Dissertation Dvelopment

Title in Bold Font

Your Name Goes Here

College of Doctoral Studies, Grand Canyon University

RES-820: Name of Course

Instructor’s Name

Date

Topic of Research

Baker, V. L., & Pifer, M. J. (2011). The role of relationships in the transition from doctor to independent scholar. Studies in Continuing Education, 33(1), 5-17. http://doi.org/10.1080/0158037X. 2010.515569

For this assignment select ten empirical, peer-reviewed research articles that are current and relevant to your dissertation topic. Provide a reference and an annotation (150-250 words) that includes important details about the article for each of the sources.

Annotations are descriptive and critical assessments of literature that help researchers evaluate texts and determine relevancy in relation to a research project. Ultimately, it is a note-taking tool that fosters critical thinking and helps you evaluate the source material for possible later use. Instead of reading articles and forgetting what you have read, you have a convenient document full of helpful information. An annotated bibliography can help you see the bigger picture of the literature you are reading. It can help you visualize the overall status of the topic, as well as where your unique question might fit into the field of literature. 

Be sure that sources are presented in alphabetic order by the first author’s last name.

Your sources should not be Class Resources, dissertations, books, reports, conference papers, legal documents, book reviews, editorials, newspaper articles, magazine articles, and other sources that are not peer-reviewed. 

Degree

Provide a sentence identifying your degree program and emphasis.

Research Focus

Articulate your research focus. How does your topic area align with your degree and emphasis area?

Feasibility of Research Problem

It is important for you to select a topic that is viable and a problem that is researchable. Justify the feasibility of your proposed research project. Make sure to identify who you are going to research. Describe the intended population for the study and your access to those subjects. How do you intended to collect data?

Problem Statement

In RES 815 you discussed what is known, what needs to be known, and what is the significance of the potential problem you are investigating. Now you will write a single sentence that encompasses all of the required components. Choose one of the formats below to write a one-sentence problem statement.

It is not known how or why…

Based on what is known in literature, _____ is still unknown/what still needs to be understood is…

While the literature indicates ____________, it is not known in (school/district/organization/community) if __________.

Need for Study

In the previous section you have presented the problem statement, but why does this need to be researched. Justify the need for the study with research that says the study is needed. (150-250 words; provide citations to demonstrate research support.)

Conceptual/Theoretical Framework

Researchers use a framework to design and conduce their specific and unique quantitative and qualitative research studies. The theoretical framework includes the laws, theories, models and concepts the researcher will use to develop the research questions. Some examples would include Law of Perceptual Organization, Self-Determination Theory, Attribution Theory of Motivation, Servant Leadership Model, or concepts like Cognitive Dissonance or Quiet Quitting. Notice that the choice of methodology (quantitative or qualitative) or design (phenomenology, correlation, narrative) are not part of the framework. In the articles that you selected review the conceptual or theoretical frameworks that the author(s) used. Choose the one that seem the most promising to use in your own research. Discuss how this framework shows potential for helping you to investigate your problem space. Using the article’s reference page, what would be the seminal work that the author(s) used that relates to the theoretical framework. (150-250 words; citations required)

Significance to the Problem

How will a researcher know whether a topic of interest and the problem are of interest to others? The significance of the problem considers how many people perceive a need for answers to this problem. How do you think your study will be significant to your field? What is the value to ongoing research in the area? What are practical applications? What are the implications that could come from the proposed study? (150-250 words)

Defense of Article Selection

The selection of the articles you choose to include is essential in developing an understanding of the literature on your topic. For this assignment you selected ten empirical articles that are important to your understanding of the problem. In this section, defend your selection of your ten articles for the annotated bibliography. Why were these ten articles important enough to annotate? How do these align with your research focus? Are they current and relevant? (250-500 words)