To create a research outline

Research Philosophy and Practice– C11BU Coursework Two: Research Outline

Your second assignment for this course is to write a Research Outline. Your assignment

should be submitted through Canvas only, in Week 15 (Date and Time to be confirmed). Details of how to do so are provided on the ‘Assessment on this Course’

module on Canvas. Submissions must be uploaded via Canvas. Your assignment should

be 1,800 words ±10%. The word count excludes the list of references at the end of

the document. In-text citations, however, are included in the word count. Documents

must be submitted in Word (.doc/.docx) format.

Your task:

The Scenario

You plan to conduct a research study on a topic of interest to you. You discuss your plans

with a potential research mentor, and they ask you to put your ideas down on paper and

present them in the form of a research outline. Your mentor expects your research outline

to be succinct and rigorous and present a clear idea as to the WHAT, WHY and How of

your research plan. You are asked to include the following elements in your outline:

1. A clear working title for your proposed study and a short introduction

A Short overview explaining what this study is about and why it is important and

interesting [250 Words].

2. A clear research aim

Make sure to state your research aim(s) which summarises what you want to

achieve with the entire study [50 Words].

3. A brief literature review

From your initial and engaged reading of the literature, what previous research has

been carried out in your chosen area of research? Specify and discuss which

theoretical body of knowledge you are basing your study within [500 Words].

4. A consideration of the methods that you may be adopting for data collection

and analysis

Explain the methods you expect to use. Are they qualitative or quantitative or a

mixture of both? How are you getting your data and which tools for data collection

are you using? [700 words].

5. A Note on research ethics

How will your research comply with the principles of ethical research? [300

words].

6. References

References should be cited appropriately throughout to help support the Research

Outline and to demonstrate that you have read and understood the work of

others. In doing so, students are expected to use Harvard Style referencing

accuracy. This relates to both the in-text citations and the reference page.

Information on Harvard Style referencing can be found on Canvas.

Concluding Notes

Students are expected to demonstrate understanding of and ability to apply the research concepts they have learned in this course. This assignment will enable you to explore and reflect on the process of developing a research plan (and eventually a proposal) as you progress to the next stage in your studies.

N.B. CW2 is not marked in reference to CW1; they are marked independently. Therefore, students are free to either keep their topics from CW1 and take forward into their CW2 or to make changes to their topics when working on CW2.

Please refer to the Coursework Two rubric on Canvas for the weighting of each section.