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Writing a Research Proposal

Leah B., former Writing Center Tutor

Please keep in mind that these are only general guidelines; always defer to your professor's specifications for a given assignment. If you have any questions about the content represented here, please contact the Writing Centers so that we can address them for you.

A research proposal is a chance for you to share your research question and your proposed method of investigating your question with a professor, university, or funding agency. Often, research proposals are presented to committees in order to obtain financial support or other resources in order to carry out the proposed research. Persuasive research proposals include information that explains what is missing from a field of study, why this information is important to know, and how the researcher intends to discover this information.

Sections of a research proposal generally include the introduction of your topic area and question, a brief literature review explaining current theoretical frameworks, your methodology, and a bibliography.

Introduction

Your introduction describes the area of interest that you intend to research. When describing your area of interest, you should provide as much background information as is necessary so that your reader will be able to understand why your research question is important.

In this section, assume that your reader is unfamiliar with your area of interest. Make sure to explain your topic so that he or she will be able to have a basic understanding of this topic area. After explaining this background information, you should state the research question that you are interested in exploring. Make sure to be clear and concise when drafting your research question so that the purpose of your research will be clear to your reader.

Literature Review

The literature review is a brief summary of your most authoritative sources. These are the sources that provide the theoretical framework or background information for your research topic area.  This information should include current theories that explain the subject that you are interested in investigating.

If you intend to use one of the current theories to explain the phenomenon, explain why you believe that theory is the best suited to do so. But if you intend to use your own theory, explain how your theory is different from existing theories and make a clear, detailed argument for why you believe that your theory is better suited to answer your research question than previous theories. Remember that your readers will assess the quality and coherence of your explanations as they determine whether or not to approve your project.

After establishing which theory you intend to use, explain where the gap in your field of interest exists. Also explain why researching this gap would be important and what potential benefits could be gained from your findings.

Methodology

When explaining your methodology, make sure to explain how you will research your research question. The content of your methodology section will depend on how you intend to carry out your research. No matter what type of methodology you use, make sure to describe your methods so that your reader will be able to understand your research plans as well as you do.

If you are planning an experiment, include what your independent and dependent variables will be and how you will evaluate them. How will you choose your subjects? In this section, you should also describe how you would account for any limitations that could interfere with your results.

If you are planning to analyze a set of sources, such as journal or newspaper articles, explain how you will choose these sources. What topics must each source discuss? Do you have any criteria that would eliminate any of your potential sources? Following this description, include a discussion of any limitations of your methods that could interfere with your analysis.

Expected Results

You may include a section that describes your expected results. Make sure to be as specific as you can be. This is the section in which you explain how you anticipate that your sources or data will support the expected answer to your research question.

Research proposals are often submitted as funding applications to support the proposed research, and funding agencies will likely be interested in knowing what you expect to find in your research prior to providing you with a grant.

Bibliography

The bibliography will list the sources that you use throughout the research proposal. The format may be MLA, APA, or Chicago, but depends on the requirements of your instructor or committee.

Tips

  • Be familiar with the research. The purpose of the research proposal is to support your assertion that there is a gap in the research. If you are familiar with previous theories, you will be better able to share information about the topic area with your audience.

  • Do not assume that proposal requirements will be essentially the same within a field of study or an industry. Be sure to allot plenty of time to ensuring that you fully understand all of the proposal requirements. Remember that a proposal is an argument and that everything about your work—from its appearance, length, format, organization, design, and content, from the first word to the last, will convey your ethos and will establish (or jeopardize) your credibility. Proposals are high-stakes documents.

  • Share your ideas with an advisor, instructor, or someone who has experience in the area. They will be able to provide informed feedback about the subject area because of their experience.

  • Establish your research question and methodology before writing your research proposal for greater ease of writing.

  • Use a systemized method of keeping track of your notes and sources early during your research. You can use index cards or a word processing program to easily organize your information.

Resources

Guidelines for Writing a Research Proposal by Matthew McGranaghan contains detailed descriptions of sections of a research proposal and also a sample outline for a research proposal.

This University of Illinois library resource describes different types of proposals and tips for writing different sections of a proposal.

The Elements of a Proposal by Frank Pajares at Emory University provides advice on drafting different sections of a research proposal.

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