Introduction (1/2 page)
– Your introduction should introduce your reader to the topic of study without going into
any substantial detail (e.g., referencing should be minimal in an introduction).
o Make sure to clearly explain the research problem and your research objectives
– Your introduction should present your research question which must include an
independent and dependent variable. Remember to apply any feedback that you have
received about your research question.
– Your introduction should outline the key areas of literature you are drawing on to
produce your research proposal.
o This should include a brief discussion of relevant theory and your proposed
project’s practical significance
– Your introduction should outline the structure of the rest of your proposal to help keep
the reader’s understanding of your work focused.
Theoretical Framework and Literature Review (2-3 pages – excluding the causal diagram)
– Your literature review will summarize existing information relevant to your research
question.
o Remember you must cite 5-10 sources, including your source document and two
sources referenced by the source document.
– You want to demonstrate that you have a strong understanding of a topic before you
propose a new project.
o Communicate what is known about a topic, such as key empirical findings as well
as pertinent sociological theories used to conceptualize an issue
o Identify gaps in the literature that your research project may be able to address- A good literature review groups together topics, as opposed to summarizing each piece of
literature individually (e.g., if three different studies all reach the same conclusion, then
you can write a sentence summarizing the conclusion with all three studies cited at the
end as proof of this statement).
– You have to make sure to discuss one sociological theory and demonstrate a link to your
independent and dependent variables.
– Remember to include a causal diagram that shows the expected relationship between the
variables. You can draw this by hand or use computer software. This does not count
towards your page count.
– Clearly present your hypothesis. This should be anchored in the literature you reference
throughout this section.
Relevant Sub-headings
Sub-headings are useful for making your literature review more organized. Think of the
overall literature review as a funnel – you start with the broadest topic and then narrow in on
content that is more specifically relevant to your research. In this paper, you may find it useful to
have subheadings dedicated to each of your variables.
Methodology (3-4 pages)
Your method section is where you describe exactly how you plan to go about collecting
data for your proposed study. You need to provide content in each of the sections listed below.
Method
– Provide a description of the method that you will use to collect data to answer your
research question. This must be a method discussed in course material.- You must also explain why you are selecting this data and its strengths and weaknesses
(make sure to reference your textbook)
– Feel free to use what you previously submitted for the outline assignment – make sure to
apply any feedback you received
– Remember this is a course about methods, but the way you show that you understand
what you learned is by showing your ability to master an appropriate method to answer
your research question and address concerns that are relevant to this method. The best
way to show that you understand course content is by being clear and specific.
– A good proposal will clearly identify your data source, the unit of analysis and the
sampling technique
– You must discuss threats to validity and reliability as they pertain to your proposed study
– remember, high-quality proposals will only discuss issues that are relevant to their
study.
Ethical Obligations to Research Participants
– Provide a description of the key ethical obligations that researchers have to participants.
– You should also specifically reflect on how your proposed study upholds (or justifiably
violates) each of those ethical obligations to participants, or why they are not applicable
in your study based on your unit of analysis (e.g., if you are working with social artefacts
these ethical obligations to humans are not applicable).
Measurement
– Here you will clearly explain how you will measure one (1) concept in your proposed
study.o You need to show me your operational definitions of your independent and
dependent variables and explain your reasoning behind each definition. Be sure to
reference relevant literature here.
o High-quality proposals will have already referenced this concept in the literature
review so it does not come out of nowhere here
– Identify your data analysis technique. You do not need to go in depth, just explain what
type of analysis you will conduct and explain why.
Implications and Practical Applications (1/2 a page)
– In this section you will clearly and concisely describe the specific contribution your
proposed research would make to the body of knowledge on this topic by referencing
back to the existing literature you reviewed and the research objectives that you set out in
the introduction.
– You will restate your hypothesis that respond to your research question
– You will briefly summarize the content reviewed in the research proposal, referring the
reader back to your proposed research question.
– This section should wrap up the research proposal in a way that emphasizes the
importance of the proposed research and leaves the reader believing that the proposed
project is important. Remember, you are pitching this project, so you need people to
understand the contributions of this study to society.
References
References must conform to ASA style.
I have 3 references that must be used the “Clarke et al” one is the source document. I need 7 more references though, they must be peer reviewed articles.