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Steps That you Should Follow During Writing a Research Proposal

By | Idrees Shafiq

A research proposal is the first step towards writing your research paper. Thus, your proposal should be coherent, comprehensive, and easy to understand. There are certain important aspects that your research should include. Including these aspects will help you in drafting a research proposal that is clear and concise.

If you want your research proposal to be accurate, follow these steps. All of the below-mentioned factors are an integral part of a research proposal without which it is deemed as incomplete.

Step 1: Choosing a Title

Choosing a research title is the first step of proposal writing. Conduct your own research and find out topics that have not been explored yet. Create a list of all potential titles and then start narrowing them down. While finalizing your topic, make sure that there is enough relevant data so that you can perform a through literature review and collect data for your research. Keep in mind that your title should be unique and interesting for your readers.

Step 2: Writing an Introduction

After you’ve outlined your aims and objectives, your next step should be to write an introduction to your study. This is a formal introduction to your research; thus, you should explain your topic in detail. Provide a background, explain the concepts and theories, and then delve into the significance of the topic. This will help in explaining the topic in detail to your readers. You should also try to convince your readers that this topic is worth researching and your results will be unique.

Step 3: Outlining the Aims, Objectives, and Goals of your Study

After you’ve chosen your research topic, you should outline the aims and objectives of your research. What do you intend to achieve from this study, what are the main problems that you are looking to explore and answer through this research, what burning issues will your research tackle – all such questions should make up your research aims and objectives. Finally, explain the main goal of your research i.e. what unique factor or aspect your research focus will on and how your study will benefit your target audience.

Step 4: Conducting a Literature Review

This is one of the most important steps of writing a research proposal. After you have written your introduction, and outlined your aims and objectives, you should write your research literature. This means that your research should relate to previous studies that have been conducted on similar topics. This will help create a base for your research and will help readers understand that you have conducted your research and you are aware of the topic. Literature reviews also help in identifying gaps in the literature and you can highlight and answer them in your research.

Step 5: Choosing a Research Methodology

Choosing a research methodology is one of the most crucial aspects of conducting a research. During proposal writing, you are required to explain how your research will be conducted. Will it be a quantitative or will you conduct a qualitative research? Will your data be primary research based or secondary? Will you use interviews or questionnaires as your research instruments, or will you rely on already available and published data?

All these are essential questions that you need to answer in your research and also provide a justification as to why your chosen research methodology is the best and how it will help you carry out your research effectively. The research methodology that you choose should be based on your research title, your research aims and objectives and what you intend to achieve from your study.

Step 6: Preparing a Timeline

Preparing a timeline is extremely important when writing your research proposal. You should outline the total time you will need to complete your research. This is usually done by including a Gantt chart in your proposal. A Gantt chart is a comprehensive timeline that tells your readers the time you will need to complete your research as a whole and for your individual sections. For instance, it will explain the time required to complete your literature review, your research methodology, etc. Pay attention when preparing a timeline. Make sure to include time cushions so that if you need more time for a particular task, you do not have to disturb the whole schedule and can complete your research on time.

Step 7: Including References

A lot of people miss out on the research reference list and bibliography. It is essential that you include a reference list so that your readers are aware that you have conducted your own research prior to writing your study. Ensure that all your references are relevant and recent. It is recommended that none of your references are more than five years old. However, there can be exceptions when you need to explain a concept, a theory, or a framework. This means that you can reference to old researches when talking about a particular concept or theory.

Following these simple steps will help you draft an effective research proposal. The above-mentioned steps outline the required aspects of a research proposal and help in understanding how you should work on your proposal. Do not miss out on any of these steps or else your research proposal will be deemed as incomplete. Also, make sure that whatever your research proposal outlines, your main research follows the exact same mentioned aspects. If you deviate from your original plan, your research will be accepted, and you will lose all of your hard work and effort.

 

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