Writing a Successful Thesis or Dissertation

Tips and Strategies for Students in the Social and Behavioral Sciences

Fred C. Lunenburg, Beverly J. Irby

• Publisher: Corwin
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9781412942256, 9781412942249
• eBook ISBN: 9781452294315
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Research in Education

"Accurate, clearly written, and easy to understand even for the beginning researcher, with equal coverage of both qualitative and quantitative research. This is the only book to combine a textbook approach with a how-to approach."
—Carol Roberts, Professor, University of La Verne
Author, The Dissertation Journey

"This is a very practical book and will be immediately usable for graduate students at any stage in their research. The multitude of examples is wonderful, and the content is very current."
—Mary Betsy Brenner, Professor of Education
University of California, Santa Barbara

The advice and resources you need to complete your thesis or dissertation!

No matter what state or stage your project is in, this how-to manual provides comprehensive guidance to help you tackle your master?s thesis or doctoral dissertation.

Covering both quantitative and qualitative research methods, this essential resource offers direction for every step of the process. Drawing on 40 years of experience supervising dissertations, the authors provide examples from 100 completed projects to guide readers through:

• Choosing a topic and writing research hypotheses
• Selecting a chair or committee
• Ensuring a successful proposal and oral defense
• Adapting the finished product for publication
• Using the Internet and desktop publishing effectively

With a conversational style suitable for both faculty and students, Writing a Successful Thesis or Dissertation demystifies the writing experience and presents step-by-step directions for successfully completing your project.

PART I

Getting Started

1

Selecting a Suitable Topic

The selection of a suitable topic is the first major step in writing a thesis or dissertation. For some students this is an easy task. They have known what they wanted to study from the time they entered graduate school and perhaps even before, but for many others, selecting a thesis or dissertation topic is one of the most difficult parts of their graduate programs. The thought of developing a “completely original” idea for such a large-scale project may seem overwhelming to them.

The notion that a dissertation must be completely original is a misconception, for no research is completely original. All research is based on the work of others to some extent. In fact, the most useful kind of research simply builds on research that has already been done. Some of the most successful theses and dissertations simply extend the knowledge base one step further in an area by examining a new variable within a well-established line of inquiry, collecting data on a different sample, testing a new methodology, or introducing a new statistical technique. Thus, as you begin to focus progressively on a broad search for a topic, you gain a more thorough understanding of what has been done in an area and what needs to be done. Afterwards, originality may cease to be an issue. The Council of Graduate Schools (2002) clarified the point. The term original “implies some novel twist, fresh perspective, new hypothesis, or innovative method that makes the dissertation project a distinctive contribution” (p. 10).

Students often ask when the search for a topic should begin. In some universities students do not begin to search for a thesis or dissertation topic until after they have passed the comprehensive examination. We recommend that a serious search for a dissertation topic start as soon as doctoral study begins. By selecting a dissertation topic early in the graduate experience, you can then use assigned course research papers as a means of doing preliminary work on your projected research.

As soon as you select a broad area of study, you need to immerse yourself in the literature in that area, with an eye toward the dissertation (thesis) proposal. Also, you should read and review your university’s doctoral handbook, to see if there are guidelines concerning what goes into the proposal and how long it is expected to be.

Most universities have very definite requirements for the dissertation proposal. These requirements can range from a 10- to 20-page description of your proposed study to the completion of the first three chapters of the dissertation. In some universities, the dissertation chair (or advisor) is the only one who has to approve the proposal. Other universities may require a formal oral defense of the proposal before the entire dissertation committee. The purpose of the proposal is to get agreement on the merits of the proposed study before the student begins to collect data and makes formal application to the university’s Human Subjects Committee. Even schools or colleges within the same institution may have different requirements. The proposal requirements for master’s theses may be less rigorous than they are for doctoral dissertations.

Our institution decided that most dissertation proposals should consist of Chapter One, Two, and Three of the dissertation. Typically Chapter One is titled “Introduction,” Chapter Two, “Review of the Literature,” and Chapter Three, “Methodology.” However, for some qualitative dissertations, the proposal may appear differently. In most cases, after you collect and analyze your data, your Chapters One, Two, and Three will require only minor revisions to be ready for the final dissertation. Even if you must edit some later, you should be writing the proposal and the dissertation simultaneously. For those of you who are doing a qualitative dissertation, you may have to do some major rewriting of the first three chapters as your data emerge.

SOURCES OF TOPICS

As mentioned previously, you should begin your topic selection by identifying two or three broad areas in which many different types of research may be pursued. Examples of what is meant by broad topic areas are: teaching methods, leadership styles, bilingual education, school improvement, and so forth. Sources of ideas for broad topic areas include: (a) textbooks, (b) professional journals, (c) dissertations, (d) theories, (e) current employment, and (f) existing databases.

Textbooks

Textbooks that you are currently using in your courses or that you have used in previous courses can be a source of ideas for broad topic areas. Often, the authors of textbooks point out areas of controversy or gaps in the research on specific topics. For example, in the first chapter of their textbook Educational Administration: Concepts and Practices, Lunenburg and Ornstein (2008) identified some current issues in assessment, which include testing minority students and confidentiality of test data. In a subsequent chapter, they discussed current and emerging issues in the measurement of disabled children. In another chapter, they shared problems with the validation of some leadership theories and the use of majority samples in the development of some of these theories. In each of these chapters, the authors pointed out several broad areas in need of further research.

Professional Journals

Although reading textbooks will give you a broad overview of topic ideas for your thesis or dissertation, you need to steep yourself in the literature in your field and related fields. (If you are an education student, related fields are psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, and business management.) This will enable you to examine the specifics of how other scholars have conducted research. These specifics can be found in reports of original, empirical research (which include both quantitative and qualitative studies) published in professional journals. Such reports can be accessed electronically. If you are unfamiliar with conducting such searches, consult the research librarian at your university. Some electronic databases provide the full text of research articles; others provide abstracts only. If an abstract interests you, obtain copies of the full article and carefully read it through.

As you read, pay particular attention to the purposes, research questions, or hypotheses that are stated in the articles. Consider the methods used to examine the research questions or test the hypotheses, including participants, instrumentation, data collection, and data analysis the researcher(s) used, and, of course, the findings. Consider reliability and validity issues of the studies you review. You should also pay particular attention to the discussion sections. In their discussions, researchers often describe implications of their research for theory and practice, discuss limitations of their studies, and suggest possibilities for further research. Such an examination of the specifics of empirical research will assist you in developing and refining your own thesis or dissertation proposal.

Reading professional journals related to your field will help you keep abreast of research trends in your discipline and enable you to explore broad topic areas at the same time. Pay particular attention to periodicals that publish review articles, such as the Review of Educational Research, Harvard Educational Review, Sociological Review, Annual Review of Psychology, and Review of Research in Education. Review articles are helpful to you because they organize a great deal of literature efficiently. A topical review represents the analytical thinking of some scholar who has examined existing literature, interpreted it, and pointed out the theoretical issues it raises. These reviewers are invited to write reviews, because they are considered to be among the best scholars in their fields. A review article also provides you with an extensive reference list that can form the basis for a complete review of the literature once you select a topic for your thesis or dissertation. The review article is also a good model for the dissertation proposal and the abstract of your dissertation. It is relatively short and usually includes the purpose, research questions or hypothesis, methods, results, implications, and limitations.

In some fields, books are published annually that are devoted to the review of significant recent theoretical and practical research developments. Four such annual publications include the Annual Review of Anthropology, Annual Review of Psychology, Annual Review of Sociology, and Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education (NSSE). Each yearly volume of the annual reviews contains highly comprehensive and integrated reviews of numerous research areas in anthropology, psychology, sociology, and education, respectively. Some topics contained in these volumes are reviewed annually, while others are reviewed every five years. The researcher should look over the six or seven most recent volumes to get an idea of topical coverage. Other useful sources of reviews of research include the Handbook of Research on Teaching, Handbook of Qualitative Research, Encyclopedia of Educational Research, Handbook of Research on Educational Administration, and Encyclopedia of Educational Leadership and Administration. The articles contained in these documents are written by distinguished scholars in specific content areas. The topics are selected for their timeliness at the time of writing and their theoretical or practical value to researchers. Because these volumes are not published annually, some of the contents may not be as current as the aforementioned annual reviews, but may be appropriate for the selection of broad topic areas.

Dissertations

Other completed dissertations can serve as another good source of topic selection. Be sure to secure exemplary projects to serve as models. Try to find: (a) award-winning dissertations in your field or related fields, (b) recent dissertations in the selected field at various universities, (c) good recent dissertations suggested by faculty in your department, and (d) the best dissertations suggested by your dissertation chair.

Examine the titles of these dissertations, as well as titles published in Dissertation Abstracts International. If a title interests you, read the abstract of the study. If you are still interested, get a copy of the document and read specifically the review of the literature and the suggestions for further research. Dissertations are now online through most university libraries.

There are certain advantages of searching for a topic from completed dissertations that go far beyond topic selection. For example, a recently completed dissertation includes a comprehensive review of the literature up to the point of completion. Updating the most recent studies will be an easy task. Your study might include a different population, other variable(s), or another methodology. However, other dissertations can help you in identifying acceptable approaches to: (a) writing research questions or hypothesis, (b) choosing an appropriate sample size, (c) examining how data were collected and analyzed, and (d) observing what kinds of conclusions can be drawn from the results, and/or (e) formulating a theory. These specifics of conducting research can be valuable information learned from examining completed doctoral dissertations.

Theories

Theories are developed to explain phenomena in a field or to provide structure or framework to the knowledge base in a field. A new theory may be developed, or an existing theory may be modified or extended. For example, Paul Hersey (1976) did a theory dissertation in which he developed with his dissertation chair, Ken Blanchard, a new leadership theory known as the situational leadership theory (see Hersey & Blanchard, 2007 for an explanation of the situational leadership theory). One of our doctoral students, Salvatore Pascarella (1985), did a field test of Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership theory in a school setting using a sample of elementary school principals (see also, Pascarella & Lunenburg, 1988). Doris Delaney (2005), another one of our doctoral students, completed a dissertation that further field-tested Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership theory using a sample of prekindergarten principals.

The development and testing of theory is important work and can make an important contribution to the field. Many theories have received only limited empirical testing. In addition, many theories have been tested using only majority populations. For example, many of the management theories developed in industrial settings between 1900 and 1960 used only men as participants.

One of the authors of this book has developed a new gender-inclusive theory of leadership called the synergistic leadership theory (SLT) (Irby, Brown, Duffy, & Trautman, 2002). The theory can be applied to any organization. Developed through a qualitative approach, the SLT has been validated quantitatively, qualitatively, and with mixed methods designs nationwide and is currently being validated internationally by our doctoral students, using samples of principals, superintendents, and higher education leaders. These validation studies have included nonmajority populations (Bamberg, 2004; Hernandez, 2004; Holtkamp, 2001; Schlosberg, 2004; Trautman, 2000; Truslow, 2004). All of the aforementioned dissertations have us...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• About the Authors
• Part I. Getting Started
• Part II. What you need to Know
• Part III. The Dissertation Chapters
• Part IV. The Defense and Afterward
• Appendix A: Initial Letter Soliciting Participation
• Appendix B: First Follow-Up Letter
• Appendix C: Second Follow-Up Letter
• Appendix D: Dissertation Proposal Outline (Correlational)
• Appendix E: Dissertation Proposal Outline (Analysis of Variance and Regression)
• Appendix F: Dissertation Proposal Outline (Multivariate Analysis of Variance)
• Appendix G: Dissertation Proposal Outline (Qualitative)
• Appendix H: Qualitative Research Critique
• Appendix I: Agreement: Guidelines for Chairing a Dissertation
• Appendix J: Checklist for Dissertation Quality
• References
• Index