Research Question Proposal

General information: 

For your research question proposal, please follow the instructions in your course syllabus.   

Each of these three assignments should not exceed one page because each needs to be a clear and concise account of your research design project.  I will collect these assignments, even though the first two are quite brief.  Keep in mind that if I don't get your questions on the respective due date that you will automatically fail the final research design paper.

As you delve further into your research, your question and/or variables may change.  Nonetheless, you need the starting point that this exercise provides.  If at any point your research design approach radically deviates from this proposal, I need to approve the change to be sure you're still on a viable path.

• Research question ideas: This is a list of a few questions you would like to examine with a research project.  Start with a few topics that interest you.  Come up with some questions about those topics that you'd like to know more about.  The list of topics is endless.  Remember, however, that this is an academic exercise and you will need scholarly references for your topic, so avoid topics that will not provide you with enough scholarly research.
   
• Research question decision: This is the research question you have decided to examine for your research project.  You need to provide two pieces of information for this assignment.  First, write what you choose to research in the form of a question.  It is important that you phrase it as a question and not something along the lines of "I'm thinking about writing about the usefulness of dogs in policing."  Also, you want to avoid yes/no questions.  Starting with a thoughtful question will give you some direction for your research. 
   
• Research question proposal:  This assignment will include:

• The question you decided to research in question form
• Your hypothesis
• Dependent variable(s)
• Independent variables

First paragraph:  Should begin with your research question.  Next should be an explanation of the purpose of your research question and why you think answering this question would be important to the field in which that question is grounded.  This is essentially your main hypothesis. 

Second paragraph:  Indicate what sub-problems you need to address to answer the main research question.  That is, in order to proceed in researching your question and examining your hypothesis, what other things do you have to consider? 

Third paragraph:  Explain your ideas about the answer(s) to the question.  In language that you now should be familiar with, you are identifying what you think the independent variables are that are connected with the dependent variable(s) (what you're trying to answer).  The answer to your question will not be yes or no as this is not a deductive, black/white type of exercise.  Rather, think in terms of factors, causes, pieces of a puzzle that when fit together, help you answer the question, determine the likelihood of the relationship between the independent and dependent variables.