The meaning of a Research Proposal

 Important denotes the context of the research

 It should be as good as the research itself
 If ill constructed the research is doomed
 High quality proposals produce high quality dissertations
 Intend to convince others that the research is worthwhile
 Shows that you have the competence to carry out the
research

Contents of a research proposal

 Show how the work will be planned
 Contain all the key elements of the process of the study
 Contain enough information relating to the field that will be
explored.
 It must contain your plan of action
 Research ideas are important
 You have a good grasp of the literature in the field.
 The literature is recent and relevant.
 Methodology is unassailable
 Should be well written
 Clear
 Compelling


The title

 Concise
 Descriptive
 Clear
 To the point
 Informative
 Catchy
 Effective
 Interesting

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Introduction:

 Provides a background for the research

 Contextualises the research
 Frames the problem
 Show the research is significantly focused
 Need to think clearly
 Need to show that you understand the problem
 Needs to informative and interesting
 Shows creativity
 Shows depth and clarity
 ‘Hot’ area

In short

1. State the research problem, which is often referred to as

the purpose of the study.
2. Provide the context and set the stage for your research
question in such a way as to show its necessity and
importance.
3. Present the rationale of your proposed study and clearly
indicate why it is worth doing.
4. Briefly describe the major issues and sub-problems to be
addressed by your research.
5. Identify the key independent and dependent variables of
your experiment. Alternatively, specify the phenomenon
you want to study.
6. State your hypothesis or theory, if any. For exploratory or
phenomenological research, you may not have any
hypotheses. (Please do not confuse the hypothesis with
the statistical null hypothesis.)
7. Set the delimitation or boundaries of your proposed
research in order to provide a clear focus.
8. Provide definitions of key concepts. (This is optional.)

Aims and Objectives (See handout)

Literature Review

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  Thorough
 Identifies the key writers in the context you are
researching
 Historical background
 Contemporary researchers in the field
 Broad into significant
 Identifies who has laid the ground work
 Demonstrates your knowledge of the research problem.
 Demonstrates your understanding of the theoretical and
research issues related to your research question.
 Shows your ability to critically evaluate relevant literature
information.
 Indicates your ability to integrate and synthesize the
existing literature.
 Provides new theoretical insights or develops a new
model as the conceptual framework for your research.
 Convinces your reader that your proposed research will
make a significant and substantial contribution to the
literature (i.e., resolving an important theoretical issue or
filling a major gap in the literature).

Most students' literature reviews suffer from the following

problems:

 Lacking organization and structure

 Lacking focus, unity and coherence
 Being repetitive and verbose
 Failing to cite influential papers
 Failing to keep up with recent developments
 Failing to critically evaluate cited papers
 Citing irrelevant or trivial references
 Depending too much on secondary sources
 Note that you are telling a story to an audience.
 Tell it in a stimulating and engaging manner.
 Do not bore the reader

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Methodology

 Indicates the activities that you will be engaged with.

 Indicates how you will tackle the activities.
 Indicates the approach to the research qualitative,
quantitative or mixed but justifies why you have chosen
this methodology

Presentation of data

Indicates the type of data that will be collected.

You will need to provide examples for this module.

 Indicates how the data will be presented

 Shows examples from other researchers how that data is
presented
 Shows how the data will be analysed
 Does not indicate analysis

Data Analysis

o You will need to show how the data will be analysed

and compared

Discussion

 You will need to indicate how you are going to :-

 Compare and contracts the results with the theory and
other researchers work.
 Communicate a sense of enthusiasm and confidence
without exaggerating the merits of your proposal.
 Indicates the limitation of the research.

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Common Mistakes in Proposal Writing

Failure to provide the proper context to frame the research

question.

Failure to delimit the boundary conditions for your research.

Failure to cite landmark studies.

Failure to accurately present the theoretical and empirical

contributions by other researchers.

Failure to stay focused on the research question.

Failure to develop a coherent and persuasive argument for the

proposed research.

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Too much detail on minor issues, but not enough detail on
major issues.

Too much rambling -- going "all over the map" without a clear
sense of direction. (The best proposals move forward with ease
and grace like a seamless river.)

1. Too many citation lapses and incorrect references.

2. Too long or too short.