Proposal
Proposal at a Glance
At most universities, the proposal is Chapters 1-3. In some applied doctoral degrees (e.g., DBAs and EdDs), the dissertation (or capstone) will be divided into sections rather than chapters. In many DBA or EdD programs, Section 1 consists of the introduction and literature review and Section 2 consists of the methodology. The order in which you write each chapter or section of the proposal will differ in each program. Some universities have doctoral candidates begin with the literature review, while others start with the introduction.
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The most important element of getting your proposal approved is the review process with your chair and committee members and ensuring the proposal aligns with your university's template and rubric guidelines. The proposal approval phase is where the majority of doctoral candidates get caught in a vicious revision cycle and decide to reach out for help. All too often, we find the cause of endless revisions is a lack of alignment in the topic development phase.
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Getting your proposal approved and passing proposal defense is the second key milestone of the dissertation process (after passing comps) since it allows you submit your study for IRB approval and begin data collection.
How will Dissertation Demystified help me?
The proposal phase of the dissertation process is where Dissertation Demystified's familiarity with the most common open-enrolment, online, and for-profit universities comes through. We will coach through adapting the work you complete in our modules with your university's template and rubrics. We also coach in understanding the type of feedback you will receive from each committee member and what to expect out of the review process.
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Below is an overview of the proposal review process and committee composition at some key universities:
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​Walden: Chair > Subject Matter Expert (SME) > Academic Reader (AR) > Proposal Approval
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National: Chair > Subject Matter Expert (SME) > Academic Reader (AR) > Proposal Approval
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Grand Canyon: Chair > Methodologist > Content Expert (CE) > Academic Quality Review (AQR) > Proposal Approval (NB: Grand Canyon plans on moving away from the AQR process and utilize an outside consultant model)
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​Given that proposal chapters are often reviewed individually and then together as a single proposal manuscript means that you have multiple rounds of feedback. Very often, feedback between committee members can be contradictory and confusing, so we will coach in pushing back against contradictory or unfair feedback. Most of the time, your chair and committee members are just overworked, but unfortunately adversarial relationships do arise.