Research Outline/Design

1. State your chosen research topic

2. Identify the research problem clearly and justify its selection
 What is the problem you identify? (1 sentence)
 Why is it a problem? (1 sentence)
3. Review and synthesize previously published literature associated with the research
problem,
 Identify 3 main issues that are discussed in literature about your problem
4. Clearly and explicitly specify hypothesis and research questions central to the problem,
 State your hypothesis
 State 3 research questions
5. Effectively describe the information and/or data which will be necessary for an
adequate testing of the hypotheses and explain how such information and/or data will
be obtained, and
 What information will you need?
o i.e. primary sources? Secondary sources?
 Where will you find this information?
o In the library? Online?
o In the community? Where in the community i.e. villages? Urban groups?
o Student population of NUS?
o State age groups of people
 How will you find the information? i.e. Quantitative or Qualitative methods?
 What methods will you use? i.e. interviews? Questionnaires? Library research?
o For each method chosen, state why it is useful to proving whether your
hypothesis is true or false.
o These are examples below:
1. I will use interviews because they will help me to get people’s
stories about….
2. Questionnaires will be used because they will enable me to gather
many views from my chosen sample population about the issue
6. Describe the methods of analysis to be applied to the data in determining whether or
not the hypotheses are true or false.
 State the paradigm of your research
o E.g. This research will utilise a constructivist paradigm because…
 State the level of analysis i.e. micro, meso or macro analyses?
o E.g. I will look at the issue from a personal perspective and use a micro
analysis. This is because…
 If all three levels of analyses are applicable to your research, state why.
o E.g. I will utilise all three levels of analysis in this research because…