a) Title of Proposal, Research Question and Aims
You should give your proposal a title and also identify a clear and precise research question. The workshop slides in session nine give an idea of some ways to come up with a suitable research topic and question. In doing this, it may be a good idea to define a certain group you’re focusing on (e.g. Roehampton students, students etc.), and a precise focus to what you’ll focus on with them e.g. trust in the police, fear of crime etc.
You should then split your research question up into 3 research aims i.e. points you aim to explore in your research which all feed into your main research question. So, continuing with the example above, you could have research aims like:
b) Literature Review
Your literature review should identify four relevant research studies and explain how they inform your research question and research aims.
Focus on two key things in the literature review: outlining some of the research studies’ main points/findings; and explaining what gaps these studies leave which your research will fill.
When it comes to filling these gaps, they should link to your overarching research question. You may also wish to link them to your aims more overtly. There are different ways you can do this. For example:
– (i) By explaining how the focus of your research is a little different from each of the four pieces of literature you review. For example, if one of the pieces of research you review is focused on trust in the police among the general population, you can state the gap you’re filling is by focusing on trust in the police amongst students specifically. If another piece of research you review has used quantitative methods, you can state the gap you’re filling is using qualitative methods. If another piece of research you review was conducted some years ago, you can state the gap you’re filling is looking at whether anything has changed since the piece was published etc.
– (ii) By reviewing literature which focuses on your research aims but not in the context of the group your proposal is based on and stating the gap your filling is a focus on this group. For example, continuing with the example above, by reviewing literature on trust in the police which examines gender, trust, and past experience but without a specific focus on students, and saying the gap you’re filling is looking at how these play out in the context of student trust in the police specifically – i.e. the group you’re focusing on.
– (iii) By reviewing literature which looks at your topic in general but which doesn’t look at your aims and saying the gap you’re filling is looking at these aims e.g. again, using the example above, reviewing literature which looks at trust in the police but which doesn’t cover gender, ethnicity, and direct experience, so you state these are the gaps you’re filling.
Just to be clear, the three above examples are only potential ways you can set out gap(s) you’re filling. In other words, you don’t have to follow them and can instead come up with an alternative way of setting out your gap(s).
c) Methodology
Your Methodology should describe what you intend to do and the methods you plan to use. You need to briefly outline your proposed sampling method, how you’d recruit participants, explain why the method you have chosen is appropriate for your research question, briefly mention your method of data analysis e.g. statistics using SPSS or thematic analysis using Word, and any problems you might encounter.
Your Methodology section is very similar to what you did for your portfolio. The only difference is that in your portfolios, you stated what you did, as you actually carried out research; in your proposals, you state what you would do, as you’re not carrying out any research.
d) Ethics
State how your research ensured it applied to core ethical principles of informed consent, anonymity etc., for which you should look at the ethics lecture.
Also state any issues here which might be likely to emerge and how you’d resolve them e.g. if you’re dealing with sensitive topics.
If your proposal is on a relatively uncontroversial topic, you don’t need as long on this section in comparison to someone doing a more controversial topic. You can therefore devote more words to other sections.
General advice
Even though you’re not carrying out any research for the proposal, when it comes to writing it, you can if you like write what you ‘will do.’ You can, however, also write what you ‘would do’. It’s up to you.
You can write in the first person e.g. ‘I will’ etc.
if there are any other academic journals or articles that relate to this topic please let me know before adding it to the paper.
-Also use direct quotations and in citations add page number.