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5. Experimental design
Describe in
detailhow you plan to
conduct your experiments; be as specific as possible. The
experiments should progress in a logical order. You may find
it helpful to write out a step-by-step protocol first, but
this must be turned into
narrative(prose) for this
section and for the Materials & Methods section of your
final Web paper. Address the experimental variables and the
relevant controls.
There should be a control for each variable. Think about how
many replicates should be performed (and how many are
feasible). If you are asking a complicated question, or one
with several variables, it is generally best to start with a
small "pilot" experiment. It's easy to attempt one grand
experiment to answer all questions, and then get overwhelmed
by it in the middle. Discuss the possible outcomes and their
implications, and how you will analyze your resulting data.
Finally,you should indicate
any potential problems you foresee and how you will
circumvent them.
6.
Literature Cited
Must be included. At least 2 primary research
articles relevant to your topic must be included. Use a
standard format, including the title of the article. Web
references must also be cited with author, affiliation and
date modified in addition to URL. If you cite a paper, you
should have readit. If
there is some vital information contained in an inaccessible
paper that you learn about from reading another paper, then
it should be cited together with the source you read (
"Jones
(1990),Japanesejournal,
cited in Smith (1995), ...").
Policy
on Plagiarism: Please review the College's policy in the
Catalog. Consult "Using Outside Sources" (available from the
Writing Center and also on the College Server - College
Information - Writing Center Folder - Claris Works or
Microsoft Word Documents Folder) for questions.
Remember,
a good research proposal will "explain what you want to do,
how you will do it, and why it is
important."(Hailman, J.P.,
and K.B. Strier. 1997. Planning, proposing and presenting
science effectively. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, p. 31).
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