The Research Proposal

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What is the Research proposal ?
• After the selection of a research problem and setting proper
direction for investigation, the researcher should write out
a proposal, synopsis, or plan for research.

• The research proposal is a systematic plan, which brings to

focus the preliminary planning that will be needed to
accomplish the purpose of the proposed study.

• It is just like a blueprint, which the architect peppers before

the construction of building starts.

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What is research proposal?...Cont’d
• The key that unlocks the door to the research endeavor
• A research proposal is intended to convince others that
you have a worthwhile research project and that you
have the competence and the work-plan to complete it.
• Also called prospectus, plan, outline, statement, draft.
• A written statement of the research design that
includes a statement explaining the purpose of the
study.

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The Research Proposal
 A written statement of the research design that includes a
statement explaining the purpose of the study.
 Detailed outline of procedures associated with a particular
research methodology.
 It includes information on cost and deadlines.
 The proposal must communicate exactly what information,
how and where it will be obtained through the study.
 Questionnaires and other supporting documents should
be attached for reference.

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The Research Proposal
 Generally, a research proposal should contain all the key
elements involved in the research process and include sufficient
information for the readers to evaluate the proposed study.
 Regardless of your research area and the methodology you
choose, all research proposals must address the following
questions:
 What you plan to accomplish,

 why you want to do it and

 how you are going to do it.

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The Organization of Research Proposal:
 A specific structure of the business research proposal
depends on the types of research, institutional and
organizational requirements and may vary from
institutions to institutions.

 However, the variability does not usually affect the

basic structural model, which includes the following
major components:

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The importance of research proposal
• It serves as a basis for determining the feasibility
of the project.
• It provides a systematic plan of procedure for the
researcher to follow.
• It gives the research supervisor a basis for guiding
the researcher while conducting the study.
• It reduces the probability of costly mistakes

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Components of the Research Proposal

Three parts of proposal

A. The preliminaries
B. The body
C. The supplemental

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Components of the Research Proposal

A. The preliminaries:
 Title/Cover page
 Table of content
 Abstract

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Title/Cover page
 Identif ying information is correct (i.e., the title page of the
proposal contains; the name of your
college/department/program, thesis title, student’s name,
ID#, purpose/reason of conducting the thesis, the name of
your advisor(s), date of delivery and place of work in
sequential order).
 Title pages must be printed on white, and use centered
alignment.
 Title is a label: it is not a sentence.
 Titles should almost never contain abbreviations.
 The title page has no page number and it is not counted in
any page numbering.
 Retain the same font type (Times New Roman) and font
size; either 14 or 16 points for all text in the title page
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Table of Contents
 Table of Contents contains list of contents entire of the
thesis paper align with the page numbers to the right
and accurately place the "dots".
 Begin page numbering with the Table of Contents
numbered “i” at bottom center of the page.
 Use these same steps to prepare the list of tables and
lists of figures.

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Abstract
 Abstracts for each component appear on separate
pages before chapter one (introduction).

 Each Abstract is no more than 150 words, single

paragraph, single spaced, with Italic font type.

 An abstract should be covered purpose of the study,

methodology and keywords at proposal phase.

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Components of the Research Proposal-The Body
Chapter One: Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
1.2 Statement of the problem
1.3 Objectives of the study
1.3.1 General Objective
1.3.2 Specific Objectives
1.4 Research Questions/Hypothesis
1.5 Significance of the study
1.6 Scope of the study
1.7 Limitation of the study
1.8 Operational Definition of Key Terms (If )
1.9 Organization of the study

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The background of study
 A research proposal should provide relevant background
for the proposed study. Specifically, the proposal
should precisely define the problem at hand.
 This section should be used to put the work into
context, what has been done before, and how will the
proposed work adds to it.
 This section identifies the problem that needs to be
resolved as a result of the research and outlines the
proposed activities and describes the expected
outcomes.
 Background outlines the background and rationale of
the thesis.
 After providing sufficient background information to
allow the reader to understand the context, you need to
show how your work will build on and add to the
existing knowledge.
 Should not be lengthy (1 – 1½ page)
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Statement of the problem
 A clear, concise statement of the problem to be solved by the
proposed research, usually in few sentences.
 The problem provides the context for the research study and
typically generates questions which the research hopes to
answer.
 The problem statement should “hook” the reader and
establish a persuasive context for what follows.
 The problem statement should close with question.
 Effective problem statements answer the question “Why does
this research need to be conducted?”
 Shouldn’t not be lengthy ½ - 1of a page is enough.

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Objectives of the study
 Statement(s) identif ying the purpose of the research.
 The objective(s) should be phrased in positive terms (e.g.,
to develop, to determine, to measure, rather than broad
generalities, such as, to investigate, to study).
 Need not be vague
 Exclude objectives stated in terms of recommendations
 Precisely presented
 The wording you use in the objectives can give an
indication to the type of research approaches (qualitative,
quantitative or mixed).
 It has: General objective – align with your Thesis title and
Specific objectives – related to research questions or
hypothesis and conceptual framework

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Research questions
 Avoid asking for obvious facts

 Avoid questions to be answered by “yes” or “no”

 Make sure the research questions are linked to the title

and research problem as well as specific objectives.

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Hypothesis
 is proposed explanation on observable phenomenon. A hypothesis is
a logical supposition, a reasonable guess and educated conjecture. It
provides a tentative explanation for a phenomenon under
investigation.
 A useful hypothesis is testable statement which may include a
prediction.
 States on expected relationships or difference between two
variables.
 A good hypothesis is stated clearly and concisely, express the
relationship between two variables and defines those variables in
measurable form.
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Significance of the study
 It brief ly includes the findings of the literature search (also
known as literature review) related to the research to be
conducted.
 There should be well justification for conducting and choosing
your topic and research problem in such a way that either there
has been no other research on the problem with the same
approach or that the proposed research project will extend,
modif y or refine prior research.
 Thus, the proposed research should be related to past research
accomplishments and how it builds upon rather than
duplicating any previous research.
 The relevance of the study might be seen from three dimensions.
 These are academic, professional, practitioners, and policy maker.

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Scope of the study
 The boundary of the research topic needs to be
adequately articulated.
 You need to justif y your research population
 Why this study area or topic? Why not the others? -
Inclusion and exclusion criteria need to be clearly
mentioned.
 Its covers thematically, geographically, time horizon,
variables of research and methodology scope.

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Limitation of the study
 Are not challenges (such as lack of money or time
constraint)
 How far the study claims not complete need to be
shown
 It often relates to the limitation of the applied
methodology
 Methodological and conceptual limitations

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Operational definition
 The point is that even though you use the same words,
those words can (and often do) have quite distinctly
different meanings in your study.

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Organization of the paper
 Chapters can be organized conventional in five
chapters.
 But, you have to follow the university/college
guideline.

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Components of the Research Proposal-The Body…Cont’d
Chapter Two: Review of Related Literature
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Theoretical literature review (including theories)
2 .2 .1
2 .2 .2
…
2.3 Empirical literature review
2 .3 .1
2 .3 .2
…
2.4 Conceptual framework
2.5 Research gap.

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Chapter Two: Review of Related Literature…Cont’d
 The review of related literature should provide an overview of
the topic and present references related to what is known about
the topic.
 The literature sets a context for the topic and identifies prior
research that can support the significance of the study. The
literature review also provides a basis of identif ying hypothesis.
 Literature review provides justification for the future research as
well as for the effort that the writer has already contributed to
studying the subject area
 Beware that research is conducted in a context of existing ideas,
evidences and thinking
 Look for current debates and dialogue
 Beware of how the theory you reviewed shape your research
questions.

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Importance of Literature Review
 Gives credits to those who have laid the groundwork for your
research.
 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).

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Most of the time literature reviews suffer from the
following problems:
 Lacking organization and structure
 Lacking focus, unity and coherence
 Being repetitive and verbose
 Failing to cite inf luential 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

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 Components of the Research Proposal-The Body…Cont’d
Chapter Three: Research Methodology
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Research Philosophy (positivism, critical realism, interpretivism, postmodernism and
pragmatism)
3.3 Research Approach (qualitative, quantitative or mixed)
3.4 Research Design (descriptive, exploratory, explanatory, concurrent or sequential mixed
research method)
3.5 Population and Sample Size (including the sample size determination)
3.7 Sampling Techniques (which one from probability and non-probability sampling
methods)
3.8 Type of data (primary, secondary or both) and ssource of data (respondents, study area
data base or governmental or international organizations)
3.9 Methods of Data Collection (questionnaire, interview, FGD, observation for primary
source and document review for secondary source)
3.10 Description of variables
3.11 Methods of Data Analysis (descriptive, exploratory, inferential, predictive, and causal)
3.12 Validity and Reliability
3.13 Ethical Considerations 28
Components of the Research Proposal -the
supplemental

 Work plan and time schedule

 Budget

 References

 Appendices/Annexes

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Work plan and Budget
 In the work plan:

 Different components/phases/stages of the study

should be stated

 Description of activities in each phase

 The time required to accomplish the various aspects of

the study should also be indicated

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Budget, References, Appendices/Annexes
Budget
 Budget items need to be explicitly stated cost for every budget item
should be quantitatively shown.
References:
 You must give references to all the information that you obtain from
books, papers in journals, and other sources based on the
college/university guideline.
Appendices/Annexes:
 Include in the appendices of your proposal any additional information
you think might be helpful to a proposal reviewer such as questionnaire
& other collection forms.

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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.
 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.)
 Too many citation lapses and incorrect references.
 Too long or too short.
 Failing to follow the appropriate referencing style (APA or Harvard
style).

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Guideline for Technical evaluation of Research proposal

 Appropriateness and clarity of conceptual/theoretical

framework

 Logical relationship between the conceptual/theoretical

framework and the problem of the study.

 clarity and adequacy of research method

 Realistic work Plan/Activities

 itemized financial breakdown of the total project cost.

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Individual Assignment-I
 Identif y feasible research topic related to your field of
study, and develop research proposal based on the
components of the research proposal discussed in this
chapter excluded chapter three and supplemental sections
(last date of submission: June 1, 2020).

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End of Chapter 4

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