RESEARCH PROJECT PROPOSAL GUIDELINES

RESEARCH PROJECT PROPOSAL GUIDELINES

Your proposal should consist of the following:

1.Statement of research question – Very clearly state what you will be studying. This would be a brief sentence on the topic your group choose.

2.Background/Statement of the Problem/Significance of the Project – Be succinct. Clearly support your statement with documentation and references, and include a review of the literature that supports the need for your research or creative endeavor. A discussion of present understanding and/or state of knowledge concerning the question/problem or a discussion of the context of the scholarly or creative work. This section presents and summarizes the problem you intend to solve and your solution to that problem. What is the question that you want to explore in your research and why is this an interesting and important question? In thinking about the significance, try to take the position of an educated newspaper reader. If she or he were to see an article about your research in the paper, how would you explain the importance of your project? **For most proposals, this section will have references.

3.Project Design – Design and describe a work plan for the rest of the semester. This may include use of population datasets (American Fact Finder; IPUMS) or other methods of data gathering (interviews, surveys, or observations). This section of the proposal should explain the details of the proposed plan. How will you go about exploring your research question? What will be your methods?

4.Anticipated results- This section includes an interpretation and explanation of results as related to your statement/research question. For example, your interview data or census data can answer which part of your research question.

• References – You can use any form of citation methods. References need to have at least 3-5 items. Reference list is not included in the 4-5 page limit.