NSTRUCTIONS:
For this assignment you will describe a current topic in your practice area that is of personal and/or professional interest and relevance. In exploring this topic, you will need to include relevant supporting literature.
This is a three-part assignment that will be submitted as one document.
Part 1:
Conduct a literature review to explain a potential topic of interest (1-3 pages).
1. Provide a suitable working title that captures the essence of the topic.
2. Describe the topic you wish to explore for your dissertation-in-practice research. Your description of the topic can be broadly or narrowly defined. The essential requirement is that your description and explanation is sufficiently detailed so that somebody reading this will have a clear understanding of the central message you are attempting to convey.
3. Explain why the topic is personally and/or professionally relevant to you.
4. Your topic description must be supported by at least five peer-reviewed articles published within the past five years related to your selected topic. Do not include book chapters, books, editorials, white papers, trade magazine articles, or non-peer-reviewed sources.
Part 2:
Create an annotation for each of the five articles that you located in Part 1. Begin each annotation with an APA formatted reference. Then, annotate the source with a block paragraph. The annotation should be double spaced, 200-250 words.
The following prompts can be used to craft the summary of the annotated sources:
• Provide a brief synopsis of the main points made in the article.
• What was the problem the researcher(s) addressed?
• What was the purpose of this research?
• What are the research questions?
• What research design and methods were employed in this research?
• What were the findings or results of the research?
• Conclude with your assessment of the overall quality of the article and the implications for future research.
Part 3:
After completing Parts 1 and 2, reflect on what insights you have developed about your topic. Summarize and discuss key themes that emerge from the articles that you reviewed to illustrate what you have learned (1-2 pages).
To address each component of this assignment, be sure to structure your presentation clearly using appropriate headings and subheadings.
Reminder: If you have not yet done so, be sure to schedule a time to conduct a video chat or phone conversation with your professor sometime within this first week of the course to receive feedback on your research interests and to help refine your ideas into a workable topic. You may want to consider scheduling this call after you receive feedback on your first assignment so that your professor can address any questions you may have.
Length: 5-7 pages, not including title and reference pages
References: Include a minimum of 5 scholarly resources
I have the reading and the resources also that are included for this assignment and my topic
COMP-9601E: Week 1Reading
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Topic Exploration with Annotated Bibliographies
A goal of this course is that you develop and demonstrate a firm understanding and mastery of the key elements supporting a rigorous and well-aligned research study. Throughout the course, you will have opportunities to explore multiple research components and also think more deeply about developing a strong foundation for a potential study of interest. The final assignment requires you to develop a prospectus that will offer you the opportunity to set up the necessary elements that will provide the direction to your dissertation-in-practice research. Your prospectus will serve as the preliminary research focus and design for your dissertation courses. While the prospectus is not intended to be a formal research proposal, development of this document will provide practice with applying research and academic writing skills before completing actual dissertation-in-practice work. All the work that you completed in this course will be very useful in terms of developing your dissertation-in-practice research proposal.
This course also introduces you to the Academic Success Center (ASC) offered to all dissertation students. The ASC offers a wide range of services to students, ranging from APA and scholarly writing, to research design specific training, and more. They offer both 1:1 tutoring, and have many group sessions for you to participate in. They are a valuable resource that enhances your academic journey. Please be sure to review the infographics and take this week’s quiz.
Throughout this course, be sure to refer to professor feedback from previous weeks. This course is intentionally scaffolded so that assignments build upon each other. Feedback provided by your professor each week will assist you with improvement and ongoing progress.
In Weeks 1-4, the components of a research proposal are explored to prepare you to enter the dissertation phase of your doctoral program. This will prepare you with a clear understanding of these research components necessary to write a comprehensive dissertation-in-practice research proposal.
A proposal is a well-considered, organized, written action plan that presents a clear argument that explains and justifies the logic of your study (Bloomberg & Volpe, 2019). An approved proposal describes a study that, if conducted competently and completely, provides the basis for an extensive research report (the dissertation-in-practice) that will meet all the standards of acceptability. Remember, the prospectus you develop in this course will be key pieces on which to build your dissertation-in-practice research proposal in future courses.
To ensure your proposed study is relevant and current, you are encouraged to continue to expand and update your literature review throughout this course. Always keep searching for new material related to your topic of interest!
Weeks 1-4 will prepare you by springing from your potential topic of interest to focus more clearly on the essential elements for a research proposal and, eventually, a fully-fledged research study. These elements—namely the research problem, research purpose, and research questions—will form the very framework of your study.
Figure 1: The three elements of a research proposal – the problem purpose and question(s)
Figure 2. Topic Exploration (Bloomberg & Volpe, 2019)
As you research your topic, be sure to document all of your sources. A good way to do this is to create annotated bibliographies as a means to begin organizing literature for later synthesis and inclusion. Whereas a bibliography is a list of sources (books, journals, websites, periodicals, etc.) that you have used for researching a topic, an annotated bibliography is essentially a summary, evaluation, and reflection of each of your sources.
When you write annotations for each source that you read, you are not just collecting information; you are being forced to read each source more carefully and much more critically. At the professional level, annotated bibliographies allow you to see what research has been conducted, and where and how your own research and scholarship can fit. Writing an annotated bibliography also helps you gain a good perspective on relevant bodies of literature and what is being said about your topic. Mostly, this exercise helps you develop your own point of view, a critical element of a good literature review.
Conduct a thorough search of the literature based on a variety of relevant keywords and databases. It is rare for there to be no existing literature on a topic worthy of doctoral-level study. An inability to find existing research is typically the result of too narrow of a library search.
In this first assignment, in addition to developing your topic, you are also asked to create five annotations. As you proceed with your study, you will be collecting and reviewing an enormous amount of literature. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you continue the practice of developing a repository of annotated bibliographies. These annotations will serve to keep your literary material structured and systematic. You will be especially grateful for this when you tackle the literature section of your dissertation.
It is a good idea to maintain a repository for all the literature that you use throughout this course. This can be a simple Excel file of running articles. Doing this will help not only keep all your references current but also contribute to the final prospectus, which includes a reference list.
Finally, each piece of work that you submit as an assignment should always include a title. This applies to any assignment that you submit in all courses. A title focuses on the thrust of the research. As Bloomberg and Volpe (2019) explained:
The title gives a clear and concise description of the topic and/or problem and the scope of the study…It is a good idea to create what is in effect a “working title” as you think about your topic and hone your problem, and to refine this title as your study proceeds. A title generally captures the major thrust of your research. A working title becomes a guiding focus as you move through your study…Your title will both guide and reflect the purpose and content of the study, making its relevance apparent to prospective readers. The title is also important for retrieval purposes, enabling other readers to locate the study through a literature search (2019, p. 7).
Bloomberg & Volpe
Heads-Up to schedule a synchronous meeting:
Schedule a time to conduct a synchronous meeting (Skype, Zoom, or phone conversation) with your professor within the first week of the course to receive feedback on your research interests and to help refine your ideas into a workable topic. Consider scheduling this call before the first week’s assignment is completed, or after you receive feedback on your first assignment. Either way, contact in real-time is important and very beneficial to both you and your professor in developing a good working relationship for this course!
Heads-Up to the Signature Assignment
Please note that the first seven assignments in this course are non-graded. Only the final prospectus, the Signature Assignment in Week 8, earns a grade. The grading explanation is provided here and in Week 8. Please refer to it now and throughout the course, as it will serve to make the expectations of this course very clear. Further, we have provided the rubric in the Week 8 Assignment description for your review.
Grading Rubric for SoE Prospectus Course
Following is an explanation regarding the grading of your work in this course:
The Prospectus course is graded using A (excellent), B (good), and F (fail). The grading rubric (located in Week 8 Assignment) and scoring is aligned with the dissertation sequence. You must earn an A or B grade in the course to advance into doctoral candidacy.
• In order to earn an A grade, you must score “Meets” and/or “Exceeds” on all criteria in the rubric.
• In order to earn a B grade, you must score “Meets” and/or “Exceeds” on the first seven rubric criteria (1-7): Introduction (Background/Context), Introduction (Significance), Research Problem, Research Purpose, Research Questions/Hypotheses, Research Design, and Research Methods. You may score a “Does Not Meet” on one or more of the last five rubric criteria (8-12): Appendix (Consent Form), Citations, References, APA Format and Style, Writing/Presentation.
• A F grade will be awarded when you do not score “Meets” and/or “Exceeds” on one or more of the first seven rubric criteria: Introduction (Background/Context), Introduction (Significance), Research Problem, Research Purpose, Research Questions/Hypotheses, Research Design, and Research Methods. You will be able to retake the course if you earn an F grade. If you earn an F grade on the second attempt at this course, you can appeal to the Dean for a third attempt.
What will be checked thoroughly is that you have addressed and incorporated feedback from previous weeks. Ability to incorporate feedback is a necessary skill in graduate studies, as feedback is provided for the purpose of ongoing improvement. Your professor will use the rubric (located in Week 8 Assignment) to evaluate your Prospectus.
References
Bloomberg, L. D., & Volpe, M. (2019). Completing your qualitative dissertation: A road map from beginning to end (4th ed.). SAGE.
Weekly Resources and Assignments
Review the resources from the Course Resources link, located in the top navigation bar, to prepare for this week’s assignments. The resources may include textbook reading assignments, journal articles, websites, links to tools or software, videos, handouts, rubrics, etc.
Those are the resources