Guidelines for the Proposal
Once your supervisor is assigned in March, you should work on writing a research proposal of around 2,500 words. The purpose of the proposal is to describe your proposed research in some detail so that your supervisor can provide further guidance. You can later make some changes to what you propose (e.g., narrowing down the research question based on your supervisor’s advice), but it is very important that you take the proposal step seriously. The more thorough the proposal, the better the feedback that supervisors can provide.
The proposal should:
* State the working title of the research – what is the dissertation about? The title is likely to be revised as the research progresses, but not radically changed (i.e., not a new topic).
* Outline the intended aims of the dissertation – what will the dissertation seek to accomplish and what contribution will it make? You are not expected to have an answer to your research question at this stage. However, you should be able to state why your intended research is worthwhile, i.e., why it offers a contribution to our knowledge / understanding.
* State the research question to be addressed by the dissertation (refer to the online dissertation training module on writing a research question).
* Provide a brief (one or two paragraphs) discussion of the context and background to the research question, thereby offering a rationale for undertaking the research. In so doing, explain why the research question is of theoretical, practical, and/or human importance. For example, if you were to study ‘how can the micro-targeting practices of campaigns affect voting behaviour in referenda?’, you might argue that it has theoretical importance because studies about micro-targeting so far have focused on national campaigns and mostly on the US (linking it to the literature review, below); practical importance because of the potential implications for regulation; and human importance because of the crucial role of elections in democracy and how micro-targeting is related to issues of electoral fairness, manipulation, and privacy.
* Summarize some of the relevant research literature. At the very least you should demonstrate that you have some knowledge of which theories or bodies of literature you will employ. How do they relate to your research question and how you intend to approach it?
* Discuss the research design and methods that you intend to use. How will these enable you to answer your research question?
* If you are conducting research on human subjects (e.g., questionnaires, interviews, observations), outline any ethical considerations relevant to the research.
* Provide an indicative outline and summary of dissertation components. This is important to help you think which topics you will cover and in which order, and for your supervisor to provide feedback on it. So, there is no point on just listing the obvious (e.g., introduction, literature review, data, conclusion). Give it some thought and try to work out what might go where; even if you don’t get it quite right, the supervisor will be able to provide you with much more useful feedback that way.
* Include a bibliography of all references.
Guidelines for the Proposal
Once your supervisor is assigned in March, you should work on writing a research proposal of around 2,500 words. The purpose of the proposal is to describe your proposed research in some detail so that your supervisor can provide further guidance. You can later make some changes to what you propose (e.g., narrowing down the research question based on your supervisor’s advice), but it is very important that you take the proposal step seriously. The more thorough the proposal, the better the feedback that supervisors can provide.
The proposal should:
* State the working title of the research – what is the dissertation about? The title is likely to be revised as the research progresses, but not radically changed (i.e., not a new topic).
* Outline the intended aims of the dissertation – what will the dissertation seek to accomplish and what contribution will it make? You are not expected to have an answer to your research question at this stage. However, you should be able to state why your intended research is worthwhile, i.e., why it offers a contribution to our knowledge / understanding.
* State the research question to be addressed by the dissertation (refer to the online dissertation training module on writing a research question).
* Provide a brief (one or two paragraphs) discussion of the context and background to the research question, thereby offering a rationale for undertaking the research. In so doing, explain why the research question is of theoretical, practical, and/or human importance. For example, if you were to study ‘how can the micro-targeting practices of campaigns affect voting behaviour in referenda?’, you might argue that it has theoretical importance because studies about micro-targeting so far have focused on national campaigns and mostly on the US (linking it to the literature review, below); practical importance because of the potential implications for regulation; and human importance because of the crucial role of elections in democracy and how micro-targeting is related to issues of electoral fairness, manipulation, and privacy.
* Summarize some of the relevant research literature. At the very least you should demonstrate that you have some knowledge of which theories or bodies of literature you will employ. How do they relate to your research question and how you intend to approach it?
* Discuss the research design and methods that you intend to use. How will these enable you to answer your research question?
* If you are conducting research on human subjects (e.g., questionnaires, interviews, observations), outline any ethical considerations relevant to the research.
* Provide an indicative outline and summary of dissertation components. This is important to help you think which topics you will cover and in which order, and for your supervisor to provide feedback on it. So, there is no point on just listing the obvious (e.g., introduction, literature review, data, conclusion). Give it some thought and try to work out what might go where; even if you don’t get it quite right, the supervisor will be able to provide you with much more useful feedback that way.
* Include a bibliography of all references.