In brief, for this assignment you are required to:

Craft a research question or hypothesis that could be suitable to develop for your dissertation
Design a research project to address your research question or to test your hypothesis.

Both elements have a number of sub-questions that your assignment should address (the marks allocated for each section are indicated in parentheses)

Craft a research question or hypothesis that could be suitable for your dissertation (worth 40 marks in total).

State your research question or hypothesis succinctly and clearly. (5)

Justify it by answering the following:

What does the literature say about your chosen topic, and how has this helped you to make your question or hypothesis more specific?  A brief literature review is required (approximately 500 words). You will need to supplement this considerably if you develop this assignment for your dissertation. (15)
Describe why your research is timely and relevant, by drawing on contemporary theoretical or applied issues you identify as being of particular importance. Explain how you are using them to support (justify) your choice of question or hypothesis. (5)
Explain the philosophical considerations (ontology, epistemology and axiology) which need to be taken into account and discuss how they have influenced your choice of question or hypothesis. (10)
Evaluate whether the research should be inductive or deductive. (5)

Design a research project to answer your question or to test your hypothesis (worth 60 marks in total).

Describe, evaluate and justify your proposed research design, method of data collection and method of data analysis. (45)
Explain what ethical considerations need to be taken in account and how you will deal with these. (5)
Describe and briefly evaluate an alternative way in which you could carry out research to answer your question or test your hypothesis. (10)