Sociology Research Proposal- revision

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SOC3410/ Written Assignment #2

Writing a Research Proposal

A research proposal is a comprehensive written plan that describes a research question and

details how one plans to answer or investigate that question. In essence, it is a researcher's plan

or design of the research process up to the point where the researcher would gather data. Your

proposal should be conceptually clear, detailed, organized, feasible, and must follow the

guidelines for writing empirical research reports discussed in class. Your proposal should be at

least 1,500 words long (Times New Roman, 12 font size, double-spaced, 1 inch margins),

excluding the title, summary, and references pages. Your completed proposal includes the

following:

●Title Page (not part of the 2,500 words limit)

●Summary (150 words; not part of the 2,500 words limit)

●Introduction (1½-2 pages) 15 points

●Review of the Literature (5-6 pages) 70 points

●Research Questions or Hypotheses (1-1½ pages) 15 points

●Data and Methods (1-1½ pages) Optional

●References (not part of the 2,500 words limit)

Total 100 points

Title Page

The title page is required. The title should be brief and eliminate unnecessary words. It should

include the focus of the study. Consider a title no longer than 15 words and eliminate most

articles and prepositions.

Summary

A paragraph briefly describing what you intend to study and the theory you will likely be testing.

The summary should also describe the social group you will be studying and how you sampled

from that group to obtain research subjects for your proposed study. This paragraph is generally

written after one has completed the research proposal and serves to quickly inform the reviewer

of the proposal's contents. Summary should be approximately 150 words.

Introduction

Here you would describe the issue, problem, or broadly stated research question. Establish the

research problem in the opening paragraphs: Write an opening sentence that will stimulate reader

interest as well as convey a distinct problem or issue. Then, you would convey to the reader why

this problem is worth investigating. You can justify the importance of the research problem by

incorporating the literature and other studies – e.g., data from other studies, government statistics,

etc. After clearly justifying the need to develop a research proposal around your research

question, you would then clearly articulate a narrower version of the research question that you

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will pursue in this proposal and explain what is important or unique about this narrow or specific

research question Establish the research problem in the opening paragraphs: Write an opening

sentence that will stimulate reader interest as well as convey a distinct problem or issue.

Note: The following guidelines for writing a good introduction are drawn from Creswell (2009).

You will find this reading very useful.

1. Establishing the Research Problem: In the first paragraph of the introduction, you will

stimulate reader interest and establish a problem. Write an opening sentence that will stimulate

reader interest as well as convey an issue to which a broad audience can relate. An opening

sentence plays a role of a narrative hook that serves to draw, engage, or hook the reader into the

study. There are three common strategies of creating reader interest.

 You can create reader interest by posing a question ["Does social capital still matter?].

 You can justify the need to study the problem by providing numerical information.

 You can begin with a literature perspective [“There is a large body of literature that studies . . .”].

2. Reviewing the Literature: After establishing the research problem in the opening paragraph,

you need to justify its importance by reviewing studies that have examined the issue. This

literature review passage should summarize large groups of studies. The purpose of reviewing

past studies in an introduction is to justify the importance of the study. This component might be

called setting the research problem within the ongoing dialogue in the literature.

3. Identifying Deficiencies in Past literature: After advancing the problem and reviewing the

literature about it, you will identify deficiencies found in this literature.

 The topic has not been explored with a particular group, sample, or population.

 The literature may need to be replicated or repeated to see if the same findings hold, given new samples of people or new sites for study.

Beyond mentioning the deficiencies, you need to tell how your planned study will remedy or

address these deficiencies. For example, because past studies have overlooked an important

variable, a study will include it and analyze its effect.

4. Describing the Significance of a Study for the Audience: By including this section, you

create a clear rationale for the importance of the study. In designing this section, you might

include three to five reasons that the study adds to the scholarly research and literature in the

field.

5. Identifying the Purpose of the Study: A good introduction usually ends with a statement of

the purpose or intent of the study. Whereas introductions focus on the problem leading to the

study, the purpose statement establishes the direction for the research. The purpose statement

indicates why you want to do the study and what you intend to accomplish. In fact, the purpose

statement is the most important statement in an entire research study.

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Review of the Literature

A researcher needs to demonstrate a reasonable awareness of past research that bears upon his or

her questions. You must use at least five scholarly works related to your specific research

question. This review is not merely a summary, but a critical discussion. A literature review

addresses the following questions:

 What research has been done previously? How has other research paved the way for your research? What have others said about this topic? What is already known about your research

question?

 What theories address this topic and what do they say?  Are there consistent findings, or do past studies disagree?  What questions are not addressed (or not addressed adequately) by these studies? Are there

flaws in the body of existing research that you feel you can remedy?

 End with a paragraph discussing how your research will contribute to the scholarly record. How will you add to or go beyond what others have done? What shortcomings (if any) in the

research will you try to remedy?

Basically, a good literature review places your research within a larger scholarly context and

shows the reader how your research will contribute to previous research. A well written journal

article can serve as an example for your work. Examine an article on your topic; it should also

contain a literature review. (Be careful not to plagiarize, or you will receive no credit for this

assignment.) Journal articles will have bibliographies that should point you to other relevant

articles.

You may use a variety of sources for information (e.g., books, newspapers, magazines) to

supplement your proposal but you must have a minimum of five references from recognized

academic journals or books in the review of literature section. Generally, they should be recent—

within the last twenty years. In some cases there may have been an important article or book

written more than twenty years ago that you may wish to include. You will need to come see me

if you are unsure whether a source constitutes an academic journal.

Remember to cite references within the body of your paper. Look at any social science journal

for appropriate styles for citing sources. Both the ASA and APA styles are appropriate. APA.

ASA Style Guide is place in Pilot.

Research Questions/Hypotheses

One purpose of science is to learn about relationships among phenomena or variables so that

predictions may be made with some reliability. Such predictive statements may be termed

“if…..then” statements. That is, if specified conditions exist, then designated consequences are

likely to follow. However, not all “if…..then” statements will be phrased exactly in that fashion.

There are many variations in phrasings that nevertheless indicate an interrelationship of variables.

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Do not confuse predictive statements with definitions (e.g., “If members of in-groups and out-

groups are of two different races, then intergroup prejudice is called racial prejudice.”), or with

basic premises (e.g., “If a society is to maintain itself, it must have a common body of norms that

govern the behavior of its members.”). *Read “Hints for Stating Hypotheses” in the Babbie’s

book and be familiar with the different formats of the hypothesis statement.

Research questions are interrogative questions that the investigator seeks to answer. Hypotheses

are predictions the researcher holds about the relationship among variables. To eliminate

redundancy, you will write only research questions or hypotheses, not both.

After completing the literature review, write 2-3 research questions for your own research

project. Developing your own research questions or hypotheses is not an easy task. You need to

keep looking for relevant studies in the databases to develop your own research ideas. Keep in

mind that a good research question is always built on the existing literature.

Data and Methods

In this section, you will describe how you plan to collect the data or make your observations.

Remember that you are not to collect the actual data or make actual observations in this course.

Therefore, it is sufficient enough is to show your reader how you will obtain your results.

However, the research methods must be appropriate to the objectives of the study. We need to

know how to collect or obtain the data because the data collection methods affect the results.

Knowing the data collation methods helps the reader evaluate the validity and reliability of your

results, and the conclusions you draw from them. Here are some guidelines for writing the Data

and Methods section:

(1) Data Collection Methods: Often there are different methods that you can use to investigate a

research problem. Your methodology should make clear the reasons why you chose a particular

method or procedure. Begin the discussion by reviewing the purpose of the research method(s)

you choose and the rationale for use.

(2) Population and Sample: You should describe in detail your study population and how you

will sample from the population. Specify the characteristics of the population and the sampling

procedure.

(3) Instrumentation: Solid measurement entails inclusion of a set of nominal definitions for

each concept/variable as well as a detailed listing of questions you might ask (provided you

utilize a survey research method). Provide the detailed information about the measurement

instrument to be used in the proposed study.

(4) Variables: Relate the variables to the specific questions on the instrument.

Expected Results and Their Implications [Optional]

Assuming that your data were collected, analyzed, and your hypotheses supported, what results

do you expect to find? What are some potential theoretical and policy implications of these

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results? This section of the proposal should reflect the related literature you have read. Describe

how your research findings might influence social policy, law, action, or organizational practices.

Write about the significance of your study and identify how various audiences (e.g., researchers,

practitioners, policy makers, and the public) will profit from the study. This will be the

concluding section of your proposal.

References

Include a bibliography of references on a separate page. You should have a minimum of six

scholarly references to eligible for maximum credit. Use only scholarly journal articles or books.

Both the ASA and APA styles are appropriate.