Writing a Proposal for Your Dissertation: Guidelines and Examples

by Steven R. Terrell

This user-friendly guide helps students get started on--and complete--a successful doctoral dissertation proposal by accessibly explaining the process and breaking it down into manageable steps. Steven R. Terrell demonstrates how to write each chapter of the proposal, including the problem statement, purpose statement, and research questions and hypotheses; literature review; and detailed plan for data collection and analysis. Of special utility, end-of-chapter exercises serve as building blocks for developing a full draft of an original proposal. Numerous case study examples are drawn from across the social, behavioral, and health science disciplines. Appendices present an exemplary proposal written three ways to encompass quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods designs.

Pedagogical Features:
*"Let's Start Writing" exercises leading up to a complete proposal draft.
*"Do You Understand?" checklists of key terms plus an end-of-book glossary.
*End-of-chapter quizzes with answers.
*Case study examples from education, psychology, health sciences, business, and information systems.
*Sample proposal with three variants of the methods chapter: quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods.

Genres: Writing, Academia, Nonfiction, Research

282 pages, Hardcover

First published October 21, 2015

Reviews

[Said AlMaskery · Rating 4 out of 5]

A useful introductory book on research writing. It gives you the basics and allows you to build a framework in your mind for writing your proposal.

Probably a book that will always go back to when I want to write something.

[Gretel · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not bad or anything, just not particularly useful for anyone that doesn't do data analysis (with interviews, questionnaires, number crunching, etc.) or STEM subjects. There are useful tips one can use for historical and other humanities approaches but generally speaking, this is rather one sided and I feel like I can't use most of the tips and instructions as they don't apply to my research. I had to break down every tip to its barest bones to be able to apply it to my work. However, it did give me a good template for my own proposal structure to stay focused and the writing style is easily understandable with lots of examples.

I guess the actual benefit of the book depends on what kind of research you do and if you do quantitative data analysis and not historical research, then this is certainly for you.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writing a dissertation is a daunting task. This book did a great job of helping me to begin to tackle the task of writing my proposal. I found it especially helpful that the author addresses quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods studies separately.

[Karla · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent resource
highly recommended

[Kara Rochester Garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is as boring as the title sounds.... nevertheless, it is necessary and helpful. Sigh.