P & O

This was a surprisingly concise and helpful of the research proposal that comes from The University of South Carolina: http://www.sc.edu/our/doc/Proposaltipshints.pdf **NOTE** This is a PDF document that you will have to download and open on your personal machine. It outlines the process of creating a research proposal and talks about the main point of creating one: to get funding and convince the reader to help you with your legitimate academic research. Outlined are 9 different parts of the proposal process. The first two are called the most important and consist of (1) “Make a clear statement of the research question – Very clearly state what exactly you will be studying. Be sure that it is understandable to someone who doesn’t know much about your field.” The second is “Project goal objectives” it then shows the difference between the two. Example ” Goal: Our after school program will help children read better.” “Objective: Our after school remedial educational program will assist 50 children in improving their reading scores by one grade level… after six months.” The next step is to design a plan consistent with the particular discipline pursued. It may include things like scientific research, focus groups, archival research etc. The point is to explore and describe the research methods being pursued. Specificity is a particularly important thing in this portion of the proposal. The next couple of steps address the project timeline (length of study and timeline of research), what the results of the study are and how they are planned to be conveyed to others. Finally, there is a the student’s personal statement about simply the reason for conducting the research in the first place and then the budgeting process. I found the budget process probably the most complex and detailed, as one will have to account for almost every single dollar requested The rest of the paper consists of some writing tips about getting started and organization as well as different ways of conveying ideas. I thought this was very helpful and that I will definitely be using this outline for guidance and as a reference in the future. The University of South Carolina. “Undergraduate Research Proposal Guidelines.” University of South Carolina. <http://www.sc.edu/our/doc/Proposaltipshints.pdf>. **2/4/10** Coming up with a research proposal. I came across the following site that outlined the research proposal. http://ci.coe.uni.edu/facstaff/zeitz/web/seminar/assignments/semoutline.html It shows that the research outline consists of 6 parts: the title, statement of purpose, introduction, methodology, analysis and discussion, conclusion and then references. It actually seems pretty straightforward in terms of the body of the work and composition of the paper. I think some of the points under each heading in this outline are up for discussion, as it depends on what your topic is; the topic will determine the questions related to each part of the proposal.

**UPDATE 2/6/10**

Research Proposal

Daniel Burkhardt

Professor Harrison

English 202

2 February 2010

Research Proposal

Statement of the research question:

What will motivate young people to participate in the mid-term elections in Congressional District 8, Bucks and Montgomery counties, Pennsylvania, and how can Congressional campaigns encourage youth votership more effectively?

Goal and Objectives:

I will be looking at the voting patterns, history and statistics of under thirty-five voters in Congressional District 8, Bucks and Montgomery counties, Pennsylvania, and attempting to understand what factors (such as campaign communication tools,  national issues, political attitudes etc.)  will motivate young people to take part in the 2010 mid-term elections. The secondary purpose is to propose this research to an existing Congressional campaign with the intent to motivate participation.

Statement of Purpose:

With the mid term elections coming up in November and every member of The House of Representatives having to run for office again and the youth vote will be critical in deciding the outcome. There was a lot of motivation amongst younger voters during the 2008 Presidential Election to participate, however there is historically a decline in youth votership during mid-term elections (CivicYouth). The primary goal of this research is to understand the ways in which young people are motivated to participate in elections, how they are communicated with most effectively and to understand how they can be active participants in the fall.

Project Design and Methodology:

I will conduct interviews via internet, phone and personal conversation to collect data from different sources of campaign information, including members of the district political mid-term campaigns. I will also compile and analyze polling data from publicly funded and not-for-profit organizations that deal with campaign and youth votership statistics. Over the course of conducting research, I will have to become familiar with the proper ways to conduct scientific polls and I will attempt to target different youth audiences to conduct surveys and polls. A lot of the information that will be useful will relate to the very last mid-term election in 2006. I will be studying the results and statistics related to citizens of my district who are under thirty-five and examining the similarities and differences between the last election and the current election.

Timeline:

I will be hoping to conduct personal interviews within the next month and have a significant amount of primary data ready for analysis compiled before the beginning of March. To do this, I will be attempting to network and use any available resources within the next two weeks to setup interviews and to conduct information gathering via email and telephone as well. I will have to have a concise set of questions that are thoroughly compiled and focused to illicit the most relevant information and to make the best use of the time of the interviewees.

Anticipated Results:

At the moment, I expect to find that young people are heavily swayed by the ways in which they are targeted. I feel that the channels of communication with younger Americans are very different then that of older voters and that the success of the youth turnout in the 2008 campaign was directly attributable to they way campaigns chose to market themselves. I do not believe that young voters are particularly polarized with the political process or that there is some reason to think they are disconnected with what is going on. I think that if there is a candidate with whom they can identify, and if he/she is marketed properly, that candidate will find young people supporting their ideas.

References

“Youth Voting”. CIVIC Youth – The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. 6 February 2010

<http://www.civicyouth.org/?page_id=241>.