You will need to select a research question, review literature (from at least 10 peer-reviewed articles), write a brief summary of the relevant literature, state a hypothesis, and describe how you will test the hypothesis. You will not have to collect data or run analyses.
The introduction of your paper should consist of a summary of what other researchers have done to investigate similar questions. Ideally, you want their work to lead to your hypothesis (i.e. previous researchers have found that alcohol use negatively impacts students academic performance, therefore, the present study investigates the relationship between alcohol use and second-year retention). Your review should also include:
the general topic and theories surrounding your research;
past research that has been done in this area;
why your research question is important and to whom; and
your specific hypothesis.
The methods section for your proposal should include enough detail so anyone who reads your proposal could conduct the study. Be sure to format the document properly. This means that headings, subheadings, line spacing, and sentence spacing are correct. Be sure to:
Include how many participants you would like to use in the study, where they would come from, and how they would be obtained.
Describe your materials. If you are using surveys, list and describe each survey; include reliability measures if they are available; include a reference for a survey if it was previously published or a copy of the survey if you created it. In any case, indicate who wrote the survey or questionnaire.
Include when and where the testing occurs; what researchers will do; and what participants are asked to do. If you are able to include a design section, please do so in this section.
