Summative Assignment 1 – Research Proposal
Guidance for completing this assignment
You should write a research proposal on a topic of:
Gender roles in the UK today
What is a research proposal?
A research proposal is a plan of how you intend to carry out research. You will justify your
plans and show that you understand what the potential problems with the research might be.
You will not carry out any research; a proposal is just an explanation of how you would do
the research if you were to do so in reality.
What is the word limit?
The proposal needs to be between 1500 and 1800 words long.
How do you write a research proposal?
The research proposal is in two parts. Part 1 is an explanation and justification of the choice
of topic, where you will explain why the topic is interesting, important and worth studying.
Part 2 is where you will explain which research method/s you would use and why, including a
consideration of the problems and issues which may arise from the research method and
topic.
As a research proposal is an explanation of how you intend to carry out research it should be
written in the first person.
What needs to be included in the research proposal and how should it be structured?
The research proposal must contain the following information and you can structure your
proposal in the order presented below.
Part 1: Choice of Topic
| | An explanation of why this research topic is socially significant: why would researchers be interested in studying it; what impact the research might have. A brief literature review – a brief summary of what has already been written on this |
| |
topic. This summary should have at least one academic reference linked to the
research topic which can include reading from journals or books and should be
first hand sources as far as possible (i.e. not just a general website summary of
research). On-line journals are permitted. These references should be linked to the
research proposal and help to explain why the topic is socially significant.
| | A brief discussion of the theoretical framework of your research (i.e. which sociological theory is most relevant to your research proposal). |
| Assessment | Type of assessment | Weighting | Word count |
| 1 | Research proposal. | 60% | 1500-1800 |
Part 2: Choice of Method:
An explanation of the reasons for your choice of research method which should include:
Why your chosen research method would be appropriate for the research topic.
| |
What type of data you would collect and why you want this type of data. How your chosen theoretical framework fits in with your chosen method and data. When and where you would carry out the research. How many people would you include in your research and why. What practical issues you would have to consider. What ethical issues may arise with your research? |
Throughout your entire research proposal you need to be specific and not general. So if you
are proposing a questionnaire, be specific on how many questionnaires you would ideally
like to be returned. If you are conducting interviews consider how you would impact the
interview – write your proposal as if you are the researcher – how would your age, gender,
nationality affect the interview? Avoid generalisations as much as possible.
Conclusion: Your research proposal should finish with a conclusion which should be a brief
explanation of how your research would benefit yourself and society.
Supporting Information may be included in an appendix at the end:
You may also attach sample interview questions or a sample questionnaire in an appendix at
the end of your proposal. The sample questions do not count in your word count. Providing
some sample questions allows you to demonstrate how the research would actually work in
the real world. So if you are proposing an interview then provide some sample interview
questions. You do not need to include a full list of possible questions; consider providing
approximately 6-8 questions to sufficiently demonstrate that you know what kind of questions
to ask in an interview to gather the data you require.
If you are proposing a questionnaire then please include some sample questions for a
questionnaire and please ensure that you set these questions out to look like a questionnaire
– with boxes to tick and lines to write on, just like a real questionnaire.
An important point to remember for your whole proposal is that you should think about how
the research would work in real life. So if you propose interviews, consider how many
interviews could realistically be conducted if you were to do this in the real world.
The best research proposals are ones where we think the research could actually work for
real.
You should also read the marking rubric for this assignment carefully. The rubric is found at
the end of the assignment task sheet.
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