ISSUES IN RESEARCH DESIGN

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ISSUES IN RESEARCH DESIGN
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OUTLINE

• 1. Research Design (document)
• 2. Grant Proposal (for funding)
• 3. Oral Presentation (e.g., job talks)

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RESEARCH DESIGN

• Purpose describe goals and strategies for your
  research project
• Question how will your project contribute to
  sum of existing knowledge?

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RESEARCH DESIGN FORMAT

• Introduction Framing the Issues
• General theme (e.g., womens rights, enforcement
  of law, quality of representation)
• Statement of key question
• Explanation of importance of question
  conceptual, methodological, and/or empirical
  grounds
• Literature Review/The State of the Art
• Command of literature conceptual, comparative,
  and specific
• Observation of deficiencies
• Distillation of hypotheses (is there a
  conventional wisdom?)
• And alternative hypotheses

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FORMAT (cont.)

• Research Plan
• Identification of dependent variable (what is to
  be explained?)
• Selection of independent variables (causal
  factors?)
• Your a priori expectations (if any)
• Choice of research site (e.g., region, country,
  municipality)
• Documentation and/or dataset
• Methodology
• Strategy for hypothesis-testing (qualitative or
  quantitative)
• Address questions of causality
• Criteria for confirmation/rejection of hypotheses
• Conclusion
• Restatement of intended contribution
• Preliminary Table of Contents
• How will your project add to sum of existing
  knowledge?

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GRANT PROPOSAL

• Essentially a research design, but shorter
• Focus attention on first sentence, first
  paragraph, first page
• Stress novelty of project, contribution to
  knowledge
• Emphasize Research Plan, Methodology
• Note collaboration with local scholars,
  institutions
• Feasibility of work plan
• Timetable (stress plausibility)
• Budget (do not trim excessively)
• If possible, submit at least five (5) proposals
  to different funding sources

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ORAL PRESENTATION

• Content
• Start with key questions
• Emphasize originality of approach, contribution
  to knowledge
• Offer preliminary findings
• Indicate next steps in research
• Keep it simple!
• Delivery
• Do not read a paper!
• Maintain eye contact (with audience, not
  computer)
• Study your audience in advance, reference as
  appropriate
• Create a snazzy power-point
• Practice your presentation (with laser pointer)
• Emphasize the obvious
• Insert tasteful humor, smile occasionally
• Invite QA, embrace all questions as excellent