Things to Know Before Writing a Research Proposal
Reading Time: 4 minutes How to write a compelling research proposal? A research proposal is a common assignment for so many universities and colleges, especially in the UK. In so many British institutions, students are asked to write a research proposal when they are applying for a grant for research from a university. And that is where the problems begin.
Most candidates don’t even understand what a research proposal is. In fact, you have to think very plain and straight, trying to answer only the one question. What is the area of that research? Universities ask for proposals to look whether students have their own ideas in certain areas and whether they know how to develop and express them on paper or not. So, if you don’t know how exactly to compose a research proposal writing project to show your best skills and knowledge, keep reading. Become a writing expert with us.
A Research Proposal in 5 Simple Steps
A good quality research answers the question why it is important what you’re researching. The topic of your project is understandable for you that moment when you realize why it is important to be researched.
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So, before slipping into an organization, planning, writing, and editing, there are 5 main questions to ask and answer.
- What are you going to research?
- Why are you going to research this?
- How much time will the research take?
- What is the desired outcome of the research?
- How does your academic background correspond to this research?
You need to have clear answers to all of these questions as well as a clear vision of how your research is going to be implemented in practice. How much time is your research going to take? A few days? A few weeks? Or a few months? What would be the result of your research? Does it correlate to previous research projects on this topic or not? All of these questions have to be included in your proposal in order to get your work done perfectly.
A good research proposal is about having enough information. This doesn’t mean you have to include more and less important data only to make a full paper. The information should be enough and qualitative.
Avoid being too general with your project. Pick 2-3 targeted questions in your area. If you try to cover too many questions at a time, you risk losing the focus of the project. Of course, it is quite hard to decide which questions are less or more important in this or that area, but you have to do it. If you can’t decide how big or small go with your project, apply for advice to a teacher. But always point out only a couple of the research questions. Don’t cover everything, even if each of the issues seems to be extremely important.
Additionally, to the key points and targeted questions, you have to talk about the general situation in the field, which you’re doing a research in. Describe the situation in that field at the moment and provide your own thoughts about it. What do you think might be missing? What else can be done in that field? Don’t be afraid to give your own ideas about something.
Another important aspect, which you should pay attention to in your work is the methodology. This is about describing what actually you’re going to do in your project. It includes everything from reading and interviewing to the research work in the library or archive. It depends on the field and the topic, which you’re writing in. Define which method will be the most effective one for your topic and why.
Divide your work process into several stages accordingly to the structure of a proposal – introduction with a research question and hypothesis, the method with materials and procedure, data analyses with scores, tests, and data, discussion with a restated expected outcome and whether the results are consistent with the expectations in the project or not.
When writing a research proposal, think about presenting it as an innovative project, which has not been fully studied before. Firstly, explain to yourself why this topic is more interesting than others, and only then explain it to a reader. Present that idea through the whole writing process.
So, that’s all for writing a research proposal. Hopefully, our small recommendations will make a writing process a lot easier for you without getting confused. Write your project using short sentences and visual elements like diagrams, charts, and graphs to make it even more professional and profound. Make it readable even for those who are not experts in the field of your project.
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