The Proposal

Proposals (see handout)

• Title
• Abstract
• The Problem
• Literature Review
• Methods
• Institutional Review Board?
 Proposals: Title
• Title
– “A Study of the Efficacy of Vocational Interest
Inventories Versus Personality Inventories Using
Multivariate Analysis in the Prediction of Job
Satisfaction for Adults, Aged 18-24 in Their First
Year of Employment”
 Proposals: A Problem Statement
• In simplest terms, a problem statement is an
inquiry about the relationship between two or
more variables.
– “Are children whose mothers work outside the
home more self-sufficient than children of
mothers who do not?”
 Proposals: A Problem Statement
• The Research Problem (2-8 pages)
– A well-developed statement of the problem or research
question is a result of sifting through a mountain other people’s
findings to extract those few question which you want to
address.
– Example: There is a significant relationship between bilingualism
and self concept. A) do college students who are fluent in a
language other than English achieve higher scores on the
Tennessee Self Concept Scales than those who speak only
English; B) Is there a significant difference in scores on the
Tennessee Self Concept Scales among people whose second
language is Spanish, French, or German?
 Proposals: Literature Review
• Each cited source should help further your
thesis/dissertation
• Locate your study among similar published
studies
• Identify strengths and limitations of those
studies
• Demonstrate what contribution your study
can make to that domain of knowledge
 Proposals: Literature Review
• Make sure you develop a detailed outline first,
to be reviewed by your adviser.
• Use headings within the chapter, conforming
to your outline, which allow you to break the
review into discrete sections that are more
easily handled.
 Proposals: Methods
The main purpose of the Methods section is to describe (and if
necessary defend) the experimental design and then provide
enough detail so that a competent worker can repeat the
experiments. Many (probably most) will people will not read
this section.
1) The usual order of presentation is chronological.
2) Use subheadings, preferably matching them to those in
the Results section.
3) Be precise, objective and accurate.
4) Use graphics (tables, graphs, photographs) as needed.