Discussion: Research Proposal  Paper

Discussion: Research Proposal  Paper

Discussion: Research Proposal  Paper

For this course, you’ll be building one final academic research paper to highlight the wealth of information you learned. As part of your degree plan, you were asked to concentrate in several areas. Your research paper must address a profession-related issue from at least two discipline perspectives. These disciplines come from courses you’ve taken either as electives or concentrations. Examples of disciplines are: Psychology, Sociology, Government, History, Computer Science, Business, Literature, Economics, and Criminal Justice.

In developing your topic, think of something you are passionate about. For example, a nursing student might be interested in work conditions; specifically – why do nurses experience burnout. The student might interweave Psychology and Business – and write a paper about “The effects of overtime on nursing burnout”. Needless to say – the critical thinking aspect of this course begins with this assignment. You are tasked with coming up with a topic that creatively intertwines multiple disciplines throughout the course.

For this week, you will prepare your research proposal. The purpose of the research proposal is to demonstrate that you have done enough preliminary reading/research in the topic of interest to develop a plan for your research. Your proposal needs to build a convincing case for your research as a viable project to be accomplished within the available time and resources of this course. The proposal becomes the first section of your final research paper.

The proposal is the most important document that you submit as part of the research process. It sets out the central issues or questions that you intend to address. It identifies the two disciplines of study within which your research falls, referring to the current state of knowledge and any recent debates on the topic. It gives you an opportunity to demonstrate your ability to communicate complex ideas clearly, concisely and critically.

The elements of the research proposal are:

Title

Introduction (1-2 paragraphs)

Statement of the Problem (1 paragraph)

Purpose of the Study (1 paragraph)

Research Questions

Study Significance (1 paragraph)

Conclusion

References (3-4)

After your introduction, your work needs to be organized under the headings: Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the Study, Research Questions, Study Significance and Conclusion. Your completed assignment should be written third person and should be 3 pages in length (not including title page and references). Your assignment should use APA style formatting.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.