Assignment Feedback

Research ProposalDecember 2013

The Proposal

The research proposal is a blueprint - a guide -that tells the reader WHAT you are going to research and HOW.

TestIf you gave your proposal to a stranger would he or she be able to complete your research project for you.

General Comments

With a few exceptions the proposals:

• Lacked Clarity• Were not specific enough

So after reading them I was unclear about what you were planning to do.

Title

1. The title is your research topic. These were often too broad, so the task of doing the research was too big.

2. The chosen methodology was invalid because it did not address the topic

ExampleTitle: what issues face a particular groupMethodology: constructivist - interviews

Introduction

There were two types of introduction:• Some were only two sentences long • Some were passionate and lengthy

Aim:To sum up in one paragraph why you have chosen this topic and to state briefly what you will be doing.

Aims & Objectives

Lack of clarity here. Aims were very vague - often repeating what was said in the introduction. Objectives were mostly missing.

Aims: what you intend to show from your researchObjectives: How you intend to do it

Literature Review

On the whole these were pretty good. Mostly they gave a detailed account of the literature search strategy

Methodology

On the whole these were pretty good, they showed an understanding of the terminology and the need for a consistent and appropriate methodology …

But …

Methodology II

This section was too often not specifically about your research … I was left wondering:

How is this addressing the research topic?Where is it going to take place?Who are the participants?How many participants will there be?How will data be collected?What will that data be analysed?

Ethics

Sometimes reference was made to the BACP Code of Ethics and to ethics in general but …

Because students were vague about their research they struggled to be specific about the ethical issues they might encounter and how to address them.

Access Issues

Where are you doing the research?Have you asked for permission?Have you been given permission?How are you recruiting your participants?

Timescales

Again some attempt to provide a calendar of events but often not useful or related to the actual project.

Bibliography

Only a short bibliography is needed BUT all references need to be accurate according to the Harvard Referencing System.

Please check out the programme’s Academic Support pages on Moodle for help or contact John Marsden via email for a tutorial.

http://moodle2.blackburn.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=1346

So what Now?

If you scored 61% and above then please get on with your research.If you scored 60% or below please book a tutorial with John Marsden.

Have a look at the feedback and resources handed out and let us try and develop your proposal. The chances are that a confused proposal will turn into a confused project.