Assignment
DISSERTATION PROPOSAL (400 points- through the Assignment Tool)
This Midcourse Reflective Exercise involves writing a first draft of your ministry project proposal (Chapter 1). Many students are undecided on dissertation topics. This exercise is designed to force this issue. Make a decision. Learn the process. Change later, if necessary. Students should obtain a copy of Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (8th Ed.). Write the draft proposal along the guidelines found in Turabian as well as the sample pages and information conveyed in the DCOR 700 Course Modules in Blackboard. Use the proposal template supplied in Module 2 in Blackboard. It contains the latest Turabian formatting, and Regent D.Min. program approved front matter, dissertation body sections, and other formatting features. Suggestions: A good way to begin thinking of this assignment is to identify issues, needs and problems in your context of ministry that need improvement, solutions, and so on. What area are you most passionate about, or bothers you the most in ministry, that is in need of change? Expand the selected topic into a workable ministry project or action plan.
? Dissertation Topic: Select a topic of interest that seems to be a reoccurring theme in your life, and or ministry for the dissertation topic:
o Psalm 139 describes the level of detail that God knows about our life. He has sovereignly sent people, circumstances, experiences, learning opportunities and countless other things your way throughout your lifetime. What themes or threads run through your life that may indicate your life focus?
o Isa 46:9, 10 clearly says that God, like a master architect, knows "the end from the beginning." He can look ahead to the end of your life, and execute a master plan for you to be who He wants you to be on the last day of your life. What do you look like then? What have you accomplished? Where was your life heading all these years? What themes or streams seem to carry your toward that destination? How is God directing the flow of this dissertation work and the Doctor of Ministry experience?
o What things in ministry give you the most joy? The most sorrow? What things "push your buttons," igniting a passion for you to consider in ministry? Are there themes that have existed throughout your life? Is life's direction pointing a certain way right now?
o What problem seems to be a theme in your life and/or ministry, that needs to be solved? Keys to this theme's identity are joys, pains, sorrows, past ministry involvement, areas of passion.
o Narrow the subject down significantly! You will be spending considerable time on this topic and living with it for several years! Be careful to avoid general topics - select a particular geographical location, limit it to a particular group in a particular place.
Narrow the subject you chose down as far as you can - this will be an ongoing process throughout your dissertation work!
? Dissertation Proposal: Access the Dissertation templates in Module 2, Blackboard. Pay close attention to the reading and the lecture associated with this module. Construct a proposal for Chapter One, according to the pattern you see in Module 4.
o Construct Front Matter for your proposal, according to the pattern laid out in Module 2, such as a Title page, Copyright page, Signature page, Epitaph page, Acknowledgement page, etc.
o Construct an Abstract in the Front Matter of your proposal that summarizes the Statement of the Problem in a one-sentence question (see below), the reason your are doing the project, the theory that informs your project, the expected results and contribution from you project
o Construct a Table of Contents in the Front Matter of your proposal with suggested outline and headings/subheadings, without page numbers.
o Write a clear Overview section that introduces the reader to the context of your dissertation project and describes in summary form what the reader should expect to encounter as they read through your proposal.
o Write a clear and concise Statement of the Problem you are addressing in the proposal for your dissertation, which clearly identifies in a one-sentence question what problem you are attempting to address.
o Write a clear and concise Rationale for Doing the Project section that lays out the reasons that compel you to solve this particular problem. This can have a body of text and possibly a numbered summary afterwards.
o Narrow down your chosen research topic as far as possible, considering a particular group, location, or paradigm for the study. Write a Limitations and Assumptions section that highlights these limits and attempts to tell the reader what you are NOT intending to address in the dissertation. Narrow, Narrow, Narrow!
o Construct a section entitled "Summary of the Literature" that includes some clearly identified sources that you might use to solve the problem that your dissertation is focused on. Every dissertation must be based on literature-based research that lays down a theoretical approach to solving the problem you are focusing on. Aims to identify the top sources in your field of focus, and distill the key elements they convey that you will use to construct your intervention.
o Write a section entitled "Biblical, Theological and Historical Foundations" which outlines the major biblical, theological, and historical themes and facts that support your dissertation proposal. This section should detail the most important biblical passages and data that you intend to use to support your project and intervention, It should also indicate what theological aspects apply to the themes, principles, paradigms, and models that support your intervention. Finally, introduce any historical data that you might use to support your dissertation.
o Consider the methods you may use to measure the results of the ministry project. You will do the literature review, and already have certain theories, themes, or paradigms in mind that you feel may address the problem. Write a Methods of Analyzing the Problem section that describes how you will measure the level of a certain factor, quantity, or aspect of the project before your intervention, and after, so as to produce a qualitative and or quantitative result.
o Write a concise Plan for Evaluating the Project section that describes how you might determine what change your ministry project intervention caused. How will we know when it is finished? How will we interpret your results? What methodology will you employ to produce your final conclusions and results for the ministry project?? Include assessments, personal interviews, and any other evaluation tool used in the project phase of your work.
o Write a section on Results and Conclusions that you expect to see from your ministry project. Place them in hypothetical terms, as you would expect to see the results.
o Include a "Summary" section that tells the reader in summary form where your project is going based on the previous section, summarizing their contents. You are in essence telling the reader what they just read in summary form.
o Construct an Annotated Bibliography of the sources that you expect to use in your research on the topics most relevant to your ministry project. Use this area to list the sources you might use, under certain headings that are important to your dissertation.
These headings might involve the biblical, theological or historical factors that support your dissertation topic, which will later be part of Chapter Three. They may be the literature resources that support the key paradigms, principles, theories, or models that shape your chosen intervention for the ministry project. Please note: Case Studies that you might intend to include in your dissertation, should be treated as "living references" and described in this section. Be sure to use a variety of book, journal, periodical, dissertation, interview, and other sources when informing your dissertation!
o Construct an approximate Dissertation Timeline, using the timeline information available in the D.Min. Handbook and D.Min. Dissertation Guide (posted under Module 3, Blackboard). This timeline should propose a time for taking your Integrative Exam, timeline for the literature research and review, project and data collection, results correlation, writing of the first draft of your dissertation, and submission of first, second, and third drafts of the dissertation.
? Turn in your written assignment through Blackboard. Be ready to consult with me at ANY TIME during this process. This assignment is a synthetic assignment, and pulls together much of the material we will be covering this term. It is designed to get you to think about the focus of your doctoral studies at the earliest stages of your educational experience.