RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Project- English100
Lecturer: Thanh Huyen, MA
WHAT IS RP?
A research proposal is a document written
by a researcher that describes in details the
program for a proposed scientific
investigation.
THE GOAL OF RP
to present and justify a research idea you
have and to present the practical ways in
which you think this research should be
conducted
to convince that you have a worthwhile
research project and that you have the
competence and the work-plan to complete
it.
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE?
All research proposals must address the following
questions:
what you plan to accomplish
why you want to do it
how you are going to do it
The proposal should have sufficient information to
convince your instructor that
you have an important research idea
you have a good grasp of the relevant literature
your methodology is sound
It should be written clearly and well structured so that
your message gets across easily
A BASIC PROPOSAL OUTLINE
Title
Background
Rationale and Purposes
Scope
Research questions/hypothesis
Research methods
Research outline/Tentative structure
(i.e. Sub-topics)
BACK GROUND
Topic Area
What is the area being researched?
Significance
-Review of the area being researched
-Why is this work important?
OR
What led you to choose that topic?
Show why this is it important to answer this question. What are the implications of
doing it? How does it link to other knowledge? How does it stand to inform policy
making? This should show how this project is significant to our body of knowledge.
Why is it important to our understanding of the world? It should establish why I
would want to read on. It should also tell me why I would want to support, or fund,
the project.
RATIONALE
Rationale ۞It makes clear how the findings of
the proposed study will help
Why is your study important?
To whom is it important?
What benefit(s) will occur if your study is
done?
*Remember not to use “I, our, we”. You should use passive voice
instead
You should use “The study/ research” instead of “My research”
PURPOSES/ OBJECTIVES
Explains what the study intends to accomplish.
Informs the readers of what researchers want to
achieve.
A few typical statements are:
The purpose of this study/paper is to...
... overcome the difficulty with ...
... discover what ...
... understand the causes or effects of ...
... refine our current understanding of ...
... provide a new interpretation of ...
... understand what makes ___ successful or
unsuccessful
…assess/ measure/ explore/ ascertain/examine/…
(ACTION VERBS)
https://research-methodology.net/research-
methodology/research-aims-and-objectives/
Formulation of aims, purpose, research question.docx
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Once the topic is established, come right to
the point. What are you doing? What specific
issue or question will your work address?
Very briefly (this is still the introduction) say
how you will approach the work. What will we
learn from your work?
A few typical statements are:
The following questions are addressed:
The research answers the following
questions
METHODOLOGY
Overview of approach
This section should make clear to the reader the way that you intend to approach
the research question and the techniques and logic that you will use to address it.
Data Collection
This might include the field site description, a description of the instruments you
will use, and particularly the data that you anticipate collecting. You may need to
comment on site and resource accessibility in the time frame and budget that you
have available, to demonstrate feasibility, but the emphasis in this section should be
to fully describe specifically what data you will be using in your study. Part of the
purpose of doing this is to detect flaws in the plan before they become problems in
the research.
Data Analysis
This should explain in some detail how you will manipulate the data that you
assembled to get at the information that you will use to answer your question. It
will include the statistical or other techniques and the tools that you will use in
processing the data. It probably should also include an indication of the range of
outcomes that you could reasonably expect from your observations.
