Research Proposal

Topic: The Affect of Generational Poverty has on the Overall Well-being of Children in the Mississippi Delta

1. Background and Significance 

1.1. Social Condition or any other Source of Research Problem (Epidemiological statistics on the problem): Justify the importance of the research problem in terms of the social condition or any other source of research problem that made you interested in the topic. So, discuss the situation in the community with some statistics.

1.2. Relevance for Social Work: Justify the importance of the research problem for the profession of social work. So, discuss how frequently professional social workers are involved in helping people affected by the issues in the research problem

1.3. Prevailing scientific knowledge: Discuss some scientific knowledge, with appropriate citations, that professionals and scientists know about the issues in the research problem

1.4. Gap in scientific knowledge: Justify the importance of the research problem in terms of the gap in current knowledge base at specific variable level

1.5. Problems that social workers encounter due to gap in knowledge: Discuss the difficulties that social workers encounter in providing the effective services due to the gap in knowledge.

2. Specific Objectives: Following the narratives and arguments in subsection 1.4 above, list specific questions you plan to answer or specific hypotheses you plan to test in order to fill the knowledge gap. These objectives or questions must be at specific variable level.

3. Methods of the study: This section must cover:

3.1. The list of major variables under investigation

3.2. Measurement procedures for each variable

3.3. Population that you plan to study (a county in Mississippi)

3.4. Sampling procedures

3.5. Data collection procedures

3.6. Research design

3.7. Data analysis procedure

4. Limitations: (Include the possibilities of threats of internal validity, among other things)

5. Implications: Discuss how the knowledge gained from this research, i.e. the generalizations or the broad understanding stated in conclusion could be used to improve micro or macro social work practices, social welfare policy, future research and social work education.

6. Conclusion

7. References

8. Appendices: Instruments developed to administer

Everything in the paper must fall under an appropriate heading and subheading, and should be written in own words. Please do not plagiarize

As you put the final touches on your proposals, remember the following:

1. Proposals should be at least 8-10 pages

2. Must follow APA format.  If you do not have an APA manual, please utilize Purdue Owl online as a guide for APA.

3. You will not have an appendix as you will not create an instrument.

4. You must have at least 10 references

5. Make sure you cover each section in detail.

6.  Remember you are proposing your research and not executing it, therefore, you should not attempt to recruit and survey participants.

7. Refrain from plagiarism.  You are to paraphrase into your own words and cite accordingly.

8.  Your proposals should reflect scholarly work.  You should not google or wikipedia signs and symptoms of your social problem and present it as a research proposal.  However, you should cover each portion of the proposal guide in your syllabus relative to the social issue and research questions that you developed.