How to Write a

Research
Proposal
What is Research Proposal ?
What is Research Proposal ?

▪ A research proposal is an overall plan, scheme,

structure and strategy designed to obtain answers to
the research questions or problems that constitute your
research project.

▪ A research proposal should outline the various tasks you

plan to undertake to fulfil your research objectives, test
hypotheses (if any) or obtain answers to your research
questions. It should also state your reasons for
undertaking the study.
What is Research Proposal ?

▪ Broadly, a research proposal’s main function is to detail

the operational plan for obtaining answers to your
research questions.

▪ In doing so it ensures and reassures the reader of the

validity of the methodology for obtaining answers to
your research questions accurately and objectively.
What is Research Proposal ?

▪ A research proposal must tell you, your research

supervisor and reviewers the following information
about your study
➢ what you are proposing to do;
➢ how you plan to find answers to what you are
proposing;
➢ why you selected the proposed strategies of
investigate
Contents of a Research Proposal
Contents of a research proposal
A research proposal should contain the following information about your study
as bellows:
• an introduction, including a brief literature review;
• theoretical framework that underpins your study;
• conceptual framework which constitutes the basis of your study;
• objectives or research questions of your study;
• hypotheses to be tested, if applicable;
• study design that you are proposing to adopt;
• setting for your study;
• research instrument(s) you are planning to use;
• sampling design and sample size;
• ethical issues involved and how you propose to deal with them;
• data processing procedures;
• proposed chapters of the report;
• problems and limitations of the study;
• proposed time-frame for the project.
Contents of a Research
Proposal (Explanation)
▪ A research proposal should communicate the above contents clearly and
specifically in such a way that anyone going through it should be able to
undertake all tasks in the same manner as you would have.

▪ It should also:
➢ enable you to return to the proposal for your own guidance in decision
making at different stages of the research process;
➢ convince your research supervisor or a reviewer that your proposed
methodology is meritorious, valid, appropriate and workable in terms of
obtaining answers to your research questions or objectives.
Contents of a Research
Proposal (Explanation)
▪ Your proposal should follow the suggested guidelines and be
written in an academic style.
▪ It must contain appropriate references in the body of the text and
a bibliography at the end.
▪ Your survey of the relevant literature should cover major
publications on the topic.
▪ The theoretical framework for your study must emerge from this
literature review and must have its grounding in empirical
evidence.
Contents of a Research
Proposal (Explanation)
As a rule, the literature review includes:
• conceptual framework, and theoretical and empirical
information about the main issues under study;
• some of the major research findings relating to your topic,
research questions raised in the literature and gaps identified by
previous researchers.
Contents of a Research
Proposal (Explanation)
▪ Your literature review should also raise issues relating to the
methodology you are proposing.
▪ For example, it may examine how other studies operationalised
the major variables of relevance to your study and may include a
critique of methodology relevant to your study.
▪ The critiques of methods and procedures should be included
under their respective headings. For example, a critique of the
sampling design you adopt should be included under ‘sampling’
or a critique to the study design should be discussed under ‘study
design’.
Contents of a Research
Proposal (Explanation)
The contents under each heading may vary markedly from discipline
to discipline, according to the academic level of the student (BA
Hons, MA, PhD) and whether your study is predominantly
quantitative or qualitative.
• For quantitative proposals you need to be very specific in
proposing how you are going to undertake each step of the
research journey,
• For qualitative research proposals such details are not expected
as your methodology is flexible and unstructured to
accommodate in-depth search. However, you need to provide a
broad approach to your enquiry as a part of your research
proposal.
Preamble/Introduction
Start with a very broad perspective of the main subject area, before gradually
narrowing the focus to the central problem under investigation. In doing so,
cover the following aspects of your study area:
• an overview of the main area under study;
• a historical perspective (development, growth, etc.) pertinent to the study
area;
• philosophical or ideological issues relating to the topic;
• trends in terms of prevalence, if appropriate;
• major theories, if any;
• the main issues, problems and advances in the subject area under study;
• important theoretical and practical issues relating to the central problem
under study;
• the main findings relating to the core issue(s)
Preamble/Introduction
Preamble/Introduction
Preamble/Introduction
The Problem
▪ Having provided a broad introduction to the area under study, now focus on
issues relating to its central theme, identifying some of the gaps in the
existing body of knowledge. Identify some of the main unanswered
questions.
▪ Here some of the main research questions that you would like to answer
through your study should also be raised, and a rationale and relevance for
each should be provided.
The Problem
Specifically, this section should:
• identify the issues that are the basis of your study;
• specify the various aspects of/perspectives on these issues;
• identify the main gaps in the existing body of knowledge;
• raise some of the main research questions that you want to answer through
your study;
• identify what knowledge is available concerning your questions, specifying
the differences of opinion in the literature regarding these questions if
differences exist;
• develop a rationale for your study with particular reference to how your
study will fill the identified gaps.
The Problem
The Problem
The Problem
Objectives of the study
• In this section include a statement of both your study’s main
and subobjectives. Your main objective indicates the central
thrust of your study whereas the subobjectives identify the
specific issues you propose to examine.

• The objectives of the study should be clearly stated and

specific in nature. Each subobjective should delineate only
one issue.
Objectives of the study
• Use action-oriented verbs such as ‘to determine’, ‘to find out’
and ‘to ascertain’ in formulating subobjectives, which should be
numerically listed.
• If the objective is to test a hypothesis, you must follow the
convention of hypothesis formulation in wording the specific
objectives.
Objectives of the study
• In qualitative studies the statement of objectives is not as
precise as in quantitative studies.
• In qualitative studies you should simply mention an overall
objective of the study as your aim is to explore as much as
possible as you go along.
• The strength of qualitative research is in flexibility of
approach and the ability to incorporate new ideas while
collecting data. Having structured statements that bind you
to a predetermined framework of exploration is not a
preferred convention in qualitative research.
Objectives of the study
• Statements like
➢ to explore ‘what does it mean to have a child with ADHD
in the family?’,
➢ ‘how does it feel to be a victim of domestic violence?’,
➢ ‘how do people cope with racial discrimination?’,
➢ ‘the relationship between resilience and yoga’ or
➢ ‘reconstructing life after bushfire’,
• More detailed objectives, if need be, can be developed after
a study is complete.
Objectives of the study
Objectives of the study
Objectives of the study
Hypotheses to
be tested

▪ A hypothesis is a statement of your assumptions about the prevalence of a

phenomenon or about a relationship between two variables that you plan to test
within the framework of the study.
▪ When formulating a hypothesis you have an obligation to draw conclusions about
it in the text of the report.
▪ However, it is not essential to have a hypothesis in order to undertake a study – you can
conduct a perfectly satisfactory study without formulating a hypothesis.
Hypotheses to
be tested
Hypotheses to
be tested
Study design
One characteristic of a good study design is that it
explains the details with such clarity that, if someone
else wants to follow the proposed procedure, s/he will
be able to do exactly as you would have done.
Study design
Your study design should include information about the
following:
• Who makes up the study population?
• Can each element of the study population be identified? If
yes, how?
• Will a sample or the total population be studied?
• How will you get in touch with the selected sample?
• How will the sample’s consent to participate in the study
be sought?
• How will the data be collected (e.g. by interview,
questionnaire or observation)?
• In the case of a mailed questionnaire, to what address
should the questionnaire be returned?
Study design
Study design
Study design
Study design
The Setting
▪ Briefly describe the organisation, agency or community in which you will
conduct your study.
▪ If the study is about a group of people, highlight some of the salient
characteristics of the group (e.g. its history, size, composition and
structure) and draw attention to any available relevant information.
▪ If your research concerns an agency, office or organisation, include the
following in your description:
▪ the main services provided by the agency, office or organisation;
▪ its administrative structure;
▪ the type of clients served;
▪ information about the issues that are central to your research.
The Setting
If you are studying a community, briefly describe some of the main
characteristics, such as:
• the size of the community;
• a brief social profile of the community (i.e. the composition of the
various groups within it);
• issues of relevance to the central theme of your study.
Measurement procedures
▪ To start the measurement procedures, justify your choice of research tool,
highlighting its strengths and pointing out its weaknesses.
▪ Then outline the major segments of your research tool and their relevance to
the main objectives of the study.
▪ If you are using a standard instrument, briefly discuss the availability of
evidence on its reliability and validity. If you adapt or modify it in any way,
describe and explain the changes you have made.
▪ You should also discuss how you are going to operationalise the major
concepts. For example, if measuring effectiveness, specify how it will be
measured.
▪ Ideally, for quantitative studies you should attach a copy of the research
instrument to your proposal.
Ethical issues
▪ You need to be acquainted with your institution’s policy.
▪ It is imperative that in your proposal you identify any ethical issues and
describe how you propose to deal with them.
▪ You need to look at the ethical issues particularly from the viewpoint of
your respondents and, in case of any potential ‘harm’, psychological or
otherwise, you need to detail the mechanism in place to deal with it.
Sampling
The proposal include the following :
• the size of the sampling population (if known) and from where and how this
information will be obtained;
• the size of the sample you are planning to select and your reasons for
choosing this size;
• an explanation of the sampling design you are planning to use in the selection
of the sample (simple random sampling, stratified random sampling, quota
sampling, etc.)
Sampling
Sampling
Analysis of data
▪ In general terms, describe the strategy you intend to use for data
analysis.
▪ Specify whether the data will be analysed manually or by
computer.
▪ For computer analysis, identify the program and where
appropriate the statistical procedures you plan to perform on the
data.
▪ For quantitative studies also identify the main variables for
cross-tabulation.
Analysis of data
▪ For qualitative studies, describe how you plan to analyse your
interviews or observation notes to draw meanings from what your
respondents have said about issues discussed or observation
notes made.
▪ One of the common techniques is to identify main themes,
through analysing the contents of the information gathered by
you in the field.
▪ You first need to decide whether you want to analyse this
information manually or use a computer program for the purpose.
 Analysis of data
You need to specify which particular strategy you are
proposing for data analysis for your study

Frequency distributions in terms of : Frequency distributions in terms of :

• age • age
• education • income
• occupation Example A • education Example B
• number of children • occupation
• duration of immigration • martial status
• etc • duration of foster care
Cross tabulations : • number of foster care
Impact of husband/wife roles • etc
Cross tabulations : Statistical test to
• age
Impact of husband/wife roles be applied :
• number of children
• age • chi square
• education
• number of children • regression
• occupation
• education analysis
• etc
• occupation • etc
• etc
Analysis of data
Analysis of data
Structure of
The Reports
▪ As clearly as possible, state how you intend to organize the
final report.
▪ In organizing your material for the report, the specific
objectives of your study are of immense help.
▪ Plan to develop your chapters around the main themes of your
study. The title of each chapter should clearly communicate
the main thrust of its content.
Structure of
The Reports
The first chapter, possibly entitled ‘Introduction’, should
be an overall introduction to your study, covering most of
your project proposal and pointing out deviations, if any,
from the original plan.

The second chapter should provide some information

about the study population itself. The main aim of this
chapter is to give readers some background on the
population from which you collected the information.

Titles for the rest of the chapter will vary from study to
study but as mentioned, each chapter should be written
around a main theme of the chapter.
Structure Of
The Reports

▪ If your study is qualitative, the main issues

identified during data collection and analysis
stages should become the basis of developing
chapters.

▪ Having developed significant issues, the next step

is to organise the main themes under each issue
and develop a structure that you will follow to
communicate your findings to your readers.
EXAMPLE

Chapter 1 : Introduction
Chapter 2 : The socioeconomic-demographic characteristics of the study population
Chapter 3 : The impact on husband/wife roles
Chapter 4 : The impact on martial relations Example A
Chapter 5 : The impact on expectations of children
Chapter 6 : The Impact on attitudes towards marriage
Chapter 7 : Summary conclusions and recommendation

Chapter 1 : Introduction
Chapter 2 : A profile of the study population
Chapter 3 : Fosters carers' perceptions of their role Example B
Chapter 4 : Attitudes of the foster carers towards foster care payment
Chapter 5 : The preferred method of payment
Chapter 6 : General comments made by respondents about foster care
Chapter 7 : Summary conclusions and recommendation
EXAMPLE
Chapter 1 : Introduction
Chapter 2 : The study population
Chapter 3 : Occupational aspirations, self-esteem and academic achievement
Chapter 4 : The extent of parental involvement and academic achievement Example C
Chapter 5 : Peer group influence and academic achievement
Chapter 6 : Academic achievement and student attitudes towards teachers
Chapter 7 : Summary conclusions and recommendation

Chapter 1 : ADHD : A Theoreical prespective

Chapter 2 : Issues and difficulties faced by family members in bringin up a child with ADHD
Chapter 3 : ADHD and its percieved effects on the child
Chapter 4 : ADHD and its percieved impact on siblings relationships
Chapter 5 : Managing Treatment Example D
Chapter 6 : Perceived effects of ADHD on schooling of the child
Chapter 7 : Perceived effects of ADHD on relationships with other children
Chapter 8 : A case history
Chapter 9 : Summary and conclusion
 Problem and
Limitation

This section should list any problem you think you might encounter
concerning, for example, the availability of data, securing permission from
the agency/organization to carry out study, obtaining the sample or any
other aspect of the study.
 Problem and
Limitation

▪ Here problems refer to difficulties relating to logistics details, whereas

limitations designate structural problems relating to methodological
aspects of the study.
▪ In your opinion the study design you chose may not be the best but you
might have had to adopt it for a number of reasons. This is classified as
limitation of the study. This is also true for sampling of measurement
procedures.
▪ Such limitation should be communicated to readers.
Appendix
As an appendix, in the case of quantitative studies, attach your research instrument. Also, attach a list of
references in the appendix of the proposal

Work Schedule
You must set yourself dates as you need to complete
the research within a certain time frame. List the
various operational steps you need to undertake and
indicate against each the date by which you aim to
complete that task. Remember to keep some time
towards the end as a cushion in case the research
process does not go as smoothly as planned.