Research Methods Assignment – Structured Research Proposal
After completing this module you should complete a research proposal form (using the attached form above) to investigate a topic in a subject area relevant to your course. Your proposal should be guided by the methodological issues covered in the Research Methods module.
You are required to produce a structured research proposal, ensuring that you complete all elements of the attached Research Proposal assignment form. It is critically important that you carefully read all of this guidance before you start this assignment.
Your proposal should emphasise how you intend to answer whatever research question you formulate – you should, therefore, devote most of your answer to theoretical and methodological issues. Please do not make the mistake of attempting to carry out a piece of empirical research and answer the research question within the proposal. Rather, you should provide a detailed and feasible account of what you would need to do in order to answer your research question, if you decided to pursue this research project for your dissertation.
Additional Guidance
If you are planning to research this topic for your dissertation, do ensure that it is feasible, and can be completed in approximately five months, part time study. If you are not planning to undertake this proposed research for your dissertation, please make this clear in the proposal, and be sure your proposal provides a clear understanding of the resources that will be required to conduct the research, were the proposal to be accepted and commissioned, for example. This is very important in assessing the feasibility and quality of practical planning in your submission.
Even if you are not considering this topic for your dissertation, it would still be useful to think of the research in terms of a dissertation-sized project with similar time constraints, otherwise you may find that you have insufficient word space to outline a larger project. Remember, the two biggest limitations to carrying out research are time and money – it is likely you will have little of both so take this into account when you are designing your research project. Also consider carefully the issue of access – how likely is it that either companies or individuals are going to let you see documents/data or speak to them? For instance, gaining access to prisoners, certainly in the UK, is extremely difficult and closely controlled by the Government – it is unlikely that permission will be given without a very long period of negotiation.
You must ensure that your proposal provides a concise ‘mini’ literature review to demonstrate your critical understanding of the subject area and previous research on this topic. You should try to discuss at least three previous pieces of research (Previous Research Findings section).
Do ensure that you demonstrate your understanding of social science research methods by providing supporting evidence from the research methods published literature (for your Research Methodology section). This is very important; you need to support and justify your chosen method and tools by referring to the academic literature.
You must ensure that you demonstrate ethical awareness and give sufficient thought to any ethical issues. It is very rare in primary research, particularly concerning issues relating to crime, risk and security that there are no ethical issues.
Do remember that, as with all assignments, you should pay careful attention to your use of language and grammar, sources and with your referencing.
RESEARCH METHOD ASSIGNMENT FORM
1). Introduction
This section should introduce the topic that you plan to research. You should detail the specific question you seek to answer (e.g. what is the nature of the relationship between CCTV installation and burglary reduction?) and set out a short list of clear aims and objectives.
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2). Previous Research Findings
You should provide a clear and detailed discussion of research that has previously been conducted in this area. You should outline their methods and research design and consider their findings.
Occasionally, you may plan to conduct research into a topic where little previous research has been conducted. If this is the case, you may need to widen your research parameters and you will need to find comparable research in either a closely related topic, or where methods used match your own. Do not simply repeat methods and findings, but ensure that you discuss these.
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3).Relevant Theoretical Perspectives/Framework
You should explain the perspective(s) that you will use to develop a theoretical framework to research and understand the problem and why you consider them to be most appropriate. You need to try to ensure that your proposed research is grounded in theory which will help you to structure and plan the research (as this will affect the research design, including your method(s) and how you analyse your findings). Looking at the theories and/or models that previous researchers in your topic area have used can help you with this. Note also that it is not always possible to find a theory that exactly matches your research problem. Therefore, you may need to take a more overarching view and look for theories that are relevant to the overall/general research topic area, rather than the specific research problem
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4). Research Methodology
You should outline at least two different types of research design that could be used for your proposed research. Each design should be feasible and it should be clear to the reader how the methods outlined in each design will enable you to achieve your overall research aim(s)There are often a number of different approaches that could be used to meet the overall aims and objectives of a research project so please consider the different ways in which you could research your chosen topic.
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Please enter Design 3 in below text box (optional)
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Please present your case for, and against, using each of these designs (supported by reference to the literature) in the below text box.*
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Please identify your preferred choice from the above possible designs, discuss your reasons for this and outline in detail the method(s) chosen in the below text box.*
You should outline the methods you propose to use (e.g. documentary evidence, questionnaires, interviews) and why you consider them to be most suitable for gathering the necessary information to address your research problem. Do ensure that you provide sufficient information and justification for your methods in this section regarding sampling, access, validity and reliability, and participant numbers, for example. It is vitally important that you make use of the extensive social science research methodology literature to explain the various methods available and to justify your choice. Not providing supporting references for this literature is likely to lead to you failing this assignment.
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5). Research Ethics
Please outline the ethical issues associated with your proposed research and what actions could be taken to address these. Ethics are an important consideration in research design and you should ensure that you have given sufficient thought to ethical issues. There are likely to be ethical issues relating to any type of primary research involving people, and also with certain types of documentary research. Again, ensure that you support this section with referenced evidence from the social research literature.
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6). Anticipated Problems
You should be able to anticipate problems in conducting your research and also be able to offer solutions as to ways of overcoming them (e.g. how to gain access to an appropriate sample).
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7). References
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