A research proposal is a document that seeks to convince another party that you have a worthwhile research project that you have the expertise and competence to complete in an outlined work-plan. The other parties can include donors where funding is required to implement the project or a professor after successfully completing a class or course in order to demonstrate your understanding (Lawrence, Lussos, & Clark, 2019). The project being proposed should not only be viable in terms of things like cost and practicality, but also it should contribute new knowledge on the field that the project is based on. This paper is a compilation of all the required components of a research proposal, as outlined by Eszter Timar’s lecture at CEU.
A proposal should be written to convince others that there is value to the research project that you wish to undertake. For students, they should convince their lecturers that they have grasped the concepts that have been taught in class and able to get their hands on a project with the aim of adding or improving the existing knowledge in the field. Another reason that a proposal is written is to demonstrate that you have the necessary expertise to undertake research in a professional manner that is both reliable and credible. The proposal of research is also a way to show that your competent to carry out research and make an unbiased conclusion that makes the field to be clearer (Wijayanti, Emilia, & Gunawan, 2018). To the individual or group that is writing the proposal of a research project, it serves a blueprint or ‘recipe’ when carrying out the project after the approval of the proposal. A proposal should also outline a work plan that the researcher is going to use as a timeline. It helps the researcher to schedule the various aspects and components of the entire project that is crucial in determining progress of the project during the project implementation.
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The professor, when presented with a research project proposal from a student they look for what is new or improved that the research project will bring to the field of study. Another aspect that is keenly checked is the worth of the research project that is being proposed to the entire fraternity of the filed. The method of validation of the results and conclusions that will be made on the final research is another vital aspect of the proposal that is checked.
The first entity that a proposal of a research project should have is a catchy and appealing title of the topic of the research project being proposed. According to professor Timar, “Proposal” is not a topic but rather a genre and thus should not be used as the title of the proposal document. The title of the topic should capture or suggest the topic, the method used to conduct the research, and the conclusion of the proposal (Arifani, 2016). Upon reading the title of the proposal document, one should be able to develop an interest in the content of the proposal and the research project that is being proposed.
The introduction follows the title to give a detailed explanation of the research project that is being proposed. The introduction should set the context of the research that is being proposed by outlining the principles and background information that prompted the research project that is being proposed. If the project on implementation aims at solving a problem in society, the problem or the gap that the research is complementing should be included in the introduction section.
The introduction should use simple words to capture the leader’s attention and interests by giving a detailed yet catchy outline of the entire research project (Lawrence, Lussos, & Clark, 2019). The expected outcomes should be suggested here in the form of a hypothesis that is backed up by existing research work and other theoretical approaches. Key terms that are going to be used in the proposal document and the final research project should also be explained here. Explanation of terms is essential since some words that the author may be using may have a subjective or different meaning to different people. The keywords used should be defined using the definition that the author uses the terms to mean in order to create uniformity on the meaning of the documentation.
The literature review is a collection of statements of a general theoretical problem that is being investigated in the research project that is being proposed. Each of the entries in this section should be backed fully by the supporting bibliography references while indicating a grasp on the subject matter of the theoretical statement. This section serves to acknowledge and to tap on the work of other people that have conducted similar work on the topic that the research project is covering.
The literature review section also acts as a means of setting the place and context of the research in a gap that should be established in by the various work outlined in the section (Thomas, 2016). The work that is included in this section should thus be the most closely related to the topic of the project research. The literature review should insist on how the project research is complementing the work outlined by saliently stating the main question that the research project is answering. The question should be derived from the title and objectives of the research project and should not be an obvious question to answer in order to give the project some value.
The methodology section includes a detailed indication of how the main question will be assessed to give the required results. The writer must demonstrate that the method that is proposed is the best to give the results and conclusion that is needed. In case the proposal is requesting for sponsorship or donation, methodology becomes the key area that should determine the approval of the project.
The proposed method should be related to the field of study that the project is based on for the proposal to be approved (Widjaja, 2019). The method proposed should also be pragmatic in terms of the project cost and time period in order to make the project viable and realistic. The methodology should be the simplest and most reliable method with a guarantee of non-skewed results.
Another component of a research proposal is outlining the problems and challenges that are expected to be encountered during the implementation of the project. Here the problems that are plausible to occur in the scope of the research project implementation are identified. The proposal also involves the measures that are going to be employed to prevent the challenges from affecting the outcomes of the research project. The risks and challenges that are involved in the research project have a significant on the value of a project. For instance, if when a project is going to put the life of the researcher or other form of life in fatal danger, then the projects is not viable until there is a way to preform the project without affecting any form of human or animal life.
The conclusion of the proposal summarizes all the expected outcomes in the research project as outlined in the objectives and the main question of the project. The results of the methodology should be the only parameter that is used to make the proper conclusion in the research project, and thus all the expected trends in the results should be discussed here. How the analysis and making sense of the data that have been collected should also be outlined here to make the reader understand what exactly data analysis will be done in the research documentation will be done.
References or bibliographies are the last sections of a proposal that should include all the work of other individual used in the document should is listed. This section helps the reader of the proposal to research more on the specific area by giving them the necessary details of their work for easy access. They are different formats that are used to reference a proposal, and the author should seek clarification from the department or body that commissioned the proposal.
A proposal of a research project should be prepared by the researchers after doing a comprehensive deliberation on the appropriate topic to ensure there is no overlap of the work with another person’s work. Academic integrity should be observed at all times during the preparation of a research project proposal (Shambare, 2019). A considerable amount of time should be taken to develop the content of the research project proposal. The length of the proposal should be as required without leaving the major details of the proposal out.
The proposal document should be very clear and consistent in order to make the reader understand and share the same sentiments with the reader. Depending on the intended reader that the proposal of the research project, the content should be done to appeal to their interest. For instance, if a supervisor of the project is very interested in a certain field, the proposal should be written in a manner that appeals and promote the field without digressing from the main course of the proposal. One way to achieve this is by outlining the link that exists between the two fields.
References
Arifani, Y. (2016). The Implementation of Team-Based Discovery Learning to Improve Students' Ability in Writing Research Proposal. International Education Studies , 9 (2), 111-119.
Lawrence, H. Y., Lussos, R. G., & Clark, J. A. (2019). Rhetorics of Proposal Writing: Lessons for Pedagogy in Research and Real-World Practice. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication , 49 (1), 33-50.
Shambare, R. (2019). Presenting a PhD research proposal: A guide for commerce students. African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development , 1-15.
Thomas, D. (2016). The PhD writing handbook . Macmillan International Higher Education.
Widjaja, W. (2019). Writing a PhD proposal.
Wijayanti, M. A., Emilia, E., & Gunawan, W. (2018). The Teaching of Research Proposal Writing to EFL Learners and Cognitive Empowerment: Genre Pedagogy. Faculty of Letters Universitas Muhammadiyah Purwokerto , 220.
