Your second paper assignment will require you to write a three (3) to five (5) page research proposal. For this assignment, please make sure to use the Neuman book, the videos and class notes, the content of the modules, and your own notes as resources for this assignment.
For this assignment, you have the choice of doing either a quantitative research proposal or a qualitative research proposal. DO NOT do both a quantitative and a qualitative research proposal! You must choose to do either a quantitative research proposal or a qualitative research proposal. Depending on your choice, you will need to fulfill one of the two sets of requirements below.
If you choose to do a quantitative research proposal, your instructions are as follows:
- Introduction (1 to 2 paragraphs long)
The introduction section will allow you to provide a brief overview of your research problem. You will need to discuss what topic you wish to investigate and why it is important to investigate your chosen topic in this section of your proposal.
- Problem Statement (1 paragraph)
The problem statement section will allow you to succinctly state who and/or what you will specifically examine as you conduct your research. You will also need to state a clear and precise research question that will guide your efforts in this section of the paper. Your research question must be empirically investigable.
III. Survey Design (2 to 4 paragraphs long)
You will need to accomplish the following in the survey design section of your proposal:
- Createfive survey questions that will allow you to gather the information that answers your research question. Refer to the Neuman book, the content of the modules, and your own notes for help on how to correctly design the survey question. With regard to the five survey questions, make sure that three of the five survey questions have a Likert response format, and two of the five survey questions have a yes/no response format.
- Explain how each of your five survey questions will gather the information that is needed to answer your research questions.
- Probability Sampling Strategy (1 to 2 paragraphs long)
In this section of the proposal, you will need to make an argument in support of your choice to use one of the five different probability data sampling methods to gather your sample (i.e., simple random sampling, systematic random sampling, stratified random sampling, multistage cluster sampling, random digit dialing). Make sure to also identify what population your sample will be drawn from.
- Data Collection Strategy (1 to 2 paragraphs long)
The data collection strategy section of the proposal will allow you to discuss how you plan to gather your data. Make sure to provide a justification concerning why you will either use a telephone survey, a face-to-face survey, or a self-administered survey (i.e., a mailed survey or an online survey) as your data gathering strategy.
- Ethical Considerations (1 to 2 paragraphs long)
The ethical considerations section will allow you to thoroughly discuss any and all ethical issues that are associated with your research proposal. As part of this discussion, you will need to explain how you plan to guarantee either anonymity or confidentiality of personal information to your research subjects. Make sure to also discuss the steps you will take to achieve either the anonymity of the collected data or the confidentiality of the collected data.
Regardless of which type of research proposal you choose to do, the technical instructions for your second paper assignment are as follows:
- Your completed paper should be a minimum of three (3) full pages, and no more than five (5) full pages. A full-page has original text all the way to the bottom of the page.
- Your paper must be double-spaced. You may use only Times Ner Romans. It must be 12-point font. Your paper must have a one-inch margin at the top, bottom, and sides of each page. Your paper must have page numbers. Your paper must have a title page. The title page must contain your name and a title for your project. Please be aware that the title page does not count as part of your overall page count. You must strictly adhere to these formatting requirements or you will lose points on your paper!
- The paper should be free of all grammatical errors and spelling errors. Be sure to check grammar, punctuation, and spelling before turning in your final project. Because you will be word-processing your paper, you will have access to a spell checker and a grammar checker. Therefore, make sure that there are no errors in grammar or spelling. If there are any grammatical errors and/or spelling errors, you will lose points on your paper.