What is a Research Proposal?
A research proposal is defined as a structured document explaining the research you intend to perform. It explains your research topic, why you are researching it, and the entire plan to conduct it.
A research proposal is an important part of your research writing process. The goal or purpose of a research proposal is to establish whether you are skillful enough to conduct the research of your proposed area.
A research proposal is just the initial stage of the research that you will be conducting in your research project. This is because your ideas will change as you progress in the research.
Your professor might ask you to write a research proposal to:
- Help learn how to conduct a detailed literature review
- Help develop skills of designing and conducting a detailed research
- Enhance your research and writing skills
- Enhance your questioning skills to help you become a better researcher.
Structure of a Research Proposal
The following 7 essential elements compose a research proposal:
- A descriptive or detailed title or title page
- A brief abstract (approx. 250 words long)
- Table of contents
- A detailed introduction has a background and facts that support your proposed research.
- A discussion that explains the scope of your research
- A well-written literature review that covers the research area you aim to work on
- A well-composed methodology that you will be using to conduct your research.
The elements mentioned above must be present in a research proposal. However, the findings and the analysis of those findings are not present in the research proposal. Therefore, make sure that your content is clear, coherent, and compelling.
Check this example of a research proposal outline or a template below:
How to Write a Research Proposal?
Writing a research proposal involves certain steps that you need to follow. Therefore, read the instructions given by your professor or university carefully to write an effective research proposal:
- Abstract and table of contents: An abstract is a brief summary of your research. It must be written once the entire research proposal is written and must be no longer than 250 words. The readers will be able to navigate the document with the help of a table of contents.
- Come up with a clear hypothesis: This section states the goal of your research.
- Start with a great introduction: Introduction is one of the most important parts of your research proposal. It has to be written well to impress the reader. Therefore, it is best to write an introduction in the last. Once you have written the research proposal, you will be able to explain what you intend to do in this research with a clear picture in mind.
- Stating the problem: Restate your research question in the form of a sentence to help the reader understand with a clearer picture of the problem.
- State the purpose and hypothesis: You must mention the purpose and goals of your dissertation in the research proposal. If the hypothesis is clearly stated, you will be able to conduct your research easily with a clear path.
- Provide detailed background: Describe the emergence of the problem by providing some background information to support the need for your research. This information will validate the need for your research on a particular topic. In addition, by declaring the significance of the research, you will add value to your research proposal.
- Literature review: You cannot really write a research proposal without conducting a literature review. You must thoroughly examine the relevant sources and generate a well-written review of those sources. Do mention the opposing viewpoints as they can help analyze your research question.
- Describe methods: Describe the methodology you will be using to conduct your research. This will prove your seriousness in conducting research. You have to make your reader aware of the procedure you will be using to address your research question. You have to explain how and why a particular methodology will be used to conduct the research.
- Define your terms: Do not forget to define the terms that are not easily understood by everyone. In addition, there might be some abbreviations that you need to define not to leave any vague information.
- Mention your research assumptions: You have to make some general assumptions about your research about how will it solve the problem addressed in the research question.
- Define the limitations and future prospects: Any research is incomplete without its limitations and future prospects. This will help validate your research. This will generate a possibility for the issues that your research won’t be able to address.
- Citations: It is one of the most important elements of a research proposal. APA, MLA, and Chicago are some of the commonly used formats to cite your sources. The intext and list referencing must be done according to the given instructions by your professor.
These 12 basic steps will help you write an effective research proposal to strengthen your chances of getting your research approved by your professor or advisor.
Research Proposal Examples
Have a look at the following examples of sample and APA format research proposals for a better understanding:
Research Proposal Topics
Following are some easy and interesting research proposal topics that you can choose for your research proposal:
- Influence of a political system on a society
- What is the impact of non-governmental organizations on the economy?
- How does amnesia damage brain activity?
- Why do children who eat breakfast perform better at school?
- The evolution of search algorithms
- Assurance in computer information and security
- Mobile banking and its effects
- Marketing through social media applications
- Influence of culture on the textile industry
- The effect of Covid-19 on the textile industry
- The importance of fur in the history of the fashion industry
- Fabric colors of different seasons
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Irrelevant and unnecessary information or details.
- Improper citation of the literature review.
- Stating unconvincing arguments that lack validity.
- Imprecise, sloppy writing with grammatical and spelling errors.
- Discussion of minor issues in detail and not giving enough importance to the major issues.
Hopefully, this complete guide on a research proposal must have helped you understand its concept to help you develop an effective piece of writing independently. However, if you are facing any issues with writing a research proposal on your own, you can contact SharkPapers.com to get help from our professional writers.
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