The Prospectus – from a Faculty View

A prospectus shows up in my inbox, what do I look for? First, I read through the paper making general notes in track changes. Is the APA correct? Are there misspellings? Does the general topic make sense? Is the topic area original or has it been done before?  

Then I go through the paper again reading more carefully. Does the literature make sense? Is there a logical flow to how the rationale is described? The student should be making a case that his or her study is needed through citations of literature and previous research. By the time, I finish the Background section I should be nodding and thinking, yes, this study is needed.  

Another consideration is if the topic is one that student has either been trained in at Walden or demonstrated he or she has a previous background in the topic. Therefore, if you want to examine the deaf, you must show that you have outside experience in this area. Save yourself revisions by including a sentence or two documenting your experience. 

Do the theories discussed in the Framework section make sense with the topic? Has the student provided enough detail that I am convinced he or she understands the theories? Will the theories provide interesting areas to discuss when the student has results? 

Do the research questions fit with the research methods? These two sections must fit together well. A common error here is to have a quantitative wording for a qualitative study; an example, Is there a correlation between X and Y? This is not a qualitative question. Will the student be able to answer the research questions given their methods? Sometimes I see students wanting to know about a variable, but do not indicate that they will be measuring/ asking about it. Alternatively, there may be a variable that it isn’t possible to realistically examine- for example, how people learn a language. I suppose you could watch a child for 24 hrs. a day for several years, and know what words he or she learns, but you still will not really know how he or she learned them.  

Save yourself revisions and go into detail with your research methods. How many participants are you thinking of having? How did you arrive at that number? How will you recruit them? What measures/ surveys will you use? It is ok to say that the specific instrument is to be determined- but at least have an idea of the variable. If you are doing a qualitative study, give a couple of example interview questions. Talk about where and how you will do the interviews. I will consider whether ethically, you will be allowed to do the study- for example, interviewing your own students or subordinates is not ethical. 

Briefly, discuss the analysis and what statistics or qualitative techniques you will use. The idea is to give the reader an awareness that you have thought about these topics. 

Finally, I look at the references. Are they in APA format? Are they primary sources? The best prospectus has all of the elements I have discussed. Everything is consistent and pieces build upon each other. 

Next time, we will take a look at the proposal from a faculty viewpoint. 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