Research proposal components: 1) Introduction - Basic background information on your topic - Why the question you are investigating is interesting and important - Provide a statement of the problem you are attempting to address and a basic outline of your paper as a whole 2) Problem Statement - Presents not only the problem you will address, but also the hypotheses that you will consider Hypotheses - statements that researchers construct for the purpose of testing whether or not a certain relationship exists between two factors 3) Methodology - Explain the research methods you are going to use to investigate your topic and to test the hypotheses that you have formulated - For example, will you conduct interviews, use statistical analysis, rely upon previous research studies, or some combination of all of these methodological approaches? 4) Literature review (use at least five sources – you would normally use many more) - Do this first before the above - Reading and analyzing what other researchers have written on your topic before going on to do research of your own. Why? - Someone else may have had similar ideas and have already done research to test them. - You don''t repeat, but rather learn from, work that has already been done - Demonstrate the soundness of your hypotheses and methodology - You will need to indicate how you have borrowed from and/or improved upon the ideas of others - If you refer to what others have researched on your topic, you will have established a frame of reference – this allows others to understand the full significance of your research results - Discusses published information in a particular subject area - sometimes within a certain time period. - Can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. A summary is a recap of the important information, A synthesis is a re-organization of the information. - Possibly gives a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations. - Or it might trace the intellectual progression of the field including major debates. - May evaluate the sources and advise on the most pertinent or relevant. Technical Details: Due: 12/1/08 Length: 3-5 pages 12 pt standard – you can emphasize headings slightly Double Spaced No more than 2 inch margins Cover page Name, Date, course title, Proposal title Style – academic – no first person – write effectively Citations – MLA or Chicago style (or other proper form)