掌门人
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2003-01-15 07:03
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开题报告(比较深入的研究后) Funding the Dissertation: Writing the Dissertation Proposal Learning to write an effective fellowship proposal at the dissertation stage has implications that go well beyond the process itself; it is a skill that is essential to a scholar throughout his or her career. The Nature of a Proposal: How a Dissertation Fellowship Proposal Differs from a Dissertation Prospectus A fellowship proposal is essentially a persuasive argument for why your project deserves to be funded. Most dissertation fellowships—and fellowships in general—involve a highly competitive contest, judged by an anonymous fellowship committee. This is in contrast to a dissertation prospectus, where you are simply asking your own department to decide whether your project is acceptable or not; this is normally an easier task, more like "preaching to the converted." Many departments have their own rules as to what a prospectus should be—how long, what to include, what format to use, and other requirements—but in general the prospectus is a fairly detailed explanation of your project. In a fellowship competition you are asking an anonymous fellowship committee to decide that you deserve to win and—yes—that someone else deserves to lose. In this situation, it will not do simply to describe a project that is acceptable; instead, you must develop a highly persuasive and polished argument that will convince the reader that your proposed project will make an important contribution to the field, that it deserves to be funded. The argument should be constructed so carefully that each sentence and each paragraph advances your contribution argument in the most tightly-knit and logically coherent fashion. Constructing a Polished Argument for How Your Project Will Contribute to the Field: Three Possible Paradigms Before you can construct a tightly-knit argument, you must first decide what your contribution argument will be. There are three possible paradigms—or three logical possibilities—for defining how a study will contribute to the field: Paradigm One: The project is a research topic that never has been done before. Almost by definition it will contribute to the field. The burden in this argument, however, is to show that the topic is indeed significant despite its neglect by scholars. Perhaps it has only recently acquired significance through scholarly developments, or perhaps there are other factors that have been overlooked that explain its importance. The main point in this paradigm is to show that the topic no longer should be neglected. Sample Argument, Paradigm One: "While thirteenth-century Venetian art has been studied in depth, the story of the fourteenth century remains to be written. Not only was this a period of extraordinary political and economic expansion and turning westward, but it was also a period matched by artistic transition, moving away from the prevalent use of Byzantine cultural models—once again in the direction of the West." Paradigm Two: (This argument is the opposite of paradigm one.) The project will study well known material that has been examined many times before, but you are making a reassessment of that material by looking at it in a new way, which will be your contribution. The challenge in this paradigm is to make a strong argument for the need for reassessment, but without denigrating all previous work. (Your readers may well include an author of one of those previous works.) The wisest approach is to stress that you are adding a new dimension, thanks to the work that has already been done. Sample Argument, Paradigm Two: "The rapid turnover in population in 19-century cities and the chaotic ordering of their neighborhoods has led many historians to focus almost exclusively on the social dislocation and uprootedness that they felt urban life brought. This dissertation seeks to re-examine these assumptions . . . ." Paradigm Three: (This argument logically falls between paradigms one and two; it is where most research projects fall as well.) In this case, the project will contribute by exposing some new material which in turn will call for some reassessment of what has already been done. Sample Argument, Paradigm Three: "While there have been some studies done on the Alliance's activities in North Africa, there have been none on its work in the Ottoman Empire where most of its schools were located . . . . By studying the activities of an organization which channelled Western values directly to a broad mass of young students, I hope to shed some new light on the process of Westernization at the local level."
掌门人 edited on 2003-01-15 07:08
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