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HOW TO WRITE A RESEARCH PROPOSAL?



Research ProposalResearch Proposal

Narrow Your Focus


To write a great research proposal, start by spending enough time to truly understand the purpose of academic research.


This article explains the best way to write a research proposal with an introduction, a literature review, and a methods section. The key is to "narrow your focus" in four different ways. Narrowing focus means zooming into the moment and taking only one small step instead of trying to do too much all at once.


Narrow Your Focus and Only Think About the Literature Review


Do not try to write an introduction (chapter one) before you write the literature review! Write the literature review (chapter two) first! The literature review is necessary exploration as you "catch up" with all the research that has already been done by other people. You have to catch up with the discussion/discourse before you can contribute to by doing your own research.


Let the rest of the research proposal write itself. It will write itself if you dive into the story of your research topic.


Story? Yes, if you look at all the most important research studies about your topic in recent years, you'll see a story about the way this topic has been studied. Some research studies are done specifically to prove another study wrong. Others are done as a way of building on the knowledge gained from other studies.


Your job is to learn about your topic by reading research articles until you become an expert . An expert is someone who understands all the most advanced/modern ideas and research results of by people who share your interest in this topic. The Internet makes it possible to become an expert in just a few minutes.


Students often try to write an introduction before they even know what they are introducing. First, write the literature review, and while you write it you'll be learning about the research methods used by other people who share your interest in the topic.


Narrow Your Focus While Writing About Research Articles


Just write a pair of sentences about one article. You don't even have to read the whole article, just the introduction. The introduction will tell you the research method they used and what they learned.


Write a sentence about the research method they used, and write another sentence about what they learned. Then, move on to the next article.


You might stop and read a whole article if you find one that captures your attention, but some are very hard to understand because they are poorly written. Don't let your own process get stopped by someone's boring article. It's okay to write your pair of sentences and move on.


But what good is a pair of sentences? The literature review requires more than just a pair of sentences about each article. Here is the key:


After you figure out your own research question, you can go back and extend each pair of sentences into a paragraph by adding sentences about why it is relevant to your research questions.


Narrow Your Focus When You Think of a Purpose for Your Study


When you propose research with a narrow focus, you are safe. A narrow focus means that you are very specific.


Instead of trying to plan a research project that will teach us "Running a restaurant in the 20th century" you make it realistic by planning a question you are actually qualified to answer.


Here is a narrow, realistic title: "Catering to the Local Culture in Providence, Rhode Island: Insights from the Owners of Famous Restaurants on Federal Hill." In this case, you are only promising to show the reader some insights about Rhode Island culture from a specific group of people.


Another example, researchers have already demonstrated that when a company tries to make a big change in the way it operates, the employees tend to "resist" change. It is not a good idea, then, for a business student to propose a research paper study to test whether or not employees resist change. It's old news!


But if you narrow the focus, you'll be safe. Example: Study specific cases of resistance to change in a particular industry, or compare observations of organizational change in two different companies.


Jump into the Discussion / Discourse


Scholarly discourse is the very foundation of academia. It's an ongoing discussion, just like discussions on FaceBook. Trace the history of education back to the days when Socrates was "corrupting the youth" of Athens, and you'll see that it took the form of a conversation. Socrates would ask questions and let his students answer, and that is called the "Socratic method."


So what are the "methods" used in modern academic discourse? Academics use many different methods to contribute new ideas in this discourse that has been going on for so many centuries. They write about the knowledge we gain when we use carefully designed, systematic procedures called "research methods".


There are many methods, and they are divided into two categories: qualitative and quantitative. If you are good with numbers and don't mind using statistical analysis software like SPSS, maybe you'll use quantitative methods. When I wrote my first research proposal, I didn't want to have to learn stat analysis, so I chose a qualitative method.


Read One Article and Learn about the Research Method the Author Used


The fun way to learn about research methods is to read an article. I'm not kidding, it's fun. If you are interested in anything at all, if you care about anything at all, you can truly have fun with research because it enables you to become an expert in the subjects most important to you.


When you find one research article that is actually enjoyable to read, notice the research method that was used. Do some Internet research to learn about the history of that method and how it has been used by scholars in different professional fields.


Many other methods are available, and they are applied in a limitless number of ways. You should start by reading an article and notice the research method. For example, maybe you'll find an article that uses "multiple case studies" as the method.


Search an article database for "multiple case studies", and "literature" to find several other articles that use this multiple case studies, and you'll get all those different perspectives on/applications of this particular research method. The reason you include "literature" as one of the search terms is to ensure that you find articles that include a "literature review" (sometimes called "review of literature", or "synthesis of literature").


Use this method, and you'll quickly become familiar with the two steps for writing a great research proposal: Explain what other scholars have learned about your topic, and explain how you will use a research method to answer a question(s) about the topic.


If You Cannot Find Any Articles That Interest You...


Drop out of your program now because you are not ready for grad school. Seriously, some students enter a degree program that does not interest them at all. They do it as a means to an end, and maybe they do not realize how much POWER there is in this in the ability to conduct original research.


I'm able to know about the world and my society because I understand the research methods used to determine public policy, medical treatments, how teachers and police officers do their work, how businesses form their strategies, and so forth. This is real power.


Select Your Research Method


The time has come to Google around about qualitative and quantitative methods and read an overview of all the major ones: Survey Research, Correlation Research, Experimental Research, Ethnographic Research, Grounded Theory, and the list goes on. Learn about some of the methods, and see if there is one you particularly like.


Now go back to your research question. What question do you want to answer as your contribution to the professional field you are entering? What research method would be best for answering that question?


After you answer these questions, go use your school's dissertation guide as a template and fill in all the sections of the "methods" chapter. You can also choose a research study that uses the same method you want to use, and follow it as an example of an acceptable way to write a methods section about that particular method.


It may take some time, but if you use follow the dissertation guide it will be easy to describe how your chosen research method can be used to answer your chosen research question.


Don't try to make the proposal perfect the first time you submit it. Your advisors will have their own preconceived ideas and opinions about how methods should be applied, what kind of language should be used, etc. They are going to reject your work, probably. It's their job to find ways to criticize your proposal. If they can't find ways to criticize it, their colleagues may think the students know as much about research studies as they do.


So expect them to reject your proposal, and when they do, follow all their advice carefully. Write some notes to them to list all the ways you followed their advice. If they gave advice and you followed it, they can accept your proposal and let you begin the actual project.