1 / 30

FOR 500 PRINCIPLES OF RESEARCH: PROPOSAL WRITING PROCESS

FOR 500 PRINCIPLES OF RESEARCH: PROPOSAL WRITING PROCESS. Dr. Kofi Akamani, Department of Forestry, SIUC 01/22/2013. THE RESEARCH PROCESS. Phases of research ( Graziano & Raulin 2007) Idea-generating phase Problem-definition phase Procedures-design phase Observation phase

tender
Download Presentation

FOR 500 PRINCIPLES OF RESEARCH: PROPOSAL WRITING PROCESS

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. FOR 500 PRINCIPLES OF RESEARCH: PROPOSAL WRITING PROCESS Dr. Kofi Akamani, Department of Forestry, SIUC 01/22/2013

  2. THE RESEARCH PROCESS Phases of research (Graziano & Raulin 2007) • Idea-generating phase • Problem-definition phase • Procedures-design phase • Observation phase • Data-analysis phase • Interpretation phase • Communication phase

  3. THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL Attributes of a good proposal (Przeworski & Salomon 1995) • Conceptually innovative • Methodologically rigorous • Rich substantive content

  4. PRESENTATION OUTLINE • Choosing a research topic • Choosing a research approach • Reviewing the literature • Considering the role of theory • Writing the proposal

  5. CHOOSING A TOPIC • Identify a research topic based on a research problem • “A research problem is the issue that exists in the literature, in theory, or in practice that leads to a need for the study” (Creswell 2003: 80) • Sources of research problems • Personal experience of researcher • Debates in the literature • Policy debates • Draft a tentative title for the study

  6. CHOOSING A TOPIC Judging a good topic • Can the topic be researched? • Availability of resources and skills • Should the topic be researched? • Intellectual merit • Broader impacts • Personal benefits

  7. CHOOSING AN APPROACH Choices in research • Paradigms • Post-positivism, constructivism, pragmatism etc. • Approaches • Qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods • Methodologies • Survey methodology, case study, grounded theory etc. • Methods • Questionnaire, interviews, focus groups etc.

  8. CHOOSING AN APPROACH • Choice of research approach has philosophical and methodological implications • Criteria for selecting an approach • Match between problem and approach • Personal experience and philosophy • Audience

  9. CHOOSING AN APPROACH Qualitative approach • Aims at understanding meaning of phenomena from participants’ perspective • Assumption of multiple realities • Assumption of relative truths • holistic

  10. CHOOSING AN APPROACH Quantitative approach • Aims at explanation and prediction of relationships • Used in testing theory • Assumes existence of objective realities and absolute truths • Reductionist

  11. CHOOSING AN APPROACH Mixed methods approach • Combines multiple methods to understand research problem • Problem-centered/policy-oriented • Based on pragmatic assumptions

  12. REVIEWING THE LITERATURE Purpose of literature reviews • To identify and discussrelated studies • Relate a study to the broader literature • Establish knowledge gaps and opportunities for further research • Establish importance of a study

  13. REVIEWING THE LITERATURE Qualitative literature review • More or less literature depending on theoretical orientation • Used in introduction to frame the problem • Placed in separate section of proposal • Incorporated into final section of study

  14. REVIEWING THE LITERATURE Quantitative literature review • Used to introduce research problem • Used deductively to derive research questions or hypotheses • Used to compare findings

  15. REVIEWING THE LITERATURE Mixed methods literature review • Uses either qualitative or quantitative approach to literature review • Literature use depends on type of mixed methods design and the major type of research approach

  16. REVIEWING THE LITERATURE Steps in literature review • Begin with key words e.g. from research topic • Search library data basefor journals and books • Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) • Social Science Citation Index • Dissertation Abstracts International • Annual reviews, specific journals, special issues etc

  17. REVIEWING THE LITERATURE Steps in literature review • Prepare an annotated bibliography i.e. summaries and critique of relevant works • Synthesize the research literature • Clarify roots of your research questions/objectives • Major themes, knowledge gaps etc. • New relationships and conceptualizations • Need for further research

  18. THE ROLE OF THEORY Defining theory • “A theory is an interrelated set of constructs (or variables) formed into propositions, or hypotheses, that specify the relationship among variables” (Creswell 2003: 120) • Theories are useful in understanding, explaining and predicting phenomena

  19. THE ROLE OF THEORY Theory use in qualitative research • May or may not be used explicitly • Used as lens or perspective to frame research question • Used to present key elements of the context • Used to suggest potential emergent patterns • Used inductively at the end of the study

  20. THE ROLE OF THEORY Theory use in quantitative research • Used to present constructs and propositions • Serves as framework for research questions, hypotheses, data collection etc. • Generally introduced early in the proposal

  21. THE ROLE OF THEORY Theory use in mixed methods research • Used in theory testing • Used to understand emergent patterns • Used as lens to guide the entire study

  22. WRITING THE PROPOSAL • Introduction • Literature review • Theory • Research purpose • Research questions/hypotheses • Methods • Outcomes/Final products • Work plan • Budget

  23. WRITING THE PROPOSAL Introduction • Identification of problem and background • Review of studies on the problem • Gaps in the existing literature • Focus and justification of the proposed study

  24. WRITING THE PROPOSAL Purpose statement • Provides orientation about the intent and direction of the study • Purpose statements vary among research approaches • Qualitative research purpose statements include: “describe,” “understand,” “explore,” “develop,” “examine the meaning of,” etc.

  25. WRITING THE PROPOSAL Purpose statement • Quantitative purpose statements identify variables and contains words connecting variables, such as “the relationship between,” and “comparison of” • Mixed methods purpose statements contain both qualitative and quantitative components

  26. WRITING THE PROPOSAL Research questions and hypotheses • Qualitative approach • Use research questions (central questions and sub questions), not hypotheses • Use words that convey exploratory or emergent research, e.g. “how” • Avoid quantitative terminologies, such as “affect” “impact,” “determine,” “cause,” “relate” etc • Research questions may evolve

  27. WRITING THE PROPOSAL Research questions and hypotheses • Quantitative approach • To avoid redundancy, research questions or hypotheses may be used but not both • Mixed methods • Use both qualitative and quantitative research approaches

  28. WRITING THE PROPOSAL Methods • Clarify and justify your research paradigm, research approach, and methodology • Provide detailed procedures of methods • Sampling (probability/non-probability) • Data collection/data generation • Data analysis • Validity and reliability/trustworthiness and credibility

  29. WRITING THE PROPOSAL • Final products • Thesis/dissertation • Publications • Conference presentations • Work plan/schedule • Budget

  30. REFERENCES • Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (2nded). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. • Graziano, A. M., & Raulin, M. L. (2007). Research methods: A process of inquiry (6thed). New York: Pearson. • Przeworski, A., & Salomon, F. (1995). On the art of writing proposals: Some candid suggestions for applicants to Social Science Research Council Competitions. New York: Social Science Research Council.

More Related