Dale L. Brubaker

This book provides step-by-step, concrete advice for aspiring school administrators as they strive to achieve principal certification. Each chapter's snapshots illustrate key challenges that face principal candidates. The last third of the book includes exercises that help candidates and mentors, as well as colleagues, move through the program. Written in an easy-to-read manner, the book invites continued conversation.

"This text moves beyond simplistic 'procedures to follow' to in-depth discussions of stages in the research process, providing strong reference points and examples for students embarking on the disciplined inquiry of thesis and dissertation research. A valuable text for proposal writing classes, faculty members who direct dissertations and theses, and students throughout the research process."—Betty J. Alford, Chair of Secondary Education and Educational LeadershipStephen F. Austin State University"Graduate students will be in debt to professors Thomas and Brubaker for providing a long-overdue guide to the rite of passage known as theses and dissertations. This book is realistic, clear, and refreshingly sensitive to what students need to know."—Seymour B. Sarason, Professor of Psychology EmeritusYale UniversityTake the anxiety out of preparing your thesis or dissertation!This revised classic helps graduate students approach the thesis or dissertation writing process with confidence, offering updated references and new information on Internet searches, narrative summaries, plagiarism, and Internet publishing options. The authors help readers stay on track by providing checklists and multiple examples as they progress through five critical stages:PreparationSelecting research topics Collecting and organizing information Interpreting the resultsThe final presentationWith thorough guidelines for evaluating research options, this indispensable resource helps make the writing process a satisfying and rewarding one!

Being aware of thesis and dissertation pitfalls can help the graduate student make efficient use of resources available to him or her and bring precision to research and writing of that important project. The authors present 61 cases cast as an envisioned conversation between a student and a professor whom the student consults about a problem.The cases are presented within ten chapters that proceed through a sequence of typical stages in the production of a thesis or dissertation. Chapter titles include Choosing and Defining a Research Topic, Searching the Professional Literature, Developing a Proposal, Getting Help, Devising Data-Collection Procedures, Organizing the Collected Information, Interpreting the Results, Writing the Report, Defending the Finished Product, and Publishing the Study.

This book guides students through the process of planning, researching, and writing the final version of theses and dissertations. Five major stages of the process are illustrated with multiple examples from the social and behavioral sciences, humanities, and such allied fields as education, social work, and business administration. The first stage, Preparing the Way, describes problems and alternative solutions in working with faculty advisors and in searching the professional literature. Stage 2 explains how to find good research topics and define them clearly for presentation to faculty advisors. Stage 3 describes problems often encountered in data collection and suggests solutions for those problems. At Stage 4, students learn ways of organizing and interpreting information, including classification schemes, verbal and statistical summaries, and methods of deriving meaning from data. The final stage, Presenting the Finished Product, offers guidelines for thesis and dissertation writing and for publishing the results in such media as books, journal articles, and popular periodicals. Stage 5 also includes a chapter about how students can mount a convincing defense of their work during a faculty committee's final oral examination session.

This book guides students through the process of planning, researching, and writing the final version of theses and dissertations. Five major stages of the process are illustrated with multiple examples from the social and behavioral sciences, humanities, and such allied fields as education, social work, and business administration. The first stage, Preparing the Way, describes problems and alternative solutions in working with faculty advisors and in searching the professional literature. Stage 2 explains how to find good research topics and define them clearly for presentation to faculty advisors.Stage 3 describes problems often encountered in data collection and suggests solutions for those problems. At Stage 4, students learn ways of organizing and interpreting information, including classification schemes, verbal and statistical summaries, and methods of deriving meaning from data. The final stage, Presenting the Finished Product, offers guidelines for thesis and dissertation writing and for publishing the results in such media as books, journal articles, and popular periodicals. Stage 5 also includes a chapter about how students can mount a convincing defense of their work during a faculty committee's final oral examination session.