Proposal Seminar

So, what happens after candidacy?

Advancement to Candidacy marks the beginning of the Dissertation Process. There are several to the next milestone, which culminates in a successful Dissertation Proposal Defense.

The first step is to form a dissertation committee. Select Dissertation in the left-hand column when you are done reading this page. It will give you a more thorough discussion of the dissertation and instructions on setting up your committee.Your Dissertation Chair now picks up guidance responsibility from the Academic Advisor.

Depending on the number of credits accumulated, course work will continue while preparing for the all-important course DPLS 730 Proposal Seminar (a.k.a. ProSem). Proposal Seminar is a required course and part of the research component of the curriculum. The purpose of Proposal Seminar (DPLS 730) is to craft the structure of the student's dissertation. Students are not permitted to enroll themselves, they are registered by the DPLS Administrator. Only 12 students are allowed in the ProSem course. ProSem is offered each semester.

REQUIREMENTS FOR ENROLLING IN PROSEM

Students must have advanced to candidacy and either have completed or demonstrate they will shortly complete the required research courses DPLS 722 Quantitative Data Analysis and DPLS 723 Qualitative Research.

Students must also make a petition for enrollment in Proposal Seminar. The petition not only qualifies the student for eligibility it is an important first draft of the first three chapters of the dissertation. The petition must be approved by the dissertation chair and the ProSem instructor.

This is not a requirement, it is highly recommended that candidates enroll in DPLS 728 Dissertation Scholarship and Framework in order to prepare the petition to proposal seminar. DPLS 728 is an elective course. However, experience shows that students benefit considerably from this course in preparing for proposal seminar as it is useful in forming the dissertation question and preparing Chapter II as discussed below.

Petition Requirements

At a minimum the petition to prosem includes the following content:

  1. 3 to 5 pages of Chapter I, the Introduction,
  2. 20 to 30 pages of Chapter II, the Literature Review, and
  3. 3 to 5 pages of Chapter III, the Method.

The three sections use the following guidelines:

Chapter I:

  1. a statement of the problem to be investigated and
  2. the proposed purpose of the study, buttressed with a rationale for its significance.

Chapter II:

  1. an annotated outline of the literature reviewed to date including a combination of empirical studies, and more theoretical and/or conceptual studies,
  2. reference to major current issues related to the topic,
  3. opinions surrounding the proposed topic, reference to how similar issues have been studied by others, and with what results, and
  4. an indication of questions that remain unanswered.

Chapter III:

The method component of the petition should describe the conceptual framework proposed for the study. While realizing that this is likely to change, it will include a brief description of each theoretical base which will form the foundation for the study. The student will present a brief outline of:

  1. description of the methodology to be used,
  2. rationale for this choice, and
  3. why other methodological approaches have been rejected.

APA format is required and students are advised to use the dissertation template provided by the Center for Scholarly Writing.

Updated 11/16/2011