Guidelines on Writing a Research Proposal
Written by
David J. Malan
August 7, 2023
6 min read
Writing a research proposal is rightfully considered one of the most complex tasks and requires mastery of multiple skills. It is a paper that aims to deliver brief information on the research you want to conduct, explaining the main reasons why it will be useful for the reader and society. A correct research proposal should contain:
- the main idea of the paper;
- reasons why the research should be conducted;
- used methodology.
You should give an overview of your studies and interest others to go on reading. A research paper is usually the first step for students to get funding for their project, so it is crucial to create a thoughtful and deep paper.
You should pay attention to the common mistakes and use a research proposal template if needed in order to avoid them. First, you need to be precise and have a clear vision of what you will describe (provide a clear idea, time, place, and so on). You should always stay focused on the problem, avoiding too many details on minor issues. You shouldn’t forget about correcting any grammar or lexical mistakes, which will definitely spoil the overall impression. Finally, you should pay careful attention to citing other works in your study to show that you have conducted a thoughtful research and know the subject perfectly.
In this article, we will give you an overview of how to write a proposal for a research paper and make it stand out from the rest.
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Research Proposal Example and Sample
Most of the students struggle to find information on how to write a research proposal and spend lots of money when hiring others to complete the task. Using a proposal sample can be of a great help for those, who want to create a research paper on their own but don’t know where to start.
A previously downloaded template can greatly help any student and give an overall information on such aspects like:
- Format of the paper. You will be able to get information on the structure not to miss any important section;
- Learn more about the most important parts, which can be easily skipped when not knowing about the most catchy sections;
- Avoid the mistakes that were previously made.
Using proposal examples is a great way to learn from someone else’s experience and create an outstanding powerful proposal.
Research Proposal Outline
It is impossible to conduct a thorough paper without using a sample research proposal. It will greatly help you to shape your research and give its readers the best impression.
A research proposal format consists of six main parts:
- Introduction. It should be both brief and catchy. You need to grab reader’s interest and make him go on reading. In this section you should describe the main problem you are going to work on, the methodology and the importance of your research to persuade the reader that the results of the study may be useful;
- Background. In this section, you should give a more detailed overview of the problem. It is not an essay, so you should follow a clear structure and use a research paper example if needed. In this part you should give more details about the aim of your study, explain why it is worth completing, enumerate the main problems you want to face and offer a brief plan of your future research;
- Review of the sources. This section is usually very difficult to complete, as it contains lots of information and you need to structure it thoughtfully. A research proposal outline can be of a great use to see how you need to process the literature in order to make the whole structure clear and simple. Here you need to show that there are researches, based on your field of interest but they lack the data you are going to perform;
- Research methods. This section is very important, because you need to provide effective methods that will be used in your research study. Try to list methods that were not previously used by other researches and order new research design, based on literature overview;
- Assumptions and consequences. Even though it is a proposal and not a research proposal sample, it doesn’t mean that you should avoid describing the results of the project. In this section, you need to clarify what impact your study will have and what suggestions and potential changes in the field are. You should also give information how it will influence the lives of others and how the results will be used;
- Conclusion. This section should be brief and straight to the point. You need to emphasize why your research is important and why it should be done. You should also write a few sentences on the potential field of its implementation and why people will benefit from it.
We hope, that with the help of this data you will be able to interest the reader and be able to create a deep and thoughtful research paper.
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Research Proposal topics
According to the latest surveys, over a half of all students face difficulties when looking for research proposal ideas for the topic. We decided to put an ease on the writing process and offer a list of ideas. Choose the best matching research topic proposal example as the inspiration:
- How politics influences society.
- The results of Georgia military policy toward South Ossetia.
- What hinds behind the terms Fascism and Nazism.
- How religious extremism influences policy and economy.
- Can anarchism be politically orientated?
- The fragility of modern democracy.
- Buddhism: the history and evolution.
- Was the USA the key force to beat Nazis?
- Compare and contrast two policies: Stalin and Lenin.
- The fate of Native Americans today.
- Racism in the USA: history and evolution.
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin and its racial discrimination background.
- Describing the character of Dostoyevsky’s Sonya Marmeladova.
- Romeo and Juliet: the tragic love analysis.
- Can modern business be environmentally friendly?