This goal of assignment is to give students practice in constructing a research proposal on a crime or justice-related issue. The proposal will be written in three stages: a preliminary draft, a complete first draft, and a complete final draft.
ONLY NEED PRELIMINARY PROPOSAL
The preliminary proposal draft must include the following elements:
1. An introductory paragraph that describes the topic and makes the case for the research issue to be studied. As stated above, the topic must be related to crime or criminal justice.
2. At least one research question
3. At least two hypotheses, and one null hypothesis
4. At least 5 independent variables. They must be operationalized and the level of measurement indicated. No more than 2 demographic variables can be used.
5. At least one dependent variable. It must be operationalized and the level of measurement indicated
6. A concluding paragraph that describes what you hope to find from your research study and what your findings would mean for our knowledge of the topic being studied.
The proposal should be written using sentences and paragraphs. Use section headings (i.e., Research Question, Hypotheses, etc.) to mark off each of the elements.
Formatting guidelines for your draft
1. Written using MS Word or at the least saved in that format. If I cannot open it, it will be rejected.
2. Have no more than 1 inch margins on all sides.
3. Use 10-12 point professional font (Ariel, Times New Roman, Tahoma, etc.).
4. Be double-spaced.
5. Contain page numbers
6. While a reference is not needed for this draft, if you want to use one, it must be written using APA style guidelines
Papers that violate even one of these guidelines will automatically lose 5 points that cannot be recovered.
