Welcome to the third year of your doctoral program! The following milestones (i.e., the deliverables required to pass this course) for this course must be completed:

• Your instructor must approve your full versions of Chapters 2 and 3 (this means that all of the content elements specified in the CTU Dissertation Template and Dissertation Proposal or Manuscript Evaluation Rubric have been included in your drafts).
• You must produce a first draft of Chapter 1 for instructor review and feedback.

Please note that instructor approval in this course does not mean that your work is finished. Revisions and modifications will be required as you move forward to prepare for university review of your dissertation proposal, complete modifications required due to the university review, prepare your manuscript for review by your dissertation committee for final defense, and prepare your final version of the dissertation after the final defense has occurred.

• During the last term, you produced Chapter 2 (the Literature Review). This is a major accomplishment and widely regarded as the most difficult aspect of the development of a research proposal. As it is, you worked on your literature review for almost 2 years, which included your mastery of the literature and identification of a gap in the body of knowledge.
• During this term, you will develop complete drafts of Chapters 2 and 3 (Method) for instructor approval and a draft of Chapter 1 (Introduction) for instructor review and move on to the following tasks:
  • Continued refinement of Chapters 1, 2, and 3
  • Compilation of your draft research proposal (Chapters 1, 2, and 3 and References section)

Note that you are encouraged to move beyond the deliverables of this course, as you are able. Your instructor will support you, and if you (or your instructor) desire advice, the Doctoral Advisors and Lead Faculty are available. Advancing beyond this course’s milestone will give you additional time to prepare for university review, IRB approval, and data collection. Data collection is the signature period of time when progress on your research is most unpredictable due to the following:

• Vagaries of site permission (when needed)
• Participant recruitment
• Scheduling time with participants
• Getting enough surveys returned
• Transcribing interview recordings

It is in your best interest to carve out as much time as possible for these tasks.

An important consideration for you as you strategize your approach to this and the following courses is to understand that once you have completed this course and then RES864, you will be moving from the 10-week courses to a very different rhythm—the remaining sequence of RES courses (RES865–RES868) are only 5 weeks each in length.

Primary Response: Based on the information presented above, address the following items in this Discussion Board:

• Share the extent to which you feel you have mastered the literature related to your proposed research topic and subtopics.
• What revisions have you made to your literature review since the end of RES862?
• What evidence can you present that supports your assertion that you have mastered the literature?
• What, if any, issues do you currently anticipate that might get in the way of your progress this term and this year? What are your plans for mitigating these issues?

When you are considering next steps and are positioned to move more quickly to work ahead in the dissertation process, there are two points of reference in the Doctoral Resource Center: Dissertation Research & Resources area to use for guidance, as follows:

• Dissertation Process Flowchart
• Doctoral Studies Dissertation Pathway Milestones