Proposal Writing

The goal of a research proposal is to present and justify the need to study a research
problem and to present the practical ways in which the proposed study should be
conducted. The design elements and procedures for conducting the research are
governed by standards within the predominant discipline in which the problem resides,
so guidelines for research proposals are more exacting and less formal than a general
project proposal. Research proposals contain extensive literature reviews. They must
provide persuasive evidence that a need exists for the proposed study. In addition to
providing a rationale, a proposal describes detailed methodology for conducting the
research consistent with requirements of the professional or academic field and a
statement on anticipated outcomes and/or benefits derived from the study's
completion.

How to Approach Writing a Research Proposal

Your professor may assign the task of writing a research proposal for the
following reasons:

 Develop your skills in thinking about and designing a comprehensive research

study;
 Learn how to conduct a comprehensive review of the literature to ensure a
research problem has not already been answered [or you may determine the
problem has been answered ineffectively] and, in so doing, become better at
locating scholarship related to your topic;
 Improve your general research and writing skills;
 Practice identifying the logical steps that must be taken to accomplish one's
research goals;
 Critically review, examine, and consider the use of different methods for gathering
and analyzing data related to the research problem; and,
 Nurture a sense of inquisitiveness within yourself and to help see yourself as an
active participant in the process of doing scholarly research.

A proposal should contain all the key elements involved in designing a completed
research study, with sufficient information that allows readers to assess the validity
and usefulness of your proposed study. The only elements missing from a research
proposal are the findings of the study and your analysis of those results. Finally, an
effective proposal is judged on the quality of your writing and, therefore, it is important
that your writing is coherent, clear, and compelling.
Regardless of the research problem you are investigating and the methodology
you choose; all research proposals must address the following questions:

1. What do you plan to accomplish? Be clear and succinct in defining the research
problem and what it is you are proposing to research.
2. Why do you want to do it? In addition to detailing your research design, you
also must conduct a thorough review of the literature and provide convincing

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evidence that it is a topic worthy of study. Be sure to answer the "So What?"
question.
3. How are you going to do it? Be sure that what you propose is doable. If you're
having trouble formulating a research problem to propose investigating.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

 Failure to be concise; being "all over the map" without a clear sense of purpose.
 Failure to cite landmark works in your literature review.
 Failure to delimit the contextual boundaries of your research [e.g., time, place,
people, etc.].
 Failure to develop a coherent and persuasive argument for the proposed
research.
 Failure to stay focused on the research problem; going off on unrelated
tangents.
 Sloppy or imprecise writing, or poor grammar.
 Too much detail on minor issues, but not enough detail on major issues.

Structure and Writing Style

Beginning the Proposal Process
As with writing a regular academic paper, research proposals are generally organized
the same way throughout most social science disciplines. Proposals vary between ten
and twenty-five pages in length. However, before you begin, read the assignment
carefully and, if anything seems unclear, ask your professor whether there are any
specific requirements for organizing and writing the proposal.
A good place to begin is to ask yourself a series of questions:

 What do I want to study?

 Why is the topic important?
 How is it significant within the subject areas covered in my class?
 What problems will it help solve?
 How does it build upon [and hopefully go beyond] research already conducted on
the topic?
 What exactly should I plan to do, and can I get it done in the time available?

In general, a compelling research proposal should document your knowledge of the

topic and demonstrate your enthusiasm for conducting the study. Approach it with the
intention of leaving your readers feeling like--"Wow, that's an exciting idea and I can’t
wait to see how it turns out!"

In general, your proposal should include the following sections:

I. Introduction

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In the real world of higher education, a research proposal is most often written by
scholars seeking grant funding for a research project or it's the first step in getting
approval to write a doctoral dissertation. Even if this is just a course assignment, treat
your introduction as the initial pitch of an idea or a thorough examination of the
significance of a research problem. After reading the introduction, your readers should
not only have an understanding of what you want to do, but they should also be able
to gain a sense of your passion for the topic and be excited about the study's possible
outcomes. Note that most proposals do not include an abstract [summary] before the
introduction.
Think about your introduction as a narrative written in one to three paragraphs
that succinctly answers the following four questions:

1. What is the central research problem?

2. What is the topic of study related to that problem?
3. What methods should be used to analyze the research problem?
4. Why is this important research, what is its significance, and why should someone
reading the proposal care about the outcomes of the proposed study?

II. Background and Significance

This section can be melded into your introduction or you can create a separate section
to help with the organization and narrative flow of your proposal. This is where you
explain the context of your proposal and describe in detail why it's important. Approach
writing this section with the thought that you can’t assume your readers will know as
much about the research problem as you do. Note that this section is not an essay
going over everything you have learned about the topic; instead, you must choose
what is relevant to help explain the goals for your study.
To that end, while there are no hard and fast rules, you should attempt to
address some or all of the following key points:

 State the research problem and give a more detailed explanation about the
purpose of the study than what you stated in the introduction. This is particularly
important if the problem is complex or multifaceted.
 Present the rationale of your proposed study and clearly indicate why it is worth
doing. Answer the "So What? question [i.e., why should anyone care].
 Describe the major issues or problems to be addressed by your research. Be sure
to note how your proposed study builds on previous assumptions about the
research problem.
 Explain how you plan to go about conducting your research. Clearly identify the
key sources you intend to use and explain how they will contribute to your analysis
of the topic.
 Set the boundaries of your proposed research in order to provide a clear focus.
Where appropriate, state not only what you will study, but what is excluded from
the study.
 If necessary, provide definitions of key concepts or terms.

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III. Literature Review
Connected to the background and significance of your study is a section of your
proposal devoted to a more deliberate review and synthesis of prior studies
related to the research problem under investigation. The purpose here is to place
your project within the larger whole of what is currently being explored, while
demonstrating to your readers that your work is original and innovative. Think about
what questions other researchers have asked, what methods they have used, and
what is your understanding of their findings and, where stated, their recommendations.
Do not be afraid to challenge the conclusions of prior research. Assess what you
believe is missing and state how previous research has failed to adequately examine
the issue that your study addresses. For more information on writing literature reviews.
Since a literature review is information dense, it is crucial that this section is intelligently
structured to enable a reader to grasp the key arguments underpinning your study in
relation to that of other researchers. A good strategy is to break the literature into
"conceptual categories" [themes] rather than systematically describing groups of
materials one at a time. Note that conceptual categories generally reveal themselves
after you have read most of the pertinent literature on your topic so adding new
categories is an on-going process of discovery as you read more studies. How do you
know you've covered the key conceptual categories underlying the research literature?
Generally, you can have confidence that all of the significant conceptual categories
have been identified if you start to see repetition in the conclusions or
recommendations that are being made.
To help frame your proposal's literature review, here are the "five C’s" of writing
a literature review:

1. Cite, so as to keep the primary focus on the literature pertinent to your research
problem.
2. Compare the various arguments, theories, methodologies, and findings
expressed in the literature: what do the authors agree on? Who applies similar
approaches to analyzing the research problem?
3. Contrast the various arguments, themes, methodologies, approaches, and
controversies expressed in the literature: what are the major areas of
disagreement, controversy, or debate?
4. Critique the literature: Which arguments are more persuasive, and why? Which
approaches, findings, methodologies seem most reliable, valid, or appropriate,
and why? Pay attention to the verbs you use to describe what an author
says/does [e.g., asserts, demonstrates, argues, etc.].
5. Connect the literature to your own area of research and investigation: how does
your own work draw upon, depart from, synthesize, or add a new perspective to
what has been said in the literature?

IV. Research Design and Methods

This section must be well-written and logically organized because you are not
actually doing the research, yet, your reader must have confidence that it is
worth pursuing. The reader will never have a study outcome from which to evaluate
whether your methodological choices were the correct ones. Thus, the objective here

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is to convince the reader that your overall research design and methods of analysis
will correctly address the problem and that the methods will provide the means to
effectively interpret the potential results. Your design and methods should be
unmistakably tied to the specific aims of your study.
Describe the overall research design by building upon and drawing examples from
your review of the literature. Consider not only methods that other researchers have
used but methods of data gathering that have not been used but perhaps could be.
Be specific about the methodological approaches you plan to undertake to obtain
information, the techniques you would use to analyze the data, and the tests of
external validity to which you commit yourself [i.e., the trustworthiness by which you
can generalize from your study to other people, places, events, and/or periods of time].
When describing the methods, you will use, be sure to cover the following:

 Specify the research operations you will undertake and the way you will interpret
the results of these operations in relation to the research problem. Don't just
describe what you intend to achieve from applying the methods you choose, but
state how you will spend your time while applying these methods [e.g., coding
text from interviews to find statements about the need to change school
curriculum; running a regression to determine if there is a relationship between
campaign advertising on social media sites and election outcomes in Europe].
 Keep in mind that a methodology is not just a list of tasks; it is an argument as to
why these tasks add up to the best way to investigate the research problem. This
is an important point because the mere listing of tasks to be performed does not
demonstrate that, collectively, they effectively address the research problem. Be
sure you explain this.
 Anticipate and acknowledge any potential barriers and pitfalls in carrying out your
research design and explain how you plan to address them. No method is perfect
so you need to describe where you believe challenges may exist in obtaining data
or accessing information. It's always better to acknowledge this than to have it
brought up by your reader.

V. Preliminary Suppositions and Implications

Just because you don't have to actually conduct the study and analyze the
results, doesn't mean you can skip talking about the analytical process and
potential implications. The purpose of this section is to argue how and in what ways
you believe your research will refine, revise, or extend existing knowledge in the
subject area under investigation. Depending on the aims and objectives of your study,
describe how the anticipated results will impact future scholarly research, theory,
practice, forms of interventions, or policymaking. Note that such discussions may have
either substantive [a potential new policy], theoretical [a potential new understanding],
or methodological [a potential new way of analyzing] significance.

When thinking about the potential implications of your study, ask the following
questions:

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 What might the results mean in regards to the theoretical framework that
underpins the study?
 What suggestions for subsequent research could arise from the potential
outcomes of the study?
 What will the results mean to practitioners in the natural settings of their
workplace?
 Will the results influence programs, methods, and/or forms of intervention?
 How might the results contribute to the solution of social, economic, or other types
of problems?
 Will the results influence policy decisions?
 In what way do individuals or groups benefit should your study be pursued?
 What will be improved or changed as a result of the proposed research?
 How will the results of the study be implemented, and what innovations will come
about?

VI. Conclusion
The conclusion reiterates the importance or significance of your proposal and
provides a brief summary of the entire study. This section should be only one or
two paragraphs long, emphasizing why the research problem is worth investigating,
why your research study is unique, and how it should advance existing knowledge.
Someone reading this section should come away with an understanding of:

 Why the study should be done,

 The specific purpose of the study and the research questions it attempts to
answer,
 The decision to why the research design and methods used where chosen over
other options,
 The potential implications emerging from your proposed study of the research
problem, and
 A sense of how your study fits within the broader scholarship about the research
problem.

VII. Citations
As with any scholarly research paper, you must cite the sources you used in
composing your proposal. In a standard research proposal, this section can take two
forms, so consult with your professor about which one is preferred.

1. References -- lists only the literature that you actually used or cited in your
proposal.
2. Bibliography -- lists everything you used or cited in your proposal, with additional
citations to any key sources relevant to understanding the research problem.

Chapter 1: Introduction and background

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This chapter consists of the overview of the study. It indicates the background,
purpose and significance of the study. In other words, it is a clear explanation of
what the study was about, why it had to be undertaken and who would benefit from
it. The researcher introduces the problem, states the rationale of the study, gives the
details of the study and states the research question.

Chapter 2: Literature review

In this chapter the conceptual framework guiding the study and a review of some
related literature are presented. It covers all the sources that have a link to the
problem being investigated. In other words, the connection between existing
knowledge and the research problem being investigated is covered.

Chapter 3: Research design and data collection

Chapter 3 describes the procedures for conducting the study. The researcher
indicates how the research was set up, what happened to the subjects/participants,
and what methods of data collection were used. In short, the research design
explains in full the procedures of conducting the study, including when, from whom
and under what conditions the data was collected.

The chapter focuses on the methods used in the study including the research
design, sample selection method, data collection and procedures, data analysis
methods and ethical issues of the study.

Chapter 4: Discussion of results and data analysis

The chapter indicates how the collected data was organised and analysed. The
chapter also explains how the data is presented in the report. The discussion
includes an evaluation and interpretation of the findings.

Chapter 5: Conclusions, recommendations and limitations of the study

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Conclusions about the findings of the study and possible recommendations are
made in this chapter. Ways and strategies of improving the study are listed in this
section. Recommendations made will have to be realistic, achievable and as specific
as possible, and will have to assist future researchers on the topic to effect
improvement.

Possible factors that may be a hindrance in achieving the desired outcomes of the
study are included in this chapter. The challenges or limitations may be a result of

Essay Structure

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References
Procter, Margaret. The Academic Proposal. The Lab Report. University College
Writing Centre. University of Toronto; Sanford, Keith. Information for Students: Writing
a Research Proposal. Baylor University; Wong, Paul T. P. How to Write a Research
Proposal. International Network on Personal Meaning. Trinity Western University;
Writing Academic Proposals: Conferences, Articles, and Books. The Writing Lab and
The OWL. Purdue University; Writing a Research Proposal. University Library.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Krathwohl, David R. How to Prepare a Dissertation Proposal: Suggestions for
Students in Education and the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Syracuse, NY:
Syracuse University Press, 2005.

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