racial inequality in education. The social science I’ve chosen is geography.

Abstract and Introduction/background (Due Tuesday, March 3, by 11:30 PM):

You need to state the topic you wish to research in the form of an abstract, which should be three to four sentences (approximately a 200- to 300-word summary of your work). You will also provide an extended introduction to your topic. You will need to begin a research of the current literature on your chosen topic in order to familiarize yourself with the significance of your topic and the current debates surrounding it. The aim is to provide me with an overview of your topic rather than in-depth information.

3. Literature Review and Aims (Due Tuesday, March 31, by 11:30 PM)

Whose previous research are you going to rely on to help guide your research? Do you agree or argue with the research? Present five (5) sources, all of which MUST be academic sources (i.e. no journalism or media). Scholarly sources include academic articles, academic books, or edited anthologies. To be sure, choose from one these university or academic presses:

· Palgrave

· Sage

· Routledge

· Ashgate

· Wiley

· University of Minnesota

· SUNY

· University of California

· University of Chicago

· University of Georgia

· Stanford

· Oxford

For this step, you will write up annotated bibliographies for five of your scholarly sources. (You are required to have at least ten sources in your literature review for the final research proposal.) An annotated bibliography is the initial stage of a literature review wherein you provide the overall purpose of a source including its findings, its argument, its theoretical perspective, and its results and conclusion. Each annotated bibliography should be one paragraph long. In the literature review section of the final proposal, you will combine these five annotated bibliographies with five additional sources to provide a review of relevant literature for your topic. Your sources should also come from journals representing your chosen social science.

At this time, you will also provide the aims and objectives for your proposed research. You will provide one aim for your research followed by at least three objectives. Be sure to review the information on aims and objectives on page 90 of your text.

4. Methods and Data Analysis (Due Tuesday, April 14, by 11:30 PM)

What two methods will you employ to follow out your objectives and aims? State how you will use these methods to accomplish the research and why you chose these methods. Keep in mind triangulation (page 614 for definition and throughout the text for further elaboration). You will choose two methods: one must come from the chapters that we have covered in class (primarily from Part 2 of the textbook). The second must come from those chapters that we have not covered in class (primarily from Part 3 of the textbook). For example, you might combine archival research with discourse analysis. The combinations are numerous, so come up with the one that best serves your research topic. How do these two methods support one another to make your study more rigorous? How do they complement each other?

At this time, you will also give me a summary of how you intend to analyze the data. This could be completed in about 1 to 3 paragraphs. Remember, your answers to this (or any other part of the proposal) may not lie in only the assigned chapters; you may have to read or refer to the other chapters in the book.

5. The Proposal (Due Thursday, May 7, by 11:30 PM)

You will write up a formal research proposal. At this time, you will refine or revise the previous components according to my feedback. But, I also expect you to revise these components according to new insights and information you have picked up in the course and through continued investigation of your topic. The proposal will include the following sections:

Title

Abstract (not included in total page count)

Introduction (approx. 1 page)

Literature Review (approx. 2-3 pages)

Aims (approx. <1 page)

Methods (approx. 1 page)

Data Analysis (approx. <1 page)

Ethical Issues (approx. <1 page)

Dissemination (approx. <1 page)

References (proposals without a reference page will receive a zero; not included in total page count)

Appendices (optional; not included in total page count) Can include charts, tables, graphs, images

TOTAL PAGES = 6 – 8 pages