Final Project: Draft 1 of Your Prospectus

Final Project: Draft 1 of Your Prospectus

The purpose of this course is for you to complete a quality and rigorous Prospectus. As discussed earlier, your Prospectus will be the plan, or “blueprint,” for your Proposal, which comprises the first three chapters of your Dissertation. Because of the importance of the Prospectus, you have been asked to write it section by section throughout these past eight weeks, in the context of learning about each required component. For this Assignment, you will complete and submit the first draft of your Prospectus. After feedback from your instructor, you will revise and edit your Prospectus, and submit the second and final draft for the course in Week 10.

Note that, even when your course instructor approves your Prospectus, it will not be in final form until you work with your Dissertation committee chair and committee member to complete it to their satisfaction.

They will complete the Prospectus Rubric, with their approval, and your chair will submit both rubrics and your approved Prospectus to the Center for Research Quality (CRQ).  Once the committee members have reviewed your prospectus, and the chair has reconciled the scores in TaskStream, the prospectus document then passes to the Program Director or designee for review. 

This assignment is the first draft of the prospectus, and should be as complete as possible.  First, review the Abstract Guidelines, Dissertation Prospectus Guide, Prospectus Exemplars, and all other Dissertation Resources.

Then revise and edit your Prospectus draft where required, and submit Draft 1 in the Week 9 Assignment, for Instructor feedback.

You will not be graded in Week 9 on the draft of your Prospectus. The entire Prospectus, which constitutes your Final Project, will be graded in Week 10.

Required Readings

Dissertation

Rudestam, K. E., & Newton, R. R. (2015). Surviving your dissertation: A comprehensive guide to content and process (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. ISBN: 978-1-4522-6097-6
Chapter 9, “Overcoming Barriers: Becoming an Expert While Controlling Your Own Destiny” (pp. 251–258)
Chapter 10, “Writing” (pp. 259–279)

Prospectus Exemplars

Document: Exemplar 1 (PDF)

Document: Exemplar 2 (PDF)

Document: Exemplar 3 (PDF)

Document: Exemplar 4 (PDF)

Document: Exemplar 5 (PDF)

Miller, R. K. (2003, April 1). Finishing the dissertation. The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Pannapacker, W. (1999, February 19). How to finish a dissertation—without the agony. The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Templeton, E. E. (2010, August 20). The rule of 200. The Chronicle of Higher Education

Walden University, Student Publications. (2014). Welcome to the catalog, student handbook, and university guidebooks. Retrieved from http://catalog.waldenu.edu/

Walden University, Center for Research Quality. (n.d.-f). Research resources: Research planning and writing. Retrieved from http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/researchcenter/resources/planning
Historical Alignment Tool (HAT)To access this document, click on “Research Planning and Writing”, then click on “Research Planning.” Then click on “Historical Alignment Tool.”

Walden University, Center for Research Quality. (n.d.-c). Ph.D. dissertation process and documents. Retrieved from http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/researchcenter/osra/phd
Dissertation Prospectus Guide

Required Media

Laureate Education (Producer). (2014-c). Prospectus perspectives [Multimedia file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

(Topic: police brutality against African American males)