Chapter 1

Let's visualize a future reader of your paper, a doctoral student named Lucy. Lucy is thinking about doing a study on a similar topic as your dissertation and wants to learn more. As you write your paper, think about Lucy reading it in the future- your dissertation is your message to her. 

Chapter 1 is the introduction to your paper and has quite a few sections that are needed to prepare Lucy to understand the rest of the paper. It begins with a general introduction, by the end of this section Lucy should have a good understanding of the gap in the literature your study is addressing and why you are doing this particular study. Next, you briefly bring Lucy up to speed on the key literature in the background section- again you are just introducing the gap in the literature, it should not be a terribly long section. Now bring in your problem statement. There should not be any surprises here, but it should be a succinct statement of the need you are addressing, so Lucy knows if you and she are considering similar problems. 

Your research questions and hypotheses are important information for Lucy; it tells her exactly what you are studying, the measures you will use, and how you will interpret the results. Next, explain to her your theoretical framework, make sure she understands why you have chosen that theory and how you see it applying to your study. The Nature of Your Study will explain to Lucy the method that you will be using and the population and sampling strategies you will use.  

The next section will educate Lucy on the terms you will use in the paper, make sure that you explain anything she may not be familiar with and give her citations so can read further, if she wishes. The assumption section tells Lucy what your beliefs about your population and study are before you started it. The scope and delimitations tell her what populations your study will generalize to and to whom it does not generalize- this lets her know if she can cite your study in hers and if it can be seen as a direct link to hers or just a related one of interest. The limitations section tells Lucy about any methodological weaknesses that you were aware of and any biases; explain to her how you tried to take reasonable measures to address them. Finally, the significance section lets Lucy know what you see as applications of your study, regarding the overall discipline, practice, and with social change. 

Whew, you have taught Lucy a lot in this chapter! By the time she finishes reading it, she should have a good understanding of what you are doing in your study and why you are doing it. She should, of course, be impressed by the clarity of your writing and thinking, and impressed with your grammar and formatting. You have set a high bar for this future doctoral student to reach! Next time, I will begin a look at Chapter 2 and why each of the sections are included. 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