Research Proposal:

A research proposal is intended to convince others that you have a

worthwhile research project and that you have the competence and the
work-plan to complete it. Generally, a research proposal should contain all the
key elements involved in the research process and include sufficient
information for the readers to evaluate the proposed study.
Regardless of your research area and the methodology you choose, all research
proposals must address the following questions: What you plan to accomplish,
why you want to do it and how you are going to do it.
The quality of your research proposal depends not only on the quality of your
proposed project, but also on the quality of your proposal writing. A good
research project may run the risk of rejection simply because the proposal is
poorly written. Therefore, it pays if your writing is coherent, clear and
compelling.
This paper focuses on proposal writing rather than on the development of
research ideas.
TITLE:
It should be concise and descriptive. For example, the phrase, "An
investigation of . . ." could be omitted. Often titles are stated in terms of
a functional relationship, because such titles clearly indicate the
independent and dependent variables. However, if possible, think of an
informative but catchy title. An effective title not only pricks the
reader's interest, but also predisposes him/her favourably towards the
proposal.

ABSTRACT:
It is a brief summary of approximately 300 words. It should include
the research question, the rationale for the study, the hypothesis
(if any), the method and the main findings. Descriptions of the
method may include the design, procedures, the sample and any
instruments that will be used.

INTRODUCTION:
The main purpose of the introduction is to provide the necessary
background or context for your research problem. How to frame the
research problem is perhaps the biggest problem in proposal writing.
If the research problem is framed in the context of a general, rambling
literature review, then the research question may appear trivial and
uninteresting. However, if the same question is placed in the context of
a very focused and current research area, its significance will become
evident.
A lot depends on your creativity, your ability to think clearly and the
depth of your understanding of problem areas.
However, try to place your research question in the context of either a
current "hot" area, or an older area that remains viable. Secondly,
you need to provide a brief but appropriate historical backdrop.
Thirdly, provide the contemporary context in which your proposed
research question occupies the central stage. Finally, identify "key

players" and refer to the most relevant and representative

publications. In short, try to paint your research question in broad
brushes and at the same time bring out its significance.

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The introduction typically begins with a general statement of the

problem area, with a focus on a specific research problem, to be
followed by the rational or justification for the proposed study.
The introduction generally covers the following elements:
State the research problem, which is often referred to as the purpose
of the study.
Provide the context and set the stage for your research question in
such a way as to show its necessity and importance.
Present the rationale of your proposed study and clearly indicate
why it is worth doing.
Briefly describe the major issues and sub-problems to be
addressed by your research.
Identify the key independent and dependent variables of your
experiment. Alternatively, specify the phenomenon you want to study.
State your hypothesis or theory, if any. Set the delimitation or
boundaries of your proposed research in order to provide a clear focus.

Literature Review:
Sometimes the literature review is incorporated into the introduction
section. However, most professors prefer a separate section, which allows
a more thorough review of the literature.
The literature review serves several important functions:
Ensures that you are not "reinventing the wheel".
Gives credits to those who have laid the groundwork for your
research.
Demonstrates your knowledge of the research problem.
Demonstrates your understanding of the theoretical and research
issues related to your research question.
Shows your ability to critically evaluate relevant literature
information.
Indicates your ability to integrate and synthesize the existing literature.
Provides new theoretical insights or develops a new model as the
conceptual framework for your research.
Convinces your reader that your proposed research will make a
significant and substantial contribution to the literature (i.e., resolving
an important theoretical issue or filling a major gap in the literature).
Most students literature reviews suffer from the following problems:
Lacking organization and structure
Lacking focus, unity and coherence
Being repetitive and verbose
Failing to cite influential papers
Failing to keep up with recent developments
Failing to critically evaluate cited papers
Citing irrelevant or trivial references
Depending too much on secondary sources
Your scholarship and research competence will be questioned if any of the
above applies to your proposal.

There are different ways to organize your literature review. Make use of
subheadings to bring order and coherence to your review.
It is also helpful to keep in mind that you are telling a story to an
audience. Try to tell it in a stimulating and engaging manner. Do not bore
them, because it may lead to rejection of your worthy proposal.

Methods:
The Method section is very important because it tells your Research
Committee how you plan to tackle your research problem. It will provide
your work plan and describe the activities necessary for the completion of
your project.
The guiding principle for writing the Method section is that it should
contain sufficient information for the reader to determine whether
methodology is sound. Some even argue that a good proposal should
contain sufficient details for another qualified researcher to implement the
study.
Please note that your research question may be best answered by
qualitative research. However, since most mainstream psychologists are
still biased against qualitative research, especially the phenomenological
variety, you may need to justify your qualitative method.
More importantly, the data collection process in qualitative research has a
far greater impact on the results as compared to quantitative research.
That is another reason for greater care in describing how you will collect
and analyze your data.

For quantitative studies, the method section typically consists of the

following sections:
Design -Is it a questionnaire study or a laboratory experiment? What
kind of design do you choose?
Subjects or participants - Who will take part in your study ? What
kind of sampling procedure do you use?
Instruments - What kind of measuring instruments or questionnaires
do you use? Why do you choose them? Are they valid and reliable?
Procedure - How do you plan to carry out your study? What activities
are involved? How long does it take?

Results:
Obviously you do not have results at the proposal stage. However, you
need to have some idea about what kind of data you will be collecting, and
what statistical procedures will be used in order to answer your research
question or test you hypothesis.

Discussion:
It is important to convince your reader of the potential impact of your
proposed research. You need to communicate a sense of enthusiasm and
confidence without exaggerating the merits of your proposal. That is why
you also need to mention the limitations and weaknesses of the proposed
research, which may be justified by time and financial constraints as well
as by the early developmental stage of your research area.

Common Mistakes in Proposal Writing

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Failure to provide the proper context to frame the research question.

Failure to delimit the boundary conditions for your research.
Failure to cite landmark studies.
Failure to accurately present the theoretical and empirical contributions by
other researchers.
5) Failure to stay focused on the research question.
6) Failure to develop a coherent and persuasive argument for the proposed
research.
7) Too much detail on minor issues, but not enough detail on major issues.
8) Too much rambling -- going "all over the map" without a clear sense of
direction. (The best proposals move forward with ease and grace like a
seamless river.)
9) Too many citation lapses and incorrect references.
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Too long or too short.
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Failing to follow the APA style.
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Slopping writing.

Induction and Deduction

In logic, we often refer to the two broad methods of reasoning as the deductive
and inductive approaches.

Deductive reasoning works from the more general to the more specific.
Sometimes this is informally called a "top-down" approach. We might begin with
thinking up a theory about our topic of interest. We then narrow that down into
more specific hypotheses that we can test. We narrow down even further when
we collect observations to address the hypotheses. This ultimately leads us to be
able to test the hypotheses with specific data -- a confirmation (or not) of our
original theories
Deduction Examples:
All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore, Socrates is a mortal.
Every action God has ever done has been good. God made the world.
Making the world was good.
The book is on the table. The table is on the floor. Therefore, the book is
above the floor.

Inductive reasoning works the other way, moving from specific observations to
broader generalizations and theories. Informally, we sometimes call this a
"bottom up" approach (please note that it's "bottom up" and not "bottomsup"
which is the kind of thing the bartender says to customers when he's trying to
close for the night!). In inductive reasoning, we begin with specific observations
and measures, begin to detect patterns and regularities, formulate some
tentative hypotheses that we can explore, and finally end up developing some
general conclusions or theories.
Induction Examples:
It has rained everyday on January 1st in Hawaii for the past several years.
Therefore, it will rain next year on that day as well.
Notice that the conclusion is reasonably sound, but not proven until
after the fact. The conclusion could be proven wrong.

Every eagle I have observed has dark feathers. Therefore, all eagles have
dark feathers.

Just because all the eagles I have observed have dark feathers does
not mean all eagles have dark feathers, though it might be true (If
speaking of mature eagles). However, there might be albino eagles, or
eagles that are young that have down and no dark feathers.

Each book I have seen in the library is more than a year old. All the books
in the library are over a year old.
It might be that all the books in the library are more than a year old.
But it is not necessarily so since we do not know if the first statement
means that I have seen every book in the library. If I have not seen
every book in the library, and might be that there are books that are
less than a year old.

These two methods of reasoning have a very different "feel" to them when you're
conducting research. Inductive reasoning, by its very nature, is more open-ended
and exploratory, especially at the beginning. Deductive reasoning is more narrow
in nature and is concerned with testing or confirming hypotheses. Even though a
particular study may look like it's purely deductive (e.g., an experiment designed
to test the hypothesized effects of some treatment on some outcome), most
social research involves both inductive and deductive reasoning processes at
some time in the project. In fact, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that we
could assemble the two graphs above into a single circular one that continually
cycles from theories down to observations and back up again to theories. Even in
the most constrained experiment, the researchers may observe patterns in the
data that lead them to develop new theories.

A Variable
A variable is an object, event, idea, feeling, time period, or any other type of
category you are trying to measure. There are two types of variablesindependent and dependent.
Independent variable
An independent variable is exactly what it sounds like. It is a variable that stands
alone and isn't changed by the other variables you are trying to measure.
For example, someone's age might be an independent variable. Other factors
(such as what they eat, how much they go to school, how much television they
watch) aren't going to change a person's age. In fact, when you are looking for
some kind of relationship between variables you are trying to see if the
independent variable causes some kind of change in the other variables, or
dependent variables.
Dependent variable
Just like an independent variable, a dependent variable is exactly what it sounds
like. It is something that depends on other factors.
For example, a test score could be a dependent variable because it could change
depending on several factors such as how much you studied, how much sleep
you got the night before you took the test, or even how hungry you were when
you took it. Usually when you are looking for a relationship between two things
you are trying to find out what makes the dependent variable change the way it
does.
Many people have trouble remembering which the independent variable is and
which the dependent variable is. An easy way to remember is to insert the
names of the two variables you are using in this sentence in the way that makes
the most sense. Then you can figure out which is the independent variable and
which is the dependent variable:
(Independent variable) causes a change in (Dependent Variable) and it isn't
possible that (Dependent Variable) could cause a change in (Independent
Variable).
For example:
(Time Spent Studying) causes a change in (Test Score) and it isn't possible that
(Test Score) could cause a change in (Time Spent Studying).
We see that "Time Spent Studying" must be the independent variable and "Test
Score" must be the dependent variable because the sentence doesn't make
sense the other way around.

What is Causal Research, and Why is it Important?

Causal research falls under the category of conclusive research, because of its
attempt to reveal a cause and effect relationship between two variables. Like
descriptive research, this form of research attempts to prove an idea put forward
by an individual or organization. However, it significantly differs on both its
methods and its purpose. Where descriptive research is broad in scope,
attempting to better define any opinion, attitude, or behaviour held by a
particular group, causal research will have only two objectives:
1. Understanding which variables are the cause, and which variables are
the effect.
For example, lets say a city council wanted to reduce car accidents on their
streets. They might find through preliminary descriptive and exploratory
research that both accidents and road rage have been steadily increasing over
the past 5 years. Instead of automatically assuming that road rage is the
cause of these accidents, it would be important to measure whether the
opposite could be true. Maybe road rage increases in light of more accidents
due to lane closures and increased traffic. It could also be the case of the old
adage correlation does not guarantee causation. Maybe both are increasing
due to another reason like construction, lack of proper traffic controls, or an
influx of new drivers.
2. Determining the nature of the relationship between the causal
variables and the effect predicted.
Continuing with our example, lets say the city council proved that road rage
had an increasing effect on the number of car accidents in the area. The
causal research could be used for two things. First measuring the significance
of the effect, like quantifying the percentage increase in accidents that can be
contributed by road rage. Second, observing how the relationship between the
variables works (ie: enraged drivers are prone to accelerating dangerously or
taking more risks, resulting in more accidents).
These objectives are what makes causal research more scientific than its
exploratory and descriptive counter parts. In order to meet these objectives,
causal researchers have to isolate the particular variable they believe is
responsible for something taking place, and measure its true significance. With
this information, an organization can confidently decide whether it is worth the
resources to use a variable, like adding better traffic signs, or attempt to
eliminate a variable, like road rage.

Probability and Non-Probability Sampling

Sampling can be a confusing concept for managers carrying out survey research projects. By knowing
some basic information about survey sampling designs and how they differ, you can understand the
advantages and disadvantages of various approaches.
The two main methods used in survey research are probability sampling and nonprobability sampling. The big difference is that in probability sampling all persons have a chance of
being selected, and results are more likely to accurately reflect the entire population. While it would
always be nice to have a probability-based sample, other factors need to be considered (availability,
cost, time, what you want to say about results). Some additional characteristics of the two methods
are listed below.
Probability Sampling

You have a complete sampling frame.

You have contact information for the entire population.
You can select a random sample from your population.
Since all persons (or units) have an equal chance of being selected for your survey, you can
randomly select participants without missing entire portions of your audience.
You can generalize your results from a random sample.
With this data collection method and a decent response rate, you can extrapolate your results to
the entire population.
Can be more expensive and time-consuming than convenience or purposive sampling.

Non-probability Sampling

Used when there isnt an exhaustive population list available.

Some units are unable to be selected, therefore you have no way of knowing the size and effect
of sampling error (missed persons, unequal representation, etc.).
Not random.
Can be effective when trying to generate ideas and getting feedback
But you cannot generalize your results to an entire population with a high level of confidence.
Quota samples (males and females, etc.) are an example.
More convenient and less costly
But doesnt hold up to expectations of probability theory.