1. RESEARCH PROPOSAL
SSCI 306
Key features:

2. • Talk about the subject as best as possible (concise)
• Clear statement of the intended focus
• Rationale for choosing the subject
• Mention of resources
Statement of intent to examine a topic
GOALS
• To provide a justifiable reason for your research intention.
• Allows me the opportunity to guide your research should you
have
difficulty with broadening or narrowing your research topic.
Beginning the Process
Research proposals are generally organized the same way
throughout
most social science disciplines as your regular academic paper.
• Read the assignment carefully
• Ask if you are not clear about any specific requirements
for organizing and writing the proposal
•What doI want tostudy?
•Whyisthetopicimportant?

3. •Howisit significant withinthesubject areascoveredinmyclass?
•What problemswill it helpsolve?
•Howdoesit buildupon[andhopefullygobeyond]
researchalreadyconductedonthetopic?
•What exactlyshouldI plantodo, andcanI get it
doneinthetimeavailable?
Ask yourself:
CONTENT OF PROPOSAL
Topic (1 sentence) Abstract/summary of
topic (~1 paragraph)
Annotated
Bibliography (2-3
sources you will likely
use in paper)
For each source, ~1
paragraph describing
what the article is
about and how it will
help your research
Outline
Provide 2-3 ideas for
your main points
TOPIC SENTENCE
Progression of an argument for your proposed
paper.

4. Decreasing poverty will increase access to healthcare.
Increased access to healthcare reduces chronic diseases such as
diabetes.
Economic improvement decreases poverty.
Decreased chronic diseases improve economy by allowing
money from emergency
room to classroom for betterment of education.
Improved education leads to more economic opportunities.
Economic opportunity leads to economic development and
improvement.
ABSTRACT/SUMMARY
Provide a brief but detailed explanation of your topic.
What are you trying to do?
Why?
What do you want your reader to know?
What is the main point?
Who is the effected why and how?
Why does this matter?
How can you solve the problem?

5. What are some of the limits (either the study or the problem)?
What are the opportunities (either the study or the problem)?
ANNOTATED
BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Provide an annotated bibliography
style description of 2-3 sources.
Provide
• Evaluative annotations: offer opinions on
each source as well as describe it.
• Concise description of work: give accurate and
objective information
• Relevant commentary: provide opinion related to
your topic and purpose.
Offer
• Complete bibliographic information
Complete
• A concise description of the work
• Describe objectively and summarize the work
• Relevant commentary
• Commentary relevant to the scope and purpose of

6. the writing assignment
• Consistent presentation
• Effectively evaluate all sources, not just some
Provide:
Author, A. A., Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article. Title of
Periodical, volume
number(issue number), pages. http://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyyy
Goodhart, D. E. (1985). Some psychological effects associated
with positive and
negative thinking about stressful event outcomes. Journal of
Personality and
Social Psychology, 48(1), 216-232.
www.doi.com/jpsp/65429874
This study attempted to determine whether positive thoughts
after stress
would help an individual cope. Overall, the study found that
positive
thinking has little long-term effects on the person’s psyche, and
instead,
it is the dwelling on negative that adversely affects a person.
The study
concluded that searching for the silver-lining is not likely to aid
an
individual, but rather to not focus on dark and gloomy thoughts
about the
situation. This study will aid in the argument of this paper by
demonstrating…

7. TO DECIDE ON SOURCES CONSIDER:
• Appropriateness: is the source relevant to your topic? Is it a
primary or
secondary source? Is it general or specialized?
• Credibility: Are the author and the publisher or sponsor
reputable? Do
their ideas agree with those in other similar sources?
• Balance: Does the source present enough evidence? Does it
show
any particular bias? Does it present counterarguments?
• Timelessness: Does the source reflect current thinking or
research?
OUTLINE
Can be simple bullet points
List your tentative main points
a. Main Point 1 will be about…
b. Main Point 2 will be about…
c. Main Point 3 will be about…
a. Positive thinking as health benefit
b. Positive thinking and the negative effects on daily
interactions
c. Pollyanna Syndrome
SUGGESTIONS

8. Anthropology
•Agricultural practices
•Ancestors
•Ancient cultures
•Body modifications (piercing, tattoos,
etc.)
•Burial customs
•Clothing/costume
•Cultural appropriation
•Day of the Dead
•Eating utensils
•Eating habits
•Eating customs
•Folklore
•Gender roles
•Gender assignment
•Gift giving customs
•Kissing customs
•Language/linguistics
•Marriage
•Cultural evolution
•Biological evolution
•Monogamy
•Dating
•Nudists
•Kinship and relatives
•Polyandry
•Polygamy
•Primate families
•Religious beliefs/practices
•Repatriation
•Ritual masks

9. •Roma (gypsy) culture
•Social networks
•Subcultural groups (i.e. hippies, Hell's Angels,
Cribbs, Bloods, etc.)
•Traditional medicine
•Healing
•Magic and Voodoo
•Dance and musical tradition
•Religious dance and music
•Genes
•CRISPR
Communication •Bias
•Bot journalists
•Cartoons
•Comic strips
•Comic books
•Corporate media
•Media and business
•Manufactured Consent
•Citizen journalism
•News
•Fake news
•Media ethics
•Memes
•Superhero (Marvel, D.C, etc.)
•Press embargoes
•Women in media
•Women in newsrooms
•Women in media boardroom
•Privacy
•Slanting
•Cyberbullying

10. •Social media
•Social media and social justice
•Social media literacy
•Social networking
•Technology and communication
•Tabloids
•Yellow journalism
Criminal Justice •Capital punishment as deterrent
•Community policing
•Crime statistic reporting
•Cyber crime
•Death penalty
•Domestic violence
•Fiber evidence
•For profit prisons
•Forensic genealogy
•Forensic geology
•Fraud
•Hate crime
•Hate groups
•Identity theft
•Illegal drug use
•Innocence projects
•International terrorism
•Legalization of marijuana
•Lethal injection vs. electric chair
•Mandatory minimum sentencing
•Plea bargaining
•Presumptive parole
•Prison overcrowding
•Prostitution
•Racial profiling

11. •Rehabilitation in prison
•Riots
•Serial killers
•Sodomy laws
•Undercover police
•Voting rights for felons
•Warren court
•Witness protection program
Political Science
•2016 presidential campaign
•Alt-right
•Automatic voter registration
•Campaign finance laws
•Public financing of campaigns
•Congressional Review Act
•Debates
•Democratization
•Democracy
•Effect of mass media
•Environmental Protection Agency
•Executive actions
•Executive power, limits of
•Legislative power, limits of
•Judicial power, limits of
•Facebook campaigning
•Gerrymandering
•Line item veto
•Capitalism
•Fascism
•Twitter bots and elections
•Russian meddling in 2016 Election

12. •Mutual defense alliances
•Mutually assured destruction
•National Popular Vote Bill
•Open government
•Freedom of Information Act
•Pork barrel legislation
•Populism
•Regulations
•Bernie Sanders
•Social democracy
•Super PACs
•Supreme Court powers
•Transparency
•Donald Trump
•Voter turnout
•Democratic socialist
•Communism
•AOC
Psychology
•Adiction
•Anger management
•Animal assisted therapy
•Asperger's Syndrome
•Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
•Autism
•Behaviorism
•Bipolar disorder
•Birth order
•Borderline personality disorder
•Compulsion loop
•Cross-dressing
•Depression

13. •Dreams
•Emotional intelligence
•Family therapy
•Grief
•Group therapy
•Guilt
•Internet addiction
•Jealousy
•Kleptomania
•Megalomania
•Memory loss
•Multiple personalities
•Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
•Otherkin
•Panic attacks
•Pedophilia
•Peer pressure
•Personality types
•Phobias
•Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
•Postnatal (postpartum) depression
•Prescriptions for ADHD
•Resilience
•Self-esteem
•Sexual assault victims
•Sleeping disorders
•Social anxiety disorder
•Speech disorders
•Transsexual
•Twins
Sociology •Aging
•Ambient awareness

14. •Anti-vaccination
•Black Lives Matter
•Class
•Cliques
•Conflict theory
•Consumerism
•Counter-cultures
•Cults
•Cultural appropriation
•Cultural assimilation
•Ethnicity
•Equal pay
•Family issues
•Fandom
•Fashion trends
•Flocking behavior
•Gender Issues
•Mass Media
•Nationality
•Occupy movement
•Online dating
•Patriotism
•Police brutality
•Poverty gap
•Protest
•Race
•Race relations
•Racism
•Social media activism
•Social stratification
•Spirituality and religion
•Stereotypes
•Sub-cultures
•Superstitions
•Twitter

15. •Work place
•Youth culture
Research ProposalSlide Number 2Slide Number 3Slide Number
4Slide Number 5Slide Number 6Slide Number 7Slide Number
8Slide Number 9Slide Number 10Slide Number 11Slide Number
12Slide Number 13Slide Number 14Slide Number 15Slide
Number 16Slide Number 17GoalsSlide Number 19Content of
ProposalTopic SentenceAbstract/SummaryAnnotated
BibliographySlide Number 24Slide Number 25To decide on
sources consider:OutlineSuggestionsSlide Number 29Slide
Number 30Slide Number 31Slide Number 32Slide Number
33Slide Number 34
Research Proposal Guideline
The next step in your research toward a final paper is writing a
research proposal. These are the steps
you should take. If you have any questions or problems about
the assignment, or if you need to turn it in
electronically or late, let me know BEFORE the deadline.
1- Check the basics:
a. Make sure your citation formatting is correct. Meaning: if
you are using MLA, make sure
your name, class, date, title, etc. appears on the first page of
your paper in the proper
format of the MLA (or whatever style you choose) guidelines.
b. Make sure your pages are numbered.
c. Put a title in the middle and center of the page (this is the
title of your research).
2- Body:

16. a. Like any other paper, start with introduction and give me a
brief background of your
research.
b. Write background of your research means: tell me, roughly,
why is your research
interesting and why should it be considered? Tell me about the
beginning and give me a
brief history of your topic. History of your topic does not need
to go too far into the
history, but far enough to create a clear understanding of the
root causes of the
problem for the reader.
c. This is a good place to ask questions that will become your
thesis. The answer to that
question will become your
outcome/result/conclusion/solution/whatever.
d. For now, there is no need to stress out about what your thesis
should be. Just see if you
simply have any questions about a topic that interests you. After
you do your reading
and conduct your research you will have a much better idea of
what your thesis will be.
3- Annotated bibliography:
a. Pick three to five scientific, peer-reviewed, journal articles
that are related to your topic
and you intend to use them for your final paper. Kind of like
what you did for your
article analysis for one article, but multiple times.
b. Evaluate the articles: offer opinions on each source as well as

17. describing it. Do both.
Describe the article in the shortest way possible and then offer
your position of it. Do it
for all articles, one by one.
i. Make sure you avoid “I” this or “I” that from this point
forward. At this point, it
is the author (you), the researcher (you, again), or “one” as a
replacement for
me, or I.
c. Concise description of work: give accurate and objective
information about your article.
Do not guess or assume. The article is in front of you and your
reader should see the
same information in your paper as in the article you cited.
d. Relevant commentary: provide opinion related to your topic
and purpose.
4- Make sure it is 600 to 750 words long.
5- If you can remember how, utilize Mozilla FireFox and Zotero
for ease and management of
your citations. If you cannot remember, let me know.
Name:
1
Research Proposal Rubric
Poor Fair Good Excellent Total

18. Background
Background/root
causes/important
details of how the
problem started is
not present. (0)
Important details are
missing but there is
mention of some
root causes of the
problem. (3)
Background is there
but it has grammar
errors that make it
hard to understand.
(6)
I understood
everything that was
said. Hasta la vista,
Baby! (9)
Body
Title is missing. The
summary is

19. incoherent. There is
no clear aim and the
scope of the study is
too broad.
(0)
Title is there but it is
not related to the
work. The summary
is clear, but the scope
is too broad. (6)
Title is related to the
topic. The summary
is clear and the scope
is manageable.
However, there are
grammar problems
that makes clarity an
issue. (9)
Thesis and
background are both
clear. The reader
understands the
root, the proposed
solutions, and logical

20. conclusion. (12)
Annotated Bib
Articles are not
scientific. No
Annotated bib(0)
Articles are scientific.
Evaluation of the
articles is not clear.
Lots of the author
says this, the author
says that. (3)
Articles are credible.
Evaluation is clear.
But the goal and
point of the piece are
hard to understand.
(6)
Articles are scientific
and credible.
Evaluation is clear.
Research makes
sense. (9)

21. Citation & Reference
No citations. None
whatsoever. (0)
In-text citation.
No reference page.
Wrong style. (4)
In-text citation.
Reference page.
Wrong style. (7)
In-text citation.
Reference page.
Correct format (10)
Total:
Final Paper Assignment
This document is written to show you how to conduct a research
and how to write about it. Please make
sure you follow all the guidelines in this handout. This
assignment is worth 100 points. That is one quarter

22. of your final grade. Please make sure you fully read and
understand this document.
Make sure your work:
Is properly cited.
Has your name and information.
Meets the minimum requirements.
Has in-text citation and a bibliography.
Is between 2500 to 3000 words (I know what syllabus is
saying!), use Times New Roman font 12
with 1” margin for uniformity and convenience, and be left
justified.
Use between 10 to 12 scientific articles.
o Note: remember that materials from random websites (.com
.org. biz. co.) do not
count. Make sure you use scientific peer-reviewed research (you
can access credible
sources through Library’s website).
Introduction: Your introductory material should set up your
topic for your audience. Briefly summarize
the background to your topic. Tell your audience why this topic
is important in the light on the background
you just shared. In this paragraph you will bring any questions
you are trying to answer, or any problem
you are trying to solve, or any trouble you are trying to shine
light on. Your thesis should come at the end
of your introduction paragraph. It can be a position you take, a
statement you make, or a question you
contemplate.
Body: If it helps you, use subheadings where appropriate, to
separate different aspects of your paper
which support your controlling idea (your thesis). If you do not
want to use subheadings, then make sure

23. your paper flows logically and without major problems. The
body of your paper should provide supporting
evidence to support your thesis, in a logical, fully developed
manner. It would make your work really
strong if you can incorporate theoretical framework to support
your argument.
The body will also house your literature review which will be
majority of your work. The body of your
paper is where you prove or disprove whatever it is you are
trying to prove or disprove. You will use the
articles your read to draw your conclusion.
Note: You must show you are able to analyze the information
you read in your articles and prove or
disprove them, not just repeat what you read in articles.
As the writer of a research paper you should synthesize the
information you read from sources and weave
them into a well-ordered discourse, using the sources you
identified throughout the course as evidence
to support your points. A paper which is just a string of quotes
shows that the author has made no
attempts at coming to grips with the subject and is relying on
the sources to speak for her or him.
Conclusion: Your conclusion should make some "wrap up"
statements about what you learned about
your topic and the possible impact of your findings on people
and perhaps society in general. Also, address
any issues that may still not be resolved for you. Don't be
reluctant to address any issues that are not
easily resolved or have negative or ambiguous outcomes. I am
not necessarily looking for a neatly wrapped
up conclusion with no loose ends. I am looking for a
conscientious, thoughtful look at some topic in your
field. I am also interested in seeing how will you shard major
significance of this issue, and any unanswered
questions you are still dealing with.