Mnemonic devices for Geology. Guidelines on writing a research proposal. By Matthew McGranaghan This is a work in progress, intended to organize my thoughts on the process of formulating a proposal. If you have any thoughts on the contents, or on the notion of making this available to students, please share them with me. Thanks.
Introduction This is a guide to writing M.A. research proposals. The same principles apply to dissertation proposals and to proposals to most funding agencies. Proposal Writing Proposal writing is important to your pursuit of a graduate degree. The objective in writing a proposal is to describe what you will do, why it should be done, how you will do it and what you expect will result. A good thesis proposal hinges on a good idea. Proposals help you estimate the size of a project. Different Theses, Similar Proposals This guide includes an outline that looks like a "fill-in the blanks model" and, while in the abstract all proposals are similar, each proposal will have its own particular variation on the basic theme.
The Introduction Read. Writing a Research Proposal. What is a proposal? A proposal is a request for support of sponsored research, instruction, or extension projects. Good proposals quickly and easily answer the following questions: What do you want to do, how much will it cost, and how much time will it take? How does the proposed project relate to the sponsor's interests? What difference will the project make to: your university, your students, your discipline, the state, the nation, or any other concerned parties? What has already been done in the area of your project? How do you plan to do it? These questions will be answered in different ways and receive different emphases depending on the nature of the proposed project and on the agency to which the proposal is being submitted. Types of proposals Solicited proposals Submitted in response to a specific solicitation issued by a sponsor. Unsolicited proposals Preproposals Requested when a sponsor wishes to minimize an applicant's effort in preparing a full proposal.
Parts of a proposal. Develop a Research Proposal - Sample Proposals. Sample Research Proposals Review the following sample research proposals. As you review each, consider how each element in the proposal is described and explained by the researcher, consider what is included, in what order it is shared, and how elements are combined. Also consider what is omitted, and/or what new elements are included that have not previously been studied in class. Lastly, consider how the researcher composed the proposal with an audience in mind, and what elements of the proposal work to persuade that audience. As you review the proposals, select ones that are in your field of study AND ones that are of interest to you.
Keep track of and reflect on what you have using Reflection: Reviewing Sample Proposals. Sample research proposals > Faculty of Education: The University of Western Australia. Lec03_resch_prop. Google Scholar. SciFinder - Sign In. GeoRef. BibMe: Fast & Easy Bibliography Maker - MLA, APA, Chicago, Turabian - Free. Boolean operators - Database Search Tips. Use AND in a search to: narrow your results tell the database that ALL search terms must be present in the resulting records example: cloning AND humans AND ethics The purple triangle in the middle of the Venn diagram below represents the result set for this search. It is a small set using AND, the combination of all three search words.
Be aware: In many, but not all, databases, the AND is implied. For example, Google automatically puts an AND in between your search terms. Though all your search terms are included in the results, they may not be connected together in the way you want.For example, this search: college students test anxiety is translated to: college AND students AND test AND anxiety. The words may appear individually throughout the resulting records.You can search using phrases to make your results more specific.For example: "college students" AND "test anxiety". How to read and understand a scientific paper: a guide for non-scientists « Violent metaphors. Update (1/3/18) I’ve been overwhelmed with requests for the shorter guide, and the email address below no longer works. So I’ve uploaded a copy of the guide for anyone to download and share here: How to read and understand a scientific article.
Please feel free to use it however you wish (although I’d appreciate being credited as the author). I apologize to everyone who emailed me and didn’t get a response! If you would like to let me know who you are and what you’re using it for in the comments below, I’d love to hear! Update (8/30/14): I’ve written a shorter version of this guide for teachers to hand out to their classes. If you’d like a PDF, shoot me an email: jenniferraff (at) utexas (dot) edu. Last week’s post (The truth about vaccinations: Your physician knows more than the University of Google) sparked a very lively discussion, with comments from several people trying to persuade me (and the other readers) that their paper disproved everything that I’d been saying.
“Be skeptical. Statistics: Null hypothesis. Null Hypothesis (H0) In many cases the purpose of research is to answer a question or test a prediction, generally stated in the form of hypotheses (-is, singular form) -- testable propositions. Examples: The statistical procedure for testing a hypothesis requires some understanding of the null hypothesis. Think of the outcome (dependent variable). Any observed differences in the dependent variable (outcome) must be due to sampling error (chance) the independent (predictor) variable does NOT make a difference The symbol H0 is the abbreviation for the null hypothesis, the small zero stands for null. Oddly enough, we are in a sense betting against our research judgment. Generally, when comparing or contrasting groups (samples), the null hypothesis is that the difference between means (averages) = 0. Research Hypothesis (H1) The research hypothesis (or hypotheses -- there may be more than one) is our working hypothesis -- our prediction, or what we expect to happen.
Self-test #1.