need help for my disseration

need help for my disseration (Full Version)

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ratha78 -> need help for my disseration (September 20, 2001 10:49:00 PM)
I'm a Physiotherapist from India.Now i'm doing my master degree in Physiotherpy. i need help for my disseration work. My Topic is "combine effects of cold application and passive stretching in diplegic cerebral palsy".i need literture review and notes for my topic. thanks radha

Hirsch -> Re: need help for my disseration (September 21, 2001 1:55:00 AM)
Hello Ratha78, do you have PubMed? Its a search engine which will give you all the research articles you need for your review of literature for your dissertation. The www addres for pub med is: [URL=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/]http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/[/URL] Good luck with your dissertation.

Andrew M. Ball, MS, PT -> Re: need help for my disseration (September 21, 2001 10:57:00 AM)
Ratha, First of all, you should be commended for tackling a dissertation in the first place. They are extremely difficult to complete, and very few people in the profession can appreciate what you're going through. You've got a very tough road ahead of you. I'm willing to offer some suggestions and help you out along the way, but you're likely going to end up (at least at first) as frustrated with me as I was with my committee members and advisors. Though I hated the process, I now have to admit that they were right. All of them. And I'm now going to give you the same advice that they gave me: It doesn't sound like you're quite ready to begin a dissertation level literature search. But you're close. You've made a very common error that many MS students make during the thesis proposal stage many PhD students make during the dissertation proposal stage. I did the same thing when proposing for my MBA thesis. Welcome to the club. Though you have an idea of what you want to research, you don't really have a topic yet, at least not one that's in the form of a question. Furthermore, your "topic" is so broad that you're never ever going to finish your research. (You'll see that converting your topic into the form of a question will help you focus your research . . . Well maybe not quite yet, but play along for a few more paragraphs). With such an unrefined topic, you're going to end up doing a lot of busy work that doesn't end up translating into your dissertation. SAVE YOURSELF!!!! Approach your dissertation as a project, and heed the warning of the Project Management Institute . . . "Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance." In other words, I think you may have jumped the gun a little bit, and you may be setting yourself up for failure. Slow down a little bit and refine your topic first, you'll save yourself a LOT of hassle later on down the road. Your first step should be to sure up your research question. "Combine effects of cold application and passive stretching in diplegic cerebral palsy," should be reworded in the form of a question, because you've not yet done so, you're missing a significant problem of focus with your proposed research. I don't think you realize that quite yet (I certainly didn't when I was at your stage), so please allow for me to explain . . . You need to transform your statement "Combine effects of cold application and passive stretching in diplegic cerebral palsy," into some kind of question. Once you've done that, you'll understand what I'm referring to . . . You'll find that the question "What are the effects of combining cold application and passive stretching in diplegic cerbral palsy?" is WAY too broad to ever complete as a dissertation. Your dissertation should JUSTIFY your life's work, it shouldn't BE your life's work. Keep it simple, keep it refined, keep it focused. With that in mind, you'll want to refine your question further, here are a few suggestions: What are the effects of combining cold application and passive stretching upon resting EMG activity in a child with diplegic cerbral palsy? What are the effects of combining cold application and passive stretching upon ambulatory endurance in a child with diplegic cerbral palsy? You should also consider refining what you mean by "cold application" (Ice massage? Spray and Stretch? Cold Pack?) and "passive stretching" (For how long? 30sec, 60 sec. On what muscle groups?) What are the effects of 60 seconds of ice massage FOLLOWED BY 30 seconds of passive stretching upon hamstring flexibility in a child with spastic diplegic CP? What are the effects of 60 seconds of ice massage FOLLOWED BY 30 seconds of passive stretching upon ambulatory endurance in a child with spastic diplegic CP? What are the effects of 60 seconds of ice massage FOLLOWED BY 30 seconds of passive stretching upon achievement of heel strike in a child with spastic diplegic CP? What are the effects of 60 seconds of ice massage FOLLOWED BY 30 seconds of passive hamstring stretching upon achievement of knee extension in terminal swing in a child with spastic diplegic CP? Depending upon the focus of your hypothesis, your MEDLINE or PUBMED searching (try [URL=http://www.medportal.com)]www.medportal.com)[/URL] will take off in a different direction (For example, you won't need to literature review issues of EMG activity in spastic muscles if your outcome measures are going to 12 minute step tests). When you've refined your topic, please return to the forum and we'll conduct the literature search together for the benefit of RehabEdge members . . . this could be a great learning experience for everyone! Drew

Hirsch -> Re: need help for my disseration (September 24, 2001 3:54:00 AM)
Good comments Drew.

pedpt -> Re: need help for my disseration (October 1, 2001 4:00:00 AM)
Looks to me like Radha might be seeking to do a review of the literature rather than to perform her own research...maybe you should ask her before going off on a tangent???

Andrew M. Ball MS MBA PT -> Re: need help for my disseration (October 1, 2001 6:54:00 AM)
Pedpt, While I appreciate your comment, I'm not sure that you fully understand Ratha's question. Frankly I take issue with your tone that seems to assume that I'm crossing the line of being helpful, and that I'm rather being condescending and looking down on another therapist. Nothing could be further from the truth, I applaud her for taking on the task. Having conducted two thesis, and in progress to complete a PhD dissertation, I'm trying to open Ratha up to consider the errors that I made during that period of my life . . . so that she doesn't have to live through them. The path it looks like she's placed herself upon is treacherous and difficult, and if I can direct her to the paved bike trail so to speak, I'd like to do that. I didn't make any assumptions at all, but rather answered her question on the basis of the information given. Per her original posting, she's writing a dissertation, or at least a thesis. As a such, she doesn't have a choice about conducting research. Without research, it's not a thesis, and certainly isn't a dissertation. As such, your premise that Ratha need not conduct research, is false. Given your posting however (and this is not an insult, just an observation), I question whether you've had the experience of actually writing a thesis, or if you simply completed a "research project." Ratha stated that she's in the process of completing a "dissertation." Based upon the fact that she's working toward a master's degree however, it's likely that she actually means "thesis," and this has been an error of translation. Nevertheless, the purpose of a thesis or dissertation is to produce new knowledge. This requires, by definition, that research be conducted. The literature review is secondary to the research question, not a precursor to it (which is why it's chapter 2 in the thesis, following chapter 1 - Introduction and Proposal). In other words, a literature search is not a thesis, it is part of it. If, as you seem so assume, Ratha didn't mean thesis, but rather meant research project, my advice isn't quite as important, but still holds. The topic is too broad to be useful to anyone. Drew

Hirsch -> Re: need help for my disseration (October 2, 2001 8:23:00 AM)
Drew, you having a bad day? Gosh, the internet can be so strenuous. Mark

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