Eastern Kentucky University PhD Research Proposal I am applying for a PhD program. I need to make a great proposal My selected topic is ( Are student para
Eastern Kentucky University PhD Research Proposal I am applying for a PhD program. I need to make a great proposal
My selected topic is ( Are student paramedics prepared to respond to disasters in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia? )
A little bit about me:
I graduated as a paramedic from Utah Valley University. I earned my master degree in Disaster Medicine and Management.
I worked three years in the field as a paramedic. I am a Teaching assistant nowadays. I teach student paramedics. The Elements of a Proposal
Egon G. Guba
With Annotations and Explanation
By
John C. Lewis, Ed.D.
1991,2001, 2008
2
Elements of a Proposal
Elements of a Proposal
Egon G. Guba, copywritten c. 1960
With Annotations and Explanations by John C. Lewis, Ed.D., copywritten, 2001, 2008.
Editor’s Note: The following document is presented in both italicized and standard type. The italics denote
Guba’s original comments; my commentary appears in standard type and substantially enlarges the original
document. Unfortunately, the original material is undocumented, for no source materials other than the attribution
to Egon Guba, have yet been located. The concepts, however, expressed by Guba, a management and educational
specialist, still remain significant elements of proposal documents. In short, the work may be considered a
classic.
A. Statement of the problem
1. State the problem in terms intelligible to someone who is generally sophisticated but who is relatively
uninformed in the area of the problem.
It should be noted that the statement of the problem is not always a statement of a
“problem” as we might formally conceive it. While some research plans and
studies are designed to actually solve problems with which we may be confronted
in administration, patient care, or other management scenario, they are often pleas
for support for further investigation into the understanding of a phenomenon or
concept, the promotion of a cause or the investigation of an historical perspective.
More problem-related are issues surrounding the promotion of the reduction of
suffering, cures for a societal malady such as unemployment, illiteracy, health care
deficits and the like. It is noted that writers should limit the use of disciplinespecific jargon unless the reviewers are assuredly going to be drawn from peers
and peer-related groups. Even then, the document should not read like a technical
journal.
Problem statements usually define the scope of the issue, the populations involved
at both ends of the research, i.e., the researcher and those studied, and the
implications of what might be the outcome if the research is not to be conducted.
Reviewers are not sympathetic to grandiose statements like “people are dying every
minute because…” rather, it is better to make statements such as, “A reduction of
injury remains one of the single objectives of this research, in that airbags
significantly reduce the potential for debilitating head injuries resulting from
automobile crashes.” Further justification of the need for the study may be found
in statements of other research related to the topic that may have been done or is
currently under way. Be very careful about sweeping statements such as “Little
has been said or done about the problem of headband lice; therefore this research
will be unique.” Your reviewer may have just completed a dissertation and five
follow-up articles yet to be published on this devastating issue!
Similarly, in Guba’s words, avoid statements that imply that what has been done
is too extensive to permit easy summary. Statements of this sort are usually taken
(and often rightly) as indications that the proposer is not really familiar with the
[topic] literature. Try to think of ways to be candid in your statement of why they
(the funders or the readers) should be interested in helping anyone do anything
Elements of a Proposal, continued
around your topic. Remember, you are the one asking for their help, and they may
be less than convinced if even you, the supposed expert, are hard pressed to say
why the project needs to be undertaken. Watch for global and emotional terms;
eradicate them whenever they raise their ugly vulnerable-to-injury heads in your
writing.
Writers should further assume that the reviewer knows very little about what
may be studied, therefore, any special terms which you absolutely must use should
be clearly defined internally; to be specific–right on the page where the term is
first used. Glossaries are usually not necessary nor are they in good form.
As with several other elements described within this document, it will serve
proposal writers well if they read some existing (hopefully successful) proposals to
determine what is meant by the ” problem statement” concept. You may be
delightfully surprised at how easy it is!
2. Define and delimit the specific area of the research.
For all practical purposes, defining the problem means to make it clearer to
understand. Most writers can define terms in dictionary fashion, but several of
them do not provide examples of what they mean. If you are talking about the need
to reduce head injuries, give an example of the potential scope of that type of
injury in personal and economic costs or the like. Avoid exaggerating the problem
with statements like, “Hundreds of millions of dollars are lost by the American
people each year because of the problem of…” Usually, the reviewers simply file
such statements in the categories of creative use of statistics. Do not, however, fail
to cite statistics that you know are true and those that can be documented carefully
from a reliable source. Sources such as the NLN, the Social Security
Administration, the National Safety Council or the American Trauma Society are
usually good bets; local neighborhood newspapers or colleagues estimates are
generally regarded less. Line, bar or pie graphs are of value here if used sparingly.
Remember, it is a proposal, not an annual report of the General Motors
Corporation.
The art of delimitation is one that can be learned quickly. Writers need to make
clear what is not part of the research as well as what is part of it. For example, a
proposal relating to the study of domestic violence may not attempt to treat date
rape or elder abuse, and you should be direct about the actual topics that are to be
considered in your study. Nothing should be left to the imagination of the
reviewer, nor should you assume that because of a clever or lengthy title, they
would somehow divine the scope of your study. In the domestic abuse example,
you may state clearly that you plan to study husband/wife conflicts, clues to early
detection of problem couples, or related areas. Say what you mean, and mean what
you say when it comes time to outline what you are going to be doing. There is no
room for subtlety.
3. Foreshadow the hypotheses to be tested or the questions to be raised.
Your favorite novel or play may employ the device known as “foreshadowing,”
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Elements of a Proposal, continued
or giving less-than-subtle hints that something either awful or great is going to
happen to a character. TV does it well with shadowed music to suggest impending
doom; everyone can identify with the musical prelude to the appearance of one of
the more striking “Jaws” characters. Likewise, in a proposal, writers will suggest
in the early paragraphs that a concept or notion will be examined in some
meaningful way. Writers do not have the advantage of music, but they do have the
opportunity to present ideas within carefully developed statements that may
prepare the reader for concepts that follow. A foreshadowing statement within the
opening paragraph of a literature review might read, Research directed toward
outcome measurements pertaining to injury reduction through the use of the child
safety seat can lend credence to public awareness campaigns…” And, then, you
move on to cite some literature describing some existing studies. Presto! You
have foreshadowed.
4. Indicate briefly the significance of the study (This item will be elaborated upon later).
Guba is telling us now that we can ill afford to delay making some kind of
statement relating to the importance of the project at hand. While not exactly the
need for the study, the two ideas are closely related. Need statements indicate
clearly that there is “room” for the project to be undertaken, and that there is a
population who will read it and who will benefit from its results. Benefit,
however, is greatly enhanced by a strong significance statement as the writer
identifies where this project will fall within the entire scheme of area-related study.
It is appropriate in this sense to cite that there are local, state, federal, private
agencies or individuals who are genuinely interested in what you propose to study,
and if your objectives are supported, their interest will be both piqued and/or
rewarded in some way. You are going to be contributing to existing knowledge,
and you need to let the reader know that this effort is being conducted significantly.
More later.
5. Be certain to indicate somewhere a sentence such as, “The purpose of the research is…”
Today’s writers tend to leave some concepts open to hint or innuendo.
However, the purpose statement is not the place to allow the reader to rely solely
upon his own interpretive devices. Rather, it is up to the writer to place all cards
upon the table with a direct statement such as these:
“The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of acid rain on fountain
statues.”
“This study proposes to relate the effects of alcoholism in pregnant women on infant mortality.”
“The purpose of this research is to develop a conceptual framework for the use of
the desktop computer in facilitating patient education.”
By casting a statement which directly presents the purposes toward which your
project will be directed, you have actually removed all doubt about what is and
what is not to be included. In fact, most rating sheets used by grant and article
reviewers have a checklist-type item that seeks verification of the existence of a
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Elements of a Proposal, continued
5
purpose statement. Do not let your document leave home without it!
B. Review of the Literature
1. Demonstrate to the reader that you have a comprehensive grasp of the field and are aware of important
recent substantive and methodological developments.
There is no substitute for knowing what you are talking about when it comes to
a specific topic for which you seek funding or reader respect. It is in this area that
your true research and writing skills come into play, for you should really be
certain that you have looked over what has been and is being said about your topic.
On-line searches are good for this purpose, but be certain that they are inclusive
enough not to leave any major gaps in the research. For example, if you are doing
a topic relating to medical sociology, you might not get all of the pertinent
literature from a service like MEDLINE; be prepared to go to other library based
sources as well. Also, do not overlook the popular literature for clues to other
works that you may have missed. Utilize your favorite search engine and let fly;
then run the thesaurus option in Word and find out what else might jog out some
sources. Be patient.
A word should be said about study replications. It is not necessary to duplicate
the literature search conducted concurrent with the original study, provided you so
summarize and document where the original search may be found. However, it is
absolutely necessary that you update the search by including material completed
subsequent to the last investigation.
Of course, your literature review will be cast as much as possible in your own
paraphrased wording; lengthy quotes do little. If you find something to be
important from your viewpoint, note such by highlighting special areas or giving
greater coverage to that topic or author. Be careful about saying, “Another
significant work is…” unless you mean it. It is heresy to state that everything
written is significant; even if someone had it published in a respected journal or
received a doctoral degree as a result of it. Just mention it, period. If it had
something to say, summarize its contribution appropriately.
2. Delineate the “jumping-off place” for your study; how will your study refine, revise, or extend what is
now known?
This process is best done within the final paragraphs of the literature review. In
general, it is in good form to work toward a statement that says, “This study will
enlarge upon existing investigations by providing a basis for comparison
(conclusion, correlation, refuting, supporting, defining, et al.).” By performing this
step, you will provide necessary structure and basis.
Researchers are cautioned again about making sweeping statements about the
sorry state of existence of “real research” on the topic. While such may be quite
the truth, most of the time this type of statement appears like a fancy footwork
attempt to shorten or to avoid the literature review. Do not be paranoid about
missing something, however; be thorough and take all reasonable steps in an effort
Elements of a Proposal, continued
6
to locate the best of what has been written. See the note in the foregoing about
using a reputable search engine and consulting library on-line databases.
Remember also that simply because you do not agree with the point of view of a
resource you have located, that fact alone does not eliminate it from your review.
Good reviewers are most objective.
C. Questions and/or Hypotheses
1. Questions are relevant to normative or census type research. (How many of them are there? Is there a
relationship between [or among] them? Hypotheses are relevant to theoretical research, and when you
state hypotheses the reader is entitled to have an exposition of the theory that led to them (and of the
assumptions underlying the theory).
By the word, exposition, Guba is asking for an explanation in some manner of
the way that the proposer has developed the hypotheses. Crystal balls are effective
sometimes for mystic rationale, but they simply are not appropriate tools for
researchand most of them do not work very well, either. In order to satisfy this
requirement, the writer need only examine the “clues” which led to the hypothesis,
and present them accordingly. It is appropriate to refer to the literature review for
areas wherein an author may have suggested or even crafted the hypothesis you
will test or enlarge upon. You need not reinvent the wheel, but there needs to be
something other than barometric pressure on your big toe to suggest the reasons for
your hypothesis (es).
2. Hypotheses can be couched in four kinds of statements:
a. Literary null: a “no-difference” form in terms of theoretical constructs, e.g., “There is no
difference in school achievement for high and low intelligence pupils.”
While the null hypothesis is good research form, the actual attempt to prove a
non-existent relationship lacks a degree of luster. Do not, however, get the wrong
impression. There are many times when these types of null statements work well.
For example in the extreme, you would be on sound ground with a null statement
like this: “There is no relationship between snow depth in Milwaukee and the
price of unwrinkled chili beans in San Diego.” You will know when a literary null
statement can be used best.
b. Operational null: a “no-difference” form in terms
of the operations required to test the
hypotheses, e.g., “There is no difference between the mean grade point averages achieved by students in the upper
and lower quartiles of the distribution of the Stanford-Binet I.Q.’s.” Strictly speaking, this is the preferred form of
hypothesis writing.
If your operational null is bold enough to make a non-relationship type of
statement, the luster has returned! You are actually saying that regardless of one
variable, there will be no change in another, (but you are really not saying it in
exactly those words). If it sounds a bit like a game, it does and it is. But the game
is best played when the rulebook is read and interpreted in the same manner by all
players. Hence, there is sanity in casting hypotheses which are sound and which
are less likely to carry both the researcher and the reader astray. There are enough
Elements of a Proposal, continued
7
forces operating in the whole process to carry you afar; you do not need to start out
on shaky ground. (San Andreas paraphrased).
c. Literary alternative: a form that states the hypothesis you will accept if the null hypothesis is
rejected, stated in terms of theoretical constructs (this is usually what you hope the experiment will show), e.g.,
“High intelligence pupils will achieve more in their classes than low intelligence pupils.” This is the form you are
most likely to find in an unsophisticated proposal.
This concept of unsophistication has been tempered a bit in the years since Guba set out to define the
standards. Not that the idea is now wrong; however, there is more tolerance now for boldness of statement of
relationship. The problem of caution still remains, though. You might wind up doing some real disclaiming if you
build both your literature review and the entire design around a relationship that does not prove in any way to be
existent. Like relationships in life, real world phenomena of what we think will work or in some fashion may be
related to something else, often prove unworkable or not to be related at all. Be warned and be prepared for that fact
of life.
d. Operational alternative: Similar to (c) except that the operations are specified, e.g.: “Pupils in
the upper quartile of the Stanford-Binet I.Q. distribution achieve significantly higher grade point
averages than do persons in the lower quartile.
Here, a plea is made to operationalize the hypothesis by providing a recognized
method to increase its confidence level. It is important here, as in all places where
the word is used, to address what is meant by “significance.” Cozby says it rather
clearly. “The plea for null hypotheses is presented because they are very exact
statements, i.e., the population means are exactly equal. This type of structure
permits us to know precisely the probability of the outcome of the study occurring
if the null is correct. Such precision is not possible with the research hypothesis,
so we may generally infer that the research hypothesis is correct only by rejecting
the null. The null is rejected when there is a very low probability that the obtained
results could be due to some type of random error. This is what is meant by
statistical significance. [in that] A significant result is one that has a very low
probability of occurring of the population means are actually equal. (Behavioral
Research, 1989). Remember, that such significant results are those that have a
very low probability of occurring if the means are equal. Note this statement well:
Significance indicates that there is a low probability that the difference between
the [researched] sample means was due to random error. Both Guba and Cozby,
then, indirectly and directly state that significance is a function of probability. Not
clear? Think about it, and it begins to make sense. What kinds of phenomena can
be explained solely through probability constructs and terms? Many!
3. In general, you should be prepared to interpret any possible outcome with respect to the questions or the
hypotheses. It will be helpful if you visualize in your mind’s eye the tables (or other summary devices) that
you expect to come out of the research, short of the actual data.
This statement is directed toward the process of planning what your project will
look like after the whole task is completed. While you have not necessarily drawn
conclusions prematurely, it is good practice to be ready to launch off on detailed
explanations of the nature of the conclusions that you do find. Proper tables and
graphs will add much to a rapid scan of your findings; more will be said about
Elements of a Proposal, continued
8
these tools in the final section of this document.
D. The Design
1. Indicate the steps you will take to answer every question or to test every hypothesis indicated in the
previous section.
Under the actual heading, Design of the Study, you will outline your processes.
How will you find out more about, define, divide, explain, and determine the…
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