It is your responsibility to form your committee. For the proposal, a committee consists of at least three CGU faculty members, a Dean and two others. The Dean may be from any department. However, at least one of the members of the committee must be from I.S. All members must belong to the graduate faculty of CGU.
Finding a Dean is the first step in forming a committee. The Dean is almost always a person who has an interest in your research area. Discuss the research topic with potential Deans in depth. You and the Dean will usually work on the initial draft proposal.
You should then circulate the proposal to those faculty members who you believe are also interested in the research topic. Talk with potential committee members. Make sure that they can help you. For example, if you plan to run a survey, make sure at least one of the committee members is skilled in surveys. Then ask those faculty members who express an interest in your topic to serve on the proposal committee. Be aware that faculty members have the right to decline to serve. Your Dean will help you in the process of selecting a committee. Some Deans may also want you to hold an informal meeting of your committee to discuss your proposal during the time you are preparing it.
When you and the committee agree on a proposal draft, you will then schedule an oral defense in front of the committee members and other I.S. faculty who wish to attend your defense. It is also your responsibility to coordinate a convenient date and time at which your committee can meet for the defense, the program administrator will schedule a room and complete the necessary paperwork as well as obtain the necessary signatures on the form.
Note that the proposal committee does not have to have the same members as the final dissertation committee. This can benefit students who wish to work with members of the visiting faculty from Tel Aviv University. Visiting faculty from Tel Aviv are usually not in residence for the entire duration of the dissertation process.
The dissertation proposal should fully describe the question(s) you will study, the theoretical context and methods of research you will use, and the possible outcomes you expect from the study. You prepare the proposal in consultation with the Dean and with other members of the proposal committee.
Dissertation proposals vary in length. Typical lengths are from 20 to 50 double spaced pages plus references. The proposal must include sections on the research question, the theory of hypotheses, and the research design and methodology. It will also include a bibliography and a timetable for completion of the dissertation. Discussion of each of these sections appears below.
The purpose of the introduction is to tell the committee the contribution of your dissertation. It contains a clear statement of the research questions, their theoretical and/or practical significance, and a full definition of key concepts underlying the questions.
Writing this first section of the proposal is the crux of the entire dissertation process. It takes a great deal of effort to refine a topic or an object of curiosity into a researchable question. You need to ask: What makes the issue a problem? Why is it important enough to be studied? In what form is the question researchable?
After stating the basic research question you should identify the goals of the proposed research. These goals may take the form of possible answers to your research question, along with the analytic and substantive steps that will be necessary to reach those answers. For example, if you wish to demonstrate that “X” is true, what else will you have to prove or demonstrate along the way?
Your initial formulation of the research question in your proposal will not represent your final thoughts on the subject. The only practical approach, however, is to write while you are reaching, incorporating additional insights into later drafts of the proposal and, after the proposal defense, into the dissertation itself.
A review of the theoretical and empirical literature relevant to your research question comes next. The purpose of this review is to indicate what is known (an what you know) about your question. This literature review should not be simply a bibliographical listing, but rather an essay within the proposal that demonstrates how the dissertation builds upon prior studies, as well as pointing out how prior work relates to what the dissertation is about.
The next section of the proposal describes the research methods you intend to use. Research methods are the means used to answer the research questions you have set for yourself. They include such techniques as surveys, unstructured interviews, archival searches, mathematical and statistical analyses, design, and so on. You should also include an explicit discussion of your research design. Elements of research design include site or subject selection, whether the analysis will track changes over time, and what kinds of controls you impose on your object of study.
Many students face potential problems of access to relevant data or information. Far from attempting to gloss over these problems, you should face them fully with your committee at the proposal stage. This will help you work through or around particular obstacles; it
may also enable you to formulate alternative plans of analysis should some problem prove to be insurmountable.
You can include some aspects of the methodology for your dissertation as appendices to the proposal. You should, for example, include copies of data collection instruments such as questionnaires, as well as lists of data sources, interview respondents, or cases to be studied.
The over-all purpose of the methodology and design section is to give you a specific plan of research and to convince your committee that you can competently select, acquire, and analyze the information necessary to your thesis. It is often a good idea to choose one or two members of your committee for expertise in relevant methodologies that you plan to use. It also helps if this person also has substantive familiarity with your topic.
The proposal must include an abstract of 350 words (required by the registrar), a list of discussion of potential outcomes of your research, a timetable of completion that includes a work plan with tasks and milestones leading to completion of the dissertation, and a properly formatted bibliography of all relevant literature. One of the accepted formats in the field (e.g., Management Science, Association for Computing Machinery, American Psychological Association guidelines) will serve as your bibliography format.
NOTE: You will get considerable additional help by examining previous proposals which were defended successfully. Copies are located in the program administrator’s office.
The purpose of the proposal defense is to provide a final check on the adequacy of your proposal. The defense gives you a chance to demonstrate this significance of the work you intend to do, your knowledge of the relevant literature, and your ability to carry out the research. It provides an opportunity for your committee to probe the adequacy of your proposal and to make suggestions for improving it. Successful completion of the oral defense is the last step leading to advancement to candidacy.
The mechanics of the defense: You must schedule the proposal defense with the program administrator at least three weeks prior to the date of your proposal defense. You must provide the date and time of your proposal defense to the program administrator. The program administrator will complete and file the necessary paperwork prior to your defense date. You will have provided your committee with a complete draft of the proposal by that time. The meeting can be attended by committee members and other faculty. Once your proposal has been accepted you must provide the program administrator with a 350 word summary of your proposal. The summary and the form will be processed by the registrar’s office.
The procedure of the oral defense is as follows: the committee meets briefly prior to the beginning of the defense to discuss the questions they will be asking you during the oral exam. You then make an oral presentation of 30 to 40 minutes to describe the purpose of the objectives of the proposed study, to summarize the previous literature on the subject, to argue the significance of the proposed study, its methodology and its expected results. You should plan to use overhead transparencies in your presentation. Faculty present at the defense may ask questions, make suggestions, or challenge assumptions. After the question period, all but the committee members are asked to leave the room. The final deliberations and decision on the acceptability of the proposal, and determination of any required modifications, rests with the committee alone.
Committee members signify a “pass” of the oral defense proposal by signing the appropriate form. Once your proposal has been accepted you must provide the program administrator with a 350-word summary of your proposal. The summary and the form will be processed by the registrar’s office. Any changes required in the proposal will delay the signing of this form.
dissertation committee. This contract implies that it is your responsibility to complete the proposed work on the dissertation as defined by the written proposal in the time period defined by your work plan. Unexpected developments and findings do occur. They may suggest a need to deviate from the proposal. Any such changes must be thoroughly discussed and formally renegotiated with your committee well in advance of undertaking them. Failure to do so could result in problems and surprises in the final dissertation defense.
Davis, G.B., & Parker, C.A. (1979). Writing the doctoral dissertation. Woodbury, NY: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc.
Locke, L.F., Spirduso, W.W., & Silverman, S.J. (1987). Proposals that work: A Guide For Planning Dissertations And Grant Proposals (2nd ed.) Newbury Park CA: Sage Publications.
There are a number of other books on proposal and dissertation writing in the Honnold Reference Library under the general call letters: LB2369.
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