Thesis / Dissertation Topic or Outline Proposal (Part 3)

What to write for an introduction?

Researchers usually begin with a brief history of the topic. Whether the issue is something new or not, the circumstances and facts surrounding the issue/s that the researcher wishes to address are usually presented. The introduction commonly informs the readers of what the planned or finished work is all about. It also states the most compelling reasons (e.g., important facts, relevance) for your wanting to do research on the topic. A good introduction is written in clear and simple terms.

In the U.P. College of Education, the area (e.g., EDFD) faculty members are given several days to read the topic proposal or outline before it is orally presented to them by the student. It's helpful thus for the student to assume that the faculty will be able to follow his/her presentation with relative ease, even if the professors are coming from different worldviews or frames of reference. So, come prepared as there is nothing more unpleasant than encountering questions for which you have no satisfactory answers to offer while presenting your topic or outline. If you'll not be able to convince the faculty that you're ready to do the next hurdle, which is the outline presentation (to be attended by your panel members) or data-gathering, you'll have to do another round of what you failed to do.

Here's what Joe Wolfe says when writing an introduction:

"...do not overestimate the reader’s familiarity with your topic. You are writing for researchers in the general area, but not all of them need be specialists in your particular topic. It may help to imagine such a person---think of some researcher whom you might have met at a conference for your subject, but who was working in a different area. S/he is intelligent, has the same general background, but knows little of the literature or tricks that apply to your particular topic" (In How to Write a Research Thesis).

Questions you could expect from your listeners during topic presentation

1. The title of your work will be examined right away. Expect that you'll be asked about the meaning of the terms denoting major and important variables in your planned study. Here's an example: "The title of your planned work suggests that you want to study students who need help and students who do not need help. What exactly to you mean by "students who need help" and "students who do not need help? How will you be able to tell whether a student is someone who needs help or otherwise?" I'll be posting an article on definitions later.

2. Those who will attend your topic or outline presentation shall be interested in the sort of problems that you intend to address. Be sure then that your research questions entail a study that is pregnant with significant and potentially new contribution to the present pool of knowledge. Also, the faculty would like to know whether your problems are answerable in research fashion. That is to say, they will ensure that you'll not end up wasting your time in things like mental communication or astral projection. So, expect this kind of question: "What are the problems that you intend to answer in your planned work?"

3. Then, to be sure that you'll not employ a bogus method to answer your research problems, you'll be required to answer the question: "By what means do you intend to answer such questions." You'll then be asked to justify your proposed means of answering the problems.

4. It is not unwise to expect the faculty to ask you to state the sort of answers that you may give to your research problems. Why do they want to know? Well, most likely, they want to be sure that your answers will be verifiable. That, of course, you might say, is a logical positivistic approach to research, typical of scientifically inclined researchers. The question, just the same, for me, is fair. While there are other forms of research (e.g., philosophical, anthropological) that are appropriate for certain types of dissertations/thesis, it would help to bear in mind that many teachers have logical positivistic orientation even if they are not probably aware of this or will be appalled by its having been associated with philistinism.

Again, come fully prepared. Rehearse your presentation if you must.