Your research proposal must include the following sections. The word limit is 3,000 words,
excluding bibliography.
(i) Title of Research
Choose a concise, informative and relevant title that encapsulates the research you are
proposing.
(5 marks)
(ii) Introduction, Literature Review and Research Question
Write a concise introduction that provides sufficient background with regard to the relevance
of your research topic. Next, present your literature review that critically evaluates and
discusses the relevant academic research on your proposed topic. The literature review may
identify key findings relevant to your proposed research and/or the theoretical weaknesses
and strengths of the research materials reviewed. This should allow you to recognise and
explain the significance of your proposed study and how you aim to contribute to the current
stock of knowledge. This section of your proposal should conclude by proposing a research
question and developing one clear and testable hypothesis.
(40 marks)
(iii) Research Design and Data Analysis
Research Design: Apply what you have learnt from this course, and describe how the
proposed study will be carried out to gather primary or secondary data (e.g., the design of
your survey, interviews, experiments, quasi-experiments, content analysis or archival
research). Discuss and justify the appropriateness of your choice of research design with
reference to various kinds of research validity.
Data Analysis: Distinguish and discuss the data analysis strategies you will employ in your
analysis and interpretation of the data collected.
(40 marks)
(iv) Ethical Issues
Recognise and appreciate one possible ethical concern that may arise from your proposed
research and discuss how you will address the concern that you have identified.
(10 marks)
(v) Limitation of research
Recognise and briefly explain one limitation of your study that could be addressed by future
research in this area.
(5 marks)
You will be assessed primarily on your ability to formulate a feasible social research proposal
that is systematic, as well as conceptually and theoretically driven. The proposed research
should seek to establish knowledge on social issues related to the social impact of low
fertility for Singapore. For example, low fertility may result in the overall reduction of the
working age population and this can have impact on Singapore economy—e.g., lower
productivity, a reliance on foreign labour, etc. Societies experiencing low fertility are also in
danger of population decline and this may also have negative implications on the tax base and
ultimately putting a financial crunch on social programmes. The social phenomenon of low
fertility also means smaller family sizes and in a society like Singapore where it is the
primary institution to support the old (e.g., caregiving) this will put a strain on the institution
of the family and may even result in paradigm shift—i.e., relying more on other social
institutions like the government.
It is strongly recommended that your literature review comprises appropriate academic
articles (i.e., journal articles) relevant to the topic in order to familiarise yourself with the key
debates and issues. This will aid you with the design of your study, the selection of variables,
and the formulation of your hypothesis. Reference to carefully selected newspaper articles
from e.g., Straits Times, TODAY, etc is welcomed and can be helpful in establishing the
importance of your study, but such resource materials should not make up the bulk of the
contribution to the discussion in sections (i) and (ii). You are advised to draw from the
materials presented to you during the course in its entirety. In order to ensure that your
research proposal is coherent, please check that each stage of your research design/process
clearly relates to both your hypothesis and your proposed research question.
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