Draft of Capstone Project Section 1: IntroductioN

The purpose of this assignment is to draft the introductory components of the applied research proposal. By completing this assignment, you will demonstrate competency in the identification of a viable research topic and the development of a problem statement, purpose statement, and research questions.

Note: Topics related to the following are not approved for this course:

• Use of social media in disasters
• Vulnerable populations as participants, which includes but is not limited to the
  following:
  • Victims of abuse, underage or non-English speaking participants,
    human trafficking victims, pregnant women, homeless individuals,
    prisoners
• Victims of crime as participants
• The military
• State and federal agencies and organizations
• The general public as participants

You are required to obtain professor approval for your proposed topic, study site, and participant population.

For this assignment, you will draft Section 1 of the Capstone Project. After you have received topic approval from your professor, draft the following from Section 1 of the Capstone Project template. Note that Section 1 must be 3–5 pages (900 - 1,500 words) in length and include the following:

• Introduction: Develop an introduction to the research proposal. Identify the study topic/problem and where the issue is occurring, highlighting key information and examples to illustrate the applied research problem.
• Background: Provide a background discussion of the topic to be addressed. Discuss the problem that is occurring and the homeland security or emergency management organization where the study will take place. This section educates the reader regarding the topic. It provides a historical, social, and theoretical context related to the problem (thus, you may want to organize this section using these three level 2 headings). This section must provide the reader with an overview of the topic, problem, and the organization where the research will take place. Include citations from scholarly sources to support your content.
• Problem Statement: Develop a concise problem statement (one or two paragraphs) that clearly states the problem to be addressed by conducting the research. This section must begin with, “The problem to be addressed is…” Include citations demonstrating that the problem exists, and that research is needed to address the problem. State how the proposed study will be conducted: What the problem is, why it is a problem, where specifically the problem is occurring, who/what will be studied, and over what time (when) will the study be conducted. The study must meet the SMART criteria: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Introduce the general problem needing research, including relevant/recent statistics on the issue. Summarize the recent research on the problem. Explain how/why the current research is deficient or falls short to address the problem. Include citations from scholarly sources to support your content.

• Purpose Statement: This section must begin with “The purpose of this study is…” Describe the purpose of the research (exploration, description, explanation, and/or evaluation) and the study objectives. Note that the purpose statement does not state the problem or issue being studied, but rather what the study will accomplish if conducted. Identify the problem and/or gap in practice, identify site/setting and stakeholders, and discuss how the proposed research can help formulate a solution to address the problem. Although brief in nature, the problem of the study and the purpose statement are two very important aspects of the proposal. These statements identify the goal of the research and support the importance of the study. All preceding writing within your proposal should funnel into the problem and purpose statements, and all proceeding aspects of the proposal should align with, support, and further expand upon the problem and purpose statements.

• Research Questions/Hypotheses: Discuss how the research questions were developed for the study. Note that research questions must be open-ended and not answerable with a yes/no response. The proposed research questions should be derived from the problem and purpose statements. A well-written research question is feasible, clear, significant, and ethical. For quantitative studies, there must be a corresponding hypothesis for each research question. Introduce the research questions (and hypotheses if applicable) and then list them as follows: “The following research [and hypotheses] questions were developed to guide the study…” If hypotheses are included, they must state a relationship (predicted outcome) between the variables to be measured and analyzed.
  • RQ1:
  • [H1:]
  • RQ2:
  • [H2:]
  • RQ3:
  • [H3]:

• Summary: Develop a summary of Section 1, which comprise the introduction to the proposed study. Highlight the main points from the previous sections and develop a transition into the next section, which is the review of literature.

Write in a scholarly and objective tone, avoiding the use of first person, personal pronouns, contractions, and colloquial or conversational language. Avoid the use of direct quotations. This assignment requires the use of the assigned readings and outside research. Use citations from the assigned readings and three additional scholarly, peer-reviewed sources throughout your assignment to support your content and credit sources of information and ideas.