Prerequisites: 60 credit hours.   The overall goal of the Qualifying Papers is for students to conduct an in-depth, critical analysis of the existing literature relevant to a specific topic (QP A) and, based upon one researchable question from this literature review, to develop a conceptual framework or theory (QP B). The QP process certifies the student’s ability to engage in independent scholarship, and often the response becomes a basis for the dissertation. Whereas the goal of a dissertation literature review is to rationalize a particular empirical approach to a question, the QP involves a comprehensive and critical analysis of relevant literature. In the QP, writers must create thoughtful portraits of the existing literature on their topics. This consolidation process involves the identification of key crosscutting themes, evaluation of the knowledge claims made by others, assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the extant literature, and articulation of the various questions that follow logically from one’s interpretations of the readings.