Chapter 5

Graduate Degree Proposals

Graduate students are usually expected to write and defend a formal proposal of their
thesis or dissertation project. While some students consider the proposal just another
“hoop” in the graduate school process to jump through, this step is essential as they
modify their research projects and define a clear path to graduation. Specifically, the
proposal step should serve to:
• Conceptualize a researchable spatial science problem,
• Design a researchable study, and
• Produce a defendable thesis or dissertation about the problem investigated.
This chapter describes how a thesis/dissertation committee should be formed,
how a topic is often chosen, and describes the structure and purposes of thesis and
dissertation proposals. While some of the specific topics discussed in this chapter are
addressed elsewhere in the book, the intent of this chapter is to provide a “one-stop”
opportunity to review the core elements of the graduate proposal.

5.1 Graduate Committee

Before writing and defending their proposals, students must first select a graduate
committee and research topic. Graduate committees consist of an advisor and two
or more committee members. Students should carefully select their advisor and
graduate committee members. In fact, this is one of the most important choices
that students will make during their graduate careers. Usually, students arrive on a
campus with an idea of who their advisor will be. The advisor should be someone
who will continuously challenge the graduate student and provide valuable advice
and support throughout the graduate school process. Indeed, the advisor is (or should
be) the student’s primary advocate.
The student should also choose committee members—with input from the advisor.
Committee members should complement the selected topic by providing expertise

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 53

J. D. Gatrell et al., Research Design and Proposal Writing in Spatial Science,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60019-8_5
54 5 Graduate Degree Proposals

on various thesis/dissertation components. Unfortunately, students sometimes avoid

potential committee members based on a perception of the faculty member being
“too tough.” Using this kind of rationale when choosing committee members is
short-sighted and will not result in the best thesis/dissertation.

5.2 Topic Selection

Thesis and dissertation research topics should be carefully selected. As the student
will be expected to spend an incredible amount of time completing the project,
it is important that the topic interests the student. Further, it is important that the
student’s advisor is as interested in the topic as is the student. If the topic is not
interesting to the advisor, the advisor may not be as anxious to help the student with
the project. Students should consult with their advisor and committee members about
any potential topics to ensure that everyone on the committee is supportive.

5.2.1 Proposals are Contracts

As noted in Chap. 3, a graduate student thesis/dissertation proposal can be considered

a contract. The contract states that if the student completes the research as described
in the proposal, they will complete this portion of their degree. Therefore, it should
not matter what a student’s results turn out to be (e.g., statistical significance was
not found or that a statistical relationship was weaker than expected), as long as the
student completes the research work as described in the proposal. If students need to
deviate from the work plan described in the proposal, they should keep their advisor
and committee members apprised. This way there are no surprises when students
defend their final research product.

5.3 Graduate Proposal Structure

One of the first questions that graduate students ask about proposals is “How long
does it need to be?” Unfortunately, there is no specific size requirement that all
graduate degree proposals must meet. Rather, proposals must be comprehensive
enough to address all aspects of the research project and demonstrate to the graduate
committee that the student is capable of completing the proposed project. Students
need to realize that virtually all text written for the proposal will be placed in the
final thesis or dissertation, so time spent in proposal preparation is time-well spent.
Proposals should be structured in much the same way as described in Chap. 6.
However, there are several key differences in some sections. These differences are
described below.
5.3 Graduate Proposal Structure 55

5.3.1 Literature Review

Literature reviews should be done similarly to what has been described in previous
chapters. However, the literature review is usually even more detailed in a graduate
degree proposal. The literature review describes the reasoning on which the entire
project rests, and all relevant literature must be referenced in the literature review.
The review should be comprehensive, and in some cases, exhaustive on the research
topic.
All theses and dissertations should contribute new knowledge to the discipline,
and the literature review should describe the literature on the research topic from its
beginning until the present—paying special attention to any voids or holes that the
proposed research will fill. This demonstrates two things to graduate committees: (1)
that the graduate student has a firm grasp of the literature, and (2) that the proposed
project will contribute new knowledge to the discipline. For more information on
literature reviews, please refer to Chap. 2.

5.3.2 Methods

When writing a proposal for funding, investigators usually have a research record that
the funding agency will use to gauge the probability of the work being completed as
described. This record may allow the researcher to be less specific in some proposal
sections, or to defer to their previously published work. Further, proposals for funding
usually must conform to specific page or word limits that don’t allow for lengthy
or extremely detailed methods explanations. Conversely, graduate students usually
have not yet established substantive research records and should be very detailed in
the methods section. Graduate students need to describe virtually every detail of the
proposed project so that the committee understands exactly how the research will be
completed. A detailed, clearly written methods section is a reflection of the coherence
of the study’s questions and a roadmap for the analysis. To review methods and data
issues in greater detail, please refer to Chap. 4.

5.3.3 Expected Results and Conclusions

Students should revisit the concepts described in the literature review and fully
describe how the proposed research will contribute new knowledge to their area of
study. Specifically, this section should tell what contributions the project will make
to the field of study that merits awarding the respective degree (e.g., MA or Ph.D.).
While students should not employ hyperbole here, they should be optimistic and
not undersell the potential impact of their study.
56 5 Graduate Degree Proposals

5.3.4 Preliminary Studies

In some cases, graduate committees may request evidence that the student is capable
of performing the proposed research. To this end, students sometimes work on their
proposed research before defending it to their committee. Even during this phase, it
is suggested that the student’s advisor and committee members are kept up-to-date
with what is happening. When students complete preliminary research on their topic,
it is often useful to include a “Preliminary Studies” or “Preliminary Results” section
in the proposal. This section should detail results from the preliminary study and
include difficulties and successes achieved in this part of the project.

5.4 Proposal Defense

Many institutions require formal MA and Ph.D. proposal defenses where students
must defend their proposed research to their committee members and the general
public. These forums provide students with the opportunity to “fine-tune” their
research project and should be regarded as an intellectual discussion with their peers
rather than an exam.
During a defense, it is not uncommon for committee members to probe and
discover exactly how much a graduate candidate knows about topics relevant to
the proposed research. Sometimes this requires extensive questioning along topical
lines. This is done to ascertain if the student knows enough about the proposed
research to be successful. Committee members may also suggest different research
avenues and/or techniques. It is important that students are open to suggestions and
maintain a good attitude while committee members conduct the defense. Students
should answer all questions as honestly as they can and even respond “I don’t know”
if they don’t know the answer to a particular question. If students become flustered
with a line of questioning it is okay to ask the committee to be excused for a minute
or two and go get a drink of water.

5.4.1 Presentation

Proposal defenses usually consist of a short (<30 min) presentation given by the
student that describes the proposed project. Some students think that a long presenta-
tion will result in fewer questions from their committee members. However, students
should remember that their committee members have already read their proposals
and are very knowledgeable about the proposed project. So, when students give
lengthy presentations, committee members may actually become agitated and more
obliged to ask difficult questions. In short, students should regard the proposal defense
presentation as a professional presentation and treat it as such.
5.4 Proposal Defense 57

5.4.2 Rethinking Thesis and Dissertations: Innovations

and Challenges

As it may be clear by now writing a proposal in a graduate program is part of the

first phase of planning graduate research work. However, it does not mean that the
emerging researcher should not think about the execution and reporting stages. Very
often graduate students are advised by their advisors to conduct a preliminary or
exploratory research in order to understand critical issues emerging from research
questions, data, data analysis and therefore consider refining and improving the
details of the proposal. While much of the graduate research proposal follows a linear
process not just in spatial science and related disciplines but also in the humanities.
In the last decade, the graduate proposal writing process has been increasingly influ-
enced by the innovative potentials of the digital era that we now live in. The global
knowledge economy along with its attendant rationale for transformative research,
inclusiveness and entrepreneurship is increasingly pushing not just the spatial science
graduate student but also institutions of higher learning and other stakeholders in
funding and publishing to consider ‘openness’ and its associated virtues as the new
lens for conducting graduate research (Boyle et al. 2015; Covey 2013; NAS 2019).
To that end, openness has come to include many things including and not limited to
the acceptance that knowledge truly is a social construction and hence collaboration
must be further embraced and acknowledged in graduate research work i.e. from
literature review, to data and analysis, eventually sharing the research process and
findings with meta-information without restrictions.
Many universities and spatial science programs in the US, Europe and elsewhere
(as discussed in Chap. 1) have already begun to recognize the changing cultures,
practice and use of emerging internet technologies and open source technology.
However, the unique issue at hand for emerging spatial scientists as they begin to
frame their research is how do they converge these trends to continue to contribute to
the communities and the nation’s economy and quality of life even as they understand
and consider enormous gains from efficiency, productivity, revenue and profitability.
In the current context, for our emerging spatial scientists the business of grad-
uate proposal writing becomes even more challenging as they navigate through new
metrics (emerging from a shift away from descriptive to predictive analytics), new
and emerging ideas, discoveries or tools of communicating technologies and virtual
learning environments that are radically changing our perspectives of how we create
new knowledge in the spatial sciences i.e. between asking spatial questions, acquiring
resources, visualizing geodata, answering spatial questions and sharing the results
with the community (NAS 2019).
58 5 Graduate Degree Proposals

5.5 Conclusion

After successfully defending the proposal, there are usually multiple forms that need
to be signed by the committee. It is very important for students to have these forms
ready for faculty signatures immediately after the defense. After each faculty member
signs the forms, students should make multiple copies of the forms and keep them
in multiple locations.
This chapter has described some basic principles to guide graduate students
through the proposal process. The ability to develop, write, and defend a high-quality
proposal during graduate school is a skill that researchers will use throughout their
careers. As students prepare their proposal, it is important to recognize that the tradi-
tional format and structure of culminating research continues to evolve and leverage
online and broader digital resources (see https://www.grad.uiowa.edu/news/2018-
08-13/new-ways-of-crafting-a-thesis).
All academic institutions have different graduate degree requirements, and
students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with these requirements. Also,
students should pay close attention to the advice of his/her advisor and committee
members as their recommendations and advice supersede anything that is written
here!

References

Boyle M, Foote KE, Gilmartin M (2015) Rethinking the PhD in geography: overview and
introduction. GeoJournal 80(2):159–168
Covey DT (2013) Opening the dissertation: overcoming cultural calcification and agoraphobia.
tripleC 11(2):543–57
Graduate College (2020) The University of Iowa. New ways of crafting a thesis. https://www.grad.
uiowa.edu/news/2018-08-13/new-ways-of-crafting-a-thesis. Accessed 16 April 20
NAS (2019) Fostering transformative research in the geographical sciences. The National
Academies Press, Washington DC