Preparing Research Proposals and Reports

1. Preparing Research Proposals and Reports Chapter Twenty-Five

2. Preparing Research Proposals and Reports Chapter Twenty-Five

3. What is a Research Proposal? It is a written plan of a study. It spells out in detail what the researcher intends to do. It permits others to learn about the intended research and to offer suggestions for improving the study. It also helps the researcher clarify what needs to be done and to avoid unintentional problems.

4. The Major Sections of a Research Proposal There are four topics addressed in this area: The purpose of the study The justification for the study The research question/hypothesis, including variables to be investigated The definition of terms

7. Purpose of the Study The purpose states succinctly what the researcher proposes to investigate. This should be a concise statement, providing a framework to which details are added later. Clarification of the field of interest should be considered here.

8. Justification of the Study The researcher must make clear why this particular study is important to investigate. He or she must present an argument for the study. A good justification should also include any specific implications that follow if relationships are identified. There could be an implication that current methods are not good enough, however, this should be made explicit.

9. Research Question or Hypothesis The particular question to be investigated should be stated here. Favoring hypotheses will help clarify and become a strategy point. It should be clearly stated as concisely as possible. There should be any inference made if a hypothesis is well-stated.

10. Definitions All key terms should be defined. The researcher�s task is to make the definitions as clear as possible. Sometimes, terms will have to be modified to fit the present study. While it is probably impossible to eliminate all ambiguity, the clearer the terms used, the fewer the difficulties that will be encountered with the study.

11. Background and Review of Literature This may be a lengthy section since it is a partial summary of previous work related to the focus of the study. The researcher should demonstrate a familiarity with previous research and understand the relevance of the study being planned. A major weakness of many literature reviews is that they cite references without indicating their implications for the planned study.

12. Procedures The procedures section includes discussion of the following: Research Design Sample Instrumentation Procedural detail Internal validity Data analysis

13. Results/Findings Results of a study can be presented only in a research report. Results are usually not found in the proposal section. This section is found near the end of the research report and constitutes the description of what kind of analyses were performed. The data are revealed by the form of statistical analysis that was applied to the data, and any significance that was observed.

14. Discussion The discussion section of a report presents the author�s interpretation of what the results imply for theory and/or practice. Researchers place their results in a broader context. Here, difficulties as well as limitations of the study are noted, and suggestions for future considerations are included. Results and Discussion sections should be kept separate, since the Discussion section goes beyond the data.

15. General Rules to Consider A research report should be written as clearly and concisely as possible. Research reports are always written in the past tense and free from jargon. A style manual (APA manual) should be consulted before beginning the report. Once the report is completed, it is a good idea to have a thesis formatter/editor check for style and grammar. Computerized programs have made research reports easier to complete, due to self-correcting programs.