Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Final Research Proposal
Due: Sunday, August 9th, by email.
Requirements: 10 double‐spaced pages and an in class presentation on your proposal.
General Guidelines: This proposals allows you to consider how you might continue your
research if you had the time and the financial resources. Much of your research proposal will
build on work you have already done this semester. If you have changed topics along the way, or
have concerns, please let me know sooner rather than later (i.e. don’t wait until August 7th). I will
go over proposal writing on in class on Wednesday, July 29th.
Components:
• Class presentation: In 3‐5 minutes, tell the class (1) about your research question,
(2) what you learned of interest from your preliminary work, and (3) what methods
you’re proposing to use and why.
• Introduction (~1 page): Explain your topic and research question. How is it
sociologically important?
• Preliminary Research (at least 3 pages): What have you learned about your
research topic over the course of conducting surveys, doing interviews, and through a
content analysis of news articles this summer?
• Methods (at least 2 pages): What methods would you use to carry out this research.
Be sure to specify what kind of methodologies (interviews, surveys etc.) you would
use, what your sampling method would be for each, and how you would collect data
for this project. It’s alright to suggest mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, but
please make sure at least 2 of your methods are qualitative.
• Potential Issues (~1 page): What potential issues (ethical, validity, or otherwise) do
you see with your data? How will you deal with these issues while collecting data.
• Consent (~1 page): What are some of the potential harms that may come to
participants? What consent will you need to gain from participants? How will you
ensure confidentiality and/or anonymity?
• Categories and relationships (at least 2 pages): Based on your preliminary work,
explain the categories and relationships you will use to analyze your data. What
themes will you look for and why?
Grading (23 points total): In general, your grade will be based on how
• 3 points: Class presentation
• 5 points: Proposed methods
• 5 points: Dealing with potential issues, and consent.
• 5 points: Preliminary research
• 5 points: Your proposed categories and relationships
Soc 357, Wendy Christensen