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The Concept Paper

This document discusses what a concept paper is and the typical elements it contains. A concept paper is a short summary that outlines a research project, including what it is about, why it is important, and how it will be conducted. It typically includes a title in the form of a question, a description of the research topic and what is already known, a research question, why answering the question is important, and how the researcher plans to gather and analyze data to answer the question. The goal is to provide a clear overview of the research in 1-2 pages.

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339 views3 pages

The Concept Paper

This document discusses what a concept paper is and the typical elements it contains. A concept paper is a short summary that outlines a research project, including what it is about, why it is important, and how it will be conducted. It typically includes a title in the form of a question, a description of the research topic and what is already known, a research question, why answering the question is important, and how the researcher plans to gather and analyze data to answer the question. The goal is to provide a clear overview of the research in 1-2 pages.

Uploaded by

conz12
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What is a concept paper?

(modified from Spickard 2005)

All research projects need a concept paper: a short summary that tells the reader what the project
is, why it is important, and how it will be carried out. Even if no one else ever reads it, the concept
paper helps a researcher spot holes in her or his project that might later prove fatal. It is far better
to be clear at the beginning than to put in a lot of effort for nothing!

Typically, a concept paper contains these elements:

1. A title in the form of a question. This may be the last part ofthe concept paper
that you write, but it should appear at the heading of the paper.

2. A clear description of the research topic, including a summary of what is


already known about that topic.

3. A one-sentence statement of the research question that the project will seek to
answer. (This is almost always something that is not known.) The concept paper
should elaborate on how this question can be answered -- something that almost
always takes more than one sentence to accomplish.

4. A demonstration of why it is important to answer this research question. What


good comes of this answer? Why is this project worth writing?

5. A description of how the researcher plans to answer the research question.


This includes:

a. a description of the data or evidence that the researcher plans to


gather or use;
b. a description of how the researcher will analyze these data; and
c. a demonstration of how these data and this analytic method will
answer the research question.

Concept papers should range from 1 - 2 double-spaced pages (250-500 words). The point of a
concept paper is to provide a clear summary of the research project. It should enable a casual
reader to understand what the researcher is investigating, why it is important, and how the
investigation will proceed.

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