Research Design Final Paper

e. Research Design & Full Final Paper: (Syllabus instructions)
This sets up your research agenda. You will need to identify your data and its strengths and weaknesses, discuss and outline the appropriate research technique and outline any proposed hypotheses for your research project (see detailed outline on Blackboard page). Combined with your Introduction, Literature Review, and Bibliography (remove annotations), this paper needs to be ten to fifteen pages, double-spaced, with one-inch margins, and twelve-point font.

**I WILL INCLUDE RESEARCH DESIGN POWERPOINT**

Methodology Section (further explaining research design and final paper) *VERY IMPORTANT* –

• Outline the research design you propose to conduct your research and why you think it is appropriate.
• Detail where you plan to obtain your data and why this is an appropriate source. DON’T provide a general email like www.census .gov. Instead point to a specific database within any webpage!
• Detail each variable – dependent, independent, intervening and antecedent you will study. How is it measured? Where did you get the information? Why did you include it in your research?
• Detail your unit of analysis. States, individuals, countries?
• Present your hypotheses. What do you expect to find? For example, if you are studying the determinants of poverty you may state:
o Hypothesis Template: [unit of analysis], independent variable => dependent variable specifying expected direction and magnitude of impact
o Hypothesis #1: In examining the income level of American households, as the number of hours worked for paid employment increases per household, the level of poverty should decline. This should be one of the most important relationships.
o Hypothesis #2: In examining the income level of American households, Households containing first-generation immigrants to American are likely to have higher incidents of poverty. This should be a minor factor.
o Etc. (Every one of your variables should be used at least once in a hypothesis!)
• What is the appropriate modeling technique? This will be based on the hypotheses you suggest, the data you obtain and the certitude of the results you desire. You wan’t have much now but will fill in more in Political Statistics.

**I WILL INCLUDE WORD DOCUMENTS ON TOPIC**
Documents included:
– my research topic with examples of an independent and dependent variable.
– annotated bibliography with 20 pier reviewed sources on the different impacts of marijuana on different areas of study.
– an 85% finalized literature review of the sources. I say it is 85% complete because my argument was not argued comparing my findings to that of the sources, it just describes the sources in depth.
-a “What is Research Design?” article from NYU

*My argument or topic is the relationship between marijuana and crime rates. As marijuana increases, crime and violence also increase.
Other dependent, and independent variables, that are already chosen in the annotated bibliography and described in depth in the literature review, must also be argued in the research design.
Keep in mind the Unit of Analysis as well! The states.