Writing a Research Proposal
Writing a Research Proposal
1. Title page a. title should provide a clear idea of the research topic b. has student’s name and ID# c. student’s major d. course name e. professor’s name f. date
2. Table of Contents (covered in point# 9).
3. Write an introductory chapter (includes Introduction, Importance of Study, Purpose of Study, Background, Assumptions, Delimitations) • Present an overview of the research study. o Explain why the topic is important, why the research is worth doing o Give an overview of the aim or purpose of the study, what you are hoping to achieve • Describe the background of the company or organisation where the research will take place; background is also referred to a “research setting” • State any assumptions and delimitations o Assumptions means the things that you assume you will be able to do, the things that are in place (e.g., getting data from a database—that the data are there, getting employees to cooperate with interviews—the boss has confirmed that the employees will be able to do it during work hours) o Delimitations means how your research is restricted in some way (e.g., there are 11 departments in the company and you are only researching 4 of them; e.g., questionnaire will not be translated into Spanish so Spanish-speaking tourists will not be interviewed)
4. Write a Literature Review chapter • Do a critical literature review to gain a deeper understanding of the issues related to your topic; the literature review has to review both the theory of what you are researching and the previous research that people have conducted on the topic • A critical literature review is not a listed sequence of the content of articles that you have found (So and So said this, So and So found that, etc.). First, you have to decide what YOU want to say in your literature review—how you want to organize your thoughts and use the
1. Title page a. title should provide a clear idea of the research topic b. has student’s name and ID# c. student’s major d. course name e. professor’s name f. date
2. Table of Contents (covered in point# 9).
3. Write an introductory chapter (includes Introduction, Importance of Study, Purpose of Study, Background, Assumptions, Delimitations) • Present an overview of the research study. o Explain why the topic is important, why the research is worth doing o Give an overview of the aim or purpose of the study, what you are hoping to achieve • Describe the background of the company or organisation where the research will take place; background is also referred to a “research setting” • State any assumptions and delimitations o Assumptions means the things that you assume you will be able to do, the things that are in place (e.g., getting data from a database—that the data are there, getting employees to cooperate with interviews—the boss has confirmed that the employees will be able to do it during work hours) o Delimitations means how your research is restricted in some way (e.g., there are 11 departments in the company and you are only researching 4 of them; e.g., questionnaire will not be translated into Spanish so Spanish-speaking tourists will not be interviewed)
4. Write a Literature Review chapter • Do a critical literature review to gain a deeper understanding of the issues related to your topic; the literature review has to review both the theory of what you are researching and the previous research that people have conducted on the topic • A critical literature review is not a listed sequence of the content of articles that you have found (So and So said this, So and So found that, etc.). First, you have to decide what YOU want to say in your literature review—how you want to organize your thoughts and use the
References: means that you are referring to them in the text of your paper. The report is to be written in APA style, for the in-text citations, the references at the end of the report, and the chapter headings. This means no numbering system for chapters and sections, such as 1 Methods, 1.1 Participants, 1.2 Instruments, 1.3 Procedures, etc. Using numbered headings is not APA style. However it is okay to identify chapters as Chapter One: [chapter title], Chapter Two: [chapter title], etc. You try to avoid generic titles for your chapters, such as “Chapter One: Introduction,” “Chapter Two: Methods.” Wherever possible, try to come up with meaningful chapter titles, relevant to your research topic. 7. Make a Timeline • Indicate in a timeline (either as a list, a table, or a graph) estimating how long it will take you to do each phase of your research study, from start to finish. 8. Qualifications • Finish with a statement on your qualifications to do this research and the quality of your proposal (the strengths of it), convincing the decision maker why you should be allowed to do this research study. 9. Make a Table of Contents. • The last thing you do before saving and printing/submitting your proposal is the Table of Contents. The document must be formatted so that you have chapter headings and subheadings that will show up in the Tables of Contents the way you want them to appear.