Research Proposal

Topic: How Does cultural Stigma Surrounding Mental Health influence counseling utliization among first generation college students?

Should be only writing the introduction

Writing the Introduction

Draft 1 is will serve as the first version of the introduction for your research proposal. According to APA format, the introduction includes (a) a theoretical framework (i.e., the general topic and theories surrounding your research), (b) significance of the research (i.e., why your research is important), (c) a literature review (i.e., past research that has been done in this area), and (d) your specific hypothesis (for quantitative studies) or aims (for qualitative studies). Draft 1 should be at least two pages with at least five peer-reviewed journal citations. A good introduction is usually between two and four pages long. Examples of previous proposals are provided in the Research Proposal module. Draft 1 includes what you see between the title page and the Methods section.

Searching for Research Articles

By now, most of you have had to write a research paper either for one of your undergraduate classes or one of your recent graduate classes. However, some of my students have been out of school (or attended another university) and aren’t sure how to start a search for materials in the library. Therefore, our former librarian, Terrie Sypolt, created a document to help you with your literature search. This resource can be found under the APA Resources link from the home page or by clicking this link:

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Chapter 2 in your textbook also covers how to conduct a literature review. Remember that you must include at least five peer-reviewed sources in the introduction. Educational (e.g., Education Week) or psychological (e.g., Psychology Today) magazines, newspapers (even the New York Times), or organizational webpages (e.g., Center for Disease Control) are not peer-reviewed sources. You may include them as sources, but they will not count as “peer-reviewed” sources.

Before you begin writing the literature review, I recommend that you complete the Conducting a Literature Review webcourse. To do this, open the link

in your web browser, enroll in the course, go to the course, and read through the module.

Grading Rubric for Draft 1

Although the instructions include what you need to know to complete this assignment, many students lose points for not using APA format. If you are having trouble citing your sources in APA format, consult the APA Manual and the links on APA format under the Research Proposal link from the main page on Webcourses. Most APA format violations will cost you half a point. To avoid the most common mistakes, check your paper for the following:

• Include the title of the paper at the beginning of the introduction, not “Introduction.”
• Are in-text author citations in APA format? If you aren’t sure, check.
• Are numbers in APA format? Be aware that there are different rules for different numbers.
• Include page numbers and quotation marks when including quotes.
• Double-space.
• Make sure that headings are formatted according to the 7th edition of the APA Manual, not earlier editions.
• If a citation has more than three authors, use “et al.” after the first author’s name instead of writing out all authors’ names. E.g., Hammett et al. (2025) or (Hammett et al., 2025). Do this each time you cite this source.
• Are ethnicity labels, such as Black and White, in APA format?

Some students lose points for writing an insufficient literature review. You will need to include at least five peer-reviewed sources in the introduction. Your introduction should be between two and four pages long. It’s OK if it’s a little longer than this. A draft shorter than two pages makes me wonder what’s missing. Short drafts will lose one-half to two points.

Finally, do not plagiarize! If you are wondering why I keep writing this, it is because I see at least one instance of plagiarism every year. Plagiarism is using any part of another source as if it were your own original writing. If you directly quote from another source, make sure that you include quotation marks around the quoted text and properly cite the source (author name, year of publication, and page number). I will deduct at least 1 point for every sentence that is directly copied from another source without quotation marks and proper citation! For further recommendations on avoiding plagiarism, see the Syllabus, the instructions for this assignment, or the Guidelines and Requirements for the Research Proposal.

I will help you with APA formatting and style for educational research; however, I expect that you know how to write general research papers by now. If you are having trouble writing clearly or paraphrasing information from other sources, the Writing Center is available to assist you. You can find their hours and locations at .

Feedback for Draft 1

Once this assignment is graded, I will give feedback for Draft 1 using a few different formats. To see all the feedback:

• From the main course page, select Grades from the menu on the left side of the screen.
• Under Grades for Students, select Draft 1.
• In the upper right corner, you will see your score out of 10. Just below that, you will see an icon and a Show Rubric link. Select this link to see the grading criteria for this assignment, comments for each criterion, and the number of points that you earned and could have earned.
• Below the rubric link, you can read the comments I have written about your assignment, but most of my comments are in the rubric.
• Under Submission Details, you will see your assignment submission. If you submitted a Word document, you will see a link to the right of the title of your submission labeled View Feedback. Clicking on the link will open a pdf file of your draft with additional comments, highlighting, and corrections made by striking out and inserting text in red. Downloading your submission will not allow you to see my corrections. Therefore, you will need to go through the View Feedback link. If you did not upload a Word document, I cannot make comments or corrections directly on your assignment. All of my corrections will be in the comments section of the rubric or under the comments section under your score.

Frequently Asked Questions for Draft 1

QUESTION:

The article that I am reading includes citations from other studies. How do I cite the findings from these other studies that are summarized in the article that I am reading?

ANSWER:

When using secondary citations, you may either cite an article as a secondary source or find the paper that was cited and use that as a primary citation. If you use the first version, you would cite it as:

According to Darwin (2018), golden retrievers are smarter than collies (as cited in Clark, 2023).

In this example, Clark (2023) is the article that you have read that cites Darwin (2018), and you will only need to include Clark (2023) in your reference list. If you choose to read Darwin (2018) yourself, make your own conclusions from that study, and include Darwin (2018) in your reference list.

QUESTION:

How do I know if an article is peer-reviewed?

ANSWER:

The easiest way to verify if an article is peer-reviewed is to find the article or journal in UCF’s library catalogue. From the homepage (, select “Articles” under “What do you want to find?” Type your search terms into the window above and click “Search Primo”. The top of the citation should state “Article”. If it is peer-reviewed, you should see a purple icon at the bottom and “Peer Reviewed” next to the icon.

If you’ve already located an article and want to verify it is from a peer-reviewed journal, choose the “Journals” tab from the library home page and select “Peer Reviewed” under “Show journals that are:” Type the name of the journal in the search field and click “Search Journals”. If it is peer-reviewed, you should see a purple icon and “Peer Reviewed”.

Another approach is to check the journal’s website. If the homepage includes a “cite score” or “impact factor”, it is peer-reviewed. Some will also give an “average review time”, which also indicates that it is peer-reviewed. ERIC will often label articles as being “journal articles”, which usually means “peer reviewed”.