Writing a research proposal requires time and effort more substantial than writing almost any other type of academic assignment. You have to be attentive both to content and formatting, follow the given guidelines, professor’s recommendations, university’s rules, and instructions, etc. Mostly, all this you have to do under severe time pressure.
We hope our brief and coherent guidelines will help you out a little, but if you feel truly stuck, we recommend addressing a reliable writing service for assistance.
When writing a research proposal start with asking yourself some basic questions:
What is being investigated?
The reader wants to understand the purpose of the work and the results (achievements). First of all, he wants to get acquainted with the object of research (physical phenomenon, experimental setup, or problem): its parameters, characteristics. The reader needs to imagine what system you are working with and what are its main elements.
What is the theoretical background?
The theoretical part is intended to explain to the reader: what are your ideas about the phenomenon.
Methods of research.
The reader wishes to know how you will get your remarkable results. Therefore, the method of research should be briefly described. The methodology is one of the most complex and critically important parts of your scientific research proposal, so we will describe them in detail:
- Analysis.The material or speculative division of an object, process, object, phenomenon into constituent parts with the purpose of studying their features and properties. Historical analysis is used to familiarize ourselves with complex evolving systems.
- Synthesis. The procedure is the reverse of the analysis and is organically related to it. It is the connection of the data obtained in the course of the previous consideration of the individual elements into a single whole.
You can also include induction, deduction, generalization, formalization, methods of prognoses, comparison, observation, description, experiment, modeling, etc.
It is a wise thing to make sure your professor approves of your approach.
Communicate with your supervisor as much as you can. They often say how busy they are, but it should not be your problem. Don’t be rude, but be decisive and persistent. When your research proposal will be analyzed by the committee you should be sure that your supervisor holds your back. To make it happen you should keep in touch, ask questions, confirm ideas, etc. It takes time, but believe us, it is worth it.
Use online grammar and style checkers.
It doesn’t matter what you choose — Hemingway, Grammarly, Ginger, or something else. All of them have rather basic but capable free versions, which will truly help you out. You can’t write and edit simultaneously, but when finally editing, you should use all the assistance you can get for free.
Even if your research proposal is exceptionally written, it should be also grammatically correct and flawless in terms of formatting. It is better if you use several checkers and ask a friend to reread your proposal. Print it, and read it this way — you will find even more mistakes. To make sure there are no too long sentences left, read the whole research proposal aloud — one breath should be enough to read one sentence.
Unfortunately, if you choose a scientific topic in which you are not genuinely interested, it will be very difficult for you to write a well-thought-out and high-quality research proposal from scratch. Choose and approve a theme that you will be eager to research.
When writing a proposal don’t try to look too smart and don’t promise something you are not sure you can do. If you mention a particular experiment and later find out you can’t do it — it can cost you a grade. Good luck!
Interesting Related Article: “Writing a Business Research in Simple Steps | Useful Insights“