Instruction
The main course objective is to submit a research proposal. The focus should be on emphasizing the issues of research design rather than
the substantive importance of the research project. That is, the focus of the proposal
is not on providing a lengthy literature review (although some knowledge of academic
work in the area should be demonstrated), but rather on writing a research proposal that
specifies a well-defined research question which is grounded in theory and methodologically
feasible.
Three-step approach to writing your research proposal
1. The research question: (1) must be causal in nature and should outline a
broad question you are interested in exploring further; and (2) should include a
short discussion of the variation to be explained, proposed causal explanation and
significance of research.
Project outline: outline/summary of project including a more refined discussion of
your research question, an indication of your causal explanatory variable, a discussion
of observable implications of your key causal variable and the importance/significance
of the project. The length of the project outline
should be no more than 1,750 words (including reference list, footnotes, and title
page). ( deadline 6 November by 20:00 ).