Dissertation Checklist and Sample Schedule

Start a dissertation journal Scan the literature - Identify your area of interest Devise a topic idea file Take courses related to potential topics Assess professors as potential advisors

These steps should be carried out while doing your coursework

CHECK LIST	Months of the project
1. Find/Form a support group or dissertation buddy
2. Interview potential advisor
3. Pick your advistor and your topic
4. Refine your topic with your advisor
5. Select other committee members
6. Write a prospectus
7. Get permission for the study
8. Compose a timetable for completion
9. Create a work schedule
10. Make a mockup of your dissertation
11. Outline your literature review
12. Set up a dissertation filing system
13. Review the literature
14. Select your instrumentation
15. Select your analytical method
16. Draft your proposal
17. Submit and polish the proposal
18. Present the polished proposal to the committee
19. Defend the proposal
20. Make corrections to proposal, submit to the dean
21. Revise and expand the literature review
22. Pilot test your methodology
23. Adjust and refine your methodology
24. Schedule data collection, begin collecting
25. Score the data
26. Enter the data into the computer
27. Analyze the data
28. Interpret the results
29. Write up results
30. Update your literature review
31. Revise the proposal into dissertation format
32. Write your conclusions and implications
33. Submit the dissertation draft to your advisor
34. Present the draft to your committee for comments
35. Schedule, prepare for and take your oral exam
36. Incorporate changes from orals into the dissertation
37. Have your typist give the manuscript a final polishing
38. Submit manuscript to dean, make necessary changes
39. Resubmit the dissertation for publication

This is a checklist of events that typically occur through the course of a dissertation, and a month-to-month schedule for their completion (Gantt chart). The schedule assumes a 175-page dissertation, requiring about 2,200 hours devoded to the dissertation, over 24 work months of 92 hours each. You may have more or less time available, so you should consider the intervals to represent actual hours worked (i.e., 1 month represents 90+ hours) and not elapsed time