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Steps for Success in Doctoral Studies
Steps for Success in Doctoral Studies
Working With Your Advisor/Chair
Your advisor/chair is someone who WANTS to get to know YOU, how you think, who you are as a person, your research ideas, and what YOU want to do with your degree, your dissertation, your career.
They want to hear from you once you finish your degree. My advisor (mentor) labels our emails and phone calls updating her on "Jane's Excellent Adventures" (after Bill and Ted).
Your advisor/chair is a connection to "the rest of the world." Don't assume they aren't.
Whether you think so or not, your doctoral chair has a professional, national (and international) reputation for who they and what they do in the profession. If they are tenured (at least at AU), that's a requirement to earn tenure.
They are a window to what jobs are "real" (i.e., not already decided, but forced to have a search), the atmosphere of various places, the faculty with whom you might work, etc.
But, they won't offer any of this knowledge or expertise that unless it's clear you're open to hearing their thoughts and views.
Don't assume your advisor/chair is not an expert. This seems strange to say, but countless times students don't view me as an "expert" -- I have a few stereotypical strikes against me (a) female, (b) not a young spring chicken, (c) I'm quiet about my achievements.
They want you to succeed, will help and advise you all along the way, when you ask for or need help, but they won't do the work for you.
Proceeding Through the Degree
Proceeding Through the Degree
WHEN DO YOU WANT TO GRADUATE? Take that date and back it up to where you are now. Create a timeline for task completion. Work with your advisor/chair to make sure you are stay on your timeline.
"You have to set your deadlines. No one is going to set them for you" (Dr. Donald A. Hodges, ca. 1998).
You are an adult. Ph.D. students must create their own timelines and meet their own deadlines.
KNOW THE DEADLINES. They are on the AU graduate school calendar and on the AU graduate school website in MANY places. Take initiative and find those sites before asking questions like, "When is the deadline for...?" I will usually answer, but in my mind (sorry to say), I'm thinking, "I have to look this up for you?"
These are IMPORTANT AU graduate school sites:
DO YOUR VERY BEST ON YOUR FIRST DRAFTS. Your advisor/chair is not here to edit and rewrite your proposal or dissertation. Careful attention to detail, including APA style from top to bottom is crucial for avoiding your timeline delays. I know when the formatting is really messy, I struggle to read the content. I end up making formatting corrections just so I can give real feedback. That is TIME consuming for me.
Use the graduate school's Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Guide - Graduate School (auburn.edu) and also find help with formatting by going to MS Word Formatting on this site (link is also on the left near the bottom).
REMEMBER FACULTY HAVE A LOT ON THEIR PLATES. Remember that your advisor/chair, doctoral committee members have a lot of responsibilities. Plan accordingly for them to NEED time to review your work. Don't expect edits overnight, or even within a week. My current time for returning edits is about ONE MONTH. Give them time, or don't expect detailed feedback.
DON'T BE AFRAID TO REMIND US. On the flip side, a courteous reminder is always appreciated. Sometimes we get so involved in writing, teaching, grading, meetings (and meetings, and meetings, and meetings) that your document sits in the inbox to-do list longer than anticipated. A professional reminder two weeks after you send the document is usually appreciated.
BE READY FOR THINGS TO MOVE SLOWLY AND THEN QUICKLY. Usually the process of getting the dissertation to the committee, then to comps, then to defense seems like to takes forever, and then all of sudden, things FLY. Be ready for that.
PAY ATTENTION TO WHEN THINGS MUST BE DONE.
The Doctoral Completion Checklist is vital (see grad school website).
Completing the committee selection (CTEC online form) is required before you can apply for your comprehensive exam, and before you can apply for graduation.
Graduation applications must be submitted at least one semester BEFORE you graduate.
Comprehensive exams typically occur at least one semester before you graduate, but usually two semesters. For example, if you plan to graduate in the spring, your comprehensive exam should be in Spring or Summer, at the latest in early Fall, before Spring.
Typically, you aren't allowed to do your comps, defense, and graduation in one semester.
Pay attention to the Graduate School Calendar to be sure you know deadline dates for (a) first draft approval, (b) final date you can complete your defense to graduate in the same semester, (c) final date for your final draft and paperwork.
A Dissertation?
A Dissertation?
What is a Dissertation?
Each doctoral degree ends with a major written work, whether it's an original, independent research project, or a theoretical document for a theory-based doctorate, or a historical and analytical document for a performance-based degree (which usually includes a concert as well).
The dissertation is the culminating, final phase for the degree that demonstrates you are capable of working in a variety of different settings that include independent work, independent goal setting, and the ability to complete intensive work on your own. Remember these things:
It's not overnight.
It will take months or even years of work.
You will be working alone on a lot of it.
Sounds fun, right?
When you start to worry... just work.
What are the Parts of a Dissertation?
Pre-Pages
Title Page.
Table of Contents
List of Tables
List of Figures
Acknowledgements (if desired)
Abstract
List of Definitions and/or List of Abbreviations
Main Parts
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Review of Literature
Chapter 3 Method (or Methods if you have more than one type of data, i.e., mixed methods)
Chapter 4 Results (or Findings if you are doing qualitative)
Chapter 5 Discussion (this is the ONLY place you can insert your own opinions and thoughts)
More Details About the Dissertation
More Details About the Dissertation
Title Page - REQUIRED
The AU Grad School has a required format.
This page has a video talks you through how to create it.
Or view the graduate school style page.
Abstract - REQUIRED
Required and it should be in the graduate school format.
Includes your purpose statement and a SUMMARY of major results/findings, discussion points, conclusions from the results/findings, implications, and suggestions for future research. Typically an abstract is 1-2 pages, but no more than 2 pages. A general rule of thumb is 500 words, but no more than 1000 words.
Table of Contents - REQUIRED
The only thing not listed in your TOC is the TOC.
Again, the graduate school style page has specific formatting for this.
This page has a video on how to create an automatic table of contents.
It also shows how to create automatic lists of tables and lists of figures.
So be sure to watch for that to make your life A LOT easier in the editing phase.
List of Tables - REQUIRED IF YOU HAVE TABLES
This lists ALL tables in your document, including any that you put in an appendix.
List of Figures - REQUIRED IF YOU HAVE FIGURES
This lists ALL figures in your document, including any that you put in an appendix.
Acknowledgements - Usually Included
This isn't required, but most people acknowledge their support systems, professors, etc. here.
Dedication - Sometimes Included
This isn't required, but some people have a dedication page.
List of Definitions - Sometimes Included
SOMETIMES people list these before the document. Other times they are listed near the end of Chapter 1. If you have A LOT (10 or more) you might consider listing them on a "pre-page."
List of Abbreviations - Sometimes Included
SOMETIMES people list these before the document. Other times they are listed near the end of Chapter 1. If you have A LOT (10 or more) you might consider listing them on a "pre-page."
Chapter 1 Introduction - REQUIRED
Why is this research, this topic important to you? Begin with a personal story, or experience that led you to this topic.
Give a little background for this research including 2-3 of the significant articles you found, practitioner articles that talk about your topic, a brief historical background (if applicable).
Need for the Study
Provide evidence that persuades the reader that this study is needed. What's missing from the current research? What in your experience make this something the profession needs to know? etc.
Purpose and Research Questions
The purpose of this study was to....
The research questions that guided this study were...
Limitations and Delimitations
Chapter 2 Review of Literature - REQUIRED
This is the place where you include ALL literature related to your topic, moving from broadly related to specifically related.
You can consider a few organizational structures - Thematic (based on grouping by content), Chronological (presented in order of publication/creation), Methodological (organized by methodological approach), Theoretical (grouping by theoretical frameworks).
Usually (at AU in Music Education) we see Thematic organization, but these can be sub-grouped based on another organizational structure.
Literature Review Themes Summary
Chapter 3 Method(s) - REQUIRED
Purpose
Restate your purpose (but NOT your research questions). Your chair or other committee members might want them restated here but wait until they are finalized and you're nearing complete before adding them to this chapter.
WHY? If the questions change or are edited, then you have to change/edit them EVERY place they exist in your document. Putting them in near the end helps ensure they are the same in every place.
Theoretical Background and/or Approach Used
What kind(s) of data are you collecting and what is your methodological approach? This typically includes references to the models you used (usually from your textbooks or specific articles that "pioneered" the approach).
Qualitative? What specific methodological approach? Describe how/why your study fits this approach, and include the necessary components (for example, you might be journaling to set aside your own personal views about a topic so that you can remain objective when you're collecting the data through interview or observation).
Quantitative? What specific methodological approach? Are you doing a survey? Are you using an experimental design that compares groups after a treatment? Describe how your study fits the method.
Mixed Method? Are you doing a study that includes both quantitative and qualitative data? Which specific approach are you doing? Is it dependent (one depends on the other), or independent (they don't depend on each other).
Data Collection Process
What specific data are you collecting? How are you collecting it? From whom will the data come?
Data Collection and Analysis Table
Most likely you will be asked to complete the Data Collection and Analysis Table. This is something we started using and comes from Dr. Wang! Here's an example format. See Table 1.
Participants
Who were the participants? At this point you might include the actual number of potential participants (how many were invited to participate), the actual number of participants, and the demographic information for the participants.
Table 1.
Data Analysis Table Setup
Chapter 4 Results or Findings - REQUIRED
This is self-explanatory. Often Chapter 5 is organized by research question.
Chapter 5 Discussion - REQUIRED
BRIEF summary of results/findings.
Here is where you talk about the interesting parts of your results/findings, a place where you can speculate or guess why your results came out the way they did. This is where your voice and thoughts can be expressed. For example:
"Data showed that 80% of the respondents marked the 10 placements statements with 9 or higher (on a scale of 0-10). While this survey does not provide us with a reason for this, I speculate that most of my respondents were already in the places they wished to teach, and as 10 was the highest (Completely Agree) on the scale, they are satisfied with where they are currently teaching. What's more interesting however is the remaining 20% who marked these same statements very low, with either 2, 1, or 0 (Completely Disagree). So, while we do not know for sure the circumstances of these respondents work environments, from these results, it seems that 20% of the 520 respondents (or 104) are not contented with their work environment."
References - REQUIRED
Most people use APA, but some who do historical research may use Chicago.
Appendix or Appendices - Usually included
People usually include their IRB documentation in an appendix (often it is just the email confirmation that the study was approved).
Other items included (based on the research) are survey documents, interview protocols, code lists, full transcripts from interviews, full comments from surveys, additional data tables not included in the text, etc.
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