Honours 1 Assessment There are three assessment tasks for the course. Two of these are hurdle tasks - ones that are an essential part of your successful progression to Honours 2 but do not form part of your actual mark for Honours 1. The other is the main assessment piece for the course and an important part of your final Honours grade. Please note, unsatisfactory completion of Honours 1 will result in a Fail grade for the course and inability to progress to Honours 2. Research Proposal Length: 4,000words This is the main assessment task for the semester. All students should submit their work in hard copy (building 37, level 2, with a coversheet) and through TurnItIn on Blackboard. Your research proposal should contain the following: 1. Clear introduction of the issue under investigation 2. Critical overview of research relevant to your issue 3. Identification of any recurring themes, key debates or silences/gaps in the existing literature 4. The relevance of the topic to social work practice, especially if the connection is not obvious 5. Identification of your research design including the theoretical perspective, methodology, and methods of data collection and analysis. Please note, the marking process for the thesis and portfolio differs. Those completing the portfolio will receive a final mark for work submitted in HWSS2204 (the portfolio research proposal is worth 100%). The thesis will be assessed as a whole piece at the end of HWSS2205. Thesis students will receive formative feedback on their research proposal, but not an actual mark. Satisfactory completion will result in a NEX grade that will be amended upon completion of HWSS2205. The final word count for the thesis is 10,000 - 12,000 words (including in-text referencing and quotations but excluding the reference list and appendices), to be submitted at the end of HWSS2205. Assessment Criteria - Clarity of aims and scope in introducing the issue under investigation (15%) - Critical analysis and integration of research relevant to your issue that includes identification of any recurring themes, key debates or silences in the existing literature (25%) - The relevance of the topic to social work practice (10%) - Clear identification of the research design that includes the theoretical perspective, methodology and methods (30%) - Logical structure of paragraphs and quality of writing (10%) - Consistent and accurate referencing (10%) More detailed instructions…. You are tasked with generating a full project proposal from the topic you have developed throughout the semester, building on the ideas you submitted in your topic registration and approved by your tutor. The purpose of this assessment is for you demonstrate the knowledge and skills that you have developed during this course and to have clearly laid out your plan for completing your research in semester two. It is expected that you will make use of the material that we have covered each week and that you will draw on the relevant weekly readings in order to explain and justify your research design. The lecture on Writing your Research Proposal will provide additional complementary information to the below. Detailed Structure… Title: You can be creative but select something that is clear and unambiguous. Your title should indicate the content and context of the problem you wish to explore in a succinct way. Background and literature review: Introduce the reader to the problem you wish to explore by explaining the context in which the problem arises. The context of the work may be historical, geographical, situational or theoretical, or a combination of these. Research requires engagement with the literature. You will need to demonstrate that you have a good grasp of what is currently known about the problem with reference to the existing literature. The purpose here is to orient the reader to the relevance and significance of the issue under study and to clearly position your research within the field. Having established the context and carefully reviewed the literature, you should be able to identify some limitations, or gaps, in current understandings of your research problem. From this you should be able to build the ‘story’ of your research and to establish the ways in which your research aims to contribute to current understandings, discussions and debates. O’Leary (2014: 98-100) reviews the purpose of a literature review and identifies three components: - Inform readers of developments in the field that includes a discussion of relevant theories, methods and research studies - Establish researcher credibility by demonstrating your mastery of the literature - Argue the need for, and relevance of, your study, by identifying any gaps in knowledge or understanding Approximately 1,500 words,this section should identify the ‘problem’ your research addresses, the rationale for your research, and where this fits into the existing body of research. Aims of the research: State your research aims. It is here that you will include a hypothesis or hunch (if applicable) about the nature of the problem that you aim to explore in your research. The stated aim/s should not come as a surprise to the reader but rather should read as a logical extension of the previous sections. It may be helpful to think of the Aims as comprising the following characteristics (Gruba and Zobel, 2014: 51): - It should provide clear direction and purpose by responding directly to the identified research problem - Ideally a minor thesis would have a singular aim to ensure the project is manageable and not claiming to do too much. - The aim should establish a clear link with the title Approximate word count – 300 words Research question/s: A clearly articulated research question, or questions, defines your investigation, sets boundaries and provides direction to your work. Clearly state your research question/s. Depending upon your research design, you may have one, or two, research questions or you may have one overarching research question and two or three sub-questions. Approximately 100 words Theoretical paradigm: Discuss the theoretical perspective you bring to your research design, with reference to Crotty’s framework of research design (introduced in the lecture). It is at this point you will also identify any key theorist/s you will use to frame your investigation. Approximately 350 words Methodological approach Identify your methodological approach and discuss – with reference to the research literature - how this addresses your research aims and question/s Approximately 350 words Methods of data collection and analysis Detail the sources of data you will use, how you will access and gather it, and the steps of your method –document analysis/ comparative analysis/ discourse analysis/ systematic review etc. Justify these decisions with direct reference to your research question and aims. Discuss, with reference to methods texts, the strengths and limitations of your method and explain how you came to choose this method over others. This discussion must be couched in reference to methods texts (minimum of 3). If you are claiming that your method is appropriate, you need evidence to support that claim. (Why have your selected quantitative and qualitative data? How do you plan to make sense of this data? If it is qualitative data, how will you code it? If it is quantitative information how will you make sense of it? Tell the reader why these methods of analysis are appropriate and reliable. Explain how this method of analysis will give an answer to your question) This section should be detailed enough that someone could use this to do your research project. You need to ensure that all decisions are fully justified and you need to reference the methodological literature to do this. Approximately 800 words Ethics Include a discussion of ethical considerations and how you plan to manage these. Approximately 300 words Limitations Include a discussion about the limitations of your research design and identify any opportunities for further research. Approximately 200 words Timeline Include evidence that your research plan is realistic and achievable within the time you have available. It is recommended you demonstrate this with inclusion of a Gantt chart (ie table with weeks/months in columns and research tasks in rows). Approximately 100 words References Make sure that you have cited at least 12 peer-reviewedreferences in your research proposal. This includes the literature you cite in your review of the literature on your research problem and it includes the various research methods texts you use in developing your research design. Appendices If you are using a framework of analysis, appendix this (not included in your word count). There may also be other relevant materials you wish to include in the appendices. Never put vital information in this section and be sure to cross-reference any appendices you use in the body of your proposal. Handy hint: There are three really useful places to find methods references 1) Library – Call number 300, there’s a whole row of methods books. Just go there and find one with a title that seems relevant and start from there 2) Library subject guide – has access to many e-books and peer-reviewed journals. It includes the social work and social research subject guides as well as other subject guides that may be relevant to your topic. 3) Sage research methods online – full-text access to so many methods resources: http://srmo.sagepub.com/