Writing Your Thesis Proposal...Purpose of a Thesis Proposal • To justify your research project in...
Transcript of Writing Your Thesis Proposal...Purpose of a Thesis Proposal • To justify your research project in...
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Writing Your Thesis Proposal
Dr. Erin Zimmerman
Director, Writing Center
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Writing in your field
writing is a social practice
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Why write as graduate students?
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• To record and reflect—writing
helps you think and learn
• To share and report—writing is an
important way to communicate
• To persuade—writing helps others
see the value of your work
Why write as graduate students?
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Purpose of a Thesis Proposal
• To justify your research project in
order to gain approval for it
• To organize the plan for collecting
and obtaining data to help solve
your research problem/question
• To help you think through the
project from beginning to end, to
anticipate problems and be prepared
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Your Thesis Proposal
If you have an idea of where you’re going
and how to get there, it’s easier to reach
your destination!
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Audience of a Thesis Proposal
• Your advisor
• Your committee
• Professors in your program
• Professors in your faculty
Remember that they have different areas of
specialty, and may not be experts on your
topic—your goal is to explain yourself clearly!
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Structure of a Thesis Proposal
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“Moves” in literature reviews: structure
Build a rationale for your research question:
Information and discussion
from the literature
Research question
Introduction & Literature
Review
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Steps for writing your
literature review
1. Survey literature related to
many aspects of your study
2. Choose the most relevant
articles or other sources
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Steps for writing your
literature review
3. Read and take notes
4. Organize literature according to topic or argumentative claim
5. Draft and revise
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“Moves” in literature reviews: structure
Move 1
Establish a research territory
a.By showing that the general research area is
important,
b.By introducing and reviewing items of previous
research in the area
Move 2
Establish a niche
a.By indicating a gap in the previous research , or
by extending previous knowledge in some way
Move 3
Occupy the niche
a.By outlining purposes or stating the nature of
the present research
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Move 1:
Establish a research territory
a. By showing that the general
research area is important,
b. By introducing and reviewing
items of previous research in the
area
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Move 1:
Establish a research territory
• Why is the research you are
doing important to your field?
• Who has performed research in
this area before?
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Move 1:
Establish a research territory
• What can you show from
others’ research to explain why
you exploring this area is
significant?
• What about their research
informs what you are doing?
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Move 2:
Establish a niche
a. By indicating a gap in the previous
research , or by extending previous
knowledge in some way
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Move 2:
Establish a niche
• What is the gap your research
project fills?
• What have others done
previously that help you
demonstrate this gap?
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Move 3:
Occupy a niche
a. By outlining purposes or stating
the nature of the present research
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Move 3:
Occupy a niche
• What is your research
project/question(s)?
•What are you trying to
discover through your project?
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Move 3:
Occupy a niche
• What is your process for doing
this research?
• What should readers of your
report learn from your
research?
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• Approach/methods
• Preliminary results and Discussion
• Work plan
• Implications of research
• List of references
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• Approach/methods
• Preliminary results and Discussion
• Work plan
• Implications of research
• List of references
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• Approach/methods
• Preliminary results and Discussion
• Work plan
• Implications of research
• List of references
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Citing Your Sources
• To show you’ve done the work,
build your credibility
• To ethically use information
from others
• To help your readers locate
quality information
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Where Do We Cite?
1. In the text of the paper
2. In the References Page,
Bibliography, Works Cited
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Citing Others’ Ideas
Quoting – copying and pasting
an author’s language into your
writing
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How to Quote?
Do
Put quotation marks around all of the words taken directly from a source
Cite your quote
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How to Quote?
Don’t
Rely too heavily on quotes:
•Ideas are often more important than language, so paraphrase more
•Be strategic about language that is useful, so take only what you need
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Citing Others’ Ideas
Paraphrasing – rearticulating an
author’s idea in your own words
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How to Paraphrase?
Do Not
Copy and paste the original text into your paper.
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How to Paraphrase?
Do
Read the idea/key piece of information within the source multiple times until you understand it. Then look away from the source and write out the idea in your own words.
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How to Paraphrase?
Do
Synthesize others’ work together rather than summarizing and listing each individual researcher’s finding.
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Good writers revise—a lot!
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Resources for Writers
• The Writing Center
• Reading other proposals and theses
• Internet
• Purdue OWL, online style guides
• Your professors / advisors