The purpose of a research proposal is to present and justify the need to study a particular theme and present the practical forms of carrying out the proposed study. The design elements and procedures to conduct research snormas within the predominant discipline in which the problem resides, so that the guidelines for this type of work is more demanding but less formal than a general design proposal.
This type of proposal contains extensive literature reviews. They must provide convincing evidence that there is a need for the proposed study. In addition to providing a rationale, a proposal describes the detailed methodology for conducting research in accordance with professional or academic requirements and a statement about the anticipated results and / or benefits derived from the conclusion
Your teacher can assign you this type of essay for the following reasons:
- Develop your thinking skills and design a comprehensive research study
- Learning to conduct a comprehensive literature review to ensure that a research problem has not yet been answered (or you can determine that the problem has been answered inefficiently) and, in doing so, become better at locating
- Improve your general research and writing skills
- Practice identifying the logical steps that must be taken to achieve the research goals
- Review, examine and critically consider the use of different methods for the collection and analysis of data related to the research problem
- Nurturing in you a sense of curiosity and helping you to see yourself as an active participant in the academic research process.
- A proposal should contain all the key elements involved in developing a research study, with sufficient information to enable readers to assess the validity and usefulness of their proposed study. The only missing elements on a p.
Common Errors to Avoid in a Research Proposal
- Do not be concise; Providing confusing and diffused information without a clear sense of purpose
- Do not cite important papers in your literature review
- Do not delimit the contextual limits of your research (eg, time, place, people, etc.)
- Do not develop a coherent and persuasive argument for the proposed research
- Do not focus on the research problem; Log out for unrelated themes
- Shallow or inaccurate writing, or poor grammar
- Excessive detail on minor issues but not enough detail on important issues
- Organization and Style of Writing
As with the writing of an academic journal, research proposals are usually organized in the same way in all disciplines of the social sciences, containing between ten and twenty-five pages. Start by asking yourself about:
- What do I want to study?
- Why is the topic important?
- How significant is this in the subject areas covered in my class?
- What problems will it help solve?
- What exactly should I plan to do, and can I do it in the time available?
- In general, a compelling research proposal should document your knowledge of the topic and demonstrate your enthusiasm for undertaking the study. His intention is to leave his readers feeling like – “Wow, this is an exciting idea and I can not wait to see how it ends!”
Sections and Structure
I. Introduction
Introduction is the initial step of an idea or a thorough examination of the importance 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 sense your passion as a narrative written in one to three paragraphs that succinctly answers the following four questions:
What is the central research problem?
What is the subject of study related to this problem?
What methods should be used to analyze the research problem?
Why is this research important, what is its significance and why should someone reading the proposal care about the results of the proposed study?
II. Background and Meaning
Here, you explain the context of your proposal and describe in detail why it matters. Discuss this section with the thought that your readers will not know as much as you do. You should choose what is relevant to help explain the goals of your study.
III. Literature revision
The goal here is to put your project within the larger whole of what is currently being explored, demonstrating to your readers that your work is original and innovative. Think about what questions other researchers asked, what methods they used, and what their understanding of their findings is, and when appropriate, their recommendations. Do not be afraid to challenge the conclusions of an earlier research. Evaluate what you believe is missing and state how past research has failed to adequately address the issue your study addresses.
literature review is dense, so it is crucial that this section is intelligently structured to allow the reader to grasp the key arguments underlying his / her study in relation to that of other researchers. A good strategy is to break literature into “conceptual categories” instead to systematically describe groups of materials one at a time. Note that conceptual categories usually come out after you have read most of the relevant literature on your topic, so adding new categories is a continuous process of discovery as you read more studies.
IV. Design and Methods of Research
This section should be well written and logically organized because you are not actually doing the research, however, the reader has to have confidence that it is worth pursuing. The purpose here is to convince the reader that your project design and methods must be unambiguously linked to the specific objectives of your study. Describe the overall research project by constructing and taking examples from your literature review. Consider not only methods that other researchers have used, but methods of data collection that have not been used, but may be. Be specific about the methodological approaches that you intend to undertake to obtain information, the techniques that you
V. Preliminary Assumptions and 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 objectives of your study, describe how the anticipated results will impact future academic research, theory, practice, forms of intervention or policy formulation.
NOTE: The goal is to reflect on gaps or poorly studied areas of current literature and describe how your proposed research contributes to a new understanding of the problem.
VI. Conclusion
The conclusion reiterates the importance of its proposal and provides a brief summary of the whole study. This section should only have one or two paragraphs emphasizing why the research problem is worth investigating, why its research study is unique and how it should advance existing knowledge.
VII. Citations
As with any academic work, you should cite the sources you used in composing your proposal.
References – lists only the literature you actually used or quoted in your proposal.
Bibliography – list everything you have used or quoted in your proposal, with additional citations to any important sources relevant to the understanding of the research problem.
This section should bear witness to the fact that you have done enough preparatory work to make sure that the project will complement and not duplicate the efforts of other researchers.
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