Advisement Guidelines
In general, the goal of the prospectus is to present a defensible qualitative or quantitative research proposal that utilizes information covered in the student’s domain courses and program coursework.
During the two semesters of 396T registration, the prospectus adviser should assist the student with the basic tasks involved in preparing the prospectus. The prospectus adviser will guide the student by providing general information and criticism, including selecting a suitable topic, sampling the pertinent literature, and preparing appropriate annotations. When the initial work is complete, the prospectus adviser’s role will change to helping the student to analyze issues and problems, and to develop an appropriate research study derived from this knowledge base.
The help provided should not be particularly specific and detailed; the prospectus should be the student’s own product. The prospectus adviser should not evaluate the specifics of the student’s product but rather guide the student to attempt the full range of conceptualization and analyses called for in a prospectus. This is done, in part, through the following: serving as a resource; asking questions that allow the student to reason about the knowledge base that has been developed for the topic; confronting the student with possibilities for construction or application of a theory (how to test theory, and what the properties of such a study would be); and encouraging the student to appropriately state hypotheses and link these with statistical analyses.
Prospectus advisers make available to advisees at least one hour per week on average (for discussion, reviewing, reading, or other prospectus advising activities) for the two semesters the student registers for 396T.
Prospectus advisers should not send students to other faculty for advice related to the prospectus. Students needing assistance with research design and quantitative methods should read appropriate texts and seek consultation from ITS Research Consulting, located in the Perry-Castaneda Library, PCL 1.354. Students can make appointments at www.utexas.edu/cc/amicus, or they can call the ITS Help Desk at 475-9400. One hour of consulting per week is provided free of charge to UT students who need assistance with experimental design, survey design, model design, or data analysis.
Prospectus advisers agree to be available, in the final two weeks before the prospectus is due, to read and give final feedback if the student requests it (students who have made little or no effort to seek prospectus adviser consultation in the two semesters of 396T may not expect more time than one hour per week during the two weeks before the prospectus is due).
