Research design proposal
The research proposal should not be longer than 4000 words, and MUST include the following:
- Title of your research project
- Abstract: a summary of the question, thesis statement, research design, and expected findings (150 words)
- Introduction (around 400 words, based upon your Research Question and Thesis Statement assignments)
- Literature review (700-800 words, based upon your Annotated Bibliography assignment)
- Thesis statement (around 400 words, based upon your Thesis Statement assignment)
- Research design (around 1000 words, based upon your Research Design assignment)
- Discussion of expected findings (around 500 words)
- Detailed work plan (around 600 words)
- References (NOT included in the word count; they MUST follow the Chicago Manual of Style)
All the sections based upon previous assignments MUST take into account the comments I provided as feedback to each of these assignments. The Discussion section should describe the empirical findings you would expect to encounter by employing the research design you propose, and specify how these expected findings would contribute to the literature. The Detailed Work Plan section should describe all the tasks that you would carry out in order to make your research project happen, in the exact order and sequence in which you would pursue them, and specify the outcomes or products of each of these tasks. You MAY include an Appendix, which will not count towards the word count, with tables, proposed interview or survey questions, classification criteria for your data, and other methodological information.
You will be graded on the following criteria:
- Use of appropriate methods adapted to the case(s)
- Clarity, consistency, and nuance of arguments and expectations
- Literature review synthesizes relevant sources and help build up the question and the thesis statement
- Proposal makes a clear and novel contribution to research on the proposed question
- Writing and grammar