Sample Research Proposal on Methodology

The answers are measured on a 5 point Likert scale from questions 1-7 and Yes or No format for questions 8 -10. Responses are recorded and interpreted according to the scoring key and norms. The results are then displayed in the form of a pie chart comparing each sector.

“The developed world deprives children of a basic and inalienable right: unstructured outdoor play. Children today have substantially less access to nature, less free range, and less time for independent play than previous generations had.” This quote is from the research based paper titled, “Where the Wild Things Should Be: Healing Nature Deficit Disorder through the Schoolyard." This article touches many aspects of how children now a days need more exposure to nature like it was on the older days. Currently, there are many playgrounds around the United States and even more the world. This article is trying to bring awareness to the problem of if playgrounds do not have enough nature or is too safe then it is

A questionnaire is a list of a research or survey questions asked to respondents, and designed to extract quantitative date. Questionnaires are easily distributed to the community and can be completed and collected on the spot or be emailed or posted back to the researcher. Self completed questionnaires are the most common survey as they are cheap and can be passed to a lot of people. Some sociologists tend not to use questionnaires because of their low response rate and lack of validity. Also, some people may give false information so some researchers like to stick to interviews and experiments for increased accuracy. I will explore why sociologists shy away from using questionnaires.

A questionnaire is research which involves a number of different questions to gather information from the people who are filling it in. Questionnaires are designed as a way to find out what people are thinking. An advantage of questionnaires is that it is very practical because it is quick to collect information from the people filling out the questionnaire. Another advantage of questionnaires is that the same questions is asked to everyone filling the questionnaire out so easy to sum up. The final advantage to questionnaires is that large information can be collected. There are also some disadvantages to questionnaires which is that there is no way of telling how much though someone who is filling the questionnaire out has put it. Another disadvantage is that the person filling it out may forget what has happened to fill it out so it won’t be reliable. The final disadvantage to questionnaires is that there is no way to tell how truthful a respondent is being.

“Research in health and social care usually relies on obtaining information from individuals using social research methodologies”. (Whitehouse, M, 2010:428). Questionnaires are suitable for obtaining important information from many individuals in a survey who are answering the questions this is known as ‘respondents’. Questionnaires gives us the opportunity to ask questions of participants but also allows answers to be given according to the options constructed by the researcher using a response frame. A response frame allows a limited choice of different responses. Also there are self-completion questions this allows respondents to fill in the answers themselves. The questionnaire may be delivered to individuals directly by hand or by post or even online the researcher may contact through an email address. They may be asked to complete a customer satisfaction questionnaire. For example at college we are sent online questionnaires through are student email, questionnaires

The survey form was designed with 10 questionnaires about personality, each question is scale from 1 to 7 . Firstly, I answered the questionnaires for myself, then gave out survey forms to 5 co-workers and 5 friends.

The researcher will assume that the respondents will answer all survey questions and that the questions will be answered honestly. The researcher will assure the respondents that the survey will be handled anonymously and that it will be confidential.

Although the class has not had input into the methodology used to collect the data for this report it is still important for us to know why these methods were used. Questionnaires can be useful in order to get opinions and views from a large groups of people (McLeod 2014), such like conditions for the research for this reports. This can be useful as this can be an easier way of targeting a larger audience other than in interview purposes. This will also be more time consuming as everyone is answering the same questions.

“Problems researched with the use of appropriate methods greatly enhance the value of the research.” (Sekaran, 2003) Data can be collected through interviews, questionnaires, observations, and through other techniques, like projective tests. In even more detail, interviews can be conducted in a variety of different ways such as over the phone, through the computer, interviews through the electronic media, and face-to-face. Questionnaires can be conducted personally or administered electronically. “Interviewing, administering questionnaires, and observing people and phenomena are the three main data collection methods in survey research.” (Sekaran, 2003) As stated before, data can be collected in many different ways; however the value of the research is only greatly enhanced when personal opinions and bias is left out of the collection of data.

172). The relationship between the research design and data collection is dynamic, and the surveys purpose could have some influence on the type of survey model used. If there are problems in the collection of information the design can be changed. That is when the type of survey can be considered to decide if they should use face-to-face, telephone, or mailed surveys. According to O’Sullivan, Rassel, and Berner (2008), “respondents may ignore questionnaires that seem biased,” and “respondents’ perception of a built-in bias may largely center on the appropriateness of the response categories” (p. 179).

According to www.uc.ie/resources (025/02/08) ‘‘argued that questionnaires give the researcher feedback from the point of view of the user’’.

The strength of questionnaires is it can give an insight into respondent’s thoughts and opinions and also cost efficient as it is inexpensive.

[Note: This sample proposal is based on a composite of past proposals, simulated information and references, and material I’ve included for illustration purposes – it is based roughly on a fairly standard research proposal; I say roughly because there is no one set way of creating a quantitative research proposal. Much of its design is based on the nature of the research, your preferences, and your decisions regarding how to describe or portray what it is you plan to accomplish. The material in this document was adopted from a dissertation proposal created by Dr. Ralph Brockett. A biography

Thanks to your support, the year 2017 has been one of growth and innovation for the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival. We continue our expansion and fulfillment of our mission to bring the joy and beauty of mathematics to as many students as we can, through non-competitive extra-curricular mathematics activities.

In survey method research, participants answer questions administered through interviews or questionnaires. After participants answer the questions, researchers describe the responses given. In order for the survey to be both reliable and valid it is important that the questions are constructed properly. Questions should be written so they are clear and easy to comprehend.