Mark's General Comments on Proposals

I am in the middle of reviewing your proposals. Some of you will receive your proposals back today. Others will be returned to you over the next week. Please examine my comments make the necessary revisions and return them to me as soon as possible.

Below you will find some general comments based on issues that I have seen in a number of different proposals. Please review them and pay attention to those comments that are relevant to your proposal. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me,

Mark
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Designing Questions

• Most of you have made a good start but many of you will need to do some research on what makes a good question (e.g., dealing with desirability bias). Each question (or sometimes a set of related questions) needs a little argument explaining what is trying to accomplish and why you have a reasonable expectation that it will accomplish that purpose. If it all possible use questions that have already been tested and used (don’t forget to get permission).

Writing paragraphs

• Please see my blog post on this subject http://keepingtrackoftheworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/writing-paragraphs/

Ethical Review

• Play close attention to respect for persons, concern for welfare and justice. Pay specific attention to the requirements of informed consent (TCPS2, 30). Don’t say you will “try” to be ethical. Say you will be ethical and explain what specific actions you will take to do this. You must base this section on the Tri-Council Policy Statement.

Theological Rationale

• A theological rationale needs to be more than just a list of bible verses on the topic you are covering. You need to develop a biblical argument for why your particular project makes sense. Take another look at Dr. Boers lecture for guidance.

Formatting and Style

• You must consult Turabian for every assignment to assure that you conform to its requirements. It will feel like a pain now but it will save you much grief when you write your thesis in the future. Pay close attention to comments about grammar, punctuation, etc. Concerns will be noted in some places but apply to your entire document.

Making claims

• In an academic paper you cannot make claims based on your own authority. Nor can you just say that you are assuming something and leave it at that. Each claim you make has to be supported with a citation or a logical argument which defends the claim.

Other Comments

• Pay close attention to the requirements of assignments. While I have been lenient about length your other professors will not be. We have also counselled your advisors to return assignment that are too long. Brevity of writing is an exercise in clarity of thinking. Furthermore, outside of Tyndale, most of you will be writing for popular rather academic audiences which have very short attention spans for reading.
• Please do not hesitate to contact me with questions regarding my comments. At the doctoral level professor comments on papers are an invitation to conversation. They are intended to be read, attended to and dialogued about.