How to write research proposals?

Requirements

See also Essay2 Requirements.

The proposal should identify the specific, final research question that you determine based on your initial exploration/research. Your proposal should discuss the same ideas as the topic reflection, but should be a more finely tuned presentation of the question your research will explore. You will need to include:

• Your research question with some context. What is it about this question that interests you? Why is it relevant to social justice or social action?
• A timeline; by what point will you have completed research for secondary sources?
• A description of your audience and the name of a publication and a model essay (with a URL, if relevant) for which your essay might be appropriate.
• A bibliography of the work you have so far completed.

Components

Abstract (Optional)

• A condensed version of your purposal: one could read it to decide whether to continue reading.
• One sentence summarizes one section.

Introduction

• Be gentle: target a readership slightly wider than your targeted audience for the rest of your proposal/research paper. Start with general level knowledge and go into details later.
• Highlight significance: What's the status quo? What's wrong? Why would I care?
• Provide a statement of your research question / hypothesis.
• If you're not doing a separate literature review, do it briefly here.

Literature Review (Optional)

• Give recognition to other scholars in this field.
• What has been studied? What is left to study?

Objectives & Goals & Significance

• Microscopically: What will be done?
• Marcoscopically: What influence will this research make?

Methodology / Theoretical Framework

• Describe in detail your research design, methods, procedures, and tools.
• Describe your theoretical approach
• Describe the sources you would use
• Describe the details of your methods

Agenda / Timeline

• What are the milestones?
• When would you hit those milestones?
• (Optional) How would you spend your money?

Boarder Impact (Optional)

• From a macroscopic point of view, how would my research make the world a better/worse place?

Bibliography

Identify key references. It might not need to be as thorough as that of your final paper.

Examples

my own research proposal

https://oakland.edu/Assets/upload/docs/AIS/Syllabi/Tayler_Research_Proposal.pdf

https://www.uh.edu/~lsong5/documents/A%20sample%20proposal%20with%20comment.pdf

Some tips

• Consider start with (nested) bullet points and build on top of it.
• Use formal language!
• Consider:
  • What makes your research novel and unique?
  • Can your peer in this field understand your proposal?