Guidelines for the Proposal

What should your proposal look like? Your proposal should be approximately 5 pages in length, excluding the cover sheet and supporting appendices.

1. Cover Sheet: Name, ID, contact information, first & second readers.

2. Introduction: Briefly state the purpose and goals of the thesis project. (1 para.)

3. State of the Research: Any thesis should be based on a thorough review of the literature, demonstrating an awareness of relevant work on the topic. Provide an overview and critique of significant research on the topic of the thesis project, making note of general trends, major omissions, and/or neglected emphases. Situate the thesis project within this overview by identifying how it will contribute to the body of knowledge on the topic. (2 pages)

4. Methodology: Provide an overview of applicable theoretical, conceptual, and/or methodological approaches to the topic of the thesis project. Situate the thesis project within these general trends: identify which approach(es) will be used in researching and analyzing the topic, or how the applied methodological approach relates to other methods. (2 pages)

5. Conclusion: Emphasize the contributions that the thesis project will provide. Discuss what new knowledge it will produce, and why it is worth knowing. (1 para.)

6. Appendices:

Thesis Outline: Produce a tentative and brief outline of the chapters, sections, and/or subsections of the thesis project.

Timetable: Provide a tentative and brief timeline for the thesis project, listing approximate times devoted to research and to writing, and a realistic date for completion of the written thesis.

Bibliography: List all publications cited in the proposal, and other publications to be consulted upon beginning the thesis project. Distinguish between primary source materials and secondary studies. Format the bibliography to MLA or Turabian guidelines.

The Craft of Research, by Wayne Booth et. al.

The Craft of Research is perhaps the single most useful book you can purchase during your graduate career on the art and practice of research. It offers practical advice on asking questions, forming topics, framing problems, articulating significance, engaging sources, assembling your evidence, planning a project, outlining and drafting, and revising. You can view the second edition on Google Books, or pick up a copy of your own from Amazon.

Here's what one Amazon reviewer had to say:

Although there are many books on writing research or term papers, I have not found anything else which brings together material on planning, reasoning and writing the research paper as well as this book. Ignore any reviewers who make this book out to be a simplistic text. It is an excellent work on well reasoned writing that even most graduate students can benefit greatly from reading. As a professor of a graduate class on Research and Writing, I have recommended and required this book for several years. The book guides the reader from an idea of a topic, to defining a question, to formulating the conceptually significant research problem. It briefly covers finding, evaluating and using primary, secondary, and tertiary sources. Then a major portion of the book is devoted to understanding effective reasoning in the writing process. This is based quite a bit on professor Stephen Toulmin's practical approach to effective reasoning and argumentation. The Craft of Research diagrams and explains claims, reasons, evidence and warrants. It has detailed illustrations of warrants and when to use them, as well as how to challenge them. The book has other sections on organizing, drafting,and revising a paper. It also has a chapter on communicating information visually using tables, graphs and charts. Rather than focusing on the simple mechanics or obvious steps in writing a serious research paper, this book concentrates on the more difficult tasks of clearly defining the conceptual problem and addressing it with in depth, effective reasoning.

Electronic MA Theses at Marymount

Marymount archives Masters Theses in an electronic format, available at the library. As of this date, there are no humanities theses in the collection, so let's represent!

Browse the theses and learn how to get yours up there: http://dspace.wrlc.org/handle/1961/4375

Refworks at Marymount

RefWorks is a Web-based bibliography and database manager that allows you to create your own personal database by importing references from text files or online databases. You can use these references in writing papers and automatically format the paper and the bibliography in seconds.

From http://www.marymount.edu/lls/tips/refworksfaq.pdf

Endnote

EndNote^®, ProCite^®, Reference Manager^® are the industry standard software tools for publishing and managing bibliographies on the Windows and Macintosh^® desktop. Researchers, writers and students depend on these products to locate bibliographic data and create bibliographies for curricula vitae, manuscripts, grant proposals, term papers and other publications. These products automate the creation of bibliographies for over 1,000 scholarly publications, a tedious and error-prone activity when performed manually. Using these products, writers save countless hours of typing and interpreting style requirements of scholarly publications by simply selecting the publication by name and generating a perfectly formatted document.

From http://www.endnote.com/

Theses and Dissertations

Thomas, Robert Murray and Dale Brubaker. Theses and Dissertations: A Guide to Planning, Research, and Writing. 2nd ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, 2008).

This book is designed for graduate students who are preparing master's degree theses or doctoral dissertations. The book is organized according to stages of the research-and-writing process. Although those stages are applicable in all academic disciplines, the book's examples of topics and data-gathering methods are more directly associated with the social and behavioral sciences than they are with the physical sciences and the arts. Thus, students in the social and behavioral sciences-and in such allied fields as education, social work, and business are likely the ones for whom this volume will be most useful. The writing style throughout is intentionally conversational, as if the authors were talking directly with students.

The book is organized around five stages (including two sub-stages) which are divided into 15 chapters. The appendix includes an outline of a dissertation proposal. There are several very useful inclusions. I would recommend the Planning Checklists (there is one far each of 13 of the 15 chapters) for all masters and doctoral students who are contemplating a thesis or dissertation.

The book includes a current, extensive bibliography and subject index.

Review from College Student Journal (June 2002)

Getting What You Came For

Peters, Robert L. Getting What You Came For: The Smart Student’s Guide to Earning a Master’s or Ph.D., (New York: The Noonday Press, 1997).

Peters covers graduate school from deciding to go in the first place to completing the degree, offering valuable advice at every step along the way. (Skip the section on whether or not you should go to graduate school if you’re feeling down—it includes some depressing, if accurate, assessments of the job market.) Of particular interest to the dissertation writer are the chapters entitled The Doctorate: History and Hurdles, Managing Yourself, Choosing and Managing Your Thesis Committee, The Thesis Topic: Finding It, The Thesis Proposal, The Thesis: Writing It, The Thesis Defense, Dealing with Stress and Depression, The Social Milieu and Swimming with the Mainstream: Returning Students, Women, Minorities, and Foreign Students. The book is based on interviews with graduate students, faculty members and counselors, and the real-life experience of the interviewees is particularly helpful. Peters offers a friendly and encouraging style, sound and realistic advice—and a sizable dose of humor.

From http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/dissertation.html