Some thoughts on the big picture of my research proposal

Okay, this whole research process has been fuzzy and vague. I'm reading a book called Introduction to Social Research by Punch. It's been a helpful read to get to the bottom of research, what it's all about, and how to go about doing it. Help at last!

By the end of my first semester of doctoral studies, I will have written a quantitative research proposal, a daunting and huge task considering I've never done ANY research before!

Well, here goes an attempt to simply state what it is that I want to know?

The assumption - we know knowledge structures change with the incorporation of new information. This is a cognitive dimension of information use. It is using information cognitively to construct or modify knowledge. Brooke's fundamental equation of information science supports that our knowledge structures change.

Research area - information behavior

Research topic - cognitive information use

Gap - But, it's hard to observe and measure this process of knowledge change and few studies have attempted it.

What I want to find out (General RQs) - So, I want to know if pre- and post- information concept maps will measure knowledge change. Do they provide a lens to observe this? And how to knowledge structures change as evidenced in pre and post concept maps?

Aim - further understanding of the cognitive aspects of information use, that is, how information is used to build and modify knowledge (knowledge change).

Conceptual framework - Similarity of Brookes equation and concept mapping.

Hypothesis - thus, following his theory I propose concept maps will be an effective tool to measure this.

Specific RQs:
RQ1 Are concepts added or deleted?
RQ2 Are linking words (across concepts) added or deleted?
RQ3 Are cross-links (across domains) added or deleted?
RQ4 Are concepts inserted? (this changes the structure)
RQ5 Are concepts moved around? (this changes the structure)

Research design - single subject experiment; repeated measure
00----X-----01-----x-----02
00=pre-map (current knowledge)
X=intervention (information)
01-post-map 1 (knowledge change 1)
x=intervention (information)
02=post-map 2 (knowledge change 2)

Data collection -

Data analysis - Is there a significant difference between the maps in terms of (t tests):
-Concepts (RQ1)
-Linking words (RQ2)
-Cross links (RQ3)
-Map structure (RQ4, RQ5)