Assignment

Application: Draft Quantitative Proposal

When most people hear the term, research, they often think of what is known as quantitative research. This type of research includes survey research, experimentation, and statistical analysis. When reading a quantitative research report, you are likely to encounter charts, tables, and graphs summarizing numerical, or quantitative, findings. While quantitative methodology was originally developed for use in the hard sciences, it is also useful in social and organizational settings.

As you proceed with your doctoral studies, you will eventually be required to make a formal proposal for your doctoral research. This week, you will gain practice creating a portion of such a proposal by drafting a quantitative proposal for your Instructor.

To prepare for this Assignment:

• Review Chapter 8, "Quantitative Methods," in the Creswell text.
• Review the media program, Quantitative Methods: An Example.
• Review Quantitative Design and Analysis found in the Research Design and Analysis area of the Research Resources and Tutorials webpage.

Write a 4- to 5-page paper in which you propose a quantitative study, addressing the following:

• Formulate relevant research questions and hypotheses.
• What is your design? Why did you choose that design?
• Can your idea be tested with any of the various types of experimental designs? Why or why not?
• What is your target population? How would you identify and recruit participants?
• What data collection method might you use? How would that data help answer your research question(s)/hypotheses?
• How consistent are these data collection methods with methods used in existing research on your topic?
• Why did you choose these methods? What are the alternatives?
• How would you ensure quality and reliability of the data?
• How might you analyze the data?
• What are the target audiences for your findings.