CONCEPT PAPER

A concept paper is a document which summarizes what your project is about,

why it is important, and how you intend to carry it out. It consists of the topic
under research, the hypothesis that you seek to approve or disprove, research
questions, data required, and methods of obtaining it. It is sometimes known
as a proposal or an abstract. The latter two are usually more detailed than a
concept paper but often serve the same purpose, that is, to convince the party
evaluating it that the research project is worthwhile.

Depending on the research you are carrying out, your concept paper can
range from 2-3 pages for a small research project to up to 20 pages for
massive research projects. As for the formatting, the spacing should be
double, the font size should be 12, and the font style should preferably be
Times New Roman. If you refer to any sources while drafting your concept
paper, it is important that you cite them at the end of your document or
whenever the citation may be necessary for the process of concept paper
writing.

How to write a concept paper

Writing a concept paper is the first step in writing your research project. A
winning concept paper will capture the attention of whoever is reading it and
get you the results you need. Below are the steps you need to follow to
ensure that your concept paper will get a smile and a nod from the reader.

1. Come up with a research topic that genuinely interests you

The research topic should span areas that interest you as an individual and
are still relevant to your area of study or course. How do you come up with
a research topic? How to come up with a research topic As you studied
throughout your junior classes, you may have encountered certain
concepts that awoke your curiosity. These may give you ideas of what your
research could be about. Alternatively, while randomly reading a
newspaper, watching TV, reading books, and so on, you may have come
across ideas or concepts that aroused your interests. These can serve as
research topics you may consider pursuing. Personal experiences can also
be good starting points when you are searching for a topic to write about.

List all the ideas you can remember or think of that you would be interested
in doing a research on. Afterward, choose the area that interests you most
in the list you made as the one in which you will carry out your research.
Ensure it is a topic that is academically relevant and researchable.

2. Write down the research questions you need to research on depending

on the idea you have chosen You can come up with as many questions
as possible. The more the questions, the longer your research paper will
be, as it will seek to answer to each of them.

The questions can range from:

Exploratory questions, where you want to find out more about the topic
under study,

Explanatory question, where your aim is to explore the relationship or

lack thereof between two or more variables, and

Descriptive questions such as determining the averages, means, and

modes of a variable or variables in the topic under study.

3. Develop a research hypothesis from each of the research questions that

you have listed.

A hypothesis, also known as a thesis or theses in plural, is a tentative,

usually informed or educated guess about a certain scenario. It is referred
to as ‘an educated or informed guess’ as it is based on some prior
knowledge about the topic either by some pre-known theory, or a previous
research you may have carried out. The hypothesis is what you will either
prove or disprove when the research is done and therefore, be able to
draw your conclusion.

4. Identify the kind of data you need to answer these hypothetical

questions and how you will gather the data Depending on the type of
research you are carrying out, data that you may need may include
actual numbers, averages, and so on.
Data can either be primary or secondary, qualitative or quantitative.

Primary data is first-hand information obtained from the ground, for

example, by carrying out interviews and site visits.

Secondary data is second-hand information obtained from reading

books, watching news, videos, the internet, and other already
documented material.

Qualitative data is based on subjective factors such as people’s

opinions, while quantitative data is based on actual numbers and is,
therefore, more objective.

5. Identify how you will analyze, interpret, and present the data Come up
with conclusive and tangible evidence to prove or disprove all the
hypotheses you had stated earlier.
Methods of data analysis include the use of statistical analysis such as
mean, totals, income, or the general relationship between variables
which can be enhanced by the use of graphical methods where
possible.
Having developed all the above, you are now ready to come up with
your concept paper, which will detail each of the steps outlined.

The following is a guideline on how to structure your ideas for the

perfect concept paper.

How to structure your concept paper

Here are the major elements of a concept paper format:

1. The title page

You should begin with a title that fully summarizes what the project
you are carrying out is about. Avoid being wordy and stick to the
main point.

2. Introduction and statement of the problem

This serves as the most important part of the concept paper. You
must be seeking to add value and convince the reader that you are
doing so. For example, your research should seek to solve an
existing problem or provide further insights into a scarcely
researched topic.
The problem should be clear.
Why would you want to investigate the topic under study, and how
your research will be helpful in achieving this? Herein, you need to
provide the evidence that the research you need to carry out is
necessary in that it has not been carried out before or has not been
adequately done. Here are some questions that may help you nail
this element:
What is the problem?
Why do you feel that it is important?
How does your study relate to or add to research that has already
been done?

3. Value of the study

Outline specific groups of people who the study may benefit and how
it will benefit them.

4. A preliminary literature review

You need to back up your passion for the topic under research with
solid literature that supports the topic, for example, literature that
supports the fact that further research needs to be carried out in that
area. You need to show that there exists an information gap which
your research seeks to fill. The wider the variety of literature review
 you have carried out, the more solid and convincing your concept
paper will be.

5. State the research goals or objectives

This is a broad statement or statements of what the research seeks
to achieve. It should start with ‘to’ and answer the questions who,
what, when, which, or how.

6. Write down all the research questions

These are important as they will direct you on every research area, for
example, the type of data to collect and how to analyze it. Make sure you
have exhausted all the questions for the research to be complete.

7. The research hypothesis

The research hypotheses stem from the research topic or the research
questions and are, therefore, easy to draft. They are a statement of the
situation you anticipate based on some prior knowledge you have, even
before you carry out the research. The research seeks to find out if
these hypotheses are true or not. There should be a positive and a
negative hypothesis for each statement given. A positive hypothesis
agrees with the statement in question while a negative hypothesis
opposes it. At the end of the research paper, you will either accept or
reject your positive hypothesis based on your findings.

8. State the methodology you intend to use

The research methodology states the ‘how’ of carrying out the
research. It details the research design, that is, what kind of research
you intend to carry out. You can either carry out: An exploratory design
that seeks to expound on the area of study that you have an idea in, in
order to understand it better.

An explanatory design that seeks to carry out an in-depth study on a

certain idea that was not tackled in-depth. It mostly requires the use of
qualitative methods of data collection. A descriptive research that seeks to
find out the relationship between two variables of data you need. It uses
analyses methods such as mean and mode.

9. A timeline for completion of each element of the research project

Undertaking a research can take a very long time if not well planned for,
and it is, therefore, important to lay out just how much time you may need
to complete each element of the research project and ultimately the whole
project. In this section, you need to set a time frame that is realistic.

9. Outline citations
Always remember to give credit to any sources you may have sourced
your information from. This can be done within the document or at the
end of the concept paper.

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