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500_lesson8.docxLESSON 8: PREPARING YOUR FINAL RESEARCH PAPER
Introduction
To date, the lessons have defined research, the types of basic inquiry, and the research methods that researchers use to create a research strategy. You have also written a research question, developed a hypothesis, determined your variables, carried out a short literature review, and have even drafted your research methods section. This week you will learn the basic elements of a "Research Proposal," something we skipped in this class but will likely come up in other future classes. A research proposal is typically done for longer research projects, including your final CAPSTONE project. You can think of this as a sort of pitch to a capstone professor, grant committee, or other research board.
The Research Proposal
The following sections of a research proposal are excerpted from the 2017 Capstone End of Program Manual. Be sure to check the APUS Library Graduate Studies Resource Center for the latest version. Please note that you may need to sign into the APUS library for access. You can also find great resources at https://apus.libguides.com/research_methods_guide/graduatewriting#s-lg-box-12798598 .
"The formal proposal must provide a clear a lucid description of a question or problem and a proposed method for answering it. …The proposal should explain the question or problem to be investigated and convince the thesis professor that the question or problem merits investigation. It should show that the student has read the relevant and recent literature on the subject, and it should contain a list of academically appropriate resources consulted during the preliminary stages of research. In general, the thesis proposal should include background information related to the research topic, purpose of the research, methodology, and analytic procedures to be used." (p. 10)
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Introduction/Purpose Statement
This is the most important statement in the proposal. It orients the reader to the central intent of the study and from it all other aspects of the research project follow. While there are a number of differing formats for purpose statements, in general the statement should present the central controlling idea in the study, focus on the central phenomenon under study, show how knowledge will be created or learning will take place (optional for the research paper), provide a general working definition of the central phenomenon if not widely known, denote the strategy of inquiry to be used, and identify the location(s) for the research. You will write it as an introduction to the study. Your research question and hypothesis is the core of your research proposal. Therefore, they need to be solid and meaningful.
After you state the hypothesis, which serves as your thesis, you should then write supporting paragraphs to back up your hypothesis. In a concise manner, you should discuss what will be learned from the research you plan to conduct as well as how your research will make a difference in the field. In addition, you should discuss why it is important for the answer to your hypothesis to be found. The hypothesis and the supporting paragraphs make up the "purpose statement" section of your proposal.
In addition to proving the importance of finding the answer to your hypothesis, you will also need to demonstrate that your hypothesis has not already been tested. This is where the literature review portion of the process comes in. You must communicate to the reader the problem you will address in your research, using the information you gathered in your literature reviews.
Theoretical Framework
In this section, you may provide a summary of the theory or theories which will be used in the study (if any). Provide a short descriptive narrative that includes the theory’s major assumption and the theoretical propositions pertinent to your project. Realism, liberalism, and globalism are “grand theories” but they will not likely to be as applicable to your project as more current and focused models or theoretical approaches. As we discussed in this course your task is to find one that informs your study and what you deduce is important. Since many of your topics include political or social issues, a good source for various theories can be found within the peer-reviewed literature. You may find a theory during your research of the literature and it may be that it will agree or disagree with other authors' use of this theory to help explain the puzzle you are researching.
Research Design and Methods
The methodology you plan to use must be sound and demonstrate the ability for data to be observed and measured. Data collection and analysis is a huge part of methods and may include but is not limited to: interviews, sampling, field research, focus groups, and surveys. The research design and methods section is where the data from the literature and research you have done up to this point will be presented.
Data Analysis
In the data analysis section, be sure to include the online databases that you have accessed and plan to analyze when you conduct your proposed research. You will also provide a summary of your strategy to analyze the data you plan to collect even if this is descriptive analysis of facts, execution of a case study or a process tracing. At the end of this section, provide a summary paragraph to conclude your proposal.
References
List all references cited in the proposal and any major works in the field that you consulted in the field even if you do not use them in the literature review. Please consult the APA Style Guide to format both in-text and reference citations.
Research Proposals
As was mentioned above, research proposals are essentially a researcher's "pitch" to someone else. You are basically convincing someone that your work deserves funding so you are trying to show not only the importance of your research idea but that you have a clear plan on how to assess the question. If you are writing a research proposal for a class or capstone professor you are showing your professor that you have identified an area within the literature that needs more research (gap), that you have already done some preliminary work on the issue, and that your assessment of the question is feasible based on your current resources (data access, time, and etc).
NOW, ON TO THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE PAPERS YOU ARE WRITING!!!
Consolidating the Elements of the Research Paper
You will see that you have already produced several of the required sections of your final paper. Take heart!! Here’s a recap of the elements and what you have already done. If you took the feedback to heart and polished the sections, you will have a very manageable project!!
Your final assignment is where you will weave the elements from a few of your early assignments (research question assignment, literature review assignment, and methods section) together and continue to build upon them. In addition to these early sections you will also need to incorporate your research analysis to create a coherent research paper that is 10-15 pages in length. While it is inappropriate (not to mention a violation of university policy) to cut-and-paste from past assignments in old courses into new ones, this research paper is evolutionary and builds itself up from a research idea to a completed product here. For this reason, in this class it is permissible to paste the information (as appropriate and as it makes sense) from your early assignments in this course into your final assignment. If you intend to use information from one class in another in the future, you must first get written permission from the professor or it will be categorized as self-plagiarism.
Format: Your research paper should include a title page, body, and reference page. Your paper should have 1-inch borders on all four sides, use Times New Roman 12-point font, be double spaced, and not have an extra space in-between paragraphs. (You may need to turn this off in MS word by going to "paragraph" and clicking "Don't add space between paragraphs of the same style"). In academic writing the first sentence of each paragraph is indented to the .5 mark, traditionally using the tab key.
Note: Paper formatting is always important to pay attention to since it reflects the professional appearance of your paper. If you ever plan to submit articles for publication this is something that can make or break acceptance. For example, while you might have a great research paper and present some useful findings, if you fail to follow the formatting instructions of the peer-reviewed journal the editors will not even give your paper the time of day! It's almost like being rejected for a job because you wore ripped jeans, flip flops, and a t-shirt to a professional interview.
YOUR RESEARCH PAPER SHOULD INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS:
INTRODUCTION Start with the abstract then move to the introduction. The abstract should be on its own page and between 150-200 words in length.
The introduction should be written last and should pull from some of the elements of your week 2 assignment. You will need to clearly provide an overview of the topic you are writing about, a concise synopsis of the issues, state your research question, and discuss why the situation is important to investigate. Writing the introduction last is helpful in ensuring that you've incorporated any changes that may have taken place over the course of your research. This section should be approximately 2 pages in length (these suggestions are only for this paper, not for all papers).
LITERATURE REVIEW Your literature review section should be a synthesis of the current state of research on this topic. Here you will need to discuss the information that is important to understanding your research paper. If you are still struggling with this section see the APUS library discussion of the literature review or take a look at this video on how to write a literature review from the NCSU Libraries. This section should be 5-6 pages in length.
METHODOLOGY This section will pull from and enhance your qualitative methodology assignment. Methodology sections are another standard element in research papers as they provide the reader with a clear understanding for how the research was carried out. In this section you should discuss your study and explain the validity of your approach. In your explanation be sure you explain how you chose the case to investigate, your data collection method, your data analysis (i.e. the questions you asked to help guide your research and thus answer your primary research question), and any potential data limitations and biases that pertain to this specific project. In your discussion of the studies' limitations, you should keep in mind that its always best to end on a positive note, so be sure you discuss your plan to mitigate the limitations and biases, if any. This section should be 2-3 pages in length.
ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS This section and the conclusion discussed below are essentially the two newest components of your research project. Your analysis and findings section should provide a narrative of your research and the analytical arguments that you will make as a result of your findings. In this section you will discuss the results of your analysis. Make sure you provide the evidence that proves or disproves your research hypothesis. This section should be 4-5 pages in length.
CONCLUSION This section will contain the concluding analytical arguments based on what the research has revealed. Here you will discuss your policy recommendations for moving forward with the issue. Like any conclusion, it should provide a synopsis of the project, the strategy, the results, and what the research adds to our body of knowledge. Within your conclusion you should also offer suggestions for avenues of future research for other scholars as all knowledge is evolutionary. Don’t forget to work your theory back in! This section should be 2 pages in length.
REFERENCES This section will contain all of the references that you have cited within your paper. They should be listed in APA References format and arranged alphabetically. Title this section as "References". Each source notation should be single spaced with one space between each source. They should be in hanging format. See the APA Guide in the APUS Library for details.
At this level your references should fall within the 15-20 sources range and include primarily peer-reviewed or primary source content.
In this course, we have defined research, the types of basic inquiry, and the research methods that researchers use to create a research strategy. You have also written a research question, developed a hypothesis, determined your variables, carried out a short literature review, and have even drafted your research methods section. Now you have the chance to “pull it all together” with your research paper. I look forward to your submissions. I wish you the best as you work through the program. The skills you learned here will serve you well as you progress toward your capstone!
