A research proposal differs from a complete research report in that the study has not actually been conducted. You are creating a scenario for a study, complete with all of the usual sections found in a full report.
In this lab you will be using the information from the last lab (link attached) to create the introduction to your research paper. It will be at least 500 words (excluding the title page and reference section) and will use at least six peer reviewed sources (same sources as attached lab).
Think of the introduction as an inverted pyramid, starting with a wide overview (the base) and working towards the final thesis statement, or hypothesis. For help with the structure and content, review examples in journal articles you have reviewed.
In-text citations should be used throughout and a reference section, listing all of your sources should be included at the end of this assignment. Refer to the APA style guide for formatting requirements.
Outline:
1. Introduction to the Topic (1-2 paragraphs): Background information on the topic that is interesting and grabs the reader’s attention.
2. Prior Research (multiple paragraphs): Discuss previous research that applies to your research question. This should NOT be multiple article reviews. There are many ways to integrate the previous literature into your explanation of the purpose of the present research. You might find 1) a reason why the views reflected in the reviewed literature might be wrong; or, 2) a gap in the literature or something you consider important has not been dealt with in your reading; or, 3) a point that, although it is dealt with in the readings, ought to be extended further in some other dimension. The framework you choose will, of course, be guided by what you find in your literature search.
3. Present Study (1 paragraph): Introduce the present study, including all anticipated confounding variables (sources of secondary variance). The reader should be able to predict your variables based on the information you have given so far. However, you should explicitly state them. In this portion of the paper you should use future tense as though you have yet to do this research. Finally, state your predictions formally by writing a hypothesis. This will be the final sentence of your introduction. If you are creating a correlational study be sure to state the DIRECTION of the correlations you predict (negative or positive). This portion of the paper does not need to be extensive because the next portion of the paper is the methods section.
