Begin by reviewing general works on the general topic you wish to choose (Encyclopedias, Books, News articles).
Ensure that your topic is rooted in the science of administration (has to do with a policy, program, or management/ administrative issue)
Write down the components of the problem:
a. Tips: these can be facts, general information, statistics.
Identify what agencies (public and others) are involved with dealing with the issue.
Identify the policies or regulations that govern these agencies’ actions and operations.
List some keywords that can help you in your Data Base search. Use the Step-by step guide too!
Identify about 30-35 peer-reviewed articles and once you have that list, skim it to about 12-15.
This way, you will only keep the most relevant sources!
Tip: In order to pare down your list of sources, do a summary review of the abstracts
and titles. This way you will be a bit more familiar with the content of the articles and can decipher good sources (original research studies) from weaker ones (like informed comment, editorials, literature reviews or theoretical works that may not be as relevant).
Look at the journal’s names: ensure that you only include sources that are related to policy, management or public administration. Other disciplines’ sources should be few, if any.
Make an outline of the 1-page topic description: a few bullet points of the points and components you wish to address
Begin writing: Define and discuss the general topic. It is your GENERAL RESEARCH PROBLEM
Focus on the main features of this issue: In layman terms, in what way does this relate to the
science of public administration?
Propose up to three tentative research questions.
a. Make them neutral, not leading. No yes/no questions. No prospective questions (i.s. what would happen, what could happen if)
12. Do not forget to attach your sources list and your keywords to your 1-p topic proposal.
Additional tips:
Write using a neutral (descriptive) tone. Avoid prescriptions of value-loaded assertions. Only
define the general problem and ask a relevant question based off what description you
proposed for the research problem.
Try to coin/identify some of the research gaps regarding this domain of knowledge. Research
gaps are areas where prior works fall short, where there are remaining practical problems (issues are unresolved, or worsening) or areas of contention or tensions (i.e. weak conclusions, poor methodology, contradictory findings, etc.
We will be looking only at the suitability of the topic, and the relevance of your sources at this time. You will still have a chance to realign your question, but we suggest you read your sources in the weeks leading up to your enrollment in the Graduate project.
N. B. you do not need to use in-text citations at this time, but in the thesis, you will have to use the APA format in order to indicate where you found the information. Thus, although not mandatory, we invite you to start using the author-year format in this assignment.
Topic/ General Title:
Example of a proposal
General description of the research problem (2-3 paragraphs (300 words)
Tentative research question(s):
Keywords (important concepts related to the topic):
List of references: (15 sources should be listed here) – list alphabetically, using APA format.
