Overview
Your final assignment for this class is a research proposal.When thinking about how
and what to write, imagine that you are applying for funding to conduct the study, and that the best proposal will win the money. You want your project to be clear, succinct, relevant, and feasible. You can continue the research question/lit review that you used in Assignment 1 if you want to. If you do, be sure to incorporate the feedback I gave you in that assignment to revise/improve. You may also choose to start from scratch. If you do, please run your research question by me first so I can make sure it is feasible within the word count and the time you have. Your research proposal should contain the following elements: Introduction: Bring the reader into your research. Literature review, including research question: Incorporate feedback from Assignment 1 if applicable, and also think of ways to be more concise in your wording so that you have enough room to do the rest of the assignment. Be ruthless: if you can say something in five words rather than 10, do it—this is a useful skill, especially in the intelligence community! Methods and Data Collection: How will you collect your data? What does your data look like (interview transcripts, survey results, field notes)? Be specific: if doing interviews, how many, and how long will they last? What questions might you ask? If field work, how will you gain entrée to the population? How long will you conduct the field work? What ethical issues will you face, and how will you address them? Try to think of every possible decision you would have to make here and address it. Proposed Analysis: What will you do with your data once it’s collected? How will you make sense of it? Conclusion: Why does this research matter? What are possible future directions the research might take? Your ballpark word count should be 1500 hundred words, but no more than 2000 words with proper margins and citations (APA style). Try to emulate the research papers you have read that you’ve liked the most/thought were the best-organized/communicated the most effectively.