Doing Your

Dissertation: One
Step at a Time
Office of Graduate Studies
and Academic Affairs
March, 2006

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 The Challenge
Make an independent contribution
to your field and communicate it,
demonstrating that you have the
knowledge, research skills, and
motivation to do so
Plan, conduct, and complete the

biggest project of your life

Please a committee of readers

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 Sources of Guidance
Your dissertation director/mentor
Other faculty in the department
Other doctoral students
Completed dissertations in your field
Your schools office of graduate
studies and school-specific
guidelines for dissertations
Books on the subject
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 Think Dissertation All
the Way
From your first course on:
Identify gaps in the literature, and therefore
possible dissertation topics, as you take
courses
Read more and write papers in areas of
special interest
Gain needed experience and ideas from
involvement in faculty research
Complete the requirements for
advancement to Candidacy (course work,
comprehensive exam)
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 1. Pose the Research
Question
The hardest part for many
Not the same as choosing a topic
thats easier
Need to be familiar with previous work
on the topic; research questions come
from thoughtful reading of the
literature, previous research
Generate questions about the topic that
are (a) interesting, (b) important, and
(c) answerable
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 Interesting???
Interesting to you (youll be at it a
long time!)
Interesting in your field
Maybe even interesting to your
grandmother

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 Important???
Tests a leading theory?
Will help resolve a debated issue in the
field?
Brings together concepts that have not
been brought together before, looks at
things from a new perspective?
Helps explain discrepant findings?
Improves measurement of a key construct?
Asks a question that needed to be asked?

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 Important???
Its not enough to argue that no one
has studied it before (maybe nobody
cared!)
Its usually not enough to replicate
prior work using one more
demographic group, one new little
methodological wrinkle
Yet it doesnt need to be the Great
American Research Idea, either!
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 Answerable???
A question can be very interesting and
important but not answerable, or not
answerable within the scope of a
dissertation project
Can the research question be framed in
terms of specific, measurable constructs,
can the hypotheses be tested?
Are the library resources or data you need
available or gettable? Can the project be
done in a year or so? Can you cover the
costs?
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 2. Develop proposal with
mentors input
One school/department may require
only a brief prospectus, another may
require the first three chapters of the
dissertation:
Introduction (with clear statement of the
research question and its significance)
Literature Review (should lead right into
the research question and hypotheses)
Methods (tells how you will answer
research question)
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 3. Form Dissertation
Research Committee (or
Research Advisory Committee, etc.)
In addition to dissertation director
(mentor, advocate), or director and co-
director, usually need two other
members at this stage
Use outline of proposal to acquaint
potential committee members with your
project
Seek committee members with relevant
expertise, including methodological

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4. Defend Proposal/Obtain
Approval to Do Dissertation
Varies by school, but proposal must
be approved by dissertation research
committee
Committee meeting usually involves
systematic questioning on theory and
methods, pass/fail outcome, and
suggestions for improving the
proposal that grow out of the
discussion
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 5. Obtain Required
Research Approvals
Student is responsible for research
compliance if project involves human
subjects, animals, hazardous materials,
RNA/DNA, etc.
See www.gwumc.edu/research for
forms and procedures
Leave plenty of time to get approval
Do not begin data collection until
approval is in hand or you will not be
able to use the data
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 6. Obtain Funding if
Needed
Estimate costs and discuss with
dissertation director
Faculty grant funding and other GW
funding sources may exist
At www.gwu.edu/~fellows , see
Dissertation Funding at a Glance, a
guide to competitive fellowships and
grants to support dissertation
research
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 7. Conduct Research
Develop a timeline for collecting data
and analyzing it, or for reading relevant
texts and writing chapters of literary
analysis
Break large tasks into smaller ones and
go at them one by one
Keep dissertation director posted if the
unexpected happens or if your thinking
takes a new direction
Write as you go
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 8. Write (Rest of)
Dissertation
A Word template with a dissertation format
acceptable to all GW schools is available at:
www.gwu.edu/~etds
Determine what style manual is followed in
your department (e.g., Turabian, Manual for
writers of term papers, theses, and
dissertations; American Psychological
Association, Publication manual
Follow your schools guidelines on margins,
type size, paper weight, order of parts, etc.
Write and rewrite in response to feedback
from primary mentor and committee members

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9. Select Final Examination
Committee
Dissertation Research Committee of at
least three, plus:
Two additional examiners
Varies by school, but usually at least
one of the added examiners must come
from outside students department or
school or even from outside GW
Sometimes neutral deans
representative sits in on the defense or
chairs it
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 10. Schedule Dissertation
Defense (alias Final Oral
Examination)
When draft of entire dissertation is ready,
circulate it to the entire examination
committee plenty ahead of desired
defense date, asking whether it is ready
to defend
If committee signs off, schedule date/time
for defense with plenty of time for all to
read version that will be defended
Complete Application for Graduation
Form by deadline.

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 11. Defend Dissertation
Final Examination session open to the public
Normally begins with chance to highlight
purposes, findings, and significance of work
Mainly questions and answers
Committee decision:
>Pass with no revisions (rare)
>Conditional pass (Pass subject to making
specified changes to satisfy dissertation
director or all/part of committeecan range
from minor to more significant)
>Fail (must redefend)

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 Helpful Reminders
The committee approved your project.
Assuming you did what you said you
would, the committee is very unlikely to
decide that it was a dumb project to do!
They may question how you executed or
interpreted things, though, so be
prepared to explain yourself.
Remember that all dissertations are
flawed!

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 12. Finish Your
Dissertation!
Its typical to have to make changes after
the dissertation defense.
Double check important things like the
title, abstract, and your name!
Turn in the signed approval form indicating
that the final examination committee
accepts the dissertation and turn in the
required number of copies of the final
dissertation.
Turn in Proquest/University Microfilm
Form and Survey of Earned Doctorates
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 13. Publish Dissertation
Proquest/UMIAll dissertations must be
submitted there for archiving
GW Electronic Theses and Dissertations
(ETD) Initiativesee www.gwu.edu/~etds ,
part of a national movement to make theses
and dissertations more accessible for free
However, you can withhold access to all or
part of the dissertation for a specified period
(e.g., 1 or 2 years) in order to pursue a
patent or publication opportunity if you wish

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Publishing with Proquest/UMI
or on the Web Does Not
Prevent Other Publishing
The Doctoral Dissertation Agreement Form from
Proquest says you are granting them a
nonexclusive right to reproduce and distribute the
dissertation, not an exclusive rightthat means
you can publish parts elsewhere (e.g., in articles or
books)
You have the copyright by virtue of being the
author; registering a copyright is mainly useful if
you have something commercially valuable and
want to be able to sue others for copyright
infringement.
Youre responsible for ensuring you have
permission to use material that is not your own.

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 14. Really Publish
Dissertation
Making your dissertation accessible
via the Web does not prevent you from
publishing parts of it as articles or
reworking it as a book.
Yes, youre tired, but get it published

soon!
And dont stick it in a drawer just

because youre rejected the first time

Keep at it!
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 15. Applaud Your
Achievement and
Graduate!!!!!!
If all goes well, in a year or twos
time, you really have shown that
you are capable of generating
knowledge in your field.
No, its not as great as you
might have hoped, but its yours
and its done!!!!

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The EndAnd the
Beginning

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