the prospectus

* It serves as an initial indicator that you are beginning to think about the parts of your research "blueprint"

KEY PARTS (SUBSECTIONS) OF A DOCTORAL PROPOSAL

Introduction: A paragraph or so. Basically "sets the stage" for the selected research problem -- what it's generally about, etc. May include a citation or two, but not absolutely necessary.

Purpose of the Study: A couple of sentences or perhaps a paragraph. The "WHY," or rationale: you are "looking backwards" at what has/has not been done and are subtly indicating a NEED or LACK that YOU propose to fill by conducting your study. This need or lack could arise from practice, prior research, theory, etc.

Statement of the Problem: "Lean and mean!" Ideally a SINGLE SENTENCE: "This study is to ... [and fill in using keywords such as those from our handout]." You could have a listing of related subproblems IF relevant; e.g.,"In addition, differences will be assessed by each of the following demographic variables: a) gender; b) present professional position; c) ethnicity; d) socioeconomic status, etc." P.S. Concisely state here WHAT you are doing -- NOT WHY or HOW. (WHY would be Purpose of the Study; HOW has to do with some of the following design and procedures subheadings.)

Significance of the Study: A couple of sentences, or perhaps a paragraph. In contrast to "Purpose," yet directly linked to it, Significance is more or less the "SO WHAT" (for the "world(s)" of theory, practice, future research, knowledge generally, etc.) of your choosing to undertake this study at this time. In other words, it is your "future peek" at the likely VALUE, CONTRIBUTION and/or BENEFITS of your study. (Of course, you haven't yet conducted the study. Thus, you don't yet know what you will find. However, you can most probably make some solid 'educated guesses' as to likely value or benefit at this point. Go with those!)

Review of the Literature: This will be an entire chapter (Chapter Two) of both the prospectus and the dissertation itself. For now, it is "a solid beginning:" as much of a review of the literature as you've managed to conduct at this point (anywhere from, say, a couple of paragraphs to a couple of pages). For the latter -- e.g., somewhat 'lengthier' literature reviews, you should demonstrate that you've begun to think about 'how your lit review breaks down' by including topic subheadings (like a topic outline that is sometimes prepared prior to writing a term paper).

Research Design: Perhaps a sentence or two. I'd just try and "chain together" any and all of the relevant design "buzzwords" that might pertain to your particular study (e.g, "This is a descriptive/analytic design. In addition, since data will be collected and analyzed using both Likert-scaled and open-ended survey responses, it is multimethod in nature." -- and you'd cite Brewer and Hunter for the use of this term).

Population and Sample: A paragraph at most for this phase. In a sentence or two, identify the population to whom you intend to generalize the study findings. Then briefly describe in another sentence or so how you will select your sample subjects (e.g., "simple random sample of ... ").

Instrumentation: A paragraph at this stage. You don't need to have an initial draft of your survey if you are intending to use a researcher-developed instrument. However, briefly tell what sorts of questions will be asked and perhaps how they will be scaled (e.g., "Two open-ended items dealing with [topic area] and ten to fifteen four-point Likert scaled items dealing with [topic area]."). It would also be optimal if you can include some initial information on how you intend to pilot this survey.

***: Please note: If your study involves collecting and analyzing archival data instead (e.g., pulled from existing records or databases), then you'd substitute the subheading of "Sources of Information" for "Instrumentation." You'd provide a paragraph or so describing the nature of this existing data (e.g., what sorts of information), where it is located (e.g., school records), and any other pertinent information.

Data Collection
Procedures: For now, a paragraph will do. You don't need to specify ALL of the "who-what-when-where-how" steps of the "ultimate blueprint" of this subsection (as in the prospectus). However, you could briefly describe how you will gather the data (e.g., if planning to send out surveys by mail, as opposed to conducting fifteen-minute telephone interviews with each subject).

Data Analysis
Procedures: If you know the particular statistic(s) you need to use for any quantitative research questions, identify them (e.g., chi square, regression analysis). BUT if you don't, IT'S OK TO SAY, "APPROPRIATE STATISTICAL PROCEDURES WILL BE APPLIED TO ADDRESS THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS." Same goes for qualitative data: let's say you think you might like to generate a matrix but don't yet know exactly the form that it will take. It would be FINE to say, "An appropriate matrix will be developed to compile the qualitative responses." (and you might wish to cite Miles and Huberman from our reading list) Alternatively, as we discussed in class, you could say, "Qualitative data will be compiled using the summary narrative method." (and perhaps cite Denzin and McCracken from our reading list)

Go back to Research Design

E-mail M. Dereshiwsky at statcatmd@aol.com
Call M. Dereshiwsky at (520) 523-1892

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