YOU COMPLETE THIS PROPOSAL OR TAKE THE FINAL EXAM (on Dec 11 @ 5:00 pm) In this proposal, you will ...
YOU COMPLETE THIS PROPOSAL OR TAKE THE FINAL EXAM (on Dec 11 @ 5:00 pm) In this proposal, you will pull together your Labs 4, 6,7, and 8 to develop a research proposal that addresses a question using qualitative or quantitative research methods. Your proposal should be about 8-12 pages long. In the instructions below, you can see that each section builds on one of your labs. Even though your proposal builds on several labs, the proposal should read as one coherent document. I expect you to revise each lab to incorporate our prior feedback and to fit it with the other sections. I recommend you tackle one section/step per day (~ 2 hours per day) Your proposal should consist of the following sections: Step 1: Introduction (~1 page) Guide your reader to your research topic. Explicitly state your research question. Explain why it is important to address this question. Step 2: Theory and Hypotheses ( ~ 2 pages) You need at least 4 peer-reviewed resources for this section. Build on Lab 4 for this section. Research problem: Briefly describe your dependent variable and its relevance.What is the current state of your outcome? How has it developed over the past years? You can talk about recent statistics, if available. By the end of this section, your reader should understand clearly what you thing-to-be-explained is. Empirical Evidence Critically discuss recent empirical evidence that helps you predict how your IV relates to your DV. Here, you should find recent (< 20 years) empirical papers. Some students will find research about their exact variables other students may need to search broader. Explain to the reader: What do previous studies suggest regarding how your IV will affect your DV? What type of evidence are the studies using to come to these conclusions? How do you evaluate the quality of the evidence? Do you think some studies did a better job than others? What is different about them? How do differences in study designs (potentially) affect the conclusions authors came to? If research comes to different conclusions, talk about these contradictions. Bonus point: Instead of just describing existing empirical evidence, identify an underlying theory explaining how your IV is related to your DV. For instance, if you are interested in how friendships in college affect academic performance, you could draw on social capital theory. You would briefly describe the key ideas of that theory and then provide empirical evidence that supports this theory. Hypothesis Address the following prompts in full sentences: What expectations do you have for your results based on existing studies? Explain your thinking to the reader in full sentences. Summarize your expectations by stating your research hypothesis. We typically highlight hypotheses using italic font and separate them from the above-mentioned paragraph. For example: … Based on the evidence above, I have the following expectation: Hypothesis 1: Women’s pay will be lower than men’s pay. Step 3: Data collection method (~1-2 pages) Build on Lab 6 for this section. What data collection method will you use to answer your research question? You can chose from qualitative interview, survey, experiment, or secondary data / social artifacts Define your data collection method. Write as if the reader is unfamiliar with different research methods and explain what your method is. Use the textbook to define your method and list the 3 key features of this method we discussed in class. Explain WHY this method is appropriate for your question. What is your research goal and how does this method help you accomplish that goal? Use our decision tree. Critically evaluate your data collection method by discussing its main advantages and disadvantages? Use the textbook and class materials to identify pros and cons Step 4: Participants and Sample (~1-2 pages)Build on Lab 7 for this section. What is your targeted population? Why is this population appropriate? What is your sampling strategy (e.g. simple random, stratified random, cluster, convenience, purposive, or snowball)? Define your strategy using the textbook & class materials. Explain WHY this sampling strategy is appropriate for your data collection method. Use our textbook, lecture slide, and decision tree. If you had to do this study tomorrow: How exactly would you compile your sampling frame (for probability samples) / How exactly would you start recruitment for non-probability samples. Be specific here! Step 5: Conceptualization and Operationalization (~1-2 pages / slides)Build on Lab 8 for this section. For your dependent and independent variables: Provide a conceptual definition for each using scholarly sources. Provide at least 2 measures/ indicators for each of your IV and DV. Depending on your data collection method (DCM) be sure to review how to ask open-ended question / construct a proper questionnaire: if your DCM = survey: Develop 2 close-ended questions with the complete set of answer options if your DCM = qualitative interview: Develop 2 open-ended questions if you are using another DCM (secondary data / experiment): Explain in detail how you would measure the outcome Critically evaluate your measurement strategy by discussing advantages and disadvantages. Note: Your description of your measures needs to be detailed enough that I could replicate your study. If you are adopting items from previous studies, be sure to cite them and explain how you changed the measures. Step 6: References (~ 1+ page)Please list all your references. You are free to choose your citation style as long as you are consistent and provides all important reference information (authors, names, titles, publishers/ journals, vol/ issue, page number). I strongly recommend using citation software such as Zotero What you need to hand in: Paper (~8-12 pages)
