Writing a research proposal

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Writing a research proposal

• Communication Research
• Week 4

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What is a research proposal?

• A research proposal aims to introduce your reader
  or supervisor to the proposed purpose and
  direction of a research project you are planning
  with the purpose of persuading them that the
  research will be worthwhile.
• The process is important as it can help you
  determine your focus, clarify what is involved in
  your project and plan its development.

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The Context

• The Research Proposal is the document you will
  present to plead your case for funds for your
  research project.
• You will probably use the development of your
  research proposal to refine details of your
  proposed project.

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The Proposal document

• The information needs to be argued well,
  presented in a formal yet familiar style and
  structure, and with no fat.
• Write a tightly organised and convincing
  proposal.
• Expect it to be 1500 2500 words.

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How is it set out?
TO FROM DATE SUBJECT

• Often as a report or memo report eg
• Uses headings and subheadings and a numbering
  system to guide the reader
• Uses page numbers, includes a bibliography and an
  appendix for supplementary material

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Introduction 1 Topic problem

• The research topic formulates a problem that is
  worthy of research
• The topic should be
• stated clearly in one or two sentences
• framed as a research question or hypothesis
• framed as a problem or question in need of an
  answer
• The topic provides the pivot or focus

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The Research Question

• Research is about finding answers to questions in
  order to discover new knowledge
• The most difficult part of the project is
  deciding what research question to ask

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The next logical question

• The formulation of a problem might be more
  difficult than its solution.
• Albert Einstein

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Developing the research question

• Write down lots of possible arrangements of the
  question
• Many of them wont lead you anywhere, but
  eventually you will come up with something that
  fits your requirements
• In particular, it will follow from the research
  youve been reading

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Introduction 2 Context

• Your research topic needs to be located in its
  context and background
• In sketching this background, you need to show
  how and why this topic is important and why it is
  worth researching
• This can be done by
• Contextualizing the research problem how does
  it arise?
• Outlining its significance what will be the
  outcomes and for whom?
• Referring to key issues that are associated with
  the topic

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Introduction 3 Background

• Background can be provided in several ways. These
  might include
• A brief overview or history of the problem or
  issue using examples or statistics in support
• A theoretical overview of the issue
• A brief description of the context in which the
  problem has occurred
• An overview or analysis of your position or
  assumptions on the issue

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Introduction 4 Literature review

• All research should be contextualized in terms of
  relevant scholarly or academic literature related
  to or around the problem or topic
• The literature may not refer to the problem
  exactly but may explore similar or related issues
  or other research that sheds light on the problem
• The purpose is to demonstrate that you are
  familiar with other bodies of research around
  your topic

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Literature Review

• Many researchers argue their perspectives through
  the literature review
• The best researchers attempt to make their
  hypotheses evolve out of the literature search

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The Literature Search

• The literature review explores relevant research,
  and hypotheses evolve from past research
• The literature is usually found in a search that
  is carefully directed by a desire to research a
  particular question
• What happens next is determined from studying the
  literature

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Using scholarly databases
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Searching

1. Use your topic as your search term to search
   scholarly databases and library catalogues for
   papers that will support your research
2. Formulate some more specific search terms. The
   more closely the search term matches the area
   that you want to research, the more likely it is
   that the hits will be useful

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Keep searching

• Dont get sidetracked into reading the papers at
  this stage just keep searching until youve
  found some papers
• You will want a lot of papers maybe 30 or so
  because you will probably throw half of them away
  in the next stage, when you filter out those that
  will not be useful to your research project

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Filtering the research documents

1. Display the article in your browser. Select the
   whole document, then Copy it to the Windows
   clipboard
2. Open Microsoft Word and paste the document into
   Word
3. Use Words Find feature (in the Edit menu) to
   look for your search term

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In each paper

• What specific question is being asked?
• How does it address the question?
• How convincing are the results?
• What aspects of the research question remain
  unanswered?
• What is the next logical question?

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Filtering the research documents

• The context in which your search term is used and
  the number of times its used give you a good
  indication of whether that document will be
  useful in your research.
• If you decide to use it, save the document and
  move on.
• If you have less than 12 papers you need to keep
  looking.

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Fictional example Literature Review

• Smith and Brown (2001) reported SMS usage
  against telephone and face-to-face communication
  and separated their data by gender preferences.
  In contrast, Zhou et al (2003) showed that while
  many people readily accept the use of SMS as a
  dating communication tool, many people of the
  25-40 age group, and women in particular, oppose
  it. Harries (2002) suggested that the opposition
  is related to the unromantic nature of SMS and
  Norris (2002) showed a belief that SMS is
  considered insufficient for the business of
  finding a mate for long term cohabitation and
  reproduction. Jones et al (2003) also reported
  SMS dating across age groups. Cruikshank and
  Johnson (2001) said that arranging dates by SMS
  was readily accepted by 83 of their female
  respondents and 87 of male respondents.
  Findings were corroborated by Stuart (2004) and
  Nicholson (2005) but with less detail. Henriks
  et al (2003) found that respondents in the 16-24
  age group and those over 40 readily accepted SMS
  as a dating tool, while respondents in the 25-40
  age group opposed it. Other studies (Findus et
  al (2003), Horace and Fawn (2002) and Halley et
  al (2003)) corroborate their findings, but few
  respondents made any mention of ending
  relationships by SMS, leading to our research
  questionIs it acceptable to end a relationship
  by SMS message?
• The research will attempt to differentiate
  responses by gender and age.

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Method

• A detailed description of the research methods
  you intend to develop or employ and a
  justification of why you have chosen them. You
  should describe
• Exactly how you intend to conduct the research
  eg a survey that will be distributed to 100
  randomly selected people between the period of x
  to y 2005
• Research instrument eg 20 question survey
  comprising a selection of open and closed
  questions

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Method

• The timeframe of the research
• How you plan to analyse the data to address the
  research question
• Any problems or issues that you anticipate in
  collecting and analyzing the data
• What ethical issues might be encountered and how
  do you plan to address these?

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Other parts include

• Research plan and timeline (use a table with real
  dates)
• Conclusions
• Bibliography listed alphabetically using APA
  style (see style guide on CR homepage)
• Appendix additional or supplementary material
  such as a draft survey or draft observation
  schedule

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References/Bibliography

• Make sure all the references in your literature
  review are included and set out correctly.
• Use the APA referencing system
• If in doubt, check herehttp//www.psychwww.com/
  resource/apacrib.htm

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Appendix 1

• Your appendix should contain a copy of the
  Protocol Application Form that you would normally
  submit to the UWS Human Research Ethics
  Committee.
• http//www.uws.edu.au/about/adminorg/devint/ors/e
  thics/humanethics

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Appendix 2

• Another appendix should contain a copy of your
  draft survey (if you plan to use this method),
  observation schedule etc
• This demonstrates that you have thought the
  research question through, and you have created a
  set of questions that address the research
  question properly.

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And now write the proposal

• Use Times for your body text. Set the size to 12
  point and 1½ space
• Use Arial bold for your headings, and set the
  size to 14 point
• Dont underline anything except the obligatory
  underlining of URLs.
• Use paragraph space (6pt) between your paragraphs
  (some journals may prefer indents so in these
  cases follow the style guide. As a general rule
  of thumb, I prefer paragraph space)

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Spelling and Grammar

• Dont use the grammar checker.
• Dont rely on the spelling checker.Use a
  dictionary. A real, hard-copy one, with pages
  made of paper.
• Many online dictionaries are good, but
• Usually dont give the meaning of the word, so
  you can have the wrong spelling.
• Might be Standard English (whatever that is).