MODULE OUTLINE

Module 2: Preparing a Good Research Proposal

Module Overview

In this module the following topics will be discussed:

What is a research proposal?

How to begin a research proposal?

What is the structure of a research proposal?

This module will be delivered in two sessions having two hours each. Live discussions will be
conducted and students activities will be given during the sessions. Assignment may be given
and submitted thru the Class portal on the date and time designated by the faculty.

Module Learning Outcomes

At the end of the presentation, the students are expected to:

Prepare a research topic

Prepare a good introduction on the proposed resercah topic

Discussion

Discussion

WHAT IS A RESEARCH PROPOSAL?

Let’s start with figuring out what a research proposal is. The main goal of this type of an
academic paper is to explain the need to study a problem or issue and propose the practical ways
in which the study should be conducted. The requirements for a search proposal may differ from
one discipline to another.

Your proposal should contain all of the key elements needed for designing a research study, with
sufficient information allowing your readers to assess the usefulness and validity of it.
 A research proposal does not include the findings of the study and the analysis of the results.
You should keep in mind that your proposal will be evaluated based on the quality of your
writing, and that is why it is important that your writing is clear, understood, and consistent.

Regardless of the research problem that you have chosen to investigate and the chosen
methodology, all research proposals must answer the following questions:

 What do you want to accomplish? You should be clear in defining the research problem and
what it is that you are proposing to research;
 Why do you want to do it? You should go through different sources of information to provide
enough pieces of evidence that the problem you have chosen is worthy of attention;
 How are you going to do it? You should make sure that all you offer can be implemented.

The following are some of the common mistakes that you should check out in order to avoid
them in future:

 Failure to cite works in your literature review;

 Failure to be concise;
 Failure to develop a persuasive argument for the proposed research;
 Failure to be focused on the research problem, meaning going off on unrelated issues;
 Poor grammar;
 A lot of details on a minor issue, but lack of enough details on the main issue.

What is the purpose of students research.

 Develop their skills in thinking and designing a comprehensive research study;

 Learn how to go through different sources of literature to ensure that a research problem has not
already been answered yet, or you believe that the problem has not been answered properly;
 Improve your research and writing skills;
 Identify the steps that must be taken in order to accomplish research goals;
 Review, examine and consider using different methods for collecting and analyzing information
related to the research problem.

HOW TO BEGIN WRITING THE PROPOSAL?

The length of a search proposal is about <5 pages, depending on a topic. First of all, you should
make sure that everything is clear for you, and if you have any questions, you should contact
your tutor in order to clarify all of the uncertain matters.
 For a start, you should ask yourself the following questions:

 How does it build upon research already conducted on the topic?

 Why is the topic important?
 What do I want to study?
 What problems will it help solve?
 How to plan my time to complete this assignment on time?

It would be good if you can collect several samples of a research proposal and check them out.
This is how you can get a clear understanding of what your writing should like.

WHAT IS THE STRUCTURE OF A RESEARCH PROPOSAL?

The following is the standard structure of a research proposal:

 Introduction;
 Background and significance;
 Literature review;
 Research design and methods;
 Preliminary suppositions and implications;
 Conclusion;
 Citations.

Introduction
Research proposal introduction is the beginning of your paper, which should be written in the
way so that your readers have a clear understanding of what you want to do. Moreover, they
should also get excited about the topic of your research proposal and its outcome. You should
think of your introduction as a narrative. It should not be long, just about 1-3 paragraphs that
clearly answer the following questions:

 What is the main research problem?

 What methods should be used for analyzing the research problem?
 Why is this research important?

Although the introduction is the beginning of your paper, sometimes it may be hard to write it
right away. In this case, you can simply complete the remaining sections, which will help you to
write your introduction. That is why it is also important to know how to write the other parts of
your proposal.
 Background and significance

This section can be part of your introduction, or you can create it as a separate section, where
you should explain the context of your research proposal and describe why it is important. You
should keep in mind the fact that the readers of this paper do not know about your research as
much as you do.
There are no clear rules on how to create this section, but the following key points may help you:

 It should have more detailed reasons for your study than that written in the introduction;
 Describe the major problems or issues to be addressed by your research;
 Provide the information on how you are going to conduct your research. You should identify the
main sources that you are going to use and explain how exactly they contribute to the analysis of
the topic;
 Set the boundaries of your research to provide a clear focus;
 If there is a need, you should provide definitions of key terms or concepts.

Literature Review

This section is dedicated to determining what has been explored already. Think about what
questions other researchers have asked, what methods they have used, and how do you
understand their findings, as well as their recommendations. You can challenge the conclusions
of prior research if there is a need for this. Identify if there is something missing in the previous
findings. It is important that this section is properly structured to allow readers to follow your
key arguments.
The following are some of the recommendations that you can use in order to write this section:

 Compare different theories, arguments, findings, and methodologies found in the literature.
Identify what different authors agree on. Find out who applies the same approaches to analyzing
the research problem;
 Cite, which is important for finding your sources of information;
 Contrast different themes, arguments, approaches, methodologies, and controversies found in the
literature. What authors disagree about? Do they use different methodologies in their research?
 Critique the literature. Identify, which of the arguments are more persuasive and provide reasons
for that. Which methodologies, findings, approaches, you consider valid, most reliable, and
appropriate, and explain why. It is important to pay your attention to the verbs that you use (an
author says, asserts, does, argues, demonstrates, etc.);
 Connect the literature to your own research and investigation. Explain how your work departs
from, synthesizes, or adds a new perspective to what has been found in the literature.
 Research design and methods

You should write this section well and logically organize it because, though, you are not doing
research yet, your reader should make sure that it isreally worth their attention. Your main goal
here is to convince your readers that your research design and the chosen methods of analysis
will correctly address the problem. You can describe the research design by providing examples
from your review of the literature. You should consider methods used by other researchers and
those that could have been used but was not. You should be clear and specific about the
approaches that you plan to undertake in order to obtain information, as well as the techniques
that you would like to use for analyzing the data.

Preliminary suppositions and implications

The main purpose of this section is to explain how your research will impact existing knowledge
in the subject area. This section should not include idle opinions or be formulated based on
unclear pieces of evidence. It has to explain how your research will contribute to an
understanding of the research problem if the study is implemented as designed.

Conclusion
No new information should be provided in this section. It is intended for reiterating the
significance of your research proposal and providing a summary of the entire study. This is a
pretty short section that consists of only 1-2 paragraphs. This section should provide answers to
the following questions:

 Why is the study so important?

 What is the specific purpose of the study?
 Why are the chosen methods correct?

Citations
You must cite your sources, regardless of a type of academic writing. There are two ways to do
this, and you should ask your tutor, which one of them you need to use, including the following:

 References. Here you should make a list of the literature that you used or cited in your proposal;
 Bibliography. Here you should list everything you cited or used in your proposal, with additional
citations to any sources relevant to understanding the research problem.

References
https://testmyprep.com/lesson/research-proposal-introduction

https://eliteessaywriters.com/blog/how-to-write-a-good-introduction/

https://www.discoverphds.com/blog/what-is-research-purpose-of-research

https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/research/researchers/preparing_a_grant_application/
dest_definition_of_research

https://www.questionpro.com/blog/what-is-research/