Assignment Title: Research Proposal
Course Learning Outcomes: On successful completion of the module, students should be able to:
Knowledge and Understanding:
1. Undertake an in-depth survey of existing knowledge and practice within a specialized subject area or field.
2. Engage effectively with ideas, practices and methods at the forefront of the subject or profession and explore the boundaries of existing knowledge or current practice and potential developments.
Cognitive Skills:
1. Independently and critically synthesize, analyze and evaluate complex information, ideas, data or propositions that may be incomplete or contradictory and that include aspects of new knowledge.
2. Demonstrate initiative in designing approaches and methodologies to address complex problems, and show some originality in the solutions or conclusions reached and their justification.
Practical and Professional:
1. Display expertise and autonomy in conducting research tasks to a professional or equivalent level.
Transferable and Key Skills:
1. Work autonomously to produce research that meets the requirements and expectations of a professional organisation.
Assignment Task:
All projects start with a plan; your final project should not be an exception. Therefore, you are tasked to design and write a research proposal related to a maritime subject (shipping, offshore drilling, port management, sea-borne logistics, ship safety/pollution prevention etc.) of your choice. Your work must be based on current events, industry trends or other important changes within the business and legislative environments; and must be supported by relevant academic and practitioner sources.
Your assignment for this unit is designed to be the launching point for your full dissertation. Your research proposal must thus outline how you propose to conduct the full research and what are your expected findings. The research proposal should contain the following sections:
Proposed Introduction:
Emergence of the research question
Importance of the research question/justification for the research project
Formal research aim:
Formal research objectives (typically between 3-5)
Justification of the project structure, explaining how it will enable addressing the objectives
Proposed Literature Review:
References that have already been consulted, needed to help substantiate the justification of your research
Further references identified as useful, to be used once the literature review reaches its final form
Proposed Research Methodology:
Research design (i.e. type of study)
Research approach (Deductive/Inductive)
Research strategy (Qualitative, Quantitative or combination thereof)
Sampling and methods of data collection
Methods of data analysis
Timetable for all of the above (preferably via GANTT chart)
Proposed Bibliography:
List of references actually used in your project proposal
Further reading (remember to keep these two separate)
Choosing a Topic: The ideal topic combines an original idea of sufficient scope and depth with adequate supporting data. This data may be either primary (new) or secondary (existing) or both. Just because data is available should not be the main factor for considering a topic; at the same time some interesting projects may have to be rejected because data are inherently unavailable, or because of the impossibly high costs of their collection. In some cases, there may be alternative research locations and/or means of data collection - be creative!
Note: Total Words: 3000 and References: Harvard. Country: UK. Need to select any topic (within maritime industry) for research proposal that writer comfortable to complete full research.