Research Proposal on Dysfunctional Families and Juvenile Delinquency

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ALL YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT WRITING RESEARCH PROPOSALS BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK* Habibul Haque Khondker Department of Sociology National University of Singapore 1 A good research proposal is the key to successful research. Any research--whether in the area of Public Health examining the impact of passive smoking, or industrial pollution of in the area of social change investigating the impact of new agricultural technology on a rural society--must begin with a clearly focused research proposal. In recent times there has been a proliferation of researches indicating an exponential growth of scientific activity, which has made the business of research competitive. A good research proposal has become a necessity not only for ensuring a high quality of research but also for the practical reason of landing a research grant. In order to attract a research grant, a research proposal must be precise and convincing. The readers have to be convinced that you have something there, and that you can do it. The 'doability' is the ultimate test. John Markoff told me a story--a rare case indeed-of a student whose Ph.D thesis proposal was rejected. The proposed research topic was political rhetorics in Brazil. With properly formulated hypotheses, and an analytical framework, the research was carefully designed. But the only problem was that the researcher did not know Portuguese (the lingua franca of Brazil). However good the proposal was, it was not 'doable', at least, not by the researcher concerned. A good research proposal must be systematic, coherent and, above all, ‘doable’. An effective proposal should be crisp and be composed of segments that can be read independently of one another. It is not unlikely that many of the readers especially if they sit on the committees that evaluate research proposals for funding decisions will read only specific segments of the proposal.

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