writing a research proposal communication research week 4
TRANSCRIPT
Writing a research proposal
Communication Research
Week 4
Communication Research 2
What is a research proposal? A research proposal aims to introduce your
reader or supervisor to the proposed purpose and direction of a research project you are planning with the purpose of persuading them that the research will be worthwhile.
The process is important as it can help you determine your focus, clarify what is involved in your project and plan its development.
Communication Research 3
The Context
The Research Proposal is the document you will present to plead your case for funds for your research project.
You will probably use the development of your research proposal to refine details of your proposed project.
Communication Research 4
The Proposal document
The information needs to be argued well, presented in a formal yet familiar style and structure, and with no fat.
Write a tightly organised and convincing proposal.
Expect it to be 1500 – 2500 words.
Communication Research 5
How is it set out?
Often as a report or memo report eg
Uses headings and subheadings and a numbering system to guide the reader
Uses page numbers, includes a bibliography and an appendix for supplementary material
TO:
FROM:
DATE:
SUBJECT:
Communication Research 6
Introduction 1 – Topic & problem The research topic formulates a problem that
is worthy of research
The topic should be: stated clearly in one or two sentences framed as a research question or hypothesis framed as a problem or question in need of
an answer The topic provides the pivot or focus
Communication Research 7
The Research Question
Research is about finding answers to questions in order to discover new knowledge
The most difficult part of the project is deciding what research question to ask
Communication Research 8
The next logical question
“The formulation of a problem might be more difficult than its solution.” … Albert Einstein
Topic of interest
Literature review
Next logical question
Literature search
Research question
Communication Research 9
Developing the research question
Write down lots of possible arrangements of the question
Many of them won’t lead you anywhere, but eventually you will come up with something that fits your requirements
In particular, it will follow from the research you’ve been reading
Communication Research 10
Introduction 2 – Context Your research topic needs to be located in its
context and background In sketching this background, you need to show
how and why this topic is important and why it is worth researching
This can be done by: Contextualizing the research problem – how does it
arise? Outlining its significance – what will be the outcomes
and for whom? Referring to key issues that are associated with the
topic
Communication Research 11
Introduction 3 – Background Background can be provided in several ways.
These might include: A brief overview or history of the problem or
issue using examples or statistics in support A theoretical overview of the issue A brief description of the context in which the
problem has occurred An overview or analysis of your position or
assumptions on the issue
Communication Research 12
Introduction 4 – Literature review All research should be contextualized in terms
of relevant scholarly or academic literature related to or around the problem or topic
The literature may not refer to the problem exactly but may explore similar or related issues or other research that sheds light on the problem
The purpose is to demonstrate that you are familiar with other bodies of research around your topic
Communication Research 13
Literature Review
Many researchers argue their perspectives through the literature review
The best researchers attempt to make their hypotheses evolve out of the literature search
Communication Research 14
The Literature Search The literature review explores relevant
research, and hypotheses evolve from past research
The literature is usually found in a search that is carefully directed by a desire to research a particular question
What happens next is determined from studying the literature
Communication Research 15
Using scholarly databases
Communication Research 16
Searching
1. Use your topic as your search term to search scholarly databases and library catalogues for papers that will support your research
2. Formulate some more specific search terms. The more closely the search term matches the area that you want to research, the more likely it is that the hits will be useful
Communication Research 17
Keep searching
Don’t get sidetracked into reading the papers at this stage – just keep searching until you’ve found some papers
You will want a lot of papers – maybe 30 or so – because you will probably throw half of them away in the next stage, when you filter out those that will not be useful to your research project
Communication Research 18
Filtering the research documents
1. Display the article in your browser. Select the whole document, then Copy it to the Windows clipboard
2. Open Microsoft Word and paste the document into Word
3. Use Word’s ‘Find’ feature (in the Edit menu) to look for your search term
Communication Research 19
In each paper …
What specific question is being asked? How does it address the question? How convincing are the results? What aspects of the research question
remain unanswered? What is the next logical question?
Communication Research 20
Filtering the research documents
The context in which your search term is used and the number of times it’s used give you a good indication of whether that document will be useful in your research.
If you decide to use it, save the document and move on.
If you have less than 12 papers you need to keep looking.
Communication Research 21
Fictional example – Literature Review Smith and Brown (2001) reported SMS usage against telephone and face-
to-face communication and separated their data by gender preferences. In contrast, Zhou et al (2003) showed that while many people readily accept the use of SMS as a dating communication tool, many people of the 25-40 age group, and women in particular, oppose it. Harries (2002) suggested that the opposition is related to the unromantic nature of SMS and Norris (2002) showed a belief that SMS is considered insufficient for the business of finding a mate for long term cohabitation and reproduction. Jones et al (2003) also reported SMS dating across age groups. Cruikshank and Johnson (2001) said that arranging dates by SMS was readily accepted by 83% of their female respondents and 87% of male respondents. Findings were corroborated by Stuart (2004) and Nicholson (2005) but with less detail. Henriks et al (2003) found that respondents in the 16-24 age group and those over 40 readily accepted SMS as a dating tool, while respondents in the 25-40 age group opposed it. Other studies (Findus et al (2003), Horace and Fawn (2002) and Halley et al (2003)) corroborate their findings, but few respondents made any mention of ending relationships by SMS, leading to our research question:Is it acceptable to end a relationship by SMS message?
The research will attempt to differentiate responses by gender and age.
Communication Research 22
Method
A detailed description of the research methods
you intend to develop or employ and a
justification of why you have chosen them. You
should describe …
Exactly how you intend to conduct the research – eg a
survey that will be distributed to 100 randomly selected
people between the period of x to y 2005
Research instrument – eg 20 question survey
comprising a selection of open and closed questions
Communication Research 23
Method
The timeframe of the research How you plan to analyse the data to address
the research question Any problems or issues that you anticipate in
collecting and analyzing the data What ethical issues might be encountered
and how do you plan to address these?
Communication Research 24
Other parts include …
Research plan and timeline (use a table with real dates)
Conclusions Bibliography – listed alphabetically using APA
style (see style guide on CR homepage) Appendix – additional or supplementary
material such as a draft survey or draft observation schedule
Communication Research 25
References/Bibliography
Make sure all the references in your literature review are included and set out correctly.
Use the APA referencing system
If in doubt, check here:http://www.psychwww.com/resource/apacrib.htm
Communication Research 26
Appendix 1
Your appendix should contain a copy of the Protocol Application Form that you would normally submit to the UWS Human Research Ethics Committee.
http://www.uws.edu.au/about/adminorg/devint/ors/ethics/humanethics
Communication Research 27
Appendix 2
Another appendix should contain a copy of your draft survey (if you plan to use this method), observation schedule etc
This demonstrates that you have thought the research question through, and you have created a set of questions that address the research question properly.
Communication Research 28
And now … write the proposal Use Times for your body text. Set the size to 12
point and 1½ space Use Arial bold for your headings, and set the size
to 14 point Don’t underline anything except the obligatory
underlining of URLs. Use paragraph space (6pt) between your
paragraphs (some journals may prefer indents so in these cases follow the style guide. As a general ‘rule of thumb’, I prefer paragraph space)
Communication Research 29
Spelling and Grammar
Don’t use the grammar checker. Don’t rely on the spelling checker.
Use a dictionary. A real, hard-copy one, with pages made of paper.
Many online dictionaries are good, but Usually don’t give the meaning of the word, so you
can have the wrong spelling. Might be ‘Standard English’ (whatever that is).