Sunday February 05 , 2012
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Writing Your Proposal

*Note: This section of the website is being updated to include Service-Learning projects as well as Community-Based Research projects. We appreciate your patience as we work to bring you these updates.

Hosts: Guide to Writing your Research Proposal

This guide is designed to help community organizations create practical and meaningful research proposals. It answers some of the questions frequently asked about project development, and anticipates some of the challenges you may encounter. Please contact us if you have any questions that aren't answered here!

Designing a Research Project and Filling in the Research Proposal Form

We always ask that a host organization attempt to develop their own request for research. However, if you have any difficulties, we are here to help answer your questions and assist you.

Given the regular use of electronic communication such as email, we ask that you submit your request for research as an attachment to an email message. If this poses any challenges, please let us know, as we would never want technology to stand in the way of a proposal getting done.

All projects should establish:

  • clear research question(s) or statement(s) of what you want to find out
  • detailed research objectives and outcomes. The objectives and outcomes should state what product(s) are expected, as well as what skills and knowledge the student(s) will gain during their placement.

Some organizations require research of a scope and complexity which may exceed the limits of one student's ability and available time. In this case, more than one student may work on a project. A project may also span more than one term or academic year, or it may comprise a small part of a larger body of work taking place at the host organization.

 

A Step-by-Step Guide to Filling in the Form

The first part of the form is simply a summary of contact information for the organization and the host supervisor.

Part A is a list of Proposal Review Criteria and Host Responsibilities. Please read this section carefully and initial each point to note that you agree to it.

Part B asks for more information on your organization.

Part C is where you develop your ideas into a viable research project.

Key Research Question(s):

Establishing the key research question(s) at the very beginning and continually referring to them throughout the project provides you with a method of ensuring that each step of the project stays on track. Asking yourself the following five questions will help you to define your key research questions and complete Part C of the Research Proposal.

A) What do you want to find out?
Answering this "what" question enables you to decide on the area to be researched and to refine the topic area. You may come up with a list of things you would like to find out, so here's your chance to prioritize.
Example:
What types of employment training do we need to provide to our youth clients?
This question may be all you want answered or it may lead to a subset of questions, such as:
Are other service providers in our area offering employment training to youth?
What are the best practices in employment training for youth in other communities?
What funding is available to supplement our training services for youth?
What would attract youth to use our employment training services?
Obviously this could be a very large project. However, if the organization were truly interested in answers to all of these questions, it would be worthwhile to note them all in this section. While it would be unlikely that one student would answer all of these questions in one project, it makes the project appealing to several different academic disciplines. Depending on student interest and the host organization's ability to supervise the project, it is possible that students in different disciplines could work on the project at the same time.
B) Why do you want to find out this information?
The reason for completing a research project will be closely tied to what you expect to do with the data and information gathered. It is important for you to have a clear idea of what you hope to accomplish through the gathering of information. This question will also assist you in answering questions 1 & 2 of Part C on the proposal application form.
C) What do you already know about the issue?
Outlining what you already know about the issue is a good step in figuring out gaps in existing information and other areas that may need to be addressed in the research. It also allows you to incorporate the knowledge that you already possess into the research project.
D) What assumptions have you made about the issue(s) you intend to research?
Assumptions may be hunches you have about a certain issue or topic based on actual experiences. These assumptions can be used as a starting point by zeroing in on a research question in order to test your initial assumption.
Assumption:
We feel that our clients do not attend evening workshops because of lack of access to childcare.
Research question based on assumption:
What barriers do our clients face with regard to attending evening workshops?
E) What types of information are needed?
Do you need to collect statistics/numbers, stories or descriptions from individuals, information from books or archival materials? This question will assist you in deciding which method(s) to use to collect the information, i.e. phone surveys, tape-recorded oral histories, etc. This will also serve to assist you in planning for the resources required to carry out the research.

 

Part D is your chance to use some of the information you developed in the brainstorm in Part C to give a bit more shape to the project. This list will be used as a starting point when the student develops their research placement agreement. Besides project steps, you might want to include initial activities such as orientation to your organization and ongoing activities such as progress meeting to discuss the project.

Time Required for Completing the Project
In determining the total amount of time a student needs to complete a given project, you should presume that one full credit equals 180 to 200 hours. In turn, a half credit is 80 to 90 hours. Expecting more of a time commitment than this from the student is not realistic.

Project Design Phases
Projects should be broken down into the discrete tasks that are needed to complete the project with the time requirement for the completion of each task. It is a good idea to develop a task structure that is comprised of a beginning, middle and end.

Beginning
  • The beginning of the project will include an orientation to the project and the host organization.
  • The student may then need to engage in library research to ascertain what types of literature/secondary resources already exist regarding the topic being researched.
  • You may also require that the student familiarize her/himself with the appropriate techniques employed in their academic discipline for collecting information or data on the subject area being researched. This again may include library/literature research.
  • The student is now ready to desig n the tools (i.e. surveys, interview questions, etc) needed for collecting the desired data or information.
Schedule check-in times with the student(s) to keep abreast of his/her research as well as to provide feedback.
Middle
  • The implementation or “middle” of a project is the data collection phase and may include conducting surveys, creating inventories of information and resources, needs assessment studies, strategic plan development, or feasibility studies. The amount of time and work required for your research will vary based on the scope and methods you select.
  • Some organizations like for students to come to staff meetings or board meetings to discuss the progress of the project. If this is of interest, write it into your proposal. Remember that time coming to meetings will be included by the student in the hours they devote to the project, so, while it makes sense for them to attend meetings, coming to weekly meetings will probably leave them with little research time.
Please remember that primary/first-hand research is enormously time-consuming and can often be more than you bargain for. A conservative approach is always advisable so that the student does not sacrifice the opportunity to do valuable analytical thinking because the gathering of data took up all of their time.
End
  • This is the outcomes stage where students will analyse data, draft recommendations, and make reports. Tied to this set of outcomes will be a clear means of evaluation on the part of the supervising professor. Students will be marked on the academic merit of their work as well as the usefulness of their results.

The most successful projects are clear and distinct and will be completed in the span of the placement.