Module 6 – Writing your proposal

Introduction

Welcome to Module 6 - Writing your proposal.

In previous Modules you have been exploring topics, concepts and issues related to real world research. These Modules have been designed to help you clarify your thoughts about themes, questions, strategies, tactics and analysis.

You now need to bring these thoughts together to produce a clear, concise, well-organised document that spells out what it is you propose to do and why you are proposing to do it.

According to Robson (2002) your proposal should be direct and straight forward, it should communicate well and it should be well organised.

The research proposal is your opportunity to persuade the "client" that you know what you are talking about; that you have thought through the issues involved and are going to deliver; that it is worth their taking the risk and giving you a license to get on with it (p527).

He further advises not to think of the research proposal merely as an irksome formality. You should see it as an important and integral part of the research. Work done at this stage convincing experience judges, and yourself, that what you are proposing to do looks interesting and feasible within the constraints of the resources and time available will be time and effort well invested (p527).

How to recognize a good proposal

A good proposal is direct and straightforward

  • It tells what you are proposing to do and why

  • It is explicit

  • It demonstrates why the project is interesting and timely

  • It reflects clarity of thought and expression

A good proposal communicates well

  • The proposal should communicate your intentions; anything that gets in the way should be deleted

  • Complex sentences attempting to illustrate the complexity and subtlety of your thinking should be avoided

  • You do not need to impress with obscure vocabulary and jargon or with a long list of irrelevant references

  • Regard the reader not as an expert your field of research but more as a cross between an intelligent lay person and a generalist in the discipline.

A good proposal is well organized

  • The structure should be simple and self evident as well as consistent

  • Use standard paragraphing and continuous prose rather than bulleted points

  • Doing research well demands organization and your proposal should reflect this (Robson 2002:527-8)


The Content of your Proposal

Abstract or Summary

  • Brief, clear and informative

  • As this will be the first section read try to give a good impression

  • Convey a flavor of what is intended and why

  • Stick to word limit

Background and Purpose

  • Should reflect your commitment and professionalism

  • Include a short review of work by others. Crucial that you include recent work of others and demonstrate there is a gap in the research or a next step is needed

  • Relevance is important

  • Your aim is to help the reader understand why the research should be done and why it should be done in the particular way you are suggesting

Plan of the Work

  • Detail the methods and procedures to be used

  • Make clear where the research will take place and who will be involved

  • The style of the enterprise should be stated (Eg. quantitative or qualitative)

  • Outline how permissions for access, cooperation or involvement will be negotiated

  • Specify how the data will be collected and analyzed

  • You need to convince the reader that you have thought through the issues

  • Don’t give the reader the impression that you are going to gather a plethora of data and think about analysis afterwards

Ethical considerations

  • Research involving humans and would normally require ethics approval. The ACT requires all research students who undertake human subject research to submit an application to the Ethics Committee for approval of such research. Currently applications are made on the prescribed form which can be downloaded from our website: Ethics Submissions formWhere required, ethics approval should be sought at an early stage
  • here may also be legal implications for certain kinds of research; new privacy laws need to be considered

(Robson 2002:528-531)

Flexible Designs

Sometimes, with flexible designed studies, is not feasible to pre-specify many of the details of the project. The design is typically viewed as emerging. In these cases proposals you must convince the reader that the flexibility is justified and that the research questions need to be dealt with in this particular. You must also show, usually through argument and referencing, that you are competent to carry out project using the methods proposed.

(Robson 2002:528-531)

Weaknesses of unsuccessful proposals

According to Robson four main factors contribute to poor proposals

  1. An unimportant problem/project that is unlikely to produce any new or useful information

  2. Methods or procedures unsuited to the stated objective/s

  3. The description of the project being vague, diffuse or lacking in clarity

  4. The investigator not having adequate training or experience

(Robson 2002:531-2)

Ten ways to get your proposal rejected

  1. Don’t follow the directions. Leave vital information out. Ignore word limits

  2. Ensure the title has little relationship to the stated objectives

  3. Use vague objectives

  4. Central problem is obscure

  5. Design methodology is implicit and readers have to guess

  6. Project is mundane, routine and poorly conceptualized

  7. Propose something that is unrealistic

  8. Be either very brief, or longwinded and repetitive

  9. Make it clear what the findings of your researcher are going to be in advance of actually conducting the research

  10. Don’t worry about a theoretical or conceptual framework. This will be a down-to-earth study devoid of the fancy stuff

(Robson 2002:532)

Preparatory tasks

  1. To help prepare you for assessment activity and to increase your understanding of how to write an effective research proposal you now need to read the following chapter in your textbook (Robson)

  • Appendix A – Writing a Project Proposal

Assessment activities

Activity 6.1 – Complete your research proposal

Please note: This activity is individual, assessable and should take you about 3 hours. It has a word limit of 2000 words and is worth 60% of your total mark. It should be emailed to your teacher on or before week 13 of semester.

  1. You now need to write your research proposal using the following headings as a guide.
    (If you are writing a research proposal for an MTh or ThD through the ACT, download the following file and stucture your assessment activity for 6.1 accordingly. MTh/ThD Research Proposal - See for example one recent MTh research proposal click here and here )

  • Abstract

  • Background and Purpose

  • The plan of work

  • Financial aspects

  • Ethical considerations

  • Bibliography

  1. It is likely that different disciplines require different formats for research proposals. The format suggested above is an attempt at a generic layout of a research proposal. However, if you wish to deviate from this layout you need to consult your teacher as soon as possible to negotiate an alternative.

References

  • Robson, C., 2002, Real World Research, 2nd Ed, Blackwell, Oxford

Further resources

If you are interested to find about more about this area then you can

  1. Read the following books

  • Becker, H.S., 1986, Writing for social scientists: how to start and finish your thesis, book, or article, University of Chicago Press
  • Burchfield. R.W., (Ed), 1996, The new Fowler's modern English usage, 3rd ed., Oxford University Press
  • Day, R.A., 1995, How to write and publish a scientific paper, 4th ed., Cambridge University Press
  • Krathwohl, D.R, 1988, How to prepare a research proposal: guidelines for funding and dissertations in the social and behavioural sciences, 3rd ed., Syracuse University Press
  • Leedy, P.D., 1989, Practical research: planning and design, 4th ed., Macmillan, NY
  • Punch, K.F., 2000, Developing effective research proposals, Sage, London

    You can also look at the extensive "Further Reading" sections at the end of each chapter in your textbook.

  1. Visit the following websites