Prospectus: Faculty review

You have finished a draft of your prospectus and sent it to me as your committee member- what am I looking for? I typically read through the paper twice. The first time I am looking at APA formatting, spelling and grammar issues. Be sure you double check your citations and references with the APA manual– I will look at those closely. If you use any acronyms or abbreviations, make sure you spell them out the first you use them. If you use jargon (e.g., self-efficacy, locus of control, resiliency), make sure you define it (even if you think I know what you mean). A good rule of thumb is would someone not familiar with psychology know the term? If not – define it. 

I then read through it again concentrating on content. I want to make sure that you are consistent with how you are describing your study throughout the paper. For example, if you are doing a qualitative study, you should not be using terms like "correlation." I will make sure that your research questions are consistent with the literature you reviewed and that your theory makes sense for your study. I will look for some predictions with your theory, as to how you expect the study to come out. I will look for evidence that you understand your analyses and that they make sense given your research questions. By the time I finish your paper, I should feel confident that you understand the topic area and that you are capable of doing the study. Finally, I will print out your references and go through the paper crossing off references as they are cited. They should come out even- no extra references or citations. 

Personally, I use track changes and make a lot of comments. I try to be clear in my concerns, but would always want you to ask for clarifications if you were not sure what I meant. It is better not to guess if you are doing things right- save yourself some time and ask about issues. 

Next time I will talk about accepting feedback gracefully.  Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu