In one sentence, what is the main question you want to answer? Provide a sentence or two detailing why you
Research Question: In one sentence, what is the main question you want to answer? Provide a
sentence or two detailing why you are interested in this topic. What is your hypothesized
answer?
Background: Give a brief introduction to the topic, providing only sufficient detail so that an
educated person can understand what your topic is and how your research question fits in the
broader context. Persuade the reader that your question is interesting by placing it in the
context of the background section. Other than you, who else would naturally be interested in
your topic? What is known? What are some good references?
1. Data source(s): Describe the data source(s) you will use, at least at first. Make sure
you have access to the data in the quantity and quality that you need. You should
get the data before submitting the proposal! Give a summary of the cleaning or
joining of data sources that you expect to do up front. What are the variables in
your dataset that are relevant to your question?
Proposed Treatment: Describe how you plan to address the research question or problem
statement. What will you actually do? What specific fields from your dataset will you consider?
What kinds of metrics are relevant? What descriptive statistics on these fields are enlightening?
What type of model might you fit to the data? What kind of visualizations are illuminating? List
some goals, ideally in the form of testable hypotheses, or well-defined success metrics. Give a
list of the tables, figures, other visualizations, and model estimations that you will likely
produce for your project. You might be assuming that the data has structure that it in fact does
not have, or you might end up seeing other interesting patterns in the data.
Summary (75 words max): Write this last. A sentence or two on background to motivate your
question, a sentence on the main question, and a sentence or two on the approach.
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