HACM9301 Guidance for Project Proposal

HACM9301 Guidance for Project Proposal

This template is intended to assist students to develop a feasible approach which will meet their learning goals and the requirements of this topic. Getting started can be the hardest thing to do, and time spent on clarifying the problem or question to be addressed, as well as the scope and method to be used, is well worth it. Please think very carefully about the headings below, and use this template to prepare your proposal for approval by your supervisor and submission to the Topic Coordinator.

Please delete this paragraph and the instructions in italics when youve finished using them.

Name:

Date:

Title

Abstract (short summary of the project) (200 words)

Background and context of the project (700 words)

Literature review

Project rationale/justification

Conceptual framework

Aims and objectives of the project (50-100 words)

What do you want to achieve? Describe your aims in outcome terms, and any objectives using SMART objectives things you need to do in order to achieve your aims as well.

Project question/s

What specific question are you seeking to answer? And why?

Methods (500 words)

How will you achieve your aims? Outline the project design and its evaluation, including data sources, population, sampling, data collection instruments, data collection methods, recruitment strategies (if appropriate), data storage, data analysis methods, ethical issues (privacy and confidentiality; if patients/clients/staff are to be involved, what ethical approvals are needed), limitations to your methods (where relevant).

Scope and significance (200 words)

What benefits will your project potentially bring to practice, to knowledge, to theory/conceptual frameworks, and to policy?

Timeframe of the project (50 words)

It is useful to include a Gannt chart to visually display your timeframes.

Dissemination of findings (50 words)

How will you disseminate the findings from your project, and to whom?

Risk assessment (50 words)

Using a risk assessment matrix as below, what are major risks that might prevent successful completion and how will you minimise likelihood and/or impact?

Risk Likelihood (1-5) Impact (level of severity) Consequence of the Risk Overall Risk Rating (low/medium/high) Mitigating action

Learning/Training (50-100 words)

What skills and/or knowledge will you need to complete this project? What do you hope to learn by doing it?

Learning Set/Project Supervisor/Sponsor/Reference Group (where relevant) (50 words)

What are the names of the person in your Learning Set, Project Supervisor, Sponsor, and members of your Reference Group (include position and organisation for your Project Supervisor, Sponsor and Reference Group)?

Reference list using Harvard referencing style.

Project Supervisor/Manager/Sponsors declaration

I endorse this proposal and will support the participant to complete the Project and produce a report by the due date. I understand that I am responsible for indicating the organisations agreement that the project objectives are appropriate before the Project is approved.

Name:

Position:

Organisation:

Phone number:

Email:

Signature: Date:

HACM9301 Guidance for Final paper

Final paper word limit: 5,000 words (excluding references) (plus 5,000 words of supporting materials as your project portfolio in the Appendices).

Final paper suggested structure:

Title / Declaration of authorship / Acknowledgments (optional)

Table of contents / List of tables and figures

Abstract (200-300 words)

Introduction (approx. 500 words)

Literature review (approx. 1200 words)

Methods (approx. 1000 words)

Results (approx. 800 words)

Discussion / conclusions (approx. 1200 words)

Reference list

Appendices (containing your project portfolio of supporting material)

Further guidance for each section:

Title

The title should capture the main issue under investigation as well as the final papers key argument.

Declaration of authorship

This is a statement of ownership and a declaration that the final paper is your own original work. For example: I, NAME, hereby certify that this project is entirely my own work. The final paper clearly attributes all instances where external works were consulted.

Acknowledgments (optional)

You may if you wish include a short statement acknowledging those who have supported you throughout the project.

Abstract (200-300 words)

The abstract provides a brief summary of the entire project typically covering the following elements: motivation, literature gap, project aims, methods, results, significance and implications of the project.

Introduction (approx. 500 words)

As a general guide, the introduction would typically include the following elements. However, please note that this is a general guide only - these elements may vary in accordance with the specific nature of your project:

The motivation and justification for your project what is the problem, issue or challenge that warrants further investigation into your project topic? Why is this project interesting and important?

The gap in the literature: what are the key theories or responses to this issue in existing projects/research/scholarship/evidence and what do they fail to explain (i.e., what gap will your project be investigating?)

The project aim and objectives stemming from the central problem or motivation for the project and the gap in current literature / theory.

The final paragraph of the Introduction briefly covers the methods you use in your project (approx. 2 sentences); the central argument / results / main contribution of your project (i.e., how does your project contribute to explaining the problem outlined above how does your project contribute to filling the gap in existing literature? What argument does your final paper make in terms of how we can view this problem or issue?) (approx. 3 sentences).

Literature Review (Background) (approx. 1200 words)

The literature review (or background) demonstrates the key evidence, theories, conceptual frameworks, arguments and controversies relevant to the problem or issue that your project aims to investigate. It highlights the ways in which the project area has been investigated to date, and it identifies inconsistencies and gaps in knowledge (the research gap) that are worthy of further investigation.

The literature review should not be organised as a chronological list stating each relevant authors project, but, rather, should be organised according to themes, ideas, central debates in the literature, key definitions, main theories etc. relevant to the scholarship that you are examining. So, you may state that there are three main approaches to your specific issue in the literature to date. You would then organise the literature around a discussion of each one of these approaches (citing multiple authors under each approach). Rather than organising the literature review according to works by each author.

The themes, theories, concepts or definitions discussed in the literature review should link directly to your project question, hypotheses, and central argument of your project, and should be returned to in your discussion when you cover the limitations and implications of your project.

The literature review will also identify the gap or limitation of current approaches / theories / concepts discussed in the scholarship that your project will attempt to fill.

The literature review is the build up to your project aims, objectives and project question (and hypotheses) following on from the gap in the literature. However, note that some projects may not state hypotheses as the objective may not lend itself to stating explicit hypotheses.

Methods (approx. 1000 words)

The methods section may vary according to the type of project that you are undertaking. However, as a general guide the methods section should outline and explain the rationale for your project design using in-text references from others who have developed these methods i.e., which project method/s are you using and why is this appropriate to investigate your project question?

Where relevant, the methods section will justify the study design and evaluation design for your project, include details of your population, sampling, data collection methods and instruments, ethical approval received (name of ethics committee and date received), recruitment of participants, define key concepts and variables, outline the operationalisation of variables (how are the variables measured?), the data used in your project, and data analysis methods (including statistical methods that were used).

Results (approx. 800 words)

The results section will vary according to your type of project. In general, this section presents the findings from your data analysis i.e. the synthesis and explanation of your results, using tables and figures (graphs or visualisation) to guide readers through your results.

Think carefully about which tables and figures you would develop to best showcase your results to the reader. You would aim to synthesise approx. 4-5 tables and figures (other important tables and figures can be included in an Appendix).

Discussion / Conclusion (approx. 1200 words)

A Discussion discusses your project findings and presents the implications of your findings for scholarship, policy and practice, and future project. This section summarises the:

Main argument / key contribution and significance of your project.

Scope and significance of your project.

Implications (recommendations) of your project for theory (conceptual frameworks) / scholarship (this should link back directly to the themes / theories or concepts discussed in the literature review), implications for policy or practice (if relevant) (i.e., how do your findings change how we think about this issue within a policy framework or in practice?)

Limitations and Future project (i.e., are there new project directions that should be explored in light of your findings? Is further investigation required into areas that you could not cover within the scope of your project?).

The final paragraph is typically a brief summary of the key findings of the project (mentioning the methods used to conduct the project).

Reference list: Use the Harvard referencing system.

Appendices (5,000 words of supporting materials as your project portfolio)

How do you plan to disseminate your findings: will you publish your project?

Final Gannt chart and Risk assessment

The supporting portfolio of material may also include the references to your final paper, your Project Updates, your ethics application, agenda/meeting notes from reference group meetings or stakeholder meetings, interview prompts/scripts, interview transcriptions, participant surveys, data analysis, supplementary tables/graphs/diagrams, evaluation materials etc.