EDD 630, Section 7934
Educational Research Seminar: Overcoming Adversity
Fall, 2010

Initial Research Proposal

The draft research proposal demonstrates your ability to translate your research hypothesis into a research design. The most important elements of the draft proposal are the introduction and methods. Nonetheless, the draft should conform to APA style (avoiding common formatting errors) and include all relevant sections of a full research paper:

1. Abstract

A 100 - 200 word summary of the entire proposal containing parts recommended by APA.

2. Introduction

Background and context of study given related research, justification for the current study, and statement of the hypothesis and its predictions. This section should be at least 300 words long. In it, you should correctly cite the scholarship your reference and further it with your own insights and informed opinions. Some guidelines are given here, here, and here

3. Methods

Detailed description of the participants, materials, and procedure. This section should be however long it needs to be to sufficiently cover the content.

4. Results

Presentiment of expected results—both in graphical form and in text. Normally, the results section of a proposal covers the statistical analyses one expects to conduct. However, here you only need to discuss the results in lay terms. For example, “I expect that those students who score highly on the self-esteem scale will perform better in group tasks than those who score lowly.” This section should also be as long as needed. In addition, this section should include at least one graphical representation of the results (table, histogram, line chart, box-and-whisker plot, etc.).

5. Discussion

For the draft proposal, this section need only contain a discussion of the implications for practice and theory. Please discuss the implications if you obtain the expected findings as well as the implications if you obtain another, likely set of outcomes. This section should be at least 300 words.

6. References

A properly formatted list of articles cited in the other sections. Please include at least six articles.

The EBSCO search engine you will use through our library to find articles can also be used to obtain the proper format for citing works in the reference section. When you click on an article to view the detailed description of it (i.e., the page that also provides the abstract if there is one), note a “Cite” link in a menu either on the top or right side of the detailed citation. Clicking on this link will open a new, temporary window with the article formatted in various citations styles, including the APA style you should use. You can also Son of Citation Machine to help. Please note, however, that neither EBSCO’s nor Son of Citation Machine’s systems always format perfectly, so check with, e.g., the examples given on OWL’s web site to be sure.

Some Guidelines on the Paper’s Format

In addition to the links to helpful sites noted throughout the sections above such as this, the following sites and files should help you conform to the required APA style relatively painlessly. The University of Illinois provides a sample research paper formatted in Word you can use both to learn about the contents of the sections and to help you format your paper. That same sample paper is also available in OpenOffice.org Writer format.

To assist you in conforming to APA style, you may use this zipped template for Microsoft Word or this zipped template for OpenOffice.org’s Writer. Note that you must unzip either template after you download it and before you use it. Information about using the one for Word is here and here; information for using the one for Writer is here, here, here, and here.

Grading Rubric for Initial Research Proposal

Although you are graded on the quality of your initial proposal, your grade is not fully based on your own ability. You will (hopefully) work closely with the other members both of your group and the entire class to help your fellow students hone their proposal into a first-rate product. I will not grade the extent to which you help each other (unless it infringes on cheating, of course), but I hope that this structure will nurture an appreciation for the role of collaboration in research. Research is almost never a solitary endeavor—even beyond the rudimentary collaboration between researcher and participant there is almost always an active and rich arena where ideas, passions, and work flourish through sharing.

N.b., criteria within each section are listed in general order of importance, the most important being first.

Element	Percent Weight	Criteria
Abstract	5	Contains all requisite parts Is requisite length Succinctly, comprehensibly summarizes proposal
Introduction	30	Demonstrates a thorough understanding of pertinent background Background well-presented and sufficiently covered Connection between background and current study well-made
Methods	15	All major, relevant sources of bias, confounds, and barriers addressed Variables are operationalized in practical and relevant ways Addresses hypothesis Is simple Contains all requisite parts
Results	5	Makes expected outcomes easy to understand Covers all important aspects of results Graphics strike a good balance between amount of information and clarity Text compliments graphics without being unnecessarily redundant
Discussion	10	Connections between expected results and both hypothesis and theory are well-reasoned and clearly presented Implications for practice and theory are sufficiently discussed and thought out Implications of at least one other, possible set of outcomes are addressed
References	5	Articles are well-chosen given topic At least six are given Are properly formatted
Overall Writing Quality	10	Is well-organized (paragraphs build on each other, each paragraph has a topic sentence that is supported by all other sentences, etc.) Is strongly succinct, clear, and engaging Adheres to APA style Is grammatically correct and spelled correctly
Overall Quality and Sophistication of Thinking	25	Demonstrates an expert grasp of the scientific process and scientific thinking Logic is flawless while implementation is practical Demonstrates sophisticated critical thinking about sources, hypothesis creation, and implementation Demonstrates encyclopedic understanding of field and its relation to topic

EDD 630, Section 7934 Educational Research Seminar: Overcoming Adversity Fall, 2010