Proposal Content and Organization
Title Page: The title page contains four elements: running head, title, author name, and institutional affiliation. The title should indicate what will be examined in the proposed study, and the running head should be an abbreviated version of the title. The study variables should be included in both.
Abstract: The abstract starts on page two, and offers a brief, comprehensive summary of the contents of the proposal. It should make clear that the paper proposes research, as well as the purpose of the proposed research.
Literature Review: The literature review should start on page 3, and the paper title, as it appears on the title page, should be provided at the top. Your literature review should provide an argument justifying the testing of your hypothesis or hypotheses and should summarize previous research. It must incorporate research evidence from a minimum of 10 quantitative scholarly, peer reviewed, journal articles. The proposed hypothesis/ hypotheses must be explicitly stated at the end of the literature review.
Method: Decide on the best method for getting an answer to your hypothesis. Describe in detail what method you will use. Depending upon which method your study proposes, you will need to provide information about some or all of the following elements: participants (and sampling method), design (research design), procedure (applicable mainly for experiments, i.e., what were the procedures involved in administering the experiments, and each of the measures for your key variables (i.e., the ones in your hypotheses)–for example, if your hypothesis was: Attachment anxiety will be negatively related to relationship satisfaction, you would need to have a measure for attachment anxiety and relationship satisfaction (best and easiest to use previously established measures; do not invent your own).
*Tip: use published research that relies on the selected method as a guide to structuring the method section of your proposal, and see APA 6th or 7th for more information on the subsections of a method section.
References: References should be double-spaced, alphabetized, and consistent with APA 6th or 7th edition.
Format: Research proposals should be typed and double-spaced, using a standard 12-point font, with one-inch margins on all sides. The paper should be no longer than 10 pages, including a title page, abstract, and references, and conform to APA 6th or 7th guidelines.
To make sure you are following directions well and to get a better understanding of what I will be looking for as I grade you, see: Proposal Checklist (1).docx
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***Detailed suggestions for Writing the Literature Review portion of the proposal
A literature review for a quantitative research study makes an argument for testing a proposed hypothesis. Note that a literature review is not simply a recitation of sources. It is not a description of previous studies, what they did, and what they found. It is a synthesis of research evidence on a topic, and it offers an analysis of previous research as well as an explanation of how the proposed research will build on what has already been done. Tip: Use the literature review section in journal articles and the beginning of chapter 13 in the course text as exemplars.
Introduction (of the Problem/Study Rationale): A good introduction to a literature review will answer several questions in the first paragraph or two, and, by summarizing the relevant arguments and past research evidence, it will give the reader a firm sense of what is known about the topic and why the proposed study is warranted. It should provide an overview of the broader argument made in the body of the literature review; it should introduce the argument.
Body of Literature Review: The body of the literature review should then provide a more in-depth explanation of the argument for testing the proposed hypothesis. The purpose of a literature review is to explain how the question to be investigated fits into the larger picture and why you have approached the topic the way you have. You want to summarize and explain what research has been done on the topic, citing the sources as you present the research evidence. Explain how this past work fits together to warrant the testing of your proposed hypothesis. Your literature review should present a synthesis of previous research and lay the foundation for understanding your research and appreciating its value.
State Hypothesis Explicitly: The literature review should provide a clear description of how the hypothesis/ hypotheses is/are logically connected to previous research and should clearly develop the rationale for testing the proposed hypotheses. State your hypotheses explicitly at the end of the literature review.
*The methods section should follow the hypotheses. See above for how to write this portion.
