Interesting
issue, Paula, I had to stop and think about it for a while. I think there are a
number of factors involved. First, unless you just happen to have a chair or committee
member very knowledgeable about the topic (I have had only a couple that I can
think of), the faculty may not know a great deal about the subject. This means
that their comments will tend to be related to the logic of the arguments you
make and if you appear to have covered the necessary literature.
A
second factor is that there is an underlying assumption that you are an expert
in the area you are addressing. As a committee member, even if I know something
about the topic, in all likelihood I have not gone into a great deal of detail
in the literature of your specific subtopic. As someone reading the paper, I
will look for the student's understanding of the areas that I do know. I will
also look at the type of references used – are they primarily books or
textbooks? This shows the student has not dug deep enough into the literature.
A
third comment, I know for me (and probably most faculty) I tend to be a
generalist in my knowledge, I seem to know a little about many topics and a
great deal about some narrow ones. After teaching many different psychology
courses over the last 20 years (icky to realize that!), I have learned quite a
bit about most areas of psychology. This means I can generally judge if the
content seems adequate or if the student has misunderstood something important.
Also, I find most faculty will ask questions of the student in the paper rather
than make comments on what is written- the idea is to make you think it through
not provide the answers.
A
final observation, in general I think what I look for in content is a logical
argument. If you think back to the posts, where I discussed writing from broad
subjects to narrowing it to the subtopics, this makes sense. An example, if
John sends me a draft of his proposal, examining the elderly's opinion of their
medical care, there are certain content areas I expect to be addressed. He
should discuss aging in general, aging and medical care, patient satisfaction,
etc. I want to be educated on the topic/ subtopics, if I don’t feel like I really
understand the rationale, there is something missing in content.
Do
you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future
post? Send me an email with your ideas. leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu
Next
time we will look at being accountable for your actions.
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