Guideline for Writing Research Proposal

PREMIUM COLLEGE
SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES

October 2020
—
Addis Ababa
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS ii

1. INTRODUCTION 1

2. CONTENTS OF A RESEARCH PROPOSAL 1

3. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE BASIC COMPONENTS OF RESEARCH PROPOSAL 2

3.1. The Cover Page (Title Page) 2

3.2. Table of Contents 2

3.3. Abbreviations (Acronyms and Abbreviations) 3

3.4. Introduction 3

3.5. Literature Review 4

3.6. Materials and Methods 5

3.7. Work Plan 7

3.8. Logistics 7

3.9. References 7

3.10. Appendix 8

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1. INTRODUCTION
A research proposal is a concise description of issues that are going to be addressed in a
research. It is mandatory for a graduate student at Premium College to prepare and submit a
research proposal. The success of any research project depends on the preparation of a sound
research proposal. Ultimately, presenting the proposal for the supervisors would help the
student to refine it before he/she starts writing the thesis. All students should follow a uniform
pattern in the preparation of their respective research proposals. The following sections briefly
describe the procedures and formats that students at Premium College should follow in
writing their research proposals.

2. CONTENTS OF A RESEARCH PROPOSAL

In general, a good proposal means 50 percent work done for the thesis. Thus, it needs a
careful engagement of the student while choosing the project title, identifying the research
gap, checking for data availability, and method of analysis. The student must be clear with the
ultimate objective of the research. The structure and coverage of a research proposal must be
tailored to the subject to be treated. The research gap, objective, data, and methods must be
conceptually related with one another. A formal research proposal to be submitted by a
Premium College student is expected to have the following basic components.

▪ The Cover Page (Title Page)

▪ Table of Contents
▪ Abbreviations (Acronyms and Abbreviations)
▪ Introduction
▪ Review of Literature
▪ Materials and Methods
▪ Work Plan
▪ Logistics
▪ References
▪ Appendix

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3. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE BASIC COMPONENTS OF RESEARCH
PROPOSAL
3.1. The Cover Page (Title Page)
The cover page should contain all key information about the document. It should be
informative, free from any ambiguity and incompleteness. It contains name and logo of the
College, name of the School, the title of the research proposal, the name of the student, the
program of study, and the advisor. The place, month and year are put as the last items on the
cover page. The student must make sure that the cover page is free from any spelling and
grammatical errors. Title case letters are recommended in the style of writing, although the
name of the College and the School are in bold capital letters. A model cover page is given in
Appendix I.

The title of a research (proposal) should be as clear, specific, concise, and meaningful as
possible. It should be described in a few words and should focus on the central idea to learn
about or to explore. The working title becomes a major road sign in the research – a tangible
idea that the student can keep refocusing on and changing as the project goes on. It becomes
an orienting device. Eliminate unnecessary words, such as “An Approach to …,” “A Study of
…,” and so forth. Use a single title or a double title. An example of a double title would be
“An Ethnography: Understanding a Child’s Perception of War.” Consider a title no longer
than 12 words, eliminate most prepositions, and make sure that it includes the focus or topic
of the study.

3.2. Table of Contents

The table of contents is where the chapters and major sections of a proposal along with their
page numbers are listed. All the headings or entries in content page should correspond exactly
in wordings, fonts, and cases with headings as they appear in the text. A clear and well-
formatted contents page is essential as it indicates a quality work is to follow. The word “title”
and “page” in content page is to be avoided and so also dotted lines connecting headings and
respective pages. Notation for subdivisions of sub-headings should not exceed four decimals
and the maximum length should be two pages. A sample of “Table of Contents” page is
shown in Appendix II that illustrates the capitalization, indentation, line space between the
headings, and numbering of contents.

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3.3. Abbreviations (Acronyms and Abbreviations)
The use of author coined, and not common abbreviations are to be avoided or minimized. For
author coined abbreviations use first letter of key words in upper case. List them in
alphabetical order of the terms written in full form. No abbreviations must be used in title or
at the beginning of a sentence. Each abbreviation should be defined in full when it is first used
in the manuscript followed by its abbreviation in brackets. Standard units of measurements
and internationally well-known abbreviations need not be listed.

3.4. Introduction
An introduction is the first passage in a proposal and sets the stage for the entire project. It is
essential to draw the reader’s attention with strong beginning. The introduction established the
issue or concern leading to the research by conveying information about a problem. Because it
is initial passage in a proposal, special care must be given to writing it. The introduction needs
to create reader interest in the topic, establish the problem that leads to the study, place the
study within the larger context of the scholarly literature, and reach out to a specific audience.
All of this achieved in a concise section of a few pages. It may not exceed 1000 words.

In this section students should identify the research gap and value addition to the stock of
knowledge. They should put concrete justification why the study is important amidst the
existing literature and it should clearly address how it is different from other empirical
studies. The research must be strongly motivated, and the student must be aware of the
contribution of the study from the start. Contributing to the literature may mean how the study
adds to an understanding of a theory or extends a theory, or how the study provides a new
perspective or “angle” to the existing literature, for example, by

• Studying an unusual location (e.g., rural Ethiopia)

• Examining an unusual group of participants (e.g., refugees)
• Taking a perspective that may not be expected and reverses the expectation (e.g., why
marriages do work rather than do not work)
• Providing novel means of collecting data (e.g., collect sounds)
• Presenting results in unusual ways (e.g., graphs that depict geographical locations)
• Studying a timely topic (e.g., immigration issues)

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It is preferred to write the introduction part without dividing it into sub-headings. However,
students may include subheading in following sequence:

▪ Background of the study

▪ Statement of the problem
▪ Objectives of the study
▪ Hypothesis of the study
▪ Scope of the study and
▪ Significance of the study

3.5. Literature Review

Once the student identifies a topic that can and should be studied, the search can begin for
related literature on the topic. The literature review accomplishes several purposes. It shares
with the reader the results of other studies that are closely related to the one being undertaken.
It relates a study to the larger, ongoing dialogue in the literature, filling in gaps and extending
prior studies. It provides a framework for establishing the importance of the study as well as a
benchmark for comparing the results with other findings. All or some of these reasons may be
the foundations for writing the scholarly literature into a study. Studies need to add to the
body of literature on a topic, and literature section in proposals are generally shaped from the
larger problem to the narrower issue that leads directly into the methods of a study.

Literature review should show mastery of the literature on the topic of interest. Literature used
should be relevant to the problem statement and research questions. It should be up to date
(preferably not older than 5 years from the date they are cited) and from credited sources (e.g.,
ISI-ranked journals, reputable publishers like SAGE, Blackwell, Oxford University Press and
authoritative institutes like World Bank, UNCTAD, Transparency International, etc.).
Literature review is a continuous process, and a graduate student is expected to write it in
about 2,500 words on the proposed topic of research.

Literature should be well reviewed (e.g. discussion of theoretical background, core concepts,
their dimensions, and relationships between concepts). In the literature students should focus
on both the theoretical and empirical literature. They should develop theoretical framework at

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this stage. Yet, the empirical review must be critically evaluated by the students using a
paragraph or two. This will show what has been done so far and clearly puts the research gap
which has not been addressed by previous empirical studies. The arguments should flow
logically (evident in meaningful headings and subheadings) and should express author’s
voice. That is, the review should not merely summarize the literature reviewed, but should
contrast, compare, and combine the literature to make one’s argument. The chapter should
end with a summary of the main points from the literature reviewed and a conceptual model
that visualized the proposed relationships between the variable of interest. This model guides
the formulation of the hypothesis in case of explanatory (often quantitative) research or initial
propositions in case of explorative (often qualitative) research and thus helps to guide the
empirical work.

3.6. Materials and Methods

Data is everything to produce a quality research result. Thus, students are required to check
for the type of data that will be used and its availability at this stage. Yet, they should make
sure that the method or approach to be used coincides with the data to be analyzed. Besides,
they should justify why choosing the specific data and method, among others. The materials
and methods (or research methodology) section includes the description precisely of what will
be done and how it will be done, what data will be needed, the proposed tools (instruments) to
be used in data collection and the methods of analyzing the data.

In this section, the student should give a clear, specific, and appropriate plan of work that
would be followed to attain the proposed objective(s) of the study. The research methodology
should be appropriate to the problem area, i.e., the statement of the problem, the objectives,
and the hypotheses. In selecting appropriate research method(s) and technique(s) and thereby
research design, the student constantly asks the key question: "how will it be carried out?"
The logistics of implementation should be analyzed in close juxtaposition with the design
selection process. The student should concentrate on the questions of affordability in terms of
the expenses to be involved and of feasibility in both temporal and spatial senses.

In the methodology part, one is basically concerned with the method(s) of data collection and
method(s) of data analysis.

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a) Method(s) of Data Collection
A very brief description of data collection method(s) should be given in this part of the
proposal. The details could be confined to an appendix. The description should include the
information (data) requirements of the study, the method(s) of measurement and the unit(s) of
measurement.

The selection of variables is an important task as it detects the database for the study. The
student should recognize the nature of the data (quantitative and/or qualitative), the kinds of
data (secondary and/or primary data), the sources of the data (secondary and/or primary
sources) and how to collect the data - through survey, observation and measurement,
experiment, or a combination of these methods. Once a method or a combination of methods
is chosen, reasonable amount of description of the method(s) should be given as to how it
would be used (the details could be confined to an appendix). The student may include in here
information on issues such as (1) The experimental site (the study area), (2) Various materials
to be used in the experiments, (3) The treatments and experimental design, and (4) The
population from which the student is to collect samples.

The choice of method(s) of data collection largely depends on the efficiency and accuracy
with which the information will be collected and the method(s) practicability (the need for
personnel, skills, time, equipment and other facilities, in relation to what is affordable). In
making the choice, account must be taken of the importance of the information, in the light of
the purposes and objectives of the study.

b) Method(s) of Data Analysis

During the proposal writing stage, the student should also decide, at least in a broad outline,
how the information would be analyzed. Description of the analytical method(s), technique(s),
tool(s) and statistical tests that will be used in analyzing the data to discover truth should be
given. The data analysis procedure(s) should be appropriate to the problem based on existing
theory, past research, and resources (time, money, personnel, and facilities) available. The
student should take a further opportunity for second thought as to whether the study, as
planned, is likely to meet its objectives. By doing all this, the investigator/writer can reach at
an effective research methodology.

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3.7. Work Plan
The work plan refers to budgeting of time for the implementation of the research project. This
is to assign dates for the completion of various activities of the proposed research. The act of
submitting the work plan in the research proposal systematizes the study and minimizes the
natural tendency to procrastinate. A detailed work plan showing jobs to be done in the main
phases of the study and the time sequence (the operating schedule), more of it conveniently
presented in the form of table, is essential, if the project is to be carried out smoothly and
efficiently.

Another role of the work plan is to schedule the research project so that it can be conducted in
time to influence decisions and help decision. A realistic estimate of the time involved for
carrying out the research is also essential for the scheduling of the various activities to ensure
smoothness of operations, the monitoring of the project and reviewing its progress. In
estimating the time required for the research, the graduate students should consider the time
required for the necessary organization and arrangements, data collection, data analysis and
report writing.

3.8. Logistics
The logistics portion of a research proposal sets out the financial resources required for the
implementation of the project. This ensures that the necessary personnel, travel, per diem,
equipment, materials and associated services and expendable supplies (paper, stencil, ribbon,
literature, etc.) will be available for the project. The student should summarize towards the
end all the expenditure under various headings that may include unforeseen expenditure
(contingency allowance of 5 to 10%) as well. The budget estimate must, therefore, be
prepared with utmost care and thoroughness. It must be realistic, as both overestimation and
underestimation should be scrupulously avoided.

3.9. References
In every research any idea which is not ours should be acknowledged. There are different
reference styles; students at Premium College should follow the latest version of APA
(American Psychological Association) format style. This is the most used method to cite
sources within the social sciences field. The cited references should appear at the end of the

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document under the heading References. All cited sources throughout the research proposal
should appear in this section. The student should use information ethically, i.e., there should
be no evidence of plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious problem, and we need to be careful with
it from the start.

All ideas, text, graphics, tables, and media should be credited to the source. Useful sources
explaining APA include:

▪ http://www.apastyle.org/
▪ https://owl.purdue.edu/
▪ https://apastyle.apa.org/blog
▪ https://owll.massey.ac.nz/referencing/apa-style.php

3.10. Appendix
A research proposal should be complete in transmitting all the necessary materials without
being too bulky. Any detailed technical matters of interest to a few readers should be put at
the back end of the proposal. Therefore, a preliminary draft of the questionnaire,
mathematical formulae or derivations, detailed description of the sample selection
procedure(s), etc., if they are deemed necessary, should be confined to the appendix (ices).
They can either be bound with the actual proposal or attached separately. In many
circumstances’ appendix is not necessary.

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 APPENDIX I: COVER PAGE OF PROPOSAL

Models for Road Planning and Management

PREMIUM COLLEGE
SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES

MSc. Thesis

By

…………………

Program: Project Planning and Management

Advisor: …………..

October 2020
—
Addis Ababa

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 APPENDIX II: TABLE OF CONTENTS OF PROPOSAL

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION X
2. LITERATURE REVIEW X
2.1. XXXXXX X
2.1.1. XXXXXXX X
2.1.2. XXXXXXX X
2.1.3. XXXXXXX X

2.2. XXXXXX X
2.2.1. XXXXXXX X
2.2.2. XXXXXXX X
2.2.3. XXXXXXX

2.3. XXXXXX X
2.3.1. XXXXXXX X
2.3.2. XXXXXXX X
2.3.3. XXXXXXX X

2.4. XXXXXX X
2.4.1. XXXXXXX X
2.4.2. XXXXXXX X
2.4.3. XXXXXXX X

3. MATERIALS AND METHODS X

3.1. Experimental Site X
3.2. Experimental Materials X
3.3. Experimental Design X
3.4. Data Collection X
3.5. Methods of Data Analysis X
3.5.1. XXXXXXX X
3.5.2. XXXXXXX X
4. WORK PLAN X
5. LOGISTICS X
6. REFERENCES X
7. APPENDIX X

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