[Title of your Document]

[Your Name]

A Proposal Submitted to the Faculty of

The Chicago School of Professional Psychology

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in [XXXXX]

[Month, day, 2012]

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Nature of the Study............................................................................................1

Background......................................................................................................................1

Problem Statement...........................................................................................................1

Purpose of the Study........................................................................................................1

Research Questions and Hypotheses................................................................................1

Theoretical/Conceptual Framework.................................................................................2

Scope of the Study...........................................................................................................4

Definition of Key Terms..................................................................................................4

Significance of the Study.................................................................................................4

Summary..........................................................................................................................5

Chapter 2: Literature Review...............................................................................................6

Introduction......................................................................................................................6

Research Strategy.............................................................................................................6

First Main Topic...............................................................................................................6

Subtopic Here...............................................................................................................6

Subtopic Here...............................................................................................................7

Summary and Transition..................................................................................................7

Chapter 3: Research Design and Method............................................................................9

Chapter Overview............................................................................................................9

Research Questions and/or Hypotheses and their Rationales..........................................9

Research Design...............................................................................................................9

Population and Sample...................................................................................................10

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Procedures......................................................................................................................10

Validity...........................................................................................................................10

Instrumentation..............................................................................................................10

Data Processing..............................................................................................................10

Assumptions...................................................................................................................11

Limitations.....................................................................................................................11

Ethical Assurances.........................................................................................................11

Summary........................................................................................................................12

References..........................................................................................................................13

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Chapter 1: Nature of the Study

Background

The background section should be 2-3 pages of information that will (a) introduce

your topic to the reader, (b) establish that the topic is important, and (c) tie the topic to

the literature. Ideally, the theoretical lens such as constructivism, feminism,

transformative framework/perspective, critical theory, and so on will be addressed as

well. Ensure that all assertions are well supported with citations.

Problem Statement

Clearly define the problem that prompted the study. Use citations to support facts,

statistics, and assertions. Include your rationale for choosing the problem. The problem

statement is most successful when it is intensely focused on the problem, which means a

paragraph or two is usually sufficient. Keep in mind that a gap in the literature typically

is not the strongest problem (or all studies would have the same problem!). The gap in the

literature should, instead, support the problem.

Purpose of the Study

Clearly define the purpose of the study. What purpose will your findings have?

For what purpose are you undertaking the study? Why are you collecting data? Describe

the general purpose of the study, the sample, and how you will examine the phenomenon

by stating the specific research approach, proposed participants, and location/setting. The

Purpose of the Study section should be no more than one page in length.

Research Questions and Hypotheses

For quantitative studies present your research questions and hypotheses in a

corresponding manner. For instance:

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Research Question1: Do writing groups affect the time to completion for

dissertation writers?

H11: Writing groups do affect the time to completion for dissertation writers.

Research Question 2: Do writing groups affect graduation rates for students in the

social sciences?

H12: Writing groups do affect graduation rates for students in the social sciences.

You will work with your chair and methodologist to determine how best to

present your questions and hypotheses.

There are no hypotheses with qualitative studies. Instead, simply present the

research question (or questions) and any subquestions that stem from it. Qualitative

questions should be open-ended and exploratory in nature. A typical presentation of

qualitative questions is a brief paragraph presenting the main question followed by the

subquestions in a seriated list. For example:

The overall question guiding this study was: What are the perceptions of

dissertation writers as they begin to revise their proposals? The study was further

grounded by two subquestions:

1. How do dissertators feel about revision?

2. In what ways do dissertators energize themselves to write?

You will work with your chair to draft and revise your research questions until

they are a strong basis for inquiry.

Theoretical/Conceptual Framework

Select a theoretical framework (quantitative) or conceptual framework

(qualitative) that is aligned with your proposed topic. This framework will assist you with

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responding to the research questions, as well as help you analyze your results. Although

the theoretical/conceptual framework should also be aligned with your methodology, it is

separate from your methodology and should be used to ground your study.

Literature citations are essential in this section. For quantitative studies, you will

present a theoretical framework—showing the reader what theories your study is

grounded in. Keep in mind that this is an introduction and detailed information will be

presented in your literature review.

Qualitative studies have a conceptual framework: theories, models, and ideas that

will ground your study. Again, this is an introduction to these concepts as more detailed

information will be presented in your literature review.

Steps to follow when developing your theoretical or conceptual framework:

1. Clearly state the phenomenon you want to address in your study.

2. Search and review theories, concepts, or models that explain some part (if not

all) of your study.

3. Take note of the strengths and limitations of the theories, concepts, or models

in terms of which best explain the phenomenon or aspects of the phenomenon.

4. Put the pieces of the theories, concepts, and/or models together with the aim

of explaining or describing the phenomenon or aspects of the phenomenon.

5. After synthesizing, you may identify/create a theory you would want to test or

you may recognize a gap (i.e. unexplained phenomenon or aspects of the

phenomenon), which your study would attempt to fill.

6. If possible, create a diagram to show the relationship among the various

concepts, theories, and/or models.

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Scope of the Study

Declare those characteristics that limit the scope of the inquiry. For example,

decisions made throughout the development of the proposal such as the choice of

objectives and questions, areas of interest, other theoretical perspectives that could have

been adopted, and so on. Who will your participants be, where will they be from?

Definition of Key Terms

Alphabetical. List your terms following this format in alphabetical order. Terms

will be those terms that are unique to your study or uniquely used in your study.

Supported. Most of the terms will need to be supported with a citation. The

exception, of course, is if you are operationalizing a term specific to your study. Say, for

instance, that you need to define old in your study as anyone age 90 and older. Note that

all citations should come from the peer reviewed literature. Dictionaries are not used.

Uncommon. If using a common definition then there is no need to include the

term in this list. Theories will not be included, Acts of Congress will not be included,

neither will models nor commonly used terms related to methodology.

Significance of the Study

When writing the significance of the study, think of your findings. Who will care

about the findings? Who will be interested to learn of your work? How might these

findings make an impact on these individuals? How might your findings further the

ongoing academic dialogue? Try not to be too grandiose in these thoughts and instead

think of the individuals who might be affected and how, organizing the section around

the significance of the research, policy, and practice. Aim to present three solid examples

of how this study and its findings bear significance.

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Summary

In two or three paragraphs summarize the main points of this section and

transition into the following sections. Explain how the document is organized (Chapter 2

will present literature related to writing groups and dissertation writing services. Chapter

3 will present a detailed look at multiple case studies and how this methodology was used

to investigate the efficacy of writing groups). For the proposal you may end here. For the

final document, you will come back and add reference to Chapters 4 and 5.

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Chapter 2: Literature Review

Introduction

Here is where you will include a brief introduction—not much is needed because

you just spent an entire chapter introducing your topic! Aim for keeping the introduction

here to a page or less. Explicitly state what topics will be covered in the review, using

your APA level headings to organize this statement. In other words, each level heading

(Level 1, Level 2, etc.) should be noted in this statement. Then, you can lead right into

your research strategy. Keep in mind that this chapter serves as a “report” of what other

researchers have already found and discussed regarding your subject. So the literature

should be reported in a way that compares, makes contrasts, and analyzes what is found

in the existing body of literature.

Research Strategy

Include your research strategy here. What databases were used? What key terms

were used? It might also make sense to say how many articles these searches produced

and then how you decided to use the articles you did. You need to include enough

information that your reader could easily replicate your search and find the same articles.

Note that some of you might decide to combine the research strategy with the

introduction under one heading, and that is just fine, too.

First Main Topic

Begin with the body of your literature review, organizing by main topics. Work to

include at least two (ideally more!) sources per paragraph. Try to avoid single-source

paragraphs and quotes.

Subtopic Here

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One funny rule with APA style is that you will not move down to the next

heading level (as we have done here) unless you have two or more headings at that level.

If you find yourself with just one subtopic, you can consider adding a second subtopic,

removing the subtopic altogether, or moving the subtopic heading to a main topic,

instead.

Subtopic Here

The second subtopic that falls under the same umbrella (main topic) as the last

will begin here, then. Note that only the chapter titles and heading levels 1 and 2 are in

the table of contents.

Summary and Transition

Within the summary you can point out the gap in the literature, or make that a

separate section before the summary and transition. Other things you can include (and

your chair might require you include) in the literature review is a more robust look at

your theoretical or conceptual framework. If yours is a quantitative study, your chair

might require that you research and organize based off your variables.

No two literature reviews are alike—this is truly your chance to contribute some

original thought on existing research. All literature reviews must, though, have the goal

of analysis and synthesis of recent (mostly within the last 5 years), peer-reviewed

literature. This chapter is typically around 40 pages and includes at least 100 sources,

although there is not set requirement for either the number of pages or sources.

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Chapter 3: Research Design and Method

Chapter Overview

To open the chapter you can begin by referring back to the purpose of the study,

taking care to align with the statement in Chapter 1 but avoiding word-for-word

repetition. Outline the major sections of this chapter, giving enough detail so that the

introduction is unique to your study (that is: go beyond simply listing the headings).

Research Questions and/or Hypotheses and their Rationales

For qualitative studies you can reintroduce your research questions in a narrative,

tying them to your problem statement. For quantitative studies, reintroduce your research

questions and hypotheses, along with the rationales for the hypotheses. For mixed

methods studies, clearly identify which questions are qualitative in nature and which are

quantitative in nature. Including subheadings (Level 2) for “Qualitative Research

Questions” and “Quantitative Research Questions” might be the best way to organize.

Regardless of your methodology, try to present the questions in alignment with the

presentation in Chapter 1.

Listing interview questions is not typical (it is usually thought best to keep the

research and interview questions separate) but you might decide with your chair to show

the alignment between the two types of questions.

Research Design

Identify the research design and its connection to the research questions. Provide

a rationale for the research tradition chosen. This needs to go beyond why you chose

qualitative over quantitative or vice versa. Explain why you chose the specific qualitative

or quantitative tradition or research paradigm you chose over others.

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Population and Sample

Identify the population and the sampling method used. Explain the inclusion

criteria and then take care to justify the size of the sample. If quantitative in nature,

mention the calculating tool used to determine the sample size. If qualitative in nature,

explain your rationale for the number of participants.

Procedures

Describe your proposed procedures in detail, beginning with recruiting

procedures, including data collection tools or strategies used, how this data will be

collected, and any follow-up planned with participants. If you plan to conduct a pilot

study, describe this in detail and how it will inform your main study.

Validity

Describe all threats to the validity of the study. If qualitative, describe how you

plan to ensure credibility, dependability, confirmability, and transferability. If

quantitative, describe in detail threats to internal and external validity.

Instrumentation

If quantitative in nature, name your data collection instrument, where and how it

has been used, and how the validity and reliability were established. If qualitative in

nature, describe any researcher-created or established tools and the rationale for using

them. For qualitative researchers, include your role as the researcher and how you plan

to control any biases.

Data Processing

Identify any software that will be used in the analysis of your data. Describe, in

detail, the strategy or strategies proposed for organizing and analyzing data collected.

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Assumptions

The assumptions are related to the mechanics of your study. What about your

study is not discoverable so you had to assume to be true? If interviewing participants,

you must assume that they are answering honestly, so this is a major assumption. You

must also assume they are participating willingly. All researchers must also assume that

their chosen methodology is the most appropriate for their investigation. What also are

you unable to discover so must assume in order to conduct your study? Some chairs

allow for numbered lists—usually researchers list about three assumptions, although

there is no set minimum or maximum.

Limitations

Limitations are elements of your study that are outside of your control. Is there a

weakness in the design? Are there uncontrollable biases? For many, one limitation in the

proposal is the possibility of not having access to participants or not being able to recruit

enough participants to satisfy the minimum sample size. Unlike the scope and

delimitations, where you get to explain all the things you had control over as the

researcher (setting, participants, timeframe) this is where you can describe the things you

couldn’t control and what you plan to do to address these issues.

Ethical Assurances

How do you plan to ensure the ethical protection of your participants? Explain

your recruitment strategy, consent form, any Institutional Review Board permissions that

will be needed, whether participants will be confidential or anonymous, and how you

plan to protect the data collected. Note that participants are considered confidential if you

know their identities but do not share them (through the use of descriptors or

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pseudonyms). Participants are considered anonymous if even you are unaware of their

identity. For these reasons, you will not have participants who are both confidential and

anonymous.

Summary

Summarize the entire chapter, which will go just beyond restating the headings.

Plan for a paragraph or two that briefly walks your reader through the highlights of each

section. Your reader should be able to read your summary and know what your

methodology is, instrument, data collection and analysis plan, and other aspects that will

be unique to your study.

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References

Patterson, J., Laing, I., & Soltz, A. (2012). Title of the article here in sentence case, plain

font. Title of the Article Here in Italics and Title Case, 4(5), 6-8. doi:

10.x3425604

Walsh, L., & Patterson, J. (2009). Title of the book in sentence case and italics.

Minneapolis, MN: Name of the Publisher.

Zuckerman, J. (2003). Title of the web page here. Retrieved from

http://www.exacturlhere.com

Here are examples of the most commonly used sources

Article retrieved from an online database:

Patterson, J., Laing, I., & Soltz, A. (2012). Title of the article here in sentence case, plain

font. Title of the Article Here in Italics and Title Case, 4(5), 6-8. doi:

10.x3425604

Book:

Walsh, L., & Patterson, J. (2009). Title of the book in sentence case and italics.

Minneapolis, MN: Name of the Publisher.

Website:

Zuckerman, J. (2003). Title of the web page here. Retrieved from

http://www.exacturlhere.com