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This book guides students through the process of planning, researching, and writing the final version of theses and dissertations. Five major stages of the process are illustrated with multiple examples from the social and behavioral sciences, humanities, and such allied fields as education, social work, and business administration. The first stage, Preparing the Way, describes problems and alternative solutions in working with faculty advisors and in searching the professional literature. Stage 2 explains how to find good research topics and define them clearly for presentation to faculty advisors.
Stage 3 describes problems often encountered in data collection and suggests solutions for those problems. At Stage 4, students learn ways of organizing and interpreting information, including classification schemes, verbal and statistical summaries, and methods of deriving meaning from data. The final stage, Presenting the Finished Product, offers guidelines for thesis and dissertation writing and for publishing the results in such media as books, journal articles, and popular periodicals. Stage 5 also includes a chapter about how students can mount a convincing defense of their work during a faculty committee's final oral examination session.
List of contents
Preface
The Nature of Theses and Dissertations
Preparing the WaySources of Guidance
Searching the Literature
Choosing and Defining Research TopicsSources and Types of Research Problems
Building and Adapting Theories
Stating the Problem and Its Rationale
Collecting InformationTypes of Research Methods and Sources of Information
Data Collection Techniques and Instruments
Things That Go Wrong
Organizing InformationClassification Patterns
Summarizing Information Verbally, Numerically, and Graphically
Interpreting the ResultsModes of Interpretation
Presenting the Finished ProductWriting the Final Version
Mounting a Persuasive Defense
Reaching a Wider Audience
Appendix: Outline of a Dissertation Proposal
References
Index
About the author
R. Murray Thomas is professor emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
