Research Proposal

Introduction
This section contains several sub sections as follows:

Back ground / Preamble

 Opening about your topic
 The overview of the area under study
 Historical development
 Major theories (if any) / few selected theories if the topic is broad / related theories.
 Main issues / advances in the area / important practical issues.
 Major findings related to the core issues.

The Problem
 Identify the issues that are the basis of the current study.
 Specify the various aspects of / perspectives on these issues.
 Raise some of the main research questions that you want to answer through your study.
 Identify what knowledge is available concerning your questions.
 Develop a rationale for your study with particular reference to how your study will fill the identified gap.

Research Questions
 Existence, Description and Classification , Composition, Relationship, Causality

Objectives of the study / Purpose of the study

 Provide the main objective(s) of your study.
 Provide the sub-objectives of your study.
 Use action oriented word like : To determine, To identify, To ascertain etc.
 May be written in paragraph form or bullets for different objectives.
 This will basically answer what this study would accomplish not why.

Justification
 Specify the reasons of your study.
 Identify stake holders (direct and related) and their benefits.

Limitations
 What this study will not accomplish
 Under what circumstances / conditions / settings the results will be applicable.
 Reasons of these limitations.

Scope
 To what extent this study will be conducted.
 To what conditions / settings the results can be generalized / applicable

Assumptions
 State all the assumption you have taken to conduct this study.

Definitions of key terms

 Define key terms / special terms / specific terms
 Explain acronyms used in your study

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Research Methodology
This section contains other sub-sections as follows :

Research Design
 It indicates what type of study will you use (qualitative / quantitative etc.)

Procedure
 How will you accomplish this study?
 Your specific steps / method

Participant/Population
 Frame of reference / entire population under consideration (homogeneous / heterogeneous)
 Specific characteristic(s) related to your study.

Sample and Sampling method

 Sampling method and its justifications to use.
 Sample size and why this specific size.

Measurement / Instrument selection

 Data collection (primary / secondary)
 Methods of data collection (focus group, survey, experiments etc.)
 Any specific scale / questionnaire to be used and why it is chosen for this study.

Variables
 Define different variables used in this study.
 How these variable will be measured.

Hypotheses
 State specific hypotheses included in your study or you wish to test during your research.
 Hypotheses should be stated clearly, delineating the relationships to be tested.

Plan of Analysis / Statistical Tool

 Plan of statistical analysis (descriptive stats, different test statistics,)
 Parametric or non parametric, univariate or multivariate statistics to be employed.
 Specific testing or analysis tools to be used.

Software Employed
 Spreadsheet / SPSS / SAS / Minitab etc.

Research Schedule
 Time frame / schedule

References
 Provide all consulted references. This may include books / magazines / journals / reports website etc.

Appendix
 It contains any specific document like draft / selected questionnaire you would like to attach.

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