"The10 Strategic Points for the Prospectus, Proposal, and DissertationIntroductionIn the Prospectus, Proposal and Dissertation there are ten key or strategic points that need to be clear,simple, correct, and aligned to ensure their search is doable, valuable, and credible. These points,which provide a guide or vision for the research, are present in almost any research. They are definedwithin this10 Strategic Points document.The 10 Strategic PointsThe 10 strategy points emerge from researching literature on a topic, which is based on, or aligned with,the defined need in the literature as well as the learner’s personal passion, future career purpose, anddegree area. The 10 Strategic Points document includes the following ten key or strategic points thatdefine the research focus and approach:1. Topic – Provides a broad research topic area/title.2. Literature review - Lists primary points for four sections in the Literature Review: (a)Background of the problem/gap and the need for the study based on citations from the literature;(b) Theoretical foundations (models and theories to be foundation for study); (c) Review ofliterature topics with key theme for each one; (d) Summary.3. Problem statement - Describes the problem to address through the study based on defined needsor gaps from the literature.4. Sample and location – Identifies sample, needed sample size, and location (study phenomenawith small numbers and variables/groups with large numbers).1 5. Research questions – Provides research questions to collect data to address the problemstatement.6. Hypothesis/variables or Phenomena - Provides hypotheses with variables for each researchquestion (quantitative) or describes the phenomena to be better understood (qualitative).7. Methodology and design - Describes the selected methodology and specific research design toaddress problem statement and research questions.8. Purpose statement – Provides one sentence statement of purpose including the problemstatement, methodology, design, population sample, and location.9. Data collection – Describes primary instruments and sources of data to answer researchquestions.10. Data analysis – Describes the specific data analysis approaches to be used to address researchquestions.The Process for Defining the Ten Strategic PointsThe order of the ten strategic points listed above reflects the order in which the learner does the work.The first five strategic points focus primarily on defining the focus for the research based on a clearlydefined need or gap from the literature as well as the learner’s passion, purpose and specialty area focus.First, a learner identifies a broad topic area to research for their dissertation based on a clearly definedneed or gap from the literature -- that they are interested in because based on their personal passion,future career purpose, and degree. Second, the learner completes a review of the literature to define theneed or gap they will address, the theories and models that will provide a foundation for their research,related topics to demonstrate their expertise in their field, and the key strategic points behind their2 proposed research. Third, the learner develops a clear, simple, one sentence problem statement thatdefines the problem, or gap, their research will address. Fourth, the learner identifies some potentialtarget populations they would have access to in order to collect the data for the study, considering thefact the quantitative study sample sizes need to be much larger than those for qualitative studies. Fifth,the learner develops a set of research questions, which define the data needed to address the problemstatement. Based on the above five strategic points, the learner next defines the key aspects of the researchmethodology in the following five strategic points. Sixth, the learner either describes the phenomena tobe studied (if it is a qualitative study), or develops a set of hypotheses (matching the research questions)that defines the variables that will be the focus for the research (if it is a quantitative study). Seventh, thelearner determines if the study will be qualitative, quantitative or mixed research based on (a) the bestapproach for the research, (b) the size of the sample they can get permission to access, (c) availability ofdata collection tools and sources, and (d) time and resources to conduct the study. In addition, thelearner selects the best design approach considering these same four factors. Eight, the learner developsa purpose statement by integrating the problem statement, methodology, design, sample, and location.Ninth, the learner identifies the data they will need to collect to address the research questions orhypotheses and how they will collect the data (e.g., interviews, focus groups, observations, tested andvalidated instruments or surveys, data bases, public media, etc.) Tenth, the learner identifies theappropriate data analysis steps, based on their design, to be used to answer their research questions andaddress their problem statement. Criteria for Evaluating the Ten Strategic Points: Clear, Simple, Correct and Aligned3 "