Sections
1. Title Page : concise and descriptive
- clearly indicates your topic and independent and dependent variables
2. Abstract: a summary of your project proposal, including:
- the overall purpose of the study and research problem(s) you will investigate
- the basic design and methods of the study
3. Introduction & Theoretical Framework (Literature Review, Research Questions, and Statement of Hypothesis)
- a review of the literature that you used to build your research questions and study hypothesis
- should be more than a summary of the articles you read
- brings together theories and results from a number of studies to provide background for your project and demonstrate how your research study hypothesis fits into this current research area
- provides a compelling narrative about how the articles you've read have built up to your research questions and study and make the case for why your research questions and study are important
- end with an explicit statement about your research hypothesis
4. Methods: provides detailed information about your experimental study design. Your Methods section should include:
- the study populations, including the number/sex of participants, and subject recruitment procedures
- Your independent and dependent variables
- the experimental design of your study, i.e. within or between groups design, and why it's appropriate for your research area
- the procedures your research design will follow
- refer to each material item that will be used in the study, and where they can be found in appendices
5. Statistical Analyses
- explanations for what statistical tests you used and why they're appropriate for your research area
6. Expected Outcomes (Predictions & Limitations): report the expected findings of your research study and interpret and describe the significance of your expected findings in light of what is already known about the research area you're investigating.
- use evidence and findings from research articles to build expected study findings
- use evidence and findings from research articles to build arguments about what your expected study findings would mean
- use evidence and findings from research articles to build arguments about how your expected study findings would contribute to the research area
- discuss limitations of the reliability and applicability of your expected study results and provide alternative solutions
7. References List: a list of the sources you cited in your research proposal in APA Style
8. Appendices:
- all research/presentation/testing materials to be presented to participants
- Consent and Debriefing forms
- list in the order that they were presented in the Methods section
9. IRB Section
- Costs to participants and costs to society
- Benefits to participants and benefits to society
- Overall cost-benefit analysis; refer to Consent and Briefing forms in Appendices
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