Research Proposals

Purpose

A research proposal is a document requesting support for sponsored research in a particular field. It outlines the area of study for your research, the relevant questions or issues you plan to address, and the practical ways in which the research study should be conducted.

A research proposal should demonstrate how your work fits into what is already known about the topic and what new theory it will add to the literature, while also identifying the question that the proposed research will answer, stating its significance, and the implications of the answer.

A research proposal should include all facets of the research process and provide satisfactory information so that the audience can evaluate the proposed study.

The three questions you need to answer in a research prosal are...

  • What are you trying to accomplish?
  • Why are you trying to accomplish it?
  • How are you going to accomplish it?

Audience

Your individual research proposal may vary depending on the specific audience you are writing for. In the case that you are only addressing academics in your particular field, you can be quite specific about your area of study and can assume a high level of existing knowledge. In the case that you are addressing a broader audience, you need to write as though they have less existing knowledge. Don’t assume that this audience will know certain academic terms in your field. Try to define terms if you are unsure if the audience will know them. In either case, it is vital to keep your tone of your writing formal and academic, while still being as clear and simple you can in your language. A common mistake in writing research proposals occurs when writers over-complicate their language with the idea that it will make them sound impressive or academic. It is more important and impressive to write an academic research proposal while still sounding coherent and comprehensible.

Examples

“Christine Cozzens Research Grant and Initiative Program Proposal”

Templates

Research proposals should follow this general format.

Title

  • Provide an informative but succinct title. The title should display to the reader your topic of research study and leave them intrigued to read more.

Purpose

  • Explain why you are writing this document. Are you requesting money? Are you requesting resources? Also, explain why you are conducting this research. What brought you to this research?

Summary

  • Discuss the nature and context of your research. Why is your research significant? If the topic is complex, you can elaborate a bit more on the purpose of study. In this section you should also include scholarship in the field through a literature review. Including a literature review acknowledges previous research conducted on your topic and demonstrates your knowledge of the topic as well.

Research Question

  • While you have discussed your topic a good amount by now, you haven’t yet proposed your specific research question. Here, you should outline all of your research questions fully. You could have one question, but depending on the scope of your project, it might be more beneficial to ask multiple questions that build on one another.

Methodology

  • Outline your research methods and how you plan to conduct your research. Explain how you plan test your research questions and how you plan to analyze your findings.

Timeline

  • Display your schedule of collecting information through research or through your test subjects.

Budget

  • Explain how much money, if at all, is needed for your sponsored research. In addition, explain why you need that amount of money and how you will spread it out to finance each part of your research.

Ethical Considerations or Research Implications

  • In this section, talk about any ethical considerations there are in conducting your research. What are the implications of the proposed research? What are the potential impacts of the proposed research?

Bibliography

  • List the works that you used or cited in your proposal.

Sources

Salem Press Encyclopedia
MIT OpenCourseWare
USC Libraries

by Jakob Cole