Table Of ContentDestination Dissertation
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Destination Dissertation
A Traveler’s Guide
to a Done Dissertation
Second Edition
Sonja K. Foss and William Waters
Rowman & Littlefield
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
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Published by Rowman & Littlefield
A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowman.com
Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2016 by Rowman & Littlefield
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval
systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who
may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Foss, Sonja K.
Destination dissertation : a traveler’s guide to a done dissertation / Sonja K. Foss and
William Waters. — Second edition.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-4422-4613-3 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4422-4614-0 (pbk. :
alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4422-4615-7 (electronic)
1. Dissertations, Academic—Authorship—Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Academic
writing—Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Waters, William Joseph Condon. II. Title.
LB2369.F59 2016
808.02—dc23 2015024841
™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
New in the Second Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
CHAPTER ONE Preparing to Go: The Dissertation Journey . . . . . 1
Can a Dissertation Really Be a Trip?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Packing Your Bags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Enjoyment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Doability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Competence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Agency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Our Guarantees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Your Travel Agents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
How to Use This Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
CHAPTER TWO The Journey before You: 29 Steps . . . . . . . . . . 17
Our Timetable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Yeah, But . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
CHAPTER THREE Planning the Trip:
The Conceptual Conversation . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Selecting and Orienting a Partner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Asking and Answering Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Identifying Key Pieces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
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CHAPTER FOUR Developing Your Itinerary:
The Preproposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Naming the Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Formulating Your Research Question. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Criteria for a Good Research Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Multiple Research Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Selecting Your Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Identifying Your Method of Data Collection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Identifying Your Method of Data Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Identifying the Literature to Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Identifying the Significance of Your Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Identifying Your Chapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Writing Your Preproposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Assessing Your Decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Committing to the Preproposal with Your Advisor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
CHAPTER FIVE Advice from Other Travelers:
The Literature Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Coding Your Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Keyboarding Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Photocopying Method. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Cutting Apart Your Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Sorting Your Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Checking Your Piles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Creating Your Conceptual Schema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Writing It Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
CHAPTER SIX Getting There: The Dissertation Proposal. . . . . 135
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Research Question. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Definition of Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Literature Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Research Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
History or Context. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Assumptions or Theoretical Framework. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Significance of the Study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Outline of the Study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Approval of the Proposal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
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CHAPTER SEVEN Things to See and Do:
Data Collection and Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Collecting Your Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Creating Codable Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Identifying Your Unit of Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Coding Your Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Sorting Your Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Checking Your Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Creating Your Explanatory Schema. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Getting Inspiration for Your Explanatory Schema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Talking Out Loud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Random Stimulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Shifting Focus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Aristotle’s Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Reversing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Framing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Assessing Your Explanatory Schema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Writing It Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
CHAPTER EIGHT Making the Most of Your Travels:
The Last Chapter Plus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Interpretation of Findings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Suggestions for Future Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Three-Article Format. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Finishing Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
CHAPTER NINE Useful Phrases: Writing and Editing . . . . . . . . 333
Fast Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Switching Off the Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Making Notes to Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Writing with Headings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
Skipping Around . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Getting Unstuck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Slow Revising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Proofreading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
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CHAPTER TEN Travelogue: The Dissertation Defense . . . . . . . 353
Preparing for Your Defense. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
The Defense Itself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
The Opening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
The Questions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Your Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
The Closing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Following Your Defense. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
CHAPTER ELEVEN Making the Best Use of Your Guide:
Advisor Advising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Asking Appropriately . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Agreeing on a Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
Expectations about Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
Expectations about Advising. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Expectations about Dissertations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
Articulating Needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
Conceptual Conversation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
Ground Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
Information about the Dissertation Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
Information about Research and Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Information about the Dissertation Defense. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Enacting Professionalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
Assessing Your Relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
Understanding Your Advisor’s Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Framing Issues Collaboratively . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
Protecting Your Advisor’s Face . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
Planning for Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Applying Productive Chicanery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Performing Completion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
Asking for Help from a Mediator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
Adding a Coadvisor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
Switching Advisors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
CHAPTER TWELVE Avoiding Delays and Annoyances:
Enacting the Scholar Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Incomplete-Scholar Roles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
Housekeeper. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Model Employee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
Undocumented Worker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
Patient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
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Good Student . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
Proxy Critic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
Executor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Maverick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
Enacting the Scholar Role: Writing Regularly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Writing on a Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Focusing on Successes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
W
e have had the companionship of many fine people on the
journey that has resulted in this book. We are especially
grateful to those who helped us develop our ideas about
writing dissertations throughout the years—Sonja’s graduate students,
those who have attended our Scholars’ Retreats and workshops, and the
students with whom we have worked as coaches. Marianne DiPierro of
Western Michigan University deserves a special note of thanks for helping
us think in new ways about how our ideas could be applied and for provid-
ing us with many opportunities to develop and test our ideas.
Karen A. Foss and Melissa McCalla Manassee read our chapters and
gave us comments that significantly improved the book. Karen A. Foss,
Stephen W. Littlejohn, and Teri Tapp offered ideas that were particularly
helpful in conceptualizing chapter 11, and Anthony J. Radich provided a
key idea for chapter 10. Raquel Vasquez’s delightful drawings in chapters
5 and 7 helped us communicate our processes more clearly. Brigid McAu-
liffe made us look good in the photograph on the back cover.
We appreciate the willingness of the scholars whose samples we have
included in the book to share their work. Their excellent models will
make the journeys of others easier. Thanks to Bernard J. Armada, Francis
S. Bartolomeo, Dawn O. Braithwaite, Abby L. Braun, Gail J. Chryslee,
Mariah Dolsen, Tanner Ehmke, Kimberly C. Elliott, Karen A. Foss,
Justin Garcia, Kimberly D. Barnett Gibson, Nicki M. Gonzales, Debra
Greene, Daniel D. Gross, Laura K. Hahn, D. Lynn O’Brien Hallstein,
Wendy Hilton-Morrow, Marla R. Kanengieter, Laura Knaster, Patrick
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xii
M. Krueger, Theodore Matula, Katryna McCoy, Madeline Perez, Ga-
brielle (Bree) Picower, Raina K. Plowright, Anthony J. Radich, Arthur
L. Ranney, Diana Brown Sheridan, Michelle Fabian Simmons, Sharon
M. Varallo, Catherine Egley Waggoner, Jean Guske Ward, Daniel L.
Wildeson, and Naima T. Wong.
Our initial editor at Rowman & Littlefield, Brenda Hadenfeldt, got
us off to a good start on our journey. We are equally delighted to share
the next leg of the journey with our current editor, Leanne Silverman, an
enthusiastic and vocal supporter of us and this book. Thank you also to
Rowman & Littlefield’s developmental reviewers, who offered thoughtful
feedback and suggestions as we began work on this new edition: Linda
Grooms (Regent University), Mary Madden (University of Maine),
Alexis Miranda (California Lutheran University), and Nathan R. Tem-
pleton (Texas A&M University, Commerce).
Sonja wishes to acknowledge Anthony J. Radich, the most fun
traveling companion one could have. Thanks to him for serving as the
base camp for Scholars’ Retreats, for his superb problem-solving and
word-smithing abilities, for putting up with yet another book, and for
his love and support.
William would like to thank Kathleen Longwaters and Bob Long
for their support, advice, and good cheer. They are always ready to make
the journey easier with the keys to the truck, a shot of whiskey, and
green chili stew.
These many wonderful companions have made our own trip a fun and
exciting adventure.
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xiii
NEW IN THE SECOND EDITION
C
hange does not occur quickly in the academy, so although eight
years have passed since the first edition of Destination Disserta-
tion was published, most of the original advice we offered in that
first book remains valid and did not need to be revised. As we continued
to work with graduate students using the book, however, we discovered
that there were a few places that could use elaboration to make the
book more helpful to students like you. New features in this edition
include more attention to and examples of social science dissertations,
particularly the three-article dissertation (TAD) that is becoming in-
creasingly popular at universities. You also will find checklists of many
of the common processes involved in writing a dissertation visually set
off to make them easier to find and to use. We hope they will serve as
constant reminders that the dissertation process can be broken down
into small, concrete steps, and if you complete one step and then the
next, you will finish. The new content in the book concerns how to
articulate the problem that leads to a research question (chapter 4) and
the actual method of writing up findings from an explanatory schema
(chapter 7)—two processes that we didn’t explain in the earlier edition.
Finally, because many changes in technology have occurred in the past
eight years, you will find in this edition many more references to ways
in which new technologies can help you with the dissertation process.
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NEW IN THE SECOND EDITION
xiv
* * *
Within the samples that appear throughout the book, we have kept the
parenthetical citations and note numbers as they appeared in the texts.
We do not include the notes or references to which they refer, however.
Our purpose for including the samples is for you to understand how to do
something; you are not reading the samples for their academic content.
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