Research Proposal

For your final paper, you will write a research proposal based on the assignments you have completed throughout the semester. Your submission must be typed in a Word document (saved as .doc or .docx), formatted with 1” margins, 12-point font, and double line spacing. The research proposal must be well-written (complete sentences in paragraph form and free of grammatical and spelling errors).

Make sure to include your name and a title at the top of the first page. Use Chapter 14 to think about the process of writing this proposal, keeping in mind that rewriting/revising are among the most important steps in the research process. Your proposal should consist of the following sections, clearly labeled:

1. Introduction (2-3 paragraphs) – Briefly set up the goals of your research. This is where you will discuss your research question and provide a rationale for what you have chosen to study. You will also include a short description of how you are proposing to collect data (i.e. “To explore these ideas, I am proposing a mixed-methods research project involving surveys, field work, and in-depth interviews…”).
2. Literature Review (Minimum of 1 full page, but you will likely write more because this is one of the largest sections) – Provide the context for what you are studying. This is where you will discuss previous research that is relevant to your project in a logical manner. You will explain what others have found in conducting their research and how that leads you to need to investigate the question in which you are interested. Consider how each article you have reviewed relates to the others so that you are writing something that is clear and flows (you must not summarize each article individually in its own paragraph). Remember from your literature review draft that you only need to use academic sources and that you must use in-text citations for all articles from which you draw information, following ASA format.
3. Data and Methods (This will also be one of the largest sections) – Explain how you plan to collect and analyze data. This section will begin with a short paragraph where you restate your research question and explain how the methods you are using will enable you to address it (try to think of this as transitioning you from the lit review to specific methodological approaches). You must clearly explain/define the key ideas you are interested in – don’t simply paste your research question in, but describe what you mean by asking it. Then, you will incorporate revisions of your project drafts (the survey form and interview guide will be included as appendices; however, you should reference these documents in the corresponding section). Detail the methods you have developed to investigate your research question and also include a couple sentences on how you could analyze each set of data. I encourage you to divide this information up into labeled subsections as needed. Below are some questions that will help you to determine what to include for your descriptions.

Survey:
• What sampling procedure are you using?
• How will you locate participants?
• How many participants do you ideally want to survey?
• How will you administer the survey?
• What are your independent and dependent variables, and how they measured?
• How are you ensuring reliability and validity?
• What techniques are you going to use to analyze your data (this does not have to be overly specific; use Chapter 12 to think about how you might go about it – i.e. “I will examine the bivariate relationship between x and y using a scattergram” or “I am going to use multiple regression to see if x and y are significantly related to z.”)?
• How will your data or results be limited, and how will you try to overcome any concerns or issues?
Interview:
• How will you determine who to interview?
• How many participants do you ideally want to interview, and how will you sample?
• What key ideas do you want to explore in interviews?
• How are you ensuring reliability and validity?
• What techniques are you going to use to analyze your data (this does not have to be overly specific; use Chapter 13 to think about how you might go about it – i.e. “I will follow the steps of open, axial, and selective coding in the coding process to… Then I will write analytic memos that allow me to…”)?
• How will your data or results be limited, and how will you try to overcome any concerns or issues?
Field Work
• What social setting will you be observing, at what times/on what days, for how long, and what situations will be occurring there?
• What key activities do you hope to record in your field notes?
• Is your role covert or overt; are you a full participant or observer (or in-between)?
• How are you ensuring reliability and validity?
• How will you record your field notes?
• What techniques are you going to use to analyze your data (see notes above)?
• How will your data or results be limited, and how will you try to overcome any concerns or issues?

4. Conclusion (2-3 paragraphs) – Discuss what you hope to accomplish overall with your research. This is where you will address what your “preliminary research” has shown you (i.e. what you learned from your quantitative and qualitative projects). You can state that based on pilot research you noticed a certain type of pattern that encourages you to especially pursue… or that you detected an issue with one of you methods of data collection and now you will need to revise… You will also discuss potential limitations of your research, and how the data projects have allowed you to try to overcome any of these (again, through revision that has been incorporated into your data and methods section). Reflect on what value your research could potentially hold and why it is important (this is answering the “so what?” question – why should anyone care?).
5. References – List the sources cited in your proposal, using ASA format. Your reference list must be organized alphabetically, by first author’s last name, with hanging indents.
6. Appendices – Include your survey/questionnaire and interview guide. These documents should be labeled (i.e. Appendix A), and labels must correspond to how they are referenced in the data and methods section. They must be the revised versions.

Remember to carefully proofread your paper and to put all information into your own words. Plagiarism, including resubmitting a paper previously submitted for another course, is not allowed. Your paper will be checked by plagiarism detection software, and, if found to be in violation, you will receive a grade of zero for this assignment.