FOR 500 PRINCIPLES OF RESEARCH: PROPOSAL WRITING PROCESS

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.