Graduate students suffer from many pressures when writing a
dissertation. Deadlines loom, jobs are highly competitive,
publishing is always a bonus, and these are often combined with
outside research, teaching fellowships, or other occupations. In
order to finish a quality dissertation without too much wasted time
or effort it is useful for students to begin early and to think hard
about their projects in a variety of ways. Students may have a broad
conceptual interest or field interest without a focused and
tractable project. In addition to the normal practice of discussing
potential projects with advisors and mentors, there are several ways
to evaluate potential projects that may be overlooked. This essay
helps bring a good dissertation project to the front of several
potential ideas a student might have by describing several
characteristics for comparison across topics. In addition, this
essay provides a rubric by which students can develop and discuss a
project with faculty and colleagues. Without a doubt, one of the
most important aspects of preparing a dissertation project is to
discuss that project with faculty mentors and potential committee
members (Banesh 2001). Between these
discussions, or before the first discussion of potential projects,
students can spend considerable time thinking about various ideas
for their thesis or dissertation. Students approaching their project
systematically may have many projects they are considering and wish
to narrow down those projects to a manageable few before discussing
them with advisors. As a first time dissertation writer, however,
most graduate students are unaware of criteria that can be used to
evaluate and compare their ideas objectively so they can compare
several project ideas and narrow down the field. The criteria
described here combine and extend other criteria previously
developed, such as developing questions that are important in the
real world and those that contribute to scholarly literature (King,
Keohane, and Verba 1994). The criteria
described below were developed specifically for dissertation
projects, but are also very useful for students writing theses for
other purposes such as undergraduate senior projects. The guide
provided here should enable students to compare several potential
ideas objectively to begin to find a viable project. Although the
initial development of a thesis project based on a student's
theoretical or empirical interests is mostly idiosyncratic and
personal (See King, Keohane, and Verba 1994; Van Evera 1997), once a
student's interests emerge there are some common ways to objectively
evaluate several dissertation projects. This essay helps students
develop several ways to think about their dissertation projects and
create a rubric so that several projects can be evaluated on
comparable terms.Thanks to the two
anonymous reviewers and Ronald B Mitchell who made instrumental
suggestions on improving the text.