Graduate students often struggle with turning qualitative research projects into a master's thesis or doctoral dissertation because the research itself is inherently messy. This book helps address that challenge. Linda Dale Bloomberg and Marie Volpe have distilled decades of experience of dissertation advisement and successful doctoral defences into this highly practical reference for graduate students. They focus on finding and articulating a clear research problem, purpose, and questions; laying out a research design that will lead to gathering the right kind of data and support the right kind of analysis; and writing up and defending the study. To help, they provide working tools, an integrative summary discussion at the end of each chapter, comprehensive checklists, and an annotated bibliography in each chapter.