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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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