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.