Research Proposal – Guidelines
Due: Friday March 20 2020 at 12pm/Noon
- 2,000 words, excluding references
- 100% of final grade
Content:
- No one “correct” way to write a research proposal, but these are some guidelines you should consider. In general, be as specific as possible about your questions, hypotheses, definitions, case selections and strategies, measurement and variables, coding techniques, etc.
- Background/Literature Review
This will be an abbreviated version of your eventual literature review. You should try to show how your research question(s) is situated in the relevant literature in your field. The literature review introduced us to the broader landscape of research that gives rise to your research question(s). You don’t have enough room to scope out the entire landscape – instead begin with a wide-angle view and then move quickly to the controversies in the areas relevant to your research questions.[unique_solution]
- Research Question(s)
You may have just one research question, or two. These questions need to be clearly and explicitly stated. Make sure they are actually questions – rather than, say statements or assumptions!
- Data Collection Strategies
Briefly sketch out your case selection and/or sampling strategies, and the type of data/evidence you are going to collect.
- Data Analysis Strategies
What are the most appropriate forms of analysis given you topic, research question(s) and data sources? How does this analytic method help answer your question(s)? For example, are you coding qualitative analysis for themes or using logistic regression? Note: software is not a method.
- Anticipated Outcomes
Briefly discuss what you think you will find. Where will these findings have impact and how: academic literature? Policy? Practice? Public life?
- Limitations and Further Research
Briefly address the limitations of your design as currently conceived. For example, you may have limitations in your research design such as generalizability or causality. Or, reliability and validity are common limitations. Another limitation may be ethical issues that arise from your research design. There are different kinds of limitations.
- References
Include proper in-text citations and a reference list using a consistent standard reference
format. E.g. The Harvard Referencing system.