Southern Methodist University

Dedman College

Graduate Program in Religious Studies

Guidelines for Preparing the Dissertation Proposal Requirement: To earn the Ph.D. degree, a student is required satisfactorily to complete an approved doctoral dissertation. To this end, the student must first secure the Steering Committee's approval of a dissertation proposal endorsed by the student's adviser (normally the member of the faculty who has served as the student's field_level adviser), by two additional members of the faculty, and by an external reader. Dissertation Proposal: The purpose of the doctoral dissertation is to contribute to the ongoing discussion of the problem with which it deals in the relevant field of specialization. Accordingly, the dissertation proposal must be formulated in such a way as to make the student's accomplishment of this purpose within the specified time limits seem a reasonable objective. Specifically, the dissertation proposal must include the following four components: (1) a statement of the specific question or problem to be investigated; (2) a statement of the reasons that make an investigation of this question or problem important and desirable both for the ongoing scholarly discussion in the relevant field and for the student individually; (3) a self-assessment by the student of her or his qualifications, including competences in foreign languages, to carry out the proposed investigations; and (4) either a bibliography of the primary and secondary literature basic to the proposed investigation or some other appropriate indication of the student's awareness of the bibliographic requirements of the investigation and of ways and means of meeting those requirements. Excluding the fourth component, the dissertation proposal should be five to ten typewritten pages (1500 to 3000 words) in length. Endorsements: Before submitting the dissertation proposal to the Steering Committee, the student must secure its endorsement by the student's adviser, by two additional members of the faculty, and by an external reader, who are likewise willing to work with the student in satisfying the two final requirements for the Ph.D. degree (i.e., the completion of the dissertation and the oral examination). In effect, then, the Steering Committee's approval of the dissertation proposal constitutes, at the same time, its appointment of these three members of the faculty to serve as the student's dissertation committee, together with the external reader, and as the primary examiners for the student's oral examination. Nota bene: The dissertation proposal is to be submitted no later than the end of the third year by students in fields other than Biblical Studies and no later than the beginning of the fourth year by students in Biblical Studies. 4/24/92; revised 10/6/97; 4/6/99

Policies, Procedures, and Requirements Table of Contents

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