.You will introduce and justify your topic

Learning Goal: I’m working on a political science writing question and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.

TOPIC MUST BE ABOUT YEMEN, MY DEGREE IS POLITICAL science

You are asked to submit a 1,800 word research proposal.

1.You will introduce and justify your topic

2.You will propose well-defined research questions (aims) and/or focus;

3.You will demonstrate a grasp of issues and theoretical insights through inclusion of literature relevant to your research;

4.You will propose suitable methods for analysing, interpreting, presenting and disseminating data and/or evidence;

5.You will demonstrate awareness of the possible ethical implications for your proposed topic

6.You will demonstrate how your proposed topic meets the requirements of a liberal studies capstone by demonstrating how integration will be achieved.

Important to note:

• Use file formats that are compatible with Turnitin. For example, Turnitin does not read Pages. If you are using this software, you may wish to convert the file into a word document or a pdf.
• You must use the relevant Title Page

A few words about the Capstone project:

The Liberal Arts Capstone is the summation of your studies for the degree. You will demonstrate not only mastery of your major specialisation, but also the breadth of learning and the development of your thinking and skills from right across your programme.

While your topic will start from and most likely will be largely based within your major area of specialisation, the resultant work must show elements of a breath of approach and knowledge that you gained from your many electives you have taken as part of the programme. You will work closely with dedicated supervisors (one of whom will be from your major subject area) to define the nature and range of your topic and to create and deliver the final work.

The form of the Capstone is not limited to a traditional written dissertation or thesis (although that would be acceptable), but depending on the starting point within your major could also take the form of a practical practice-based project, a report, creative work plus reflection, a portfolio of work plus reflection.Guide to The Capstone Research Proposal

There is no pre-defined expected structure to a proposal but in assessing it, we will determine whether:

• • you have satisfactorily addressed all the six key areas listed the proposal brief. Exactly how much importance you give to each area, rests on your topic and to some extent the disciplinary research conventions of your major.
• • your proposal’s organisation, structure and presentation is to the appropriate standard

In writing your proposal, think about it as work that can be read by others who have not discussed your research ideas; it is therefore important to ensure that is easily accessible and understandable to those other than your supervisors or individuals you have consulted with in the process.

i. You will Introduce and Justify your topic

You will succinctly and concisely introduce your topic and justify why it is a topic worthwhile exploring. You will therefore provide enough background information with relevant references, so that an independent reader (not just your supervisor or a peer you have been discussing this) should feel able to anticipate what your study will involve. You should also discuss the significance of what you are proposing. Your proposal should offer a title for the project one that is descriptive of its. Avoid giving uninformative titles.

ii. Well-defined research questions (aims) and/or focus

State explicitly what you are aiming to achieve upon completion of your project. Depending on your topic, overall approach and disciplinary conventions you may need to present hypotheses and/or research question(s) and/or a statement of focus you will seek to address. They should be introduced and explained sufficiently so that they are understood without reading your Background section. It is important that you pay attention to the proper articulation of such statements, because they end operationalising your topic. Ultimately, a good proposal is one that makes direct connections of all the aspects of the topic to its research questions/hypotehes/statement of focus.

iii. Grasp of issues and theoretical insights through inclusion of relevant research

Your proposal should properly cite all significant concepts and ideas. We will look for evidence that you have read widely on the topic in order to construct your proposal. To demonstrate this, you will need to present a critical, initial review of the relevant and related literature, to indicate your understanding of what is already known and understood, and how this in-turn informs your research questions/project statements. In doing this, you may want to ask questions such as:

• • Has this topic been previously researched?
• • What key theories/theoretical frameworks are relevant to your topic?
• • What are the debates around it and what bearing does these have on your research question (s)?

You may find that there is scope for extending work that has previously been done in the area. Alternatively, you may find that what you are proposing has not been replicated before, in which case you may have identified a gap that your project might seek to contribute to. A word of advice….avoid long and unnecessary sections that do not relate to your work.

We expect that there will be many citations of relevant academic sources for this part (don’t ask us how many… the answer is simply… as many as needed ).

iv. Methods/approach of research

There are different ways to go about exploring a topic; that is why a key element of your proposal is explaining and justifying your approach i.e. how you intend carrying out your research in order to address the project’s aims and/or questions. As explained in the workshops, different academic disciplines are likely to have different expectations and conventions, so it is important that you consult with your supervisor.

We will look for information on what data you will need to collect, how you intend to collect it and analyse it. You are also expected to justify your choices. This section should be thorough yet, concise (avoid including unnecessary information). It must contain enough information for the independent reader to understand how you are going to conduct your study and why you have chosen the particular methods/approaches you are proposing.

It is important that the research approach you intend to undertake, can be realistically achievable within the timeframe of this project. It is also important to ensure that it can be sufficiently presented within the word limit of the final project (i.e. 5,000-6,000 words).

v. Research Ethics

You should give due consideration to aspects of your work that could be ethically implicated. For instance, your project may:

• • involve dealing with human subjects (e.g. surveys and interviews), and/or,
• • use data of sensitive nature or data that is private property of third parties that is not publicly available,
• • deal with a controversial topic,

• • may involve minors…

and many more issues that were discussed in workshop 6. While we do not necessarily expect you to consider how you will respond to these in your proposal, you will need to acknowledge/identify and discuss these issues.

vi. Justify why what is proposed meets the Liberal Studies project requirement

In doing this project you are expected to go beyond the mastery developed within your major and to integrated and synthesize across the learning and development of your thinking and skills across the programme. We expect to see elements of breath of approach and knowledge that you gained from the many electives you have taken as part of the programme. We therefore expect you to demonstrate how your proposed topic integrates across disciplines (we discussed this in Week 2 – see relevant material) and is therefore a suitable Liberal Studies project.

Your grade will also be determined by:

Styling, Presentation and Bibliography

A good proposal should be enjoyable to read. It presents its arguments in a logical and coherent manner. Reading is straightforward and is free from extraneous wording which quite often clutters the argument or presentation.

You should be consistent in your approach to referencing (as explained in class, you should use the Liberal Studies referencing guide.) Furthermore, we expect that your proposal will meet the expected stylistic and presentational level 6 standards. It should be professionally presented, it is free from spelling, punctuation or grammatical errors and it is within the word limit.