Chapter 4
Writing Research Proposal
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The Research Proposal Writing
The research proposal is the key ‘gateway’
document to your Thesis. It sets out the
main details of how your research will be
conducted
In many universities the dissertation/Thesis
cannot be progressed until a supervisor has
been allocated and the research proposal
agreed between a student and his/her
supervisor
It is also a key document in formulating and
crystallising your topic ideas into a ‘do-
able’ dissertation 2
Purpose
Organising and developing your topic ideas
Testing the scope of the research
Identifying an appropriate supervisor
Convincing others on the merit of your idea
Serves as a contract between the researcher and
sponsor
Initiating the research process
Being a basis on which to develop your research
To make the reader to understand:-
• What you are going to do
• Objectives of the research
• Methodology
• Expected output
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Before start writing the proposal
Consider the following points
– Do I have the clear research question?
– Have I read broadly and deeply in that area?
– Have I discussed the topic with peers?
– Have I enough time and fund to start?
– Do I feel support from faculty and friends?
– A substantial amount of work has to be done
before a proposal can be written
And be prepared
– To make mistakes and learn
– To write and rewrite many times
– To spend many hours looking for information
– To have your writing criticized
– To feel confuse and hopeless some times 4
What the proposal should contain?
• It should answer:
– What do you want to do?
– Why do you want to do it?
– Why is it important?
– Who is going to benefit from the result?
– Who has done similar work?
– How are you going to do it?
– How long will it take?
– How much will it cost?
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4.1 Identifying a research topic
• Defining the problem is the first step and one of the most
difficult in research undertaking.
• Each topic that is proposed for research has to be judged
according to certain guidelines or criteria.
Criteria for selecting a research topic
• Relevance/Significance
• Avoidance of duplication Urgency of data needed (timeliness)
• Feasibility of study
• Cost-effectiveness
• Applicability of the results
• Interest to the researcher
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rules for writing up proposal/ research:
If you quote someone else's work you must always
attribute their work - otherwise it is
plagiarism.
– If you use a quotation of 40 words or longer,
indent it, without quotation marks.
– If shorter, keep it in the text and put quotation
marks around it.
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Cont.
Use 35 mm (1.5 inches) margins on the left,
and 25 mm (1 inch) on the right, top and bottom. Or follow
your own university guidelines.
• Double-space your work, as specified by most
university regulations. Select all (Ctrl A), then
press Ctrl 2.
• Make sure you 'reference' work that you refer to in your
write-up. All university libraries tell you how to use the
Harvard / Vancouver method
for referencing.
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4.2 Elements of Research proposal and Format
• Title page
• Executive summary / Abstract • 1.4.1 General objective
• Acknowledgements • 1.4.2 Specific objectives
• Table of contents • 1.5 scope of the study
• List of tables • 1.6 limitation of the study
• List of figures
• Acronyms • CHAPTER 2. Literature review
CHAPTER 1. Introduction • CHAPTER 3. Methodology
• 1.1 Background • CHAPTER 4. Work plan
• 1.2 Statement of the problem • CHAPTER 5. Budget
• 1.3 significance of the study • 6. References
• 1.4 Objective of the study
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Cont..
1st . Title page
• Title page 1: The title of the study, the name of the
researcher with his/her title, name of the department the
proposal is going to be submitted to and date and place of
submission.
• The title page has no page number and it is not counted in
any page numbering.
• Titles should almost never contain abbreviations.
Title page 2: Contents in title page 1 plus name
• of advisors
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Cont..
2nd Proposal summary/abstract
A summary includes:
• A brief narrative summary of one page that could contain
the following elements:
• One paragraph on the statement of the problem
• General objective
• Summary of methods - study populations, sample sizes
and data collection techniques used
• Total budget (optional)
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Cont..
• 3rd Acknowledgements- thanking all who enabled to
develop and implement this study.
• 4th Table of contents
• 5th List of tables
• 6th List of figures
• 7th Acronyms
• All the above discussed contents pages can be writing
by roman numbers
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Cont..
CHAPTER 1. Introduction
The main purpose of the introduction is to provide the necessary
background or context for your research problem.
How to frame the research problem is perhaps the biggest
problem in proposal writing.
The introduction typically begins with a general statement of the
problem area, with a focus on a specific research problem, to be
followed by justification of study.
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Problem statement
• Start with a general statement of the problem or
issues
• Make sure the problem is restricted in scope
• Make sure the context of the problem is clear
• Cite the references from which the problem was
stated previously
• Provide justification for the research to be conducted
• What motivate you to conduct the proposed research
• Highlight the problems/demerits of the available
techniques 14
Significance of research
• From the literature review, gap analysis can be
conducted in order to see how the proposed research
would fill in the gap in the area of research
• How does the proposed research relate to the existing
knowledge in the area
• Explicitly state the significance of your purpose or the
rationale for your study
• A significant research is one that:
o Develops knowledge of an existing practice
o Develops theory
o Expands the current knowledge or theory base
o Advances current research methodology
o Related to a current technological issue
o Exploratory research on an unexamined issue
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1.4 Objective of the study
• The objectives of a research project summarize what is to be achieved
by the study.
• Should be closely related to the statement of the problem
• General objectives states what is expected to be achieved by the study in
general terms
Specific objectives
• These are a breakdown of the general objectives
• Systematically address the various aspects of the problem
SMART Objectives
– Specific
– Measurable
– Achievable/attainable
– Realistic
– Time bound
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Scope
Provide the area/scope that will be considered in the
proposed research and justification why it is being
considered.
◦ 1.6 limitation of the study
– All research has limitations and thus certain work that will not
be performed.
– The work that will not be undertaken is described as the
delimitations of the research
– Indicate some of the anticipated limitations that
you will face while you will conduct the research.
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Chapter 2 Literature review
• What is the state of the science/art on this problem? Are
there gaps in the literature? How will your study fill those
gaps?
• Synthesize recent literature (within the past 5 years)
• Literature review surveys scientific articles, books,
journals, dissertations and other sources relevant to a
particular issue, area of research, or theory, providing a
description, summary, and critical evaluation of each
work.
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CHAPTER 3. Methodology
Methodology
• Is the specific techniques, tools or procedures applied to
achieve a given objective.
• Detailed enough so that the reviewers could conduct the study.
• The methods section is the heart of the research proposal.
• You must decide exactly how you are going to achieve your
stated objectives.
• It is essential to discuss procedures clearly and completely
with considerable amount of details.
• The statement of methodology can writing by future tense.
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CHAPTER 4. Work plan
• Important planning tool
• The proposal should include the sequence of tasks to be performed,
the anticipated length of time required for its completion and the
personnel required.
• It can be presented in tabular or graphic form (Gantt chart)
• Flow charts and other diagrams are often useful for highlighting the
sequencing and interrelationship of different activities in the study.
CHAPTER 5. Budget
• The budget translates project activities into monetary terms
• It is a statement of how much money will be required to accomplish
the various tasks
Major items
• Salary for staff
• Travel
• Institutional overheads
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Cont.…
• A detailed budget will help you to identify which resources are
already locally available and which additional resources may be
required.
• The process of budget design will encourage you to consider aspects
of the work plan you have not thought about before and will serve as
a useful reminder of activities planned, as your research gets
underway.
6. References
• Each reference must include the names of all authors (in the same
sequence in which they appear in the research proposal or thesis),
the article and journal title, book title, volume number, page
numbers, and year of publication.
• The exact format for depicting references within the body of the text
and as well as the end of the research proposal varies from one
discipline to another
• The information you give in the reference list must be enough for
readers to find the books and papers in the library or a database. 21
