Research Proposal Writing

Sahaar Bashir
Senior Lecturer
 Objectives
• At the end of this unit, the student will be able to:
• 1. Define proposal writing
• 2. Discuss the types of proposal writing
• 3. Discuss the characteristics of proposal writing
• 4. Identify the good qualities of proposal writing
• 5. Discuss the strategies and tips of proposal writing
• 6. Discuss the structure of scientific proposal.
• 7. Identify research problem, objectives and hypothesis.
• 8. Demonstrate the resources for literature search.
• 9. Develop a quantitative/qualitative research proposal
 Research Proposal
• A research proposal is a document that provides a detailed description of the
intended program.

• It is like an outline of the entire research process that gives a reader a summary of
the information discussed in a project.

• The objective of writing a proposal is to describe what you will do, why it should
be done, how you will do it, and what you expect will result.
 Basic Components
1. Title
2. Introduction 9. Ethical consideration
3. Review of Literature 10. Budget details
4. Methodology: 11. References (last 5 years)
-Setting 12. Appendences:
-Target population -Informed Consent(English & Urdu)
-Study design -Questionnaire with Urdu translation if required
-Duration of study -Approval letters for questionnaires
-Sample size -Approval letters from areas of study
-SAMPLING TECHNIQUE
-SAMPLE SELECTION: Inclusion criteria + Exclusion criteria
-DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE
- DATA ANALYSIS PROCEDURE
 The good qualities of proposal writing
1. Cover the Basics.
2. Describe the Relevance.
3. Emphasize the Significance.
4. Explain the Approach.
5. Highlight the Expertise.
 The tips of proposal writing
1) Make it simple
2) Avoid pretentious language, unnecessary jargon, and double speak by cutting down
every unnecessary word.
3) Read your work loud
4) A sentence that is difficult to say will be difficult to read.
5) Revise , revise, revise.
6) Put an end to it
7) The faster you finish the proposal and submit it, the less time you have wasted thinking
about writing it.
 Research Problem
• The basics of writing a statement of the problem for your research
proposal.
Key takeaways: A statement of the problem is used in research work as a
claim that outlines the problem addressed by a study.
 Research objectives
What are the research objectives?

• In general, research objectives describe what we expect to achieve by a

project.
Research problem, objectives and hypothesis.

Questions and/or hypotheses

• A hypothesis can be defined as a tentative prediction or explanation of the

relationship between two or more relationship between two or more
variables.
• Unambiguous prediction of expected outcomes.
 Literature(Resources) Mainly:

1. Books ( printed or e-books)

2. Journals (both)
3. Research reports (both)
4. Institutional publications(both)
5. Govt. publications (both)
6. Various NGO’s/ INGO’spublications
7. Internet (Online resources)
8. Intranet (Offline resources)
 References
• Pattron, D. 2004. Scientific Research. New York: Scientific Publishers.
• Suleman, H. 2007. Digital Libraries Without Databases: The Bleek and Lloyd Collection.
• Proceedings of Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries, 11th European Conference (ECDL 2007) (Budapest, Hungary,
2007), 392-403.
• Suleman, H., Bowes, M., Hirst, M. and Subrun, S. 2010.
• Hybrid online-offline digital collections. Proceedings of the 2010 Annual Research Conference of the South African Institute of
Computer Scientists and Information Technologists on - SAICSIT ’10 (New York, New York, USA, 2010), 421-425.
• Tansley, R., Bass, M., Stuve, D., Branschofsky, M., Chudnov, D., McClellan, G. and Smith, M. 2003.
• The DSpace institutional digital repository system: current functionality. 2003 Joint Conference on Digital Libraries, 2003.
Proceedings. (2003), 87-97.
• Vesely, M., Baron, T., Le Meur, J.Y. and Simko, T. 2002. Creating open digital library using XML: implementation of OAi-PMH protocol
at CERN. Presented at Elpub. (2002).
• Witten, I.H., Bainbridge, D. and Boddie, S.J. 2001. Greenstone: open-source digital library software with end-user collection building.
Online Information Review. 25, 5 (2001), 288-298. 9