Demonstrate your ability to plan and think logically about research design and approaches to research.

Assessment Details – 2,500 word research proposal

Guidance / Brief: Produce a 2500 word research proposal, giving a detailed account of how you

would conduct a chosen piece of research.

To do this, you will firstly need to think of a topic i.e Patient Satisfaction In the NHS

You would then propose an approach as to how you would set about

exploring your chosen research ’aim’.

The specific information included in your proposal will depend on your research aim, the specific

research questions you propose to address and the research approach you are proposing, but

generally research proposals should include:

 An introduction, containing an overview of research and theory related to the suggested

research topic/area.

 A clearly developed rationale for the proposal study, and the proposed aim and specific

research question(s).

 A detailed description and justification of a suitable methodological approach

 More specific design details, procedure and sample details where relevant

 A description and justification of any proposed analysis

 A complete reference list

This assignment is to demonstrate your ability to plan and think logically about research design and

approaches to research.

You can organise your proposal in any way that makes sense to you and the piece of research you

are proposing. It is normal to include sections with sub-headings in a proposal. Make sure your

proposal has a clear structure and logical flow of information to clearly detail your proposed piece of

research. Your proposal needs to clearly demonstrate the link between your proposed aim/research

questions and the methodological approach you propose to use. It also needs to demonstrate that it

is a theoretically informed approach, evidencing wider reading.

Information on marking

An excellent proposal needs to be clearly and logically presented, all material included specifically

focused on the task at hand – in this case, presenting a clear research strategy to explore your

chosen research aim/question. An excellent proposal will be theoretically informed and include clear

rationale and evaluation of your chosen approach.

Common ways in which people limit their marks:

 Submitting an assignment that is significantly under or over the prescribed word limit

 Incoherent, poorly structured content

 Irrelevant material included

 Not using relevant literature to enhance and support discussions

 Inadequate information provided about methodological approach

 Not including a references and a full reference list