Reference no: EM132364611

Research Planning and Communication - Research Proposal Project

The purpose of this assessment is for students to develop and apply skills in research project design in order to construct a well informed and considered research proposal on a selected topic. The proposed project should be something that can be realistically conducted within a 9 month full time equivalent study period. The choice of topic is yours and should relate to your interest areas, but it does not need to be based on the second year project that that you will conduct during your course. Students are required to write a proposal that demonstrates their ability to consider the major factors and requirements in the design and management of a research project. Students are also required to demonstrate their ability to search current literature and use this as the basis and justification of their research proposal.

There are two parts to this assignment;

Part A) Oral Presentation of the Research Proposal.
Students have a maximum of 10 minutes to present a seminar on their research topic. It should essentially cover the same criteria as the written document described below. The oral presentation is due in class time during Week 9 (Mon 9th Sep at Burwood, Wed 11th Sep at Waurn Ponds and Thur 12th Sep for Cloud students). The oral presentation is worth 10% of the total mark for the unit. There will be further discussion of the oral presentation during the trimester.

Part B) Written Research Proposal.
The word limit for the research proposal is 2500 words (not including the reference list).

In your proposal you should address the criteria described below. The formatting can differ somewhat but ensure that these components are all addressed;

Written Research Proposal Guidelines
1. Project Title
Producing a good project title is a balancing act; it needs to be informative but understandable, and short (ideally 10 words or less) but still include the required detail.

Along with a project title, in this section also provide the relevant FOR and SEO codes and a breakdown of the Type of Research (TOR) percentages for the project. Refer to Week One class slides for further information.

2. Introduction
Provide an overview of the background of the area, including a brief review of the pertinent literature. Use the resources that are discussed in the library session to assist you in sourcing quality information for this assignment and your future research endeavours. In addition, we will also discuss how to conduct a literature review in the coming weeks of the unit.

3. Research question and specific aims
Summarise your project with a single research question. This should then lead to several aims that are more specific.

4. Expected outcomes and benefits of the proposed research project

In this section you need to address the reasons for doing (or at least proposing) the project. Be clear in defining what the outputs of the project will be, along with the benefits of these. Who or what might benefit? It is important to put forward a compelling case here; you need to ‘sell the project'.

5. Research Plan and Methodology
Provide a coherent research plan along with the methodology that will be required to carry this out. Do not go into specific details of experimental protocols but do describe the types of techniques and equipment/computer software (and any other technical aspects) that will be required. This section should also identify and address any external factors (e.g. social, political, organisational, environmental factors) that could impact the research. Breaking this section down into subheadings is a good idea.

6. Proposed Timeline
For your timeline, assume that you are to carry out this project in 2019, with a project start date of February 2020 and a completion date of the 1st November 2020. Provide details of a systematic approach and key milestones for the project. You should also include the production of a research thesis in the timeline, as this will be the key deliverable output from the project. Consider the use of a GANTT chart to assist with this section.

7. Referencing
Adherence to correct formatting of reference material (Harvard style recommended), appropriate use of citations and the quality of the chosen references will all be assessed. It is suggested that at least 10 references will be required to adequately reference a proposal of this size.