How To Write A Research Proposal
How To Write A Research Proposal
How To Write A Research Proposal
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Please note: the following recommendations are suggestions only. They do not guarantee a successful research application. They may, however, help you prepare a carefully conceptualized proposal. This may not only be important to the professors or the members of the selection committee who have to decide on your application, but also to yourself, giving you a clear structure for your own work, a rough idea of where you are going and a timetable in which to accomplish your research successfully.
Most research proposals are between 4 and 15 pages, but some institutions or departments specify word limits. It is rarely possible to write a comprehensive proposal in fewer than 1500 words. The proposal should have a proper layout (typeface and line spacing) as well as a table of contents and page numbers. Remember that professors often have to read large numbers of research proposals. Therefore good legibility and conciseness of your proposal will be appreciated.
T ITLE PAGE
On the title page, state your personal data like: name, academic title (if applicable), your position at your own university, e.g. junior lecturer, your date of birth, nationality, your work and private address including telephone and e-mail address. Then the title of your planned dissertation (or research project) should follow. Keep in mind that at this stage, the title can only be a working title. Nevertheless, all words in the title should be chosen with great care, and their association with one another must be carefully considered. While the title should be brief, it should be accurate, descriptive and comprehensive, clearly indicating the subject of the investigation. Note that you will only be ready to devise a title once you are clear about the focus of your research. You should also state the area of your research, e.g. Political Science - Theory of International Relations or Empirical Social Science etc. You may also want to give a realistic time frame in which you plan to complete your project. For a PhD this should not normally exceed three years.
METHODOLGY
This is a very important part of your research outline and should receive a lot of attention. It may well be the longest section of your proposal. Give detailed information about how you intend to answer your research questions. Anyone who reads your proposal will want to know the sources and quality of evidence you will consult, the analytical technique you will employ, and the timetable you will follow. Depending on the topic, suitable research strategies should be defined to ensure that enough and adequate empirical data will be gathered for a successful research project. You wil l need to describe the intended methods of data gathering, the controls you will introduce, the statistical methods to be used, the type of literature or documentary analysis to be followed and so on. Ethical issues as well as difficulties in gathering data could also be discussed in this section.
E DITING
Once you have finished the conceptual work on your proposal, go through a careful editing stage, in which you make sure your proposal does not contain any grammatical/orthographical mistakes or typos. Check whether the title, the abstract and the content of your proposal correspond with each other. If possible, ask someone within the academic community to proofread your proposal in order to make sure the proposal conforms to international academic standards.