GECC Proposal Writing Guidelines

GECC4130 專題討論 Senior Seminar
計劃書寫作指引 Proposal Writing Guidelines
Writing a Proposal for GECC4130 Senior Seminar course
A proposal is not an outline of a project. It serves far more important purposes. A

proposal should help you to (1) narrow down your research focus, (2) explore resources
available for the research, (3) examine feasibility of the study, and (4) lay out steps for carrying
out the investigation. To achieve these objectives, a proposal should include the following basic
elements.
1. An introduction to the research problem
To begin a study, you must have an unambiguous research question. Choosing a subject
matter for investigation does not mean that you already have a research problem. A
phenomenon can be studied in many ways for addressing different questions. Therefore, you
need to narrow down your research focus to a particular problem in the proposal. A problem
statement should identify distinct concepts and hypothesize their relations with each other. To
help readers comprehending the research question, the introduction section should describe
backgrounds of the study and discuss values of the investigation. Usually one to two
paragraphs would be adequate for the introductory purpose.
2. Literature review
Previous research is an extremely valuable resource in guiding your own study. You
should know what has been done and what needed to be done with regard to your own
specific question. Literature review will help you to clarify key concepts and to grasp nature of
the issue, and it will further guide you to frame the study in addressing common, unresolved
questions in the field. Be selective when reviewing the research literature. You need to take an
active role in organizing the literature in such a way that it helps you to formulate a sound
question and to generate reasonable expectations (or hypotheses) for your analysis. Often, you
may revise your initial research questions and hypotheses after a thorough reading of the
literature. This section requires a few paragraphs to accomplish the above tasks.
3. Research design
There are many ways to conduct a research. You need to figure out which is the best
strategy for answering your research questions. Survey, case study, and experiment are some of
the popular methods. Describe the method and explain the rationale of your research strategy.
In the research plan, you need to identify study subjects, elaborate key concepts, describe the
data collection procedure, and explain the methodology. In addition, you need to assess
feasibility of the study, such as cooperation from the subjects, sample size required, and budget
and manpower constraints. A few paragraphs will be sufficed for this section.
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4. Research planning
The proposal should include a work schedule to control progress. There should be a
reasonable amount of time allocated to each research stage. You should also identify the
difficulties you may encounter and develop a contingent plan for handling these difficulties.
Since this study is a group project, you may consider specifying the division of labor in your
team. This part can be summarized in a table format that includes job descriptions, completion
dates, and responsible persons.
You should also give some indications to the kind of analysis you plan to conduct. If you
anticipate the use of specific analytical techniques – quantitative analyses (e.g. univariate,
bivariate, or multivariate analyses), qualitative analyses (e.g. qualitative content analysis of
interviews or newspaper editorials), and so on, you may say it in your proposal and describe
how you will accomplish that. More important, you need to spell out the purpose and the logic
of your analysis.
5. Cross-disciplinary collaboration
Cross-disciplinary collaboration is an essential element of the GECC4130 Senior Seminar

course. You should describe and explain your idea of synergy and applications of cross-
disciplinary knowledge and/or non-formal education experiences in the project.
Your collaboration plan should correspond with your suggestions made at the topic
proposal submitted earlier and/or the previous sections methodology and planning of your
proposal.
Besides knowledge and skills from your academic discipline, your non-formal education
experiences are also elements that can be integrated in your collaboration plan. In the scope of
academic knowledge, both practical and intellectual skills may be considered, e.g. the
applications of methodologies such as data collection, analysis and modelling are commonly
aware of; whereas theoretical framework based on concepts and theories indeed also serve as
your “thinking apparatus” facilitating your approaches, deduction, arguments and derivation.
For non-formal education experiences, it refers mainly to your experiential learning from your
outside-classroom campus life — your personal and social soft skills awareness to diversity,
creativity, communication and problem-solving skills, horizon beyond your chosen disciplines
and etc.
The actual collaboration achieved in your project may deviate from that written in your
proposal. There is a reflection paragraph on cross-disciplinary collaboration required in your
Final Written Report, in which you will evaluate the collaboration suggested here and elaborate
on the actual synergy achieved at the project. You may find in the end your proposed
collaboration was successfully achieved, partially achieved, revised, or even with unanticipated
collaboration occurred. Deviation from the original proposal is common and could be trivial,
the actual synergy achieved during the project and the process of reflection are rather valuable
and of intellectual importance.
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6. Bibliography
You need to compile a reference list in the proposal. The list should include books and
articles, serving as the knowledge base for your study. The list should have at least ten
references. Be sure to present the list in an acceptable format (e.g. Publication Manual of the
American Psychological Association, 4th edition).
7. References
Babbie, E. R. 1998. The Practice of Social Research, 8th ed. CA: Wadsworth.
Benjamin F. Crabtree, William L. Miller 2007 黃惠雯譯《最新質性方法與研究》台北縣永和
市: 韋伯文化國際出版
Jason, L. A., & Glenwick, D. S. (Eds) 2016 Handbook of Methodological Approaches to
Community-Based Research: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods. New York:
Oxford University Press
Kumar, R. 2014 Research methodology: a step-by-step guide for beginners. 4th ed. Los Angeles:
SAGE.
Kumar, R. 2010 潘中道, 胡龍騰譯《硏究方法 : 步驟化學習指南》(第二版) 台北市 : 學富文
化事業
Sharp, J.A. & Howard, K. 1996. The Management of a Student Research Project, 2nd ed.
Brookfield, Vt.: Gower.
Strenski, E. & Manfred, M. 1992. The Research Paper Workbook, 3rd ed. NY: Longman.
Van Wagenen, R. K. 1991. Writing a Thesis: Substance and Style. N.J.: Prentice Hall.
李逆熵 2009《格物致知: 思考與研究方法概要》香港: 經濟日報出版社

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GECC4130 專題討論 Senior Seminar

計劃書寫作指引 Proposal Writing Guidelines

Writing a Proposal for GECC4130 Senior Seminar course

A proposal is not an outline of a project. It serves far more important purposes. A

1. An introduction to the research problem

Cross-disciplinary collaboration is an essential element of the GECC4130 Senior Seminar

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