| See attached researchproposal instructions also The research paper is your opportunity to explore strategy or the making of strategy in-depth by applying all or a portion of our analytical framework comprised of Nine Constants and Nine Variables to a strategic situation of your choosing and which is not one of our case studies. It is also your opportunity to demonstrate your mastery of our analytical framework by applying it to a particular strategic situation to help you analyze the situation effectively. Throughout the course, we will be developing the final paper as we go. This assignment is the first step in developing an acceptable topic and describing your approach to researching it. Research Proposal and Literature Review: Your Research Question, Purpose Statement, and Citation Format Exercise should be 6 to 8 pages, double spaced in 12pt Times New Roman (not including your references. The components of this assignment MUST include a Tentative Title, Research Question, Tentative Hypothesis, a Concise Description of the strategic situation you are addressing, a Literature Review, and a Reference List. It must contain at least 6 sources, at least 4 of which must be peer-reviewed journal articles or scholarly books. Here’s what the layout of your Research Proposal should be: 1. Your Topic and a Tentative Title for your paper. For example, the topic of my paper is the role of social media in the Arab Spring Revolts. The tentative title is “Harnessing the Power of Social Media: A Case Study of the Arab Spring Revolts.” 2. Your primary Research Question. State this in the form of a single clearly worded open-ended question that is not able to be answered with a “yes” or “no” response. For example, “The primary research question that this paper will seek to answer is: how might the power of social media be harnessed to create and control revolts similar to those of the Arab Spring?” 3. A Tentative Hypothesis. This should be your initial “best guess” at what you think the answer to your Research Question will be. For example, “The relationship between social media and the Arab Spring revolts can be shown as having a significant impact on those events, and the power of social media can be harnessed to create and control revolts in foreign countries by several easily achievable means that include the infiltration of social media sites and the recruitment of native agitators to foster movement towards revolt and influence public opinion.” Your Tentative Hypothesis should provide a direct answer to the Research Question you have posed. Don’t lose sight of this connection. 4. A Concise Description of the strategic situation you are addressing. This should provide a description of the strategic situation you are addressing that is sufficient to provide the salient information regarding the situation without being exhaustive. In other words, it must provide the important elements of information related to the strategic situation to provide adequate background for and context to it. At a minimum, these elements must include the following: date, major parties involved, general historical setting, desired Ends of each major party, main Means available to each party, primary Wayseach party used the available Means, and significant Risks faced and/or accepted by each major party. 5. Literature Review. Use a narrative format to name and describe some of the initial sources you’ve found and how they will be useful to you. Also describe some of the sources you intend to search for and how they will assist in answering your research question. You must identify gaps in the existing literature and address how your work will address these gaps. This requirement is also important to ensure that sources exist that will allow you to conduct adequate research on your topic. Look for scholarly sources using the search tools in the online library. Don’t simply rely on Google searches. Look for journal articles and books. Media sources should constitute only a small portion of your research. Cite six sources minimum; four must be scholarly books or peer-reviewed articles from academic journals. If you cannot identify at least six credible sources for your project, then you need to select a strategic situation for which adequate scholarly sources exist. 6. References. Provide complete citations for all sources using the reference list format with parenthetical citations. This assignment will constitute a component of your final paper, which you can refine and build upon for use in the final product. TECHNICAL GUIDANCE: Your submission should be at a minimum of 6-8 pages (the Title Page and Reference page will be additional pages). Type in Times New Roman, 12 point and double space. Students will follow the Turabian Style as the sole citation and reference style used in written work submitted as part of coursework. Use scholarly or other relevant sources. Include at least 6 sources, at least 4 of which must be peer-reviewed journal articles or scholarly books. Points will be deducted for the use of Wikipedia or encyclopedic type sources. It is highly advised to utilize: books, peer reviewed journals, articles, archived documents, etc. Your submission is be in your own words with minimal quotes and cited appropriately. This assignment will be graded using the attached rubric. Use the filename (no spaces): YourLastName_wk2 for uploading this assignment to the Week 2 Assignment. |
