Writing up research proposal
开题报告大致包括以下几个方面的内容。
1．论文题目(research title) 。
2．研究本论题的动机(research motivation)
3．论文拟解决的问题以及作者的假设(statement Of problem and hypotheses)
4．研究本论题意义及价值(significance of the research)
5．国内外同行对该论题的研究现状(1iteraturereview)
6．论题研究步骤和手段(research approach or methodology)
7．研究中存在的局限性(research limitations)
8．撰写论文工作的计划与安排(research planning)
9．参考文献(references)
10．图表及附录(tables and appendix)
Sample：
Higher Education Faculty: Satisfaction with Online Teaching
Purpose of the Study(研究本论题的目的)
The main purpose of this study is to conduct exploratory qualitative research to investigate online faculty members teaching philosophies and what contributes to or inhibits their satisfaction with online teaching.
To meet this purpose, this research will
a) explore participant's teaching beliefs and perceptions of elements that contribute or inhibit to their online teaching job satisfaction;
b) investigate the relationships among the elements that contribute to or inhibit the participant's perception of job satisfaction;
c) provide a structure to better understand elements that contribute to or inhibit online faculty members' job satisfaction.
Research Questions（论文拟解决的问题）
The key questions guiding this inquiry are:
1. What elements contribute to or inhibit satisfaction with online teaching for faculty members?
2. What are the relationships among the elements that contribute to or inhibit online faculty member's satisfaction with online teaching?
The electronic Web-based background questionnaire will collect information about the study participants such as: contact information, discipline/degree program, gender, age, ethnic group, tenure status, teaching experience, computer use, instructional uses of technology, and teaching philosophy.
The interview protocol includes questions, in the first section, about the participant's teaching experience. The second section explores barriers to or facilitators of online teaching, and satisfaction with institutional support for faculty members involved in online learning including: developing the online course, technological aspects, 'professional development and social interactions, participant's satisfaction or dissatisfaction with teaching the online course including overall satisfaction, electronic communications, course activities, and time requirements. The survey concludes by asking what advice the participant would give a faculty member in their discipline or department who was thinking about developing an online course.
Significance of the Study(研究本论题的意义及价值)
This study will contribute to an understanding of the factors that contribute to the job satisfaction of higher education faculty members pioneering as teachers in the rapidly expanding and changing Web-based educational environments. The bulk of research on faculty job satisfaction has been conducted among traditional faculty, i.e., those who teach face-to-face, but little is known about what contributes to the job satisfaction of faculty who are teaching their courses partially or totally online, because few research studies have been conducted to explore the needs, desires, hopes, dreams, and frustrations of online faculty to understand and explore what they think and feel about the factors that can, and do, make them satisfied with their work in Web-based learning environments.
This study, therefore, will seek to understand and expand the current knowledge base by utilizing a Constructivist Grounded-Theory approach (Charmaz, 2000) to identify elements and describe relationships among the elements that contribute to, or act as barriers, to the job satisfaction of higher-education faculty members that are teaching online courses.
Possible benefits of this research include contributing to a better understanding of online faculty members and the elements that contribute to or act as barriers to their job' satisfaction with online teaching. A better understanding of the elements that contribute to or act as barriers to the job satisfaction of online faculty, could help institutions to identify, plan for, and provide support and services to increase online faculty member's job satisfaction. Additionally, this knowledge could help institutions, which are delivering or considering delivering Web-based courses, to attract, train, and retain talented online instructors so that they can more effectively work with faculty to "...move the power of the Internet for learning from promise to practice" (Web-based Education Commission, 2000, p.134).
Limitations of the Study（研究中存在的局限性）
This study seeks to explore elements that contribute to or act as barriers to the job satisfaction of online faculty and the relationships among these elements. Faculty satisfaction can be significantly influenced by the institutional setting in which it does or does not occur. For this reason, the phenomenon of faculty job satisfaction needs to be studied as it naturally occurs without manipulation or control of variables. Institutions are distinct and complex, as are the online learning environments within these settings. Hence, the data gathered in each setting are very dependent on these contexts. Therefore, the context of each case study will limit the generalizability of the findings. The qualitative researcher utilizes the case study format to provide a thick, rich description of the phenomena encountered in the process of research. This thick description allows the readers to judge the information and make their own decisions about whether or not the themes that emerge from the research can be transferred to their own situations.
Literature Review（文献综述）
Background literature related to job satisfaction and dynamics of faculty participation in Web-based distance education is examined, in this chapter, to provide grounding related to the research questions of this study. The review of literature is divided into three sections. The first section defines distance education and examines the use of the World Wide Web (WWW) for delivering Web-delivered distance education.
The second section examines the dynamics of pedagogy, attitudes and perceptions, motivation and resistance, institutional incentives and barriers related to faculty participation in Web-delivered distance education. The third section examines the theoretical basis of faculty job satisfaction research.
Distance Education
Asynchronous and Synchronous Communications
Online Teaching and Learning
Dynamics of Faculty Participation in Post-Secondary Distance
Education
Methodology（论题研究方法）
Qualitative methods will be used in this exploratory study to explore interactions related to the common experiences of higher education faculty members that are teaching online courses to understand factors that contribute to the job satisfaction of these faculty members. This study is exploratory because little is known about what constitutes job satisfaction for higher education faculty members that are teaching online courses.
Qualitative methods are the best choice for this research because qualitative methods allow the researcher to listen to the views of the research participants, while focusing on the natural setting or context, such as the online program or classroom, in which participants express their views.
Qualitative research methods are unsurpassed for research problems where the variables are unknown and need to be
explored. Qualitative methods permit the researcher to approach the fieldwork without being constrained by predetermined categories of analysis, and allows the researcher to study the selected issue in depth and detail, which contributes to the depth, openness, and detail of the qualitative inquiry (Patton, 1990).
This study is situated within a constructivist paradigm where the researcher takes the position that, as Schwandt (1998) states, "...human beings do not find or discover knowledge so much as construct or make it" (p. 237). The constructivist paradigm recognizes the complex nature of the multiple realities and that there is no single, unique "reality" but only individual perspectives. Erlandson, Harris, Skipper and Allen (1993) emphasize that since no two contexts are identical, full generalizability within this paradigm "ignores the unique shaping forces that exist in each context" (p. 17). A theoretical framework based on the paradigms, and naturalistic strategies of Constructivist Inquiry (Guba and Lincoln, 1994) and the perspectives, designs and methods of Constructivist Grounded Theory (Charmaz, 2000) was developed to situate the methodology for this research study within the qualitative research literature.
References
Anderson, E N. (2000). Cost Perception and the Expectancy-Value Model of Achievement Motivation.' Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA.
Bandura, A. (1986). Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory.
Introduction（导言）
1．提供研究课题总的背景、意义、研究的现状和尚存在的问题(Background／Setting)
2．文献回顾和综述(Literature Review)
3．突出要研究的主题或问题(Subject Or Problem)
4．研究课题的目的(Purpose)
5．研究的价值、意义或论文结构(Value Of Structure)
导言长短视论文的篇幅而定，各部分内容侧重点和比例也因论文的内容、目的而不尽相同。在学位论文中，通常，文献综述部分会作为独立的结构占据一章或两三章。有的导言的内容仅介绍这五项内容中的几项，但大都离不开这五个方面所形成的框架。导言的内容信息从大到小，从宽泛到具体，即，从综述研究领域的概况、课题的背景开始，逐步发展到具体的研究问题。
Moves in Research Paper Introduction
Move 1 Establishing a research territory (Background)
a. by showing that the general research area is important, central, interesting, problematic, or relevant in some way.
b. by introducing and reviewing items of previous research in the area.
Move 2 Establishing a niche (Subject or problem)
a. by indicating a gap in the previous research.
b. by raising a question about it.
c. by extending previous knowledge in some way.
Move 3 Occupying the niche (Purpose, findings, structure)
a. by outlining purposes or stating the nature of the present research.
b. by announcing principal findings.
c. by indicating the structure of the RP.
Compatibility Analysis of Web Services
网络服务的兼容性分析
Sample：
The Effects of Water Scarcity on Reciprocity and Sociability in Bolivia
Reports on the state of freshwater reserves warn that severe local shortages are imminent, and predict that violent conflicts will emerge in water-scarce regions. To better understand how conflicts develop in water-scarce regions, research is needed on the social and economic factors that mediate cooperation and conflict (Ronnfeldt 1997). I propose to do an in-depth study of Villa Israel, a barrio of Cochabamba, Bolivia, where conflict over water is an established part of life. The overall objective is to understand how severe water scarcity affects reciprocal exchange relationships and social relationships in a marginal urban setting. The five specific objectives are:
The existence and quality of intracommunity ties has long been recognized as a factor that determines how conflicts evolve over scarce resources and other threats (Simmel 1904 [1955], Coser 1956, Mack 1965). The degree of connectedness and the presence of ties that cross social segments are both elements of social structure that inhibit conflict development (Gluckman in Ross 1993, LeVine and Campbell 1972). Although early conflict theorists called for empirical research to investigate when and in what order social ties are broken (Coleman 1957), such studies have been conducted in only a few geographic regions and on a few environmental scarcities.
Assuming that all households engage in exchange and social relationships, and that the amount of water available to the households varies, I propose ten hypotheses:
H1. Generalized reciprocal exchanges will occur more frequently in the wet season than in the dry season.
H2. Social interactions will occur more frequently in the wet season than in the dry season.
H3. During the dry season, households with more water will engage in more generalized reciprocal exchanges than will households with less water.
The research will proceed in two phases. During the first phase, I will select a 60-household purposive sample, create and test interview protocols, choose key informants, and train a research assistant. The first phase will lay the groundwork for the second, so that I will be prepared to complete a baseline assessment of exchange and social interactions before the dry season begins in May. During the second phase, I will conduct in-depth interviews with key informants and four ethnographic interviews with each household in the sample. At the end of the second phase, I will conduct a series of experimental economic games to determine the norms of trust and reciprocity in the community.
Cochabamba is a large Bolivian city located in a semi-arid zone, made famous in 2000 by protests and riots over water delivery that received international attention. There, a rapid increase in water demand caused by urban growth, groundwater scarcity, and topography that drains water away from the city have intensified pressures on the municipal water distribution system (Laurie and Marvin 1999). Lacking the capital to extend water services to its growing periphery, Cochabamba contains a large population of marginal urban residents that lack access to the municipal water system.
Using the Uni6n Cristiana Evangelica census of Villa Israel as a sample frame, I will select a purposive sample of 60 households. Households will be selected to maximize variation on the following variables: number of members, ethnicity, religious affiliation, head of household's profession, and geographic location of the house (distance from water sources). Although choosing a purposive sample renders generalization from the study impossible, the purposive sample will enable me to choose households that maximize variation on the independent variables (Bernard 2002).
Data entry and coding interviews will be transcribed by the field assistant as they are conducted. Data from the interviews will be used to construct an ordinal measure of water use (H4~H6) and four interval-level dependent variables: the number of generalized reciprocal exchanges that occurred in the last week (H1, H3), the number of households with which the respondents exchanged in the last week (H4), the number of social visits that occurred in the last week (H2, H5), the number of households with which the respondents visited in the last week (H6). The amount of offers (H7) and counter-offers (H8) made during the investment game will be recorded in Bolivianos. Quantitative data for households will be entered directly into Excel spreadsheets.
I will use t-tests to compare mean numbers of exchange and social interactions for the wet and dry season (HI, H2), and ANOVA to determine if levels of household water availability are associated with differences in mean levels of exchange and interaction (H3~H6). Analysis of variance tests will also be used to if different social ties are associated with differences in mean monetary measures of trust and reciprocity (H7, H8). I will use repeated measures ANOVA to test hypotheses 9 and 10.
This research will contribute to two areas of social science inquiry: urban anthropology and environment-conflict theory. The research will be the first study to examine if and how urban social support relationships are transformed by severe water scarcity. Understanding how reciprocal exchange and social ties are strained during periods of severe deprivation will contribute to efforts to understand the dynamics involved in conflict over environmental resources.
Now complete the following table:
文献综述包括以下几个方面：
1．阐明课题研究的问题，即该课题研究的内容；
2．文献引述及分类;
3．对引述的文献进行综合评价；
4．得出可进行进一步研究的结论。
文献综述是作者在学术论文中对前人在相关课题的研究成果的综述。在这部分，作者为读者提供理解论文报告所必需的背景知识。同时，作者也向读者表明自己对研究领域现状相当熟悉，自己从事的研究是在前人研究的基础上，对该研究领域发展所做出的新贡献。文献综述四部分的先后顺序并不是一成不变的，尤其是第二、三部分经常交织在一起。
Sample:
Trade Liberalization, Economic Restructuring and Urban Poverty: The Case of China
贸易自由化、经济结构重整和城市贫困：以中国为例
阐明课题研究的问题，即该课题研究的内容
The past 10 years have witnessed a growing interest amongst both academics and policy-makers in the relationship between trade and poverty. Several recent studies show that trade liberalization directly and indirectly impacts poverty through multifaceted channels (Berg and Kruger, 2002; Cline, 2004; Dollar and Kraay, 2004).
文献引述及分类
The positive direct impacts of trade on poverty include facilitating the participation of the poor into global labor divisions and production chains, providing the poor with broader access to global factor and product markets, and increasing the supply of more productive technologies that better match the needs of the poor. Therefore, the poor might have more opportunities to benefit from global economic integration, to increase their incomes, and to improve their living standards. However, the cost and risk brought about by trade liberalization might also be significant for the poor (Nissanke and Thorbecke, 2005). Winters et al. (2004) argue that trade liberalization might increase both the risks faced by poor households and their vulnerability to external shocks. Therefore, opening up an economy through trade liberalization will directly lead to both positive and negative impacts on poverty, creating winners and losers among the poor.
译文：
10年来学术界和决策者们都对贸易和贫困的关系显示出浓厚的兴趣。最近的几个研究表明贸易自由化在多方面直接和间接地影响着贫困状况。
贸易对贫困的有益影响在于它使穷人参与到全球劳动力分工和生产链中，它给穷人提供丁更多参与全球产品市场的机会和越来越多的适合穷人的生产技术。因此穷人有更多的机会从全球经济一体化中获益：收入增加和生活水平得到改善。但是，贸易自由化所带来的代价和风险对穷人的影响同样是巨大的。Wintes等认为贸易自由化可能既加剧了贫困家庭所面临的风险也使他们在面对外部打击时变得更加脆弱。所以，通过贸易自由化开放经济会直接对贫困产生积极和消极的影响，穷人中既会有获益者也会有失利者。
对引述的文献进行综合评价
Trade liberalization might indirectly affect poverty by influencing economic growth. In the published literature, the trade-growth-poverty relationship involves two critical linkages that have been at the center of heated debate during the past 10 years: whether trade is good for growth (the trade-growth linkage) and whether growth is good for the poor (the growth-poverty linkage). Concerning the trade-growth linkage, several studies suggest that trade is one of the most important driving engines for long-run economic growth. However, these studies have been criticized on technical grounds. There is also evidence that the positive trade-growth link is neither automatically guaranteed nor universally observable.
As for the growth-poverty linkage, many studies show that in the long run, growth can be a powerful instrument for poverty reduction. In their work on growth and poverty, Dollar and Kraay (2002) show that the income growth of the poorest quartile evolves proportionately with average income growth and, therefore, that the poor have benefited from growth at least as much as anyone else in society.
However, there is also evidence that different outcomes of poverty reduction are generated for a given rate of growth, where the extent by which growth contributes to poverty alleviation will depend on the initial level of inequality, and on how the distribution of income changes over time (World Bank, 2001).
贸易自由化可能通过影响经济增长间接影响贫困。在已出版的相关研究文献中，贸易一经济增长一贫困的关系涉及两：个重要的联系，而这两个联系在过去一直是争论的焦点：贸易是否对经济增长有利(贸易和经济增长的联系)和经济增长是否对穷人有利(经济增长和贫穷的联系)。关于贸易和经济增长的联系，几个研究表明贸易是促进经济长期增长的重要动力之一。但是这些研究在方法上遭到了批评。还有证据表明贸易并不能自然地促进经济的增长而且贸易对经济增长有利也不具有普遍意义。关于经济增长和贫困的联系，许多研究表明经济增长最终会成为减少贫困的有力手段。Dolla，和Kmy；在他们的研究中指出最贫穷家庭的收入增长随着平均收入的增长而逐渐增长，因此，穷人起码从经济增长中受益的程度不少于社会中其他成员。
但是，也有证据显示即便是经济增长率相同，贫困减少量也会有差异，这是由于经济增长对减少贫困的作用取决于贫富差距的初始水平和收入分配是如何随着时间而变化的。
得出可进行进一步研究的结论
In general, theoretical predictions and empirical evidence on the trade-poverty linkage are mixed and inconclusive. As for the case of China, the issue concerning whether trade is propoor also leads to fiercely contested debates. Many studies claim that China's trade openness and its rapid integration into the world economy have greatly contributed to poverty reduction (World Bank, 2002; Dollar, 2004). Nevertheless, this view is challenged by several other studies. However, existing studies on China's trade-poverty nexus mostly rely on aggregated data at the national level. Therefore, more disaggregated data and further investigation are required to shed more light on the relationship between trade and poverty in China.
With the help of more recent and systemic data at the provincial level, the present study attempts to acid to the literature by empirically investigating the relationship between trade and poverty in urban China, helping to broaden the understanding of this critical linkage.
总之，在贸易和贫穷的关系方面，理论预测和实验证据都是相互矛盾且没有结论的。在中国，关于贸易是否有利于削减贫困也引起了激烈的讨论。许多研究声称中国的贸易开放和与世界经济的一体化为减少贫困做出了巨大的贡献。但是，这种观点遭到了其他一些研究的挑战。由于现有的关于中国贸易和贫困关系的研究主要依赖全国整体数据，因此，要想进一步解释中国贸易与贫困的关系就需要有更多的区域性数据和深人调查。
本研究以最新的省级系统数据为基础，试图通过实验调查来了解贸易和贫困的关系，从而帮助我们全面地了解两者之间的重要联系。
Writing up research method
Task Objective
研究方法部分通常是论文的重要部分，这部分的总体要求是“准确性”和“可再现性”或“可重复性”，即要使同行读者能根据论文这一部分提供的信息，可以重复文中的试验过程并得到相应的结果。虽然不同学科与不同类型的论文对研究方法部分要交代的具体内容有不同要求，但基本上包括以下几点：
1．实验原材料和材料(materials)：给出理工科实验所用原料或材料的技术要求、数量、来源以及制备方法等诸方面的信息；有时甚至列出所用试剂的有关化学性质和物理性质。心理学及其他社会科学实验的材料选用及理由。
2．调查对象(subjects／participants)：提供问卷或访谈对象的相关背景信息，尤其是抽样方法与过程，并简要说明理由。
3．实验装置／调查设计(instrument)：凡属通过的、标准的和常见的仪器设备，只需提供型号、规格及主要性能指标；说明标准问卷的出处及调整细节，如果是全新的问卷，需提供设计思路及预测的效度与信度统计数据。
4．实验／调查过程与方法(experiment／procedure)：介绍主要的实验过程和调查实施过程。
Attitude towards Fashion Advertisements with Political
Content: Impacts of Opinion Leadership and Perception of
Advertisement Message
Method:
Writing up results:
In this unit you will learn how to write a results section for a research paper.
“结果”是一篇论文的核心部分，其内容是将观察研究所得的资料和数据用文字和图表形式表达出来。它既是作者对自己原先设计的目的或所提出问题的直接回答，也是下文逻辑推理、深入讨论的依据。文字部分主要包含以下三方面的信息：
1)针对图表的文字说明，指出图表中的主要信息，介绍研究成果(Describe the diagrams)。
2)点出最重要的研究成果(Pinpoint the most important findings)。
3)对重要研究成果进行简要评论(Comment briefly on the important results)。
有的论文把结果和分析或讨论部分结合在一起，有的论文单独列一章分析或讨论。讨论是从实验和观察的结果出发，从理论上对其进行分析、比较、阐述、推论和预测，着重解释结果的内在联系及意义。讨论通常与他人的成果相比较，挖掘理论意义，突出自己的特点和贡献。结果部分是观察实验“做”出来的，分析部分是逻辑推理“想”出来的，不可混淆。
由于图表多数由软件生成，且占据大量篇幅，而本教材的重点是文字表达，因此本章例文中的图表大部分被省略。
Sample 1
Effects of Subordinate Likeability and Balanced Scorecard
Format on Performance-Related Judgments
