Follow APA style for formatting and citations; expecting a title page, Times New Roman, 1” margins, double spacing. Need proper APA Style in-text and reference list citations. Expectations: 3-4 pages of literature review; 3-4 pages of proposal; Total: 6-8 pages; with at least 5 academic PEER-Reviewed sources discussed/cited in the text.
What is a research proposal?
The goal of a research proposal is to present and justify the need to study a research problem and to present the practical ways in which this research should be conducted. The design elements and procedures for conducting the research are governed by standards within the predominant discipline in which the problem resides, so guidelines for research proposals are more exacting and less formal than a general project proposal. Research proposals contain extensive literature reviews. They must provide persuasive evidence that a need exists for the proposed study. In addition to providing a rationale, a proposal describes detailed methodology for conducting the research consistent with requirements of the professional or academic field and a statement on anticipated outcomes and/or benefits derived from the study’s completion.
Organization (read this part carefully): Three parts: 1) Introduction/Background/Significance; 2) Literature Review; 3) Research/democracy proposal / methods
PART ONE: Introduction/Background/Significance (brief; ~1 paragraph)
Present the rationale of your proposed study/intervention and clearly and succinctly indicate why it is worth doing. Answer the “So What? question [i.e., why should anyone care].
PART TWO: Literature review (3-4 pages)
TL;DR: The purpose here is to place your project within the larger whole of what is currently being explored, while demonstrating to your readers that your work is original and innovative. Think about what questions other researchers have asked, what methods they have used, and what is your understanding of their findings. Assess what you believe is still missing, and state how previous research has failed to examine the issue that your study addresses.
What is a literature review?
A literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information. It might give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations. Trace existing work – you’re setting up how your proposed study or intervention is grounded in and builds upon prior work.
End with one-two paragraphs summarizing the conclusions across the studies and the limitations of the existing research literature (this should feed right in to your research proposal: how are YOU going to fill the gap?)
PART THREE: Your novel research design and methods section (3-4 pages) – choose Option A or B below
Option A: Research Proposal:
• Start off by briefly describing a proposed research design by building upon and drawing examples from your review of the literature. Be specific about the methodological approach(es) you plan to undertake to gather information, about the techniques you would use to analyze it, and about the tests of external validity to which you commit yourself [i.e., the trustworthiness by which you can generalize from your study to other people, places, or times]. Be as specific as you can. If you like a measure from one of the studies you reviewed in section #2 (Literature Review), feel free to properly cite it and include it. Justify your choices based on what we’ve discussed in class (e.g., the strengths of various methods, such as surveys, experiments). Address:• Write a detailed research design, including:o Methods (e.g., focus groups, interviews, surveys, experiments; justify why this method is appropriate for your research)o What happens in the study (from the moment it begins to the moment it ends)o Is your study ethical (one or two sentences)? Does it follow the Basic Ethical Principles outlined in the Belmont Report (as discussed in class)?• Describe the:o Population (who is your sample? Why them? How are you recruiting/reaching them? [e.g., random sample? Snowball sample?])o Measures (what are you measuring? What is your independent variable? If it is an experiment, what will be serving as your experimental stimuli? What is your dependent variable/outcome of interest? How are you measuring it?)• Address limitations: In at least a paragraph, conclude by addressing the limitations of your study. No study is perfect.
An excellent research proposal will address all of these criteria in detail, demonstrating understanding of these elements, the research topic at hand, all while using clear language free of typos or errors.