Sociology 270 Spring 2019
Final Research Proposal
Your research proposal is a blueprint for a research project. Strong proposals will be thorough and
address all bulleted sections below using concepts from text, class lectures, discussion and materials
appropriately. Strong proposals will also be well written with good organization.
Please provide a hard copy of your proposal to me in class and submit an electronic copy in the drop
box on beach board. Do not include a title page.
All proposals should include the following sections and content:
Introduction (5 points) – Discuss your topic and its relevance for study. Relevance should be linked
to why it is important for society. Provide citations for your claims in this section. Purpose of your
research. Provide a short summary of your key research question and hypothesis, your methods and
data. Finally, provide the reader with a sense of the organization of the paper; what are the various
sections and what order you will present them in.
Literature Review (25 points) – Discuss how your research fits into the existing literature. Your
literature review should synthesis the previous research on your topic. Identify the gap in the existing
literature and how your research will address that gap. Organize
your literature review by common concepts/themes/factors.
Tips: Discuss only the gap(s) that you will address toward end of this section.
Use a minimum of 8 peer reviewed journal articles in this section.
Do NOT do an analysis or summary of each article or resource independently.
Research Question and Hypothesis (5 points) Identify your research question(s) and hypotheses (if
applicable) contextualizing both in the existing literature. Identify one main question and hypothesis (if
applicable). For explanatory projects: Make clear in your question and hypothesis the main independent
and dependent variable. For quantitative projects: Your hypothesis should be testable and specific noting
the direction of relationship you expect. For qualitative research: Include one or more questions related
to your first general question.
Methodology and Data. (35 points)
Sampling and Sample. Discuss the sampling strategy for your study. Explain what
sampling method(s) you will use (e.g. convenience, stratified, purposive,
snow ball). Distinguish between the population (who/what you actually want to know about),
study population (who/what group you will actually select from), and element (who/what you
will analyze).
Method. Identify how you plan to collect your data (e.g. observation, questionnaire,
interviews) and why you chose the method (note: this should relate to your question and
purpose of research) Discuss appropriate data collection tools such as any scripts, guides,
questionnaire or documents that you would use. Use text and lecture to discuss specifics
about your tool (e.g. interview guide for interviews, questionnaire for survey, link to dataset
and identify variables in it).
Ethics – Discuss consent forms or how consent will be acquired. How will you maintain
ethics in recruitment, confidentiality of data and reporting of findings (e.g. quotes from
interviews will use pseudonyms, all information reported in aggregate, any respondent can
withdraw at any time).
Analysis – Discuss your plan for analysis based on data you plan to collect. For instance,
if quantitative, what kinds of statistical tests and analysis will you run? If your research uses
qualitative methods, how will you analyze the information you collect or acquire?
Professor Patraporn
Sociology 270 Spring 2019
Final Research Proposal
Limitations (5 points): Beyond time and resources, what limitations will likely exist?
How do these each relate to internal (whether or not your findings would actually be true) or
external validity (how generalizable your results would be to population)?
Other Requirements (5 points): Your proposal should be between 5-6 pages long, double spaced
in Times New Roman font (not including reference list).
Reference List (5 points) Use ASA style for your list of references as well as, for citing in your
paper.
Writing Advice and Tips
Do not use colloquial language or informal language. Do not write the way you talk. Example: It
is said that the United States is over the race issue. Rewrite: In the United States, there seems to be
less focus on the issue of race.
Do not use contractions in formal writing
Do not use first person except for when you are describing methods and data collection
Do not have any paragraphs that take up one whole page
Do make sure your paragraphs have one central idea or theme
Do not plagiarize, paraphrase. Example of paraphrasing findings from a study: For college
students, the impact graduating during one of the most economically challenging times in the U.S.
history goes beyond finding employment. Student loan debt, credit card debt, and psychological
distress are all other challenges to graduating during this time (Berg-Cross & Green, 2010).
Do use summary statements prior to citing examples. Example: O’Brien et al (2002) clearly
show the relevance of social acceptance in self-esteem. For example, social acceptance promotes
positive feelings about oneself and gives the impression of likeability.
Do not use passive voice. Example: The manner in which the notion of race has
transformed within the United States over the past several decades has become a prominent indicator
in how the lives of all individuals are experienced. Rewrite: Over the past several decades in the
U.S., an increasingly prominent indicator of individual life experience is race.
Report writing is not essay writing. It is very plain and direct. Example: The importance of
understanding that we do not live in a color blind world is important in understanding race relations
among other different groups of people. It is said that the United States is over the race issue. That is
no longer a prominent threat to the people who reside within the states, nor is it an issue of
contemporary times. Yet, Gallagher (2003) argues that racism still exists and it perpetuated through
covert strategies. Rewrite: While many in the U.S. would argue that race no longer presents
challenges in our society, there are researchers that would argue otherwise. For instance, Gallagher
(2003) argues that racism still exists and it perpetuated through covert strategies.
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