Unit I Initial Research Proposal

Assignment Overview

Purpose: Develop an initial research proposal that transforms a broad area of interest into a focused, researchable, and feasible inquiry. This proposal establishes the direction of your project by aligning the working title, researchable problem, rationale, problem statement, purpose, research question(s), and scope.

This is an initial proposal, so you are not required to locate, cite, or submit scholarly articles at this stage. The emphasis is on developing a clear and coherent research direction through your own thinking and writing.

Assignment type: Individual.

Learning Outcomes

By completing this assignment, you will be able to:

• Narrow a broad area of interest into a specific and researchable problem.

• Explain why a proposed research problem merits investigation.

• Write an aligned problem statement, purpose statement, and research question or questions.

• Establish realistic boundaries for the proposed inquiry.

• Evaluate whether the proposed project is sufficiently focused and feasible.

• Communicate the proposal using clear B2+ academic English.

• Demonstrate independent academic thinking and authorship without the use of generative AI.

Deliverable

Submit images of your Initial Unit I Initial Research Proposal from your Academic Writing Notebook to the Teams assignment. Your work should contain the following components:

1. Working Title

Write a concise working title that communicates the central focus of the proposed inquiry. Include the population, context, or setting when doing so helps clarify the project.

2. Researchable Problem

State the specific issue, difficulty, gap, tension, or unanswered question you want to investigate. A research problem is more focused than a general topic and should identify something that could realistically be examined.

3. Rationale

Explain why the proposed problem matters. Identify who may be affected by the issue and why understanding it could be useful within an educational, applied-linguistics, second-language acquisition, or English language teaching context.

4. Problem Statement

Write a concise problem statement that establishes the context, identifies the specific condition or difficulty, and explains why the problem deserves investigation. Keep the statement focused on what is currently known or observed rather than predicting results.

5. Purpose Statement

State clearly what the proposed inquiry intends to explore, examine, describe, understand, compare, or investigate. The purpose statement should directly respond to the problem statement.

6. Research Question(s)

Write one focused research question, or a small set of closely related questions, that follows logically from the purpose. Your question(s) should be clear, researchable, and realistic within the scope of the project.

7. Scope

Define the boundaries of the proposed inquiry. Clarify relevant elements such as:

• context or setting;

• population or possible participants;

• central concept(s) or phenomenon;

• what the project will focus on; and

• what will remain outside the project.

The goal is to make the inquiry manageable rather than overly ambitious.

8. Preliminary Research Timeline

Outline the major stages you expect to follow as the project develops. Examples may include refining the proposal, locating literature, reading and note-taking, evaluating sources, drafting later course deliverables, receiving feedback, revising, and preparing the final literature review.

9. Academic Integrity Declaration

End your proposal with the following statement:

I confirm that I completed this initial research proposal through my own reading, thinking, planning, drafting, and revision and did not use generative AI to produce or revise any part of the assignment.

Instructions

1. Begin with a broad interest, but do not stop there. Identify the specific issue within that area that you actually want to investigate.

2. Use the narrowing process from Unit I. Consider the topic, problem, population, context, and specific aspect of the issue that could realistically be investigated.

3. Distinguish the topic from the problem. A topic names an area such as student motivation in English learning. A researchable problem identifies a specific difficulty, gap, or unanswered question within that area.

4. Build the proposal as an aligned sequence. Your problem should lead naturally to your purpose, and your purpose should lead directly to your research question(s). The scope should define realistic boundaries for answering those questions.

5. Check feasibility. Avoid proposals that depend on populations, contexts, data, or resources you are unlikely to access. A focused and manageable proposal is stronger than an overly ambitious one.

6. Do not search for articles for this assignment. Scholarly articles, preliminary references, literature reviews, and source integration are not required for this initial Unit I proposal. These will become important in later stages of the course.

7. Revise independently for B2+ academic English. Review grammar, vocabulary, register, clarity, precision, coherence, cohesion, spelling, punctuation, and formatting. The course syllabus assigns 50% of the grade on evaluated work to the use of English.

8. Complete the Academic Integrity Declaration before submitting your proposal.

Generative AI Policy — No AI Use

Generative AI is not permitted for this assignment.

Do not use ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini, Claude, or another generative AI system to:

• generate or narrow your topic;

• identify or formulate the research problem;

• write or revise the problem statement;

• generate a purpose statement or research question;

• determine the scope of the inquiry;

• create the timeline;

• draft, rewrite, paraphrase, summarize, edit, or proofread your writing;

• evaluate your proposal or provide feedback on it; or

• produce any other part of the submitted assignment.

The purpose of this initial proposal is to establish your own cognitive ownership of the research direction before later stages of the course introduce additional research and writing processes.

You may use ordinary non-generative resources such as dictionaries, course notes, printed or online reference materials, and standard word-processing tools unless the instructor indicates otherwise.

Final Submission Checklist

Before submitting, confirm that:

• My working title reflects the focus of my proposed inquiry.

• I identified a specific researchable problem rather than only a broad topic.

• My rationale explains why the problem matters.

• My problem statement clearly establishes the issue and context.

• My purpose statement responds directly to the problem.

• My research question(s) are focused, researchable, and aligned with the purpose.

• My scope establishes realistic boundaries for the project.

• My timeline identifies logical next stages in the research and writing process.

• I understand that no scholarly articles or references are required for this initial proposal.

• I completed the proposal without using generative AI.

• The writing reflects my own academic voice, thinking, and decisions.

• I reviewed the proposal for B2+ academic English, spelling, punctuation, coherence, and formatting.

• I included the Academic Integrity Declaration.

Assessment

🎯 Review Unit I Initial Research Proposal – Analytic Rubric.

The assignment will be evaluated using the linked Unit I Initial Research Proposal – Analytic Rubric (100 points).

• 50 points: researchable problem and rationale; purpose and research questions; scope and feasibility; alignment; independent planning and academic integrity.

• 50 points: grammatical accuracy and sentence control; academic vocabulary and register; clarity, precision, and concision; coherence and cohesion; mechanics and readability.

Important: Article selection, source integration, and APA references are not assessed in this initial proposal because articles are not required at this stage.