Today I achieved a significant milestone in my dissertation journey; I submitted my first three chapters to my committee. Twelve months in the making these first chapters act as my research proposal, they are intended to prove that I am intimately aware of my field and my specific topic of research. If approved, I will only have two more chapters left, simple in comparison.
The first chapter in any dissertation is the intro chapter, a smorgasbord that summarizes the entire research. The topic of research, the question that defines what the research will do, the research design and methodology. The second chapter is an in-depth literature review, not just on the topic but all of the surrounding research and literature surrounding the topic. The third chapter is a detailed review of the methodology for the research, describing how data will be collected, and how it will be analyzed.
So, now what? Well, there is a bit of a wait while my committee reviews the proposal and determines if it meets their requirements to be approved for research. In the meantime I will be working on the analysis process. I have a large data set to curate and I need to learn some “R” to conduct the statistical analysis. Since my research has nothing to do with humans, I don’t feel particularly unethical in my pre-work; particularly because it will make the next two chapters move by faster.
On to the next step…