Topic Development
Topic Development At A Glance
Topic development is the most important part of the dissertation process. If you do not understand the aspects of topic development, it will have a negative ripple effect throughout your entire dissertation process. The two key aspects of topic development are:
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Finding a tenable research gap supported by recent scholarly/peer-reviewed literature​
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Identifying an optimal research design to study the research gap
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Out of these two areas, you will need to develop an aligned Problem Statement, Purpose Statement, and a set of mutually exclusive, but collectively exhaustive Research Questions. Click here for an example of optimal and poor alignment.
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Depending on your program, the topic development process will often culminate in your Chapter 1 or Introduction section. Some universities (such as Walden) have an initial deliverable called a prospectus, which is a fillable form in which you provide the foundational elements of your study such as the problem statement.​ Some universities such as Grand Canyon have adopted PowerPoint templates to guide candidates' work on topic development, however these templates are frustrating to work with and, without guidance, are a significant cause of delays, retaking of dissertation courses, and additional tuition fees.
How will Dissertation Demystified help me?
Dissertation Demystified dedicates two modules to topic development. The first module is geared towards the literature review aspect of topic development and the second is geared towards the methodological element of topic development. This was intentional on our part and allows you to leverage the work you complete during topic development to build out your Chapter 2/literature review section and Chapter 3/methodology section.
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Misalignment during the topic development phase is the leading cause of doctoral candidates' proposals not being approved and getting caught in a vicious cycle of revisions. Our topic development coaching ensures that you have the skills necessary to quickly identify research gaps in an article and to understand the differences in qualitative and quantitative research. This training pays dividends once you start submitting your proposal for review! ​