HOW TO WRITE A CONCEPT PAPER

Rationale of the Study

Give first a little introduction of your chosen topic/problem. Your introduction

should be able to offer an overall view of the research area and the general nature of the
topic/problem. Show how it relates to the field of inquiry. Make a little presentation and
description of the logical development of your research problem/topic area you intend to
study in such a way that is sufficient or enough to be understood by the reader. Towards the
end, state the rationale of your study or what motivates you why you want to pursue or
conduct the said study.

Conceptual/Theoretical Framework

Concepts are ideas or abstractions from observed events/situations while theories are
sets of interrelated concepts, constructs, definitions and propositions that present systematic
view of the phenomenon (observable fact) by specifying relationship among variables with
the purpose of explaining and predicting the phenomenon. Conceptual/theoretical
framework therefore is made up of concepts and theories that form the basis of the study.

In relation to this you should be able to present your research ideas, concepts and or
theory/ies or even time – tested theory/ies that you will use or help you to structure your
research study, the links between the existing literature and your own research goals and
objectives. You should be able to show how your framework structures the parameters or
boundaries of your research study in terms of what needs to be covered.

Your conceptual/theoretical framework can be presented in a graphical diagram

showing the research problem/topic area, the variables (dependent, independent and even
intervening variables) and how they relate to each other. Put in mind that your

Quantitative Research Methods

Antonio G. Dacanay
conceptual/theoretical framework serves as the basis or backbone of your research study
(i.e. thesis/dissertation) and therefore should give direction and help you as to how you
would carry out your research effectively.

Statement of the Problem/Purpose (and hypotheses if applicable)

In this section you should be able to state clearly and explicitly the objectives of your
study or the research questions and or subsidiary or supplementary questions. Your
statement of the problem/purpose provides more the raison d’ etre for your
thesis/dissertation. It is the underlying rationale of your research study. Keep in mind that
your problem statement serves as an invitation to the study that tells the reader what the
problem is, what it is all about, and why the study is needed.

Begin this section with a sentence or two stating the general objective/purpose of the
study, followed by specific questions/objectives that expand/specify the coverage of the
general objective/purpose of the study

Research Design

Specify and describe the quantitative research method you will use, whether
experimental, descriptive or correlational. You should be able to discuss/explain the
appropriateness of the research method to your study or why it is best to use to investigate
the problem and/or address the research questions.

Participants of the Study

Describe the sampling procedure/technique for selecting your participants (e.g.

systematic sampling, stratified, cluster, etc). Describe your participants in terms of some
demographic or personological variables, (e.g. sex, age, etc.) Tables and/or figures may be
used to simplify the presentation of the demographic characteristics of the participants.

Quantitative Research Methods

Antonio G. Dacanay
 Research Instrument/s

Be able to describe how your variables will be measured or observed (e.g. in an

experimental research, the measurement of the dependent variable should be described in
this section). Describe the instrument/s and other data gathering materials you will use.
Include information about the types of items and responses, the scoring procedure,
evidences of reliability and validity of the instrument. If you constructed your own
instrument, discuss the steps how you developed and validated your instrument (i.e. showing
evidence/s of validity and estimates of reliability).

Data Gathering Procedure

Describe in detail the phases of your data gathering procedure and the specific steps
for each phase that you will take in carrying out your research study. It may be helpful to
come up with a flow chart or diagram to show the order of activities that you intend to take
in conducting your study (e.g. instructions for selecting and training research assistants, how
you will recruit or contact your participants, procedures for assigning participants to groups,
administration of instruments including pretesting process, interviewing participants etc.)
and also ethical procedures you will apply in your study (e.g. approval from the school city
superintendent or principal before proceeding to data collection involving students, etc.) In
short, enumerate all the activities you will undertake to complete your study. Describe each
activity in detail to help future researchers who would want to replicate your study.

Data Analysis

Discuss the procedures as to how you will score, record/encode and analyze your
data to answer the research problem/s. If you will use a special form for recording or
accumulating data, place an example in the appendix section. If you are conducting a
phenomenological study, you should describe the sophisticated ways how the data would be
processed and analyzed. If you will apply statistical tests to analyze your data, identify the

Quantitative Research Methods

Antonio G. Dacanay
specific descriptive statistics and/or inferential statistics that you will use.

Quantitative Research Methods

Antonio G. Dacanay