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Proposal Outline Formatting Requirements: 3-5 pages, please single space THIS OUTLINE only

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Proposal Outline

Formatting Requirements: 3-5 pages, please single space THIS OUTLINE only.

1. State your research question/problem. If broad, break it down into sub-questions and identify one to use as your research question for the Research Proposal. In other words, describe what you intend to accomplish through the research. If appropriate, state your research question in the form of a hypothesis.
2. Who will be your audience for the paper (i.e., what population would benefit from your research, who else might care about the research findings)?
3. Identify the variables of interest for your research/hypothesis. What are the conceptual and operational definitions of each variable? If you will be measuring one or all of your variables, please indicate how you will measure the variable(s) (this is your operational definition, that is, how you operationalize your variable). Issue to consider: Is there a validated measure of the variable available? If so, briefly summarize the evidence the researchers provided demonstrating reliability and validity of the measure. If not, how would you estimate reliability and validity of the measure? What type of variable is it (e.g., continuous, discrete, open-ended, etc)? If you are pursing qualitative research, how will you address the conceptual and operational definitions of your variables of interest (recall from your textbook that these issues are approached differently in qualitative research than quantitative research)?
4. What population will you be targeting for your research? Explain why this population is appropriate to your research question.
5. What type of sampling will you use? Explain your choice and indicate the strengths and limitations of your sampling approach.
6. Do you foresee any potential ethical concerns with your chosen sample (e.g., conflict of interest, etc.)? If so, describe the issues and how you will resolve them.
7. Broadly state whether you think a qualitative or quantitative approach will be more appropriate for your research, and why.

Optional Non-Graded – If you have skipped ahead on the course readings beyond Week 6 and have largely developed the Methodology of your study, you may also submit the following for feedback. However, responses to the following questions will not be graded or contribute to you Proposal Outline grade.

1. Explain what method you plan to use to examine your research questions/test your hypothesis. In particular, discuss what quantitative method (e.g., survey or experimental), qualitative method (e.g., interview, focus group, observation) or a combination of a qualitative/quantitative methods, you will use and why this method is most appropriate to answer/test your research question.
2. Provide an overview of how you plan to conduct your study using your chosen methodology (from Question 2). In other words, provide an overview of procedures for the study.
3. Do you foresee any potential ethical concerns with your study methodology? If so, how will you resolve the issues?
4. Given your research methodology, provide an example of a possible threat to validity for your research question.
5. How will you rule our alternative explanations of the results (give an alternative explanation and show why it is not viable)
6. What are the methodological strengths and limitations to your study?