Please make sure you refer to the APA 7 resources on the main page of the course to support your formatting, cover page, references page, and abstract. Remember that the entire proposal should be double spaced per APA 7 guidelines.
The methodology section of your research proposal outlines how you plan to conduct your research. This section covers various aspects of research, such as collecting data, the statistical analysis or observations, or interviews you will conduct, the type of participant you will recruit for your study and the overall procedures you will follow. The methods section should give a description of the process that will convert your hypothesis/topic/research question into a research study.
The Methodology Section of Your Research Proposal Should Include:
a) An introduction section of two paragraphs (six to seven robust sentences each) about your hypothesis, research topic and why it is important to study – use sources in the APA 7 format.
b) A research methods section that explains your research methodology, why you selected this method, why it is most appropriate for the type of research proposal you are developing. In this section your want to state your research methods selection, why you selected it, and explain the protocols associated with this methodology. You will include the type (qualitative or quantitative) and the specifics around the type (case study, phenomenology or experimental or survey design – these are just examples to clarify the depth of the information you will provide). You must include in-text citations to support what you are writing and demonstrate the validity of your decision making. This section should be at least two to three pages.
c) Sampling Protocols – this section will explain your sampling selection and procedures. What are the research target population and the most appropriate sampling strategy? Refer to the textbook to support you in decision making. Quantitative research uses random sampling and qualitative research uses purposeful sampling. Select your sampling and justify your decision making. What are the criteria that your sample must meet and why? How is this related to your hypothesis or research questions? This section should be at least one page long.
d) Data Collection – This section explains your data collection protocols. What kind of data are you collecting and how? This will be determined greatly by your research design/methodology. Explain this in detail, justifying your decisions by using in-text citations. This section is generally about one page and a half.
e) Data Analysis – This section explains your data collection process. Be specific, make sure that the data analysis is appropriate for the type of data you are collecting. If you are developing a qualitative research proposal, interviews will be your major data collection source. You will have to transcribe the interviews, code the interviews, organize those codes into descriptive units, and formulate major themes (which is the typical data analysis protocol for qualitative research using phenomenology). If you are testing a hypothesis (quantitative), you will have to collect a specific amount of data using surveys, pulling data from primary sources, databases, etc. and use statistical analysis such as t-test to compare the means of two groups. These are simple examples to clarify the ideas for you. However, you must develop the analysis section according to the appropriate type of analysis for your research design. This must be explained in detail with in-text citations and in future tense. Remember this is a proposal for future use. This section should be about two to three pages long.
f) Validity – How valid is your methodology? Explain and cite sources to verify your procedures. This includes ethical considerations (one page long).
g) Conclusion. One half of a page to conclude your research proposal.
When you package the research proposal, this should include a cover page, abstract (250 words per APA 7), the literature review, the methodology section (and all of the subsections listed here), the conclusion, and references page.