A Format for Research Proposals
by Jeffrey Stern, Graduate Student, Program in Social Networks, School of Social Sciences, University of California Irvine. This advice is at http://eclectic.ss.uci.edu/~jstern/ Jeffrey Stern offers these simple and straightforward set of considerations for a student preparing to submit a research proposal: Abstract A paragraph summarizing your topic of research, who or what will be the object of data collection, how the data will be collected, how it will be analyzed, and what results you expect (possible outcomes). The Problem "What problem do I want to address or what question(s) do I want to answer?" - Elaborate on the variables and their relationships. Background to the Problem "Why is this problem or question important?" "Who else has worked on this or similar problems?" "What methods were used?" "What were the results or conclusions of previous research?" - In this section, show the relevance of your research t...