Guiding the dissertation proposal: a student advocacy approach  (Page 2/11)

Doctoral students rarely have a frame of reference in designing a proposal. As advisors, our responsibility is to provide a view of that design. Students might have pieces of the experience but not the complete picture, from a synthesized perspective. As adult learners, they seek a directive approach to learning how to write a proposal. The discovery method of proposal development does not meet their immediate needs as adult learners.

Framework

One of the critical issues in doctoral advising is the number of individuals who are counted as All But Dissertation (ABD) each year. One way to counter this trend is to commit to completing the doctoral process with the student. The doctoral advisor’s mantra should be,“If I agree to advise this student, I will commit myself to encouraging the student to completion.”Doctoral advisors have significant responsibility for the success of their advisees (Grady, 2000).

In doctoral programs that take pride in credit hour production, admitting large numbers of doctoral students is encouraged. This practice does not serve students well, since students may be admitted who are not capable of sustaining the pursuit of a doctoral degree. Only students who can succeed should be admitted. Only a practical number of doctoral advisees should be given to each advisor.

The dissertation is one research study. It is not ones life’s work. The topic of the study should be given reasonable parameters. The dissertation demonstrates the student’s scholarly and research capabilities. It represents one scholarly endeavor. The study should be“doable.”This means that the student should be able to complete the research in a realistic amount of time. The study should not present insurmountable barriers to completion. The subjects for the study and the data should be accessible. The complexity of the inquiry should be suitable to the dissertation expectations.

Occasionally students are overly ambitious or enthusiastic. Because they are frequently research novices, they may not see the pitfalls or traps in their plans for research. Faculty who have extensive research experience can help students establish parameters for a study that provide appropriate depth and rigor without encumbering a student with a research study that cannot be completed in a reasonable period of time.

Writing a dissertation is a novel experience. Only rarely does an individual write more than one dissertation in a lifetime. A dissertation is unlike any other form of writing. It has a form and formula unto itself. It does not reflect the writing skills acquired in high school or as an undergraduate. The dissertation is a scholarly work, suggesting that the author is the“world’s leading authority”on the subject of the dissertation. It is a lengthy document following the conventions of quantitative or qualitative research. The dissertation is written to the satisfaction of a doctoral supervisory committee that includes members from an educational administration department as well as other departments. The committee typically includes an“outside”member who represents the interests of the Graduate College of the institution. Writing to meet the expectations of a committee is a unique form of writing. Additionally, a dissertation is written to be read by individuals who are not experts in the research subject. Sometimes this is jokingly referred to as the“Grandmother Test”in that the dissertation should be written so that“your grandmother could read and understand it.”