Wrongful Convictions Impact on America

Order Description

Title Page
a. Select a title for the research proposal and state this title, with your name below the title
Introduction (This should be very short, at most 3 pages)
b. What is your research problem or question?
c. Why did you select this topic?
d. What is the purpose of the study?
e. Why is this study important?

Review of the Literature (approximately 8-15 Pages)
f. Perform a comprehensive review of empirical findings relevant to your hypotheses
g. Summarize at least15 academic journal articles. Approximately 20 or more references will be appropriate for most topics.
h. You do not (and should not) give elaborate details for each article individually
i. Cluster them in a logical order and summarize the important issues such as sample, design, and findings
j. Remember, the articles should relate directly to your proposed research
k. Don’t forget to discuss articles that have differing view points on a topic. You will support your expected hypothesis with your literature review, but you should discuss literature that does NOT support it as well.

Methodology (Between 8 to15 Pages. It should be substantial, but may be shorter or longer as your topic dictates).
Hypotheses, Variables, and Measurement
i. Provide a detailed description of your hypotheses or research questions
1. your concepts
2. how you operationalized them
3. sample items that represent the concepts you will measure
Research Design
ii. Population and sample
iii. Data collection method
1. How will you collect data?
2. Where?
3. Sample Size?

Informed consent
4. Discuss how you will obtain this if necessary.
Data for the Analysis (short… probably less than 2 pages, but may be longer)
Describe the source(s) of data for the analysis (if more than one source, describe separately and tell what information will be gathered from each source)
Official, self-report, victimization data, observational data, cross-sectional or longitudinal
Primary or secondary data
If primary, describe the data collection procedures
a. who will collect the data
b. what time periods will be covered
c. if a survey will it be a questionnaire or an interview
d. how will the survey instrument be distributed
Data management (short… probably less than 2 pages, but may be longer)
Who will compute the data if primary data and the amount of time it will take to clean the data (i.e., dealing with missing info)
Feasibility of the Proposed Research (include if relevant)
Discuss ethical issues
5. Draft a proposed letter of permission from the agency personnel and/or parents or subjects, as relevant
6. Refer to this appendix in the text
Describe access to secondary data (if relevant)
Estimate the costs of the research
Do a timeline with dates for each step of the research
Describe political concerns, if relevant
List of References
l. All in APA citation style, 6th edition
m. in Alphabetical order

1. State your independent and dependent variables and operationalize them.

2. State and discuss your hypotheses to be tested (these should be independent and not intercorrelated).

3. Do not use personal pronouns (e.g., I, we, us, etc).

4. Do not use contractions (e.g., can’t, won’t., don’t, etc.).

5. Do not spend too much time revisiting the literature review.

6. Use the terminology of research methods.

7. The word “data” is plural, not singular (e.g., “the data were” rather than “the data was”).