Under Construction - MHWA Retreat

Oh, and just to help with that feeling of being overwhelmed, here is the structure of a proposal. Some details might differ, depending on your uni, dept, or program. But here is the gist: A proposal is a case that you're making for the NEED for research and how BEST to go about conducting it. You're like, a lawyer building a case for doing this research you want to do. Think of the pieces in those terms.

And you know... writing it barely takes any time at all. It's figuring out what to write that's so time-consuming. Your committee chair will be able to help guide you better than anyone else can... they have final approval or rejection over your proposal, after all.



Chapter 1
Problem Statement (one page) - This tells what the problem actually is. What is the problem that autistic kids have that art therapy helps? Like... what is the actual problem that needs to be addressed? Again, the lit review will help you figure out what the problem is.

Research Question (one sentence) - Supported by the problem statement... it's the guiding force behind everything from here on out.

Scope, Significance, Definitions (2-4 pages) - Scope of the research. Will it deal with just one part of a problem? Just one organization? Only children on one end of the spectrum? This builds a fence around your research. My scope is like one paragraph:



Significance is where you can pull in lots of stats. How many children HAVE autism? How big an impact can this type of therapy have? Has there been an increase in autism over the past several years? Have these types of programs been increasing in frequency, causing a need to better understand how they function? Mine is about 2 long paragraphs... a page or so.

Definitions - literally defining any terminology you use. What is "therapeutic riding"? Find a scholarly definition and pop it in there.

Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations (2 pages) - These are seriously just bullet lists... at least, that's the format preference at my uni. Assumptions are things you're assuming-- that therapy helps kids with autism... that the research will aid in ________... that participants will answer honestly and to the best of their abilities... whatever. Limitations are what it WILL be... like 'The research will be limited to one organization. The research will be limited to use of X theory.' Delimitations are what it WILL NOT be... like 'The research will not measure changes is X" or 'The research will not explore the topic of Y'.



Chapter 2 - Literature Review-- format depends on what you find in the data. Generally though, you want an introduction, organized findings, and a summary at the very least.


Chapter 3 - Methodology --- this gets complicated, but you can see the components and how long they are from my Table of Contents... I'll explain a tiny bit too. Parts of this are more for qualitative than quant... and some quant sections are missing as well, so this part is sketchier to use as a guideline. BUT it shows how long these things are and what types of things you include. Plus, the whole point here is for you to see how LONG this really is.. which is to say... it's not. If you break it into sections, it's really just a page or two maximum for each section. A few paragraphs. Quantitative is sometimes even shorter than qual too.



CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY 16

3.1 Framework 16 -------------------------------------------------- Foundational theories, reasons for using quant vs qualitative approach, etc

3.2 Sample 17----------------------------------How many participants? Criteria for selecting participants? Location? Etc

3.3 Data Sources & Collection 19--------------------------Where will you get your data for triangulation? Outside sources, all gathered yourself? In my case, it's qualitative... so I'm conducting 4 interviews (phenomenological bit) and holding two focus groups with volunteers and then staff (case study bit). This is where you talk about how you're going to get your data.

3.4 Data Analysis 20 -------------------------How will you analyze the data? What is the process you'll use? What would qualify as "success" if its quantitative?

3.5 Researcher Bias 21--------------------Bias and trustworthiness are different for qualitative than quant... but I think it's self-explanatory.

3.6 Trustworthiness 21

3.7 Summary 22