WHAT CONSTITUTES A QUALITY RESEARCH PROPOSAL?

What constitutes a quality research proposal?

What constitutes a quality research proposal?

General considerations

Research papers usually have five chapters with well-established sections in each chapter. Readers of the paper will be looking for these chapters and sections so you should not deviate from the standard format unless you are specifically requested to do so by the research sponsor. Below we will discuss about what constitutes a quality research proposal?

The most commonly used style for writing research reports is called "APA" and the rules are described in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Any library or bookstore will have it readily available. The style guide contains hundreds of rules for grammar, layout, and syntax. This paper will cover the most important ones.

A suggestion: Never present a draft (rough) copy of your proposal, thesis, dissertation, or research paper...even if asked. A paper that looks like a draft, will interpreted as such, and you can expect extensive and liberal modifications. Take the time to put your paper in perfect APA format before showing it to anyone else. The payoff will be great since it will then be perceived as a final paper, and there will be far fewer changes.

Style, layout, and page formatting

Title page

All text on the title page is centered vertically and horizontally. The title page has no page number and it is not counted in any page numbering.

Page layout

Left margin: 1½"Right margin: 1"Top margin: 1"Bottom margin: 1"

Page numbering

Pages are numbered at the top right. There should be 1" of white space from the top of the page number to the top of the paper.

Spacing and justification

All pages are single sided. Text is double-spaced, except for long quotations and the bibliography (which are single-spaced).

Font face and size

Any easily readable font is acceptable.

References

APA format should be used to cite references within the paper. If you name the author in your sentence, then follow the authors name with the year in parentheses. For example:

Jones (2004) found that...

If you do not include the authors name as part of the text, then both the author's name and year are enclosed in parentheses. For example:

One researcher (Jones, 2004) found that...

A complete bibliography is attached at the end of the paper. It is double spaced except single-spacing is used for a multiple-line reference. The first line of each reference is indented.

Examples:

Bradburn, N. M., & Mason, W. M. (1964). The effect of question order on response. Journal of Marketing Research 1 (4), 57-61.

Bradburn, N. M., & Miles, C. (1979). Vague quantifiers. Public Opinion Quarterly 43 (1), 92-101.

Outline of chapters and sections

TITLE PAGETABLE OF CONTENTSCHAPTER I - Introduction     Introductory paragraphs     Statement of the problem     Purpose     Significance of the study     Research questions and/or hypothesesCHAPTER II - Background     Literature review     Definition of termsCHAPTER III - Methodology     Restate purpose and research questions or null hypotheses     Population and sampling     Instrumentation (include copy in appendix)     Procedure and time frame     Analysis plan (state critical alpha level and type of statistical tests)     Validity and reliability     Assumptions     Scope and limitationsCHAPTER IV - ResultsCHAPTER V - Conclusions and recommendations     Summary (of what ...