Sociology 201A
Research Methods:  Quantitative Approaches
Term paper assignment

This site supports an introductory course in research methods offered by Robert Hanneman in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Riverside.  Please feel free to use and reproduce any materials in this site.  Your comments and suggestions are very welcome.  During regularly scheduled offerings of this course, supplementary materials (e.g. discussion boards, ftp server, grade book, calendar, etc.) can be found on the UCR instructional web server.  The current posting supports an offering in Fall, 2005-06.

For your term paper, you are to prepare an abbreviated research proposal, not to exceed 15 double-spaced pages, including references, graphics, etc.  You are also to prepare two appendices - a curriculum vita and a budget with justification.

A research proposal is a request for support to conduct a specific piece of research.  It is an effort to convince an audience (usually a funding agency) that you are working on a problem of both theoretical and practical significance, that you have clearly formulated research goals, and a sound methodology that will enable you to accomplish the goals.  Research proposals are detailed technical documents that enable reviewers to evaluate the likelihood that the methods proposed have a high probability of bringing valid evidence to bear on the research question.

Research proposals normally will contain the following sections.  Yours may vary, particularly in the amount of space that you devote to each section.  For our purposes as an exercise in research methods, the literature review and theory sections -- which are usually longer -- will be kept very short.

Summary/Abstract (not more than 250 words, one page)

Problem statement

Theory and Hypotheses

Observational design

Sampling

Measurement

Data analysis

Discussion/Conclusion