Research proposals
Below is a link to a site that has samples of social science research proposals--they are not all psychology, but the format is still the same. In class, you'll be put into groups (1-4) to look at one of these proposals. Download the one you're asked to. It's a very good idea to have a model to work from as you prepare your own.
Below is a link to an online research proposal template. It is in PDF format, but if you download it you can import it to most word processing applications; the formatting may be slightly off (usually the margins), but that can be adjusted.
Narrowing your topic
One of the trickiest tasks in research is moving from a general to a more narrow topic. Below is a link that will give you several ways to brainstorm for ways to break your topic down--these are meant for business situations, but they can also be adapted for academic papers.
Of course, a widely known technique is a cluster diagram (spider diagram is another term). Yes...this example below is messy. Doesn't have to be pretty...it just has to work.
Research questions
Once you have a narrow topic, you'll want to form a research question. Below are two handouts that can help you formulate a research question and then move from that question to usable search terms for database searching.
Database searching
Below is a cheat sheet on several tools you can use within databases to help you control your searches.
Below is a quick exercise that should help you get some experience using database tools.
Do this exercise within 2 weeks of your presentation.
A good lit review is a key aspect of any proposal. As researchers, it is vital that we show a strong connection between what we hope to research and previous scholarship. To put it another way,it is crucial that we show how our potential work fits the context of existing research. The following tools can help with this significant step in the research process.
Because lit reviews are strange documents, the following diagram visualizes important aspects of them to clarify them:
Below is a matrix to help you keep track of and compare/contrast important aspects of your sources:
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