This Dissertation/Thesis Guide has been created to assist graduate students in the successfulcompletion of their graduate degree. With this in mind permission is granted for noncommercialreproduction of the Guide for educational use as long as the Guide is made available in its entirety fullcredit is given to the source and the author and any fee associated with the dissemination of the Guide islimited to recovering duplication costs with no intention of making a profit from its sale.Writing and PresentingYourThesis or DissertationS. Joseph Levine Ph.D.Michigan State UniversityEast Lansing Michigan USAlevine@msu.eduIntroductionThis guide has been created to assist my graduate students in thinking through the many aspectsof crafting implementing and defending a thesis or dissertation in areas related to the discipline ofadult learning. It has been my purpose to share with my students some of the many ideas thathave surfaced over the past few years that definitely make the task of finishing a graduate degreeso much easier. Note: This Dissertation/Thesis Guide is a companion to the Guide for Writing a FundingProposal which can also be found on the worldwide web at: http://www.LearnerAssociates.netUsually a guide of this nature focuses on the actual implementation of the research. This is notthe intention of this guide. Instead of eamining such aspects as identifying appropriate samplesize field testing the instrument and selecting appropriate statistical tests this guide looks at manyof the quasipolitical aspects of the process. Such topics as how to select a supportive committeemaking a compelling presentation of your research outcomes and strategies for actually gettingthe paper written are discussed.Of course many of the ideas that are presented can be used successfully by other graduatestudents studying under the guidance of other advisers and from many different disciplines.However the use of this guide carries no guarantee implied or otherwise. When in doubt checkwith your adviser. Probably the best advice to start with is the idea of not trying to do yourresearch entirely by yourself. Do it in conjunction with your adviser. Seek out his/her input andassistance. Stay in touch with your adviser so that both of you know what#s happening. There#s amuch better chance of getting to the end of your project and with a smile on your face.With this in mind enjoy the guide. I hope it will help you finish your graduate degree in goodshape. Good luck and good researching!The Thinking About It StageThe thinking about it stage is when you are finally faced with the reality of completing yourdegree. Usually the early phases of a graduate program proceed in clear and very structuredways. The beginning phases of a graduate program proceed in much the same manner as anundergraduate degree program. There are clear requirements and epectations and the graduatestudent moves along step by step getting ever closer to the completion of the program. Oneday however the clear structure begins to diminish and now you#re approaching thethesis/dissertation stage. This is a new and different time. These net steps are more and moredefined by you and not your adviser the program or the department.U. Be inclusive with your thinking. Don#t try to eliminate ideas too quickly. Build onyour ideas and see how many different research projects you can identify. Give yourselfthe luury of being epansive in your thinking at this stage you won#t be able to do thislater on. Try and be creative.U. Write down your ideas. This will allow you to revisit an idea later on. Or you canmodify and change an idea. If you don#t write your ideas they tend to be in a continualstate of change and you will probably have the feeling that you#re not going anywhere.What a great feeling it is to be able to sit down and scan the many ideas you have beenthinking about if they#re written down.U. Try not to be overly influenced at this time by what you feel others epect fromyou your colleagues your profession your academic department etc.. You have amuch better chance of selecting a topic that will be really of interest to you if it is yourtopic. This will be one of the few opportunities you may have in your professional life tofocus in on a research topic that is really of your own choosing.U. Don#t begin your thinking by assuming that your research will drawinternational attention to you!! Instead be realistic in setting your goal. Make sureyour epectations are tempered by:... the realization that you are fulfilling an academic requirement... the fact that the process of conducting the research may be just as important ormore important than the outcomes of the research and... the idea that first and foremost the whole research project should be a learningeperience for you.If you can keep these ideas in mind while you#re thinking through your research you standan ecellent chance of having your research project turn out well.

Be realistic about the time that you are willing to commit to your researchproject. If it#s a year project that you#re thinking about admit it at the beginning andthen decide whether or not you have years to give to it. If the project you#d like to dois going to demand more time than you#re willing to commit then you have a problem.I know it#s still early in your thinking but it#s never too early to create a draft of a timeline.Try using the Stages see the net item and put a start and a finish time for each. Postyour timeline in a conspicuous place above your computer monitor? so that it continuallyreminds you how you#re doing. Periodically update your timeline with new dates asneeded. Thanks to a website visitor from Philadelphia for sharing this idea.U. If you#re going to ask for a leave of absence from your job while you#re working onyour research this isn#t a good time to do it. Chances are you can do the thinking aboutit stage without a leave of absence. Assuming that there are si major phases that youwill have during your research project probably the best time to get the most from aleave of absence is during the fourth stage* the writing stage. This is the time whenyou really need to be thinking well. To be able to work at your writing in large blocks oftime without interruptions is something really important. A leave of absence from yourjob can allow this to happen. A leave of absence from your job prior to this stage may notbe a very efficient use of the valuable time away from your work.Stage Thinking About ItStage Preparing the ProposalStage Conducting the ResearchStage Writing the Research Paper*Stage Sharing the Research Outcomes with OthersStage Revising the Research PaperU. It can be most helpful at this early stage to try a very small preliminary researchstudy to test out some of your ideas to help you gain further confidence in what you#d liketo do. The study can be as simple as conducting half a dozen informal interviews with noattempt to document what is said. The key is that it will give you a chance to get closer toyour research and to test out whether or not you really are interested in the topic. Andyou can do it before you have committed yourself to doing something you may not like.Take your time and try it first.
Preparing the ProposalAssuming you#ve done a good job of thinking about your research project you#re ready toactually prepare the proposal. A word of caution those students who tend to have a problem incoming up with a viable proposal often are the ones that have tried to rush through the thinkingabout it part and move too quickly to trying to write the proposal. Here#s a final check. Do eachof these statements describe you? If they do you#re ready to prepare your research proposal.I am familiar with other research that has been conducted in areas related to myresearch project.___Yes it#s me ___No not meI have a clear understanding of the steps that I will use in conducting my research.___Yes it#s me ___No not meI feel that I have the ability to get through each of the steps necessary to complete myresearch project.___Yes it#s me ___No not meI know that I am motivated and have the drive to get through all of the steps in theresearch project.___Yes it#s me ___No not meOkay you#re ready to write your research proposal. Here are some ideas to help with the task:U. Read through someone else#s research proposal. Very often a real stumblingblock is that we don#t have an image in our mind of what the finished research proposalshould look like. How has the other proposal been organized? What are the headings thathave been used? Does the other proposal seem clear? Does it seem to suggest that thewriter knows the subject area? Can I model my proposal after one of the ones that I#veseen? If you can#t readily find a proposal or two to look at ask your adviser to see some.Chances are your adviser has a file drawer filled with them.U. Make sure your proposal has a comprehensive review of the literature included.Now this idea at first thought may not seem to make sense. I have heard many studentstell me that This is only the proposal. I#ll do a complete literature search for thedissertation. I don#t want to waste the time now. But this is the time to do it. Therationale behind the literature review consists of an argument with two lines of analysis: this research is needed and the methodology I have chosen is most appropriate for thequestion that is being asked. Now why would you want to wait? Now is the time to getinformed and to learn from others who have preceded you! If you wait until you arewriting the dissertation it is too late. You#ve got to do it some time so you might as wellget on with it and do it now. Plus you will probably want to add to the literature reviewwhen you#re writing the final dissertation.

المشرف العام
الاستاذ الدكتور علي بن شرف الموسوي

Don#t ever go into the proposal meeting with the feeling that it isyou against them!Uc. Provide the committee members with a wellwritten proposal well inadvance of the meeting. Make sure they have ample time to read the proposal.Ud. Plan the proposal meeting well. If graphic presentations are necessary tohelp the committee with understandings make sure you prepare them so they lookgood. A well planned meeting will help your committee understand that you areprepared to move forward with well planned research. Your presentation style atthe meeting should not belittle your committee members make it sound like youknow they have read your proposal but you should not assume too much gothrough each of the details with an assumption that maybe one of the membersskipped over that section.
Writing the Thesis or DissertationNow this is the part we#ve been waiting for. I must assume that you have come up with a goodidea for research had your proposal approved collected the data conducted your analyses andnow you#re about to start writing the dissertation. If you#ve done the first steps well this partshouldn#t be too bad. In fact it might even be enjoyable!U. The major myth in writing a dissertation is that you start writing at Chapter Oneand then finish your writing at Chapter Five. This is seldom the case. The mostproductive approach in writing the dissertation is to begin writing those parts of thedissertation that you are most comfortable with. Then move about in your writing bycompleting various sections as you think of them. At some point you will be able tospread out in front of you all of the sections that you have written. You will be able tosequence them in the best order and then see what is missing and should be added to thedissertation. This way seems to make sense and builds on those aspects of your study thatare of most interest to you at any particular time. Go with what interests you start yourwriting there and then keep building!David Kraenzel North Dakota State University wrote in describing the A to Z Method. Look at thefirst section of your paper. When you are ready go ahead and write it. If you are not ready movesectionbysection through your paper until you find a section where you have some input to make. Makeyour input and continue moving through the entire paper from A to Z writing and adding to thosesections for which you have some input. Each time you work on your paper follow the same A to Zprocess. This will help you visualize the end product of your efforts from very early in your writing andeach time you work on your paper you will be building the entire paper from A to Z. Thanks David!U. If you prepared a comprehensive proposal you will now be rewarded! Pull out theproposal and begin by checking your proposed research methodology. Change the tensefrom future tense to past tense and then make any additions or changes so that themethodology section truly reflects what you did. You have now been able to changesections from the proposal to sections for the dissertation. Move on to the Statementof the Problem and the Literature Review in the same manner.U. I must assume you#re using some form of word processing on a computer to writeyour dissertation. if you aren#t you#ve missed a major part of your doctoral preparation!If your study has specific names of people institutions and places that must be changed toprovide anonymity don#t do it too soon. Go ahead and write your dissertation using thereal names. Then at the end of the writing stage you can easily have the computer makeall of the appropriate name substitutions. If you make these substitutions too early it canreally confuse your writing.U. As you get involved in the actual writing of your dissertation you will find thatconservation of paper will begin to fade away as a concern. Just as soon as you print adraft of a chapter there will appear a variety of needed changes and before you know itanother draft will be printed. And it seems almost impossible to throw away any of thedrafts! After awhile it will become etremely difficult to remember which draft of yourchapter you may be looking at. Print each draft of your dissertation on a differentcolor paper.

المشرف العام
الاستاذ الدكتور علي بن شرف الموسوي

As was mentioned earlier your major professor should be seen as an allyto you and in your corner at the defense. Don#t forget if you embarrass yourself at thedefense you will also be embarrassing your dissertation director. So give both of you achance to guarantee there is no embarrassment. Meet together ahead of time and discussthe strategy you should use at the defense. Identify any possible problems that may occurand discuss ways that they should be dealt with. Try and make the defense more of a teameffort.U. Don#t be defensive at your defense this sounds confusing!. This is easy to saybut sometimes hard to fulfill. You#ve just spent a considerable amount of time on yourresearch and there is a strong tendency for YOU to want to defend everything you#vedone. However the committee members ing a new perspective and may have somevery good thoughts to share. Probably the easiest way to deal with new input is to saysomething like Thank you so much for your idea. I will be giving it a lot ofconsideration. There you#ve managed to diffuse a potentially eplosive situation and notbacked yourself or the committee member into a corner. Plus you#ve not promisedanything. Try and be politically astute at this time. Don#t forget that your ultimate goal isto successfully complete your degree.U. Probably the most disorganized defense I#ve attended is the one where thedissertation director began the meeting by saying You#ve all read the dissertation. Whatquestions do you have for the student? What a mess. Questions started to be asked thatbounced the student around from one part of the dissertation to another. There was nosemblance of order and the meeting almost lost control due to its lack of organization. Atthat time I vowed to protect my students from falling into such a trap by helping themorganize the defense as an educational presentation.Here#s what we do:I ask the student to prepare a minute presentation that reviews the entirestudy. This is done through the help of a series of large pieces of paperwall charts that have been posted sequentially around the walls of the room. Eachpiece of paper contains key words regarding each of the different aspects of thestudy. Some pieces of paper contain information about the study setting questionsand methodology. Other pieces of paper present findings and finally there arethose pieces that present the conclusions and implications. By preparing these wallcharts ahead of time the student is able to rela during the presentation and use thepieces of paper as if they were a road map toward the goal. No matter hownervous you are you can always let the wall charts guide YOU through yourpresentation. Lettering is done with a dark marking pen and etra notes areincluded in very small printing with a pencil that no one can really see. We#vealso tried it with overhead projected transparencies but it doesn#t work as well.With the transparencies they#re gone from view after a few seconds. The wallcharts stay up for everyone to see and to help focus attention.Following this structured presentation the committee begins to ask questions butas can be epected the questions follow along with the wall charts and the wholediscussion proceeds in an orderly manner. If guests are present at the defense thisform of presentation helps them also follow along and understand eactly whatwas accomplished through the research.U. Consider tape recording your defense. Using a small portable recorder recordyour entire presentation and also the questions and comments of the committee members.This helps in two ways. First the student has documentation to assist in makingsuggested changes and corrections in the dissertation. The student can rela more andlisten to what is being said by the committee members. The tape recorder is taking notes!Second the student has a permanent record of his/her presentation of the study. Bykeeping the paper charts and the tape together they can be most useful for reviewing theresearch in future years when a request is made for a presentation. ing out the tape andthe pieces of paper the night before your presentation and you can listen to you make thepresentation. What a good way to review.Well that about does it. By following the above suggestions and ideas I hope it will be possiblefor you to finish your graduate degree program in a most timely and enjoyable manner. Bylooking ahead to the different aspects of this final part of your graduate study it becomes clearthat you can do a number of things to insure your success. Good luck!U. Oh I almost forgot. There#s one last thing. Get busy and prepare an article orpaper that shares the outcomes of your research.
منقول عن: http://www.LearnerAssociates.net
المشرف العام
الاستاذ الدكتور علي بن شرف الموسوي

Edited 05.03.21 04:32