Module : Maureen Opinion

From what I can tell, the prospectus is expanded upon and becomes Chapter 1 of the proposal. In looking at the criteria from the DC network for this part of the proposal, it seem that I am just going to take the sections from the prospectus, plus a few additional areas, and expand upon them to begin drafting Chapter 1 (GCU, 2015).

The introduction will be expanded to 3-4 paragraphs in the proposal with emphasis on the value of conducting the study. Next, the background section is added onto to explain both the history of and the present state of the problem and research focus. It identifies the "gap" or "need" based on a summary of the current literature.

This is followed by the problem statement, the population affected, and how the study will contribute to solving the problem. This section of Chapter 1 should be a minimum of three to four paragraphs with citations from empirical research articles to support statements. This will lead to a clearer purpose statement section which expands on the problem statement and identifies how the study will be accomplished. It explains how the proposed study will contribute to the field.

A lot of the next few sections are from Chapter 2. The focus of the study is identified by specifying the research questions to address the problem statement. Since I am doing qualitative I am looking at the phenomena under investigation. Next come the section that specifically describes how the research will advance the body of knowledge on the topic and identifies the theoretical foundation for the study.

The next section identifies and describes the significance of the study and the implications of the potential results based on the research questions, the problem statement, and the investigated phenomena. It describes how the research fits within and will contribute to the current literature or body of research. It describes potential practical applications from the research.

The next section looks at Chapter 3 to justify the methodology the researcher plans to use for conducting the study. As well as chapter 3 for the following section that describes the specific research design to answer the research questions and affirms why this approach was selected.

This section is new from the prospectus and it defines the study constructs and provides a common understanding of the technical terms, exclusive jargon, phenomena, concepts, and terminology used within the scope of the study. This is followed by the assumptions and specifies the limitations, as well as the delimitations, of the study.

The last section summarizes the key points of Chapter 1. It then provides a transition discussion to Chapter 2 followed by a description of the remaining chapters. The Proposal also provides a timeline for completing the research and dissertation.