Show that you understand the current state of research on your topic.
The length of a research proposal can vary quite a bit. A bachelor’s or master’s thesis proposal can be just a few pages, while proposals for PhD dissertations or research funding are usually much longer and more detailed. Your supervisor can help you determine the best length for your work.
One trick to get started is to think of your proposal’s structure as a shorter version of your thesis or dissertation , only without the results , conclusion and discussion sections.
Download our research proposal template
Writing a research proposal can be quite challenging, but a good starting point could be to look at some examples. We’ve included a few for you below.
Like your dissertation or thesis, the proposal will usually have a title page that includes:
The first part of your proposal is the initial pitch for your project. Make sure it succinctly explains what you want to do and why.
Your introduction should:
To guide your introduction , include information about:
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As you get started, it’s important to demonstrate that you’re familiar with the most important research on your topic. A strong literature review shows your reader that your project has a solid foundation in existing knowledge or theory. It also shows that you’re not simply repeating what other people have already done or said, but rather using existing research as a jumping-off point for your own.
In this section, share exactly how your project will contribute to ongoing conversations in the field by:
Following the literature review, restate your main objectives . This brings the focus back to your own project. Next, your research design or methodology section will describe your overall approach, and the practical steps you will take to answer your research questions.
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To finish your proposal on a strong note, explore the potential implications of your research for your field. Emphasize again what you aim to contribute and why it matters.
For example, your results might have implications for:
Last but not least, your research proposal must include correct citations for every source you have used, compiled in a reference list . To create citations quickly and easily, you can use our free APA citation generator .
Some institutions or funders require a detailed timeline of the project, asking you to forecast what you will do at each stage and how long it may take. While not always required, be sure to check the requirements of your project.
Here’s an example schedule to help you get started. You can also download a template at the button below.
Download our research schedule template
Research phase | Objectives | Deadline |
---|---|---|
1. Background research and literature review | 20th January | |
2. Research design planning | and data analysis methods | 13th February |
3. Data collection and preparation | with selected participants and code interviews | 24th March |
4. Data analysis | of interview transcripts | 22nd April |
5. Writing | 17th June | |
6. Revision | final work | 28th July |
If you are applying for research funding, chances are you will have to include a detailed budget. This shows your estimates of how much each part of your project will cost.
Make sure to check what type of costs the funding body will agree to cover. For each item, include:
To determine your budget, think about:
If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.
Methodology
Statistics
Research bias
Once you’ve decided on your research objectives , you need to explain them in your paper, at the end of your problem statement .
Keep your research objectives clear and concise, and use appropriate verbs to accurately convey the work that you will carry out for each one.
I will compare …
A research aim is a broad statement indicating the general purpose of your research project. It should appear in your introduction at the end of your problem statement , before your research objectives.
Research objectives are more specific than your research aim. They indicate the specific ways you’ll address the overarching aim.
A PhD, which is short for philosophiae doctor (doctor of philosophy in Latin), is the highest university degree that can be obtained. In a PhD, students spend 3–5 years writing a dissertation , which aims to make a significant, original contribution to current knowledge.
A PhD is intended to prepare students for a career as a researcher, whether that be in academia, the public sector, or the private sector.
A master’s is a 1- or 2-year graduate degree that can prepare you for a variety of careers.
All master’s involve graduate-level coursework. Some are research-intensive and intend to prepare students for further study in a PhD; these usually require their students to write a master’s thesis . Others focus on professional training for a specific career.
Critical thinking refers to the ability to evaluate information and to be aware of biases or assumptions, including your own.
Like information literacy , it involves evaluating arguments, identifying and solving problems in an objective and systematic way, and clearly communicating your ideas.
The best way to remember the difference between a research plan and a research proposal is that they have fundamentally different audiences. A research plan helps you, the researcher, organize your thoughts. On the other hand, a dissertation proposal or research proposal aims to convince others (e.g., a supervisor, a funding body, or a dissertation committee) that your research topic is relevant and worthy of being conducted.
If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.
McCombes, S. & George, T. (2024, September 05). How to Write a Research Proposal | Examples & Templates. Scribbr. Retrieved September 13, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/research-process/research-proposal/
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This resource introduces the genre of academic proposals and provides strategies for developing effective graduate-level proposals across multiple contexts.
An important part of the work completed in academia is sharing our scholarship with others. Such communication takes place when we present at scholarly conferences, publish in peer-reviewed journals, and publish in books. This OWL resource addresses the steps in writing for a variety of academic proposals.
For samples of academic proposals, click here .
First and foremost, you need to consider your future audience carefully in order to determine both how specific your topic can be and how much background information you need to provide in your proposal. While some conferences and journals may be subject-specific, most will require you to address an audience that does not conduct research on the same topics as you. Conference proposal reviewers are often drawn from professional organization members or other attendees, while journal proposals are typically reviewed by the editorial staff, so you need to ensure that your proposal is geared toward the knowledge base and expectations of whichever audience will read your work.
Along those lines, you might want to check whether you are basing your research on specific prior research and terminology that requires further explanation. As a rule, always phrase your proposal clearly and specifically, avoid over-the-top phrasing and jargon, but do not negate your own personal writing style in the process.
If you would like to add a quotation to your proposal, you are not required to provide a citation or footnote of the source, although it is generally preferred to mention the author’s name. Always put quotes in quotation marks and take care to limit yourself to at most one or two quotations in the entire proposal text. Furthermore, you should always proofread your proposal carefully and check whether you have integrated details, such as author’s name, the correct number of words, year of publication, etc. correctly.
Methodology is often a key factor in the evaluation of proposals for any academic genre — but most proposals have such a small word limit that writers find it difficult to adequately include methods while also discussing their argument, background for the study, results, and contributions to knowledge. It's important to make sure that you include some information about the methods used in your study, even if it's just a line or two; if your proposal isn't experimental in nature, this space should instead describe the theory, lens, or approach you are taking to arrive at your conclusions.
There are common pitfalls that you might need to improve on for future proposals.
The proposal does not reflect your enthusiasm and persuasiveness, which usually goes hand in hand with hastily written, simply worded proposals. Generally, the better your research has been, the more familiar you are with the subject and the more smoothly your proposal will come together.
Similarly, proposing a topic that is too broad can harm your chances of being accepted to a conference. Be sure to have a clear focus in your proposal. Usually, this can be avoided by more advanced research to determine what has already been done, especially if the proposal is judged by an important scholar in the field. Check the names of keynote speakers and other attendees of note to avoid repeating known information or not focusing your proposal.
Your paper might simply have lacked the clear language that proposals should contain. On this linguistic level, your proposal might have sounded repetitious, have had boring wording, or simply displayed carelessness and a lack of proofreading, all of which can be remedied by more revisions. One key tactic for ensuring you have clear language in your proposal is signposting — you can pick up key phrases from the CFP, as well as use language that indicates different sections in academic work (as in IMRAD sections from the organization and structure page in this resource). This way, reviewers can easily follow your proposal and identify its relatedness to work in the field and the CFP.
Conference proposals are a common genre in graduate school that invite several considerations for writing depending on the conference and requirements of the call for papers.
Make sure you read the call for papers carefully to consider the deadline and orient your topic of presentation around the buzzwords and themes listed in the document. You should take special note of the deadline and submit prior to that date, as most conferences use online submission systems that will close on a deadline and will not accept further submissions.
If you have previously spoken on or submitted a proposal on the same topic, you should carefully adjust it specifically for this conference or even completely rewrite the proposal based on your changing and evolving research.
The topic you are proposing should be one that you can cover easily within a time frame of approximately fifteen to twenty minutes. You should stick to the required word limit of the conference call. The organizers have to read a large number of proposals, especially in the case of an international or interdisciplinary conference, and will appreciate your brevity.
Conference proposals differ widely across fields and even among individual conferences in a field. Some just request an abstract, which is written similarly to any other abstract you'd write for a journal article or other publication. Some may request abstracts or full papers that fit into pre-existing sessions created by conference organizers. Some request both an abstract and a further description or proposal, usually in cases where the abstract will be published in the conference program and the proposal helps organizers decide which papers they will accept.
If the conference you are submitting to requires a proposal or description, there are some common elements you'll usually need to include. These are a statement of the problem or topic, a discussion of your approach to the problem/topic, a discussion of findings or expected findings, and a discussion of key takeaways or relevance to audience members. These elements are typically given in this order and loosely follow the IMRAD structure discussed in the organization and structure page in this resource.
The proportional size of each of these elements in relation to one another tends to vary by the stage of your research and the relationship of your topic to the field of the conference. If your research is very early on, you may spend almost no time on findings, because you don't have them yet. Similarly, if your topic is a regular feature at conferences in your field, you may not need to spend as much time introducing it or explaining its relevance to the field; however, if you are working on a newer topic or bringing in a topic or problem from another discipline, you may need to spend slightly more space explaining it to reviewers. These decisions should usually be based on an analysis of your audience — what information can reviewers be reasonably expected to know, and what will you have to tell them?
Most of the time, when you submit an article to a journal for publication, you'll submit a finished manuscript which contains an abstract, the text of the article, the bibliography, any appendices, and author bios. These can be on any topic that relates to the journal's scope of interest, and they are accepted year-round.
Special issues , however, are planned issues of a journal that center around a specific theme, usually a "hot topic" in the field. The editor or guest editors for the special issue will often solicit proposals with a call for papers (CFP) first, accept a certain number of proposals for further development into article manuscripts, and then accept the final articles for the special issue from that smaller pool. Special issues are typically the only time when you will need to submit a proposal to write a journal article, rather than submitting a completed manuscript.
Journal proposals share many qualities with conference proposals: you need to write for your audience, convey the significance of your work, and condense the various sections of a full study into a small word or page limit. In general, the necessary components of a proposal include:
This order is a common one because it loosely follows the IMRAD (introduction, methods, results and discussion) structure often used in academic writing; however, it is not the only possible structure or even always the best structure. You may need to move these elements around depending on the expectations in your field, the word or page limit, or the instructions given in the CFP.
Some of the unique considerations of journal proposals are:
While the requirements are very similar to those of conference proposals, proposals for a book ought to address a few other issues.
Since these proposals are of greater length, the publisher will require you to delve into greater detail as well—for instance, regarding the organization of the proposed book or article.
Publishers generally require a clear outline of the chapters you are proposing and an explication of their content, which can be several pages long in its entirety.
You will need to incorporate knowledge of relevant literature, use headings and sub-headings that you should not use in conference proposals. Be sure to know who wrote what about your topic and area of interest, even if you are proposing a less scholarly project.
Publishers prefer depth rather than width when it comes to your topic, so you should be as focused as possible and further outline your intended audience.
You should always include information regarding your proposed deadlines for the project and how you will execute this plan, especially in the sciences. Potential investors or publishers need to know that you have a clear and efficient plan to accomplish your proposed goals. Depending on the subject area, this information can also include a proposed budget, materials or machines required to execute this project, and information about its industrial application.
As John Boswell (cited in: Larsen, Michael. How to Write a Book Proposal. Writers Digest Books , 2004. p. 1) explains, “today fully 90 percent of all nonfiction books sold to trade publishers are acquired on the basis of a proposal alone.” Therefore, editors and agents generally do not accept completed manuscripts for publication, as these “cannot (be) put into the usual channels for making a sale”, since they “lack answers to questions of marketing, competition, and production.” (Lyon, Elizabeth. Nonfiction Book Proposals Anybody Can Write . Perigee Trade, 2002. pp. 6-7.)
In contrast to conference or, to a lesser degree, chapter proposals, a book proposal introduces your qualifications for writing it and compares your work to what others have done or failed to address in the past.
As a result, you should test the idea with your networks and, if possible, acquire other people’s proposals that discuss similar issues or have a similar format before submitting your proposal. Prior to your submission, it is recommended that you write at least part of the manuscript in addition to checking the competition and reading all about the topic.
The following is a list of questions to ask yourself before committing to a book project, but should in no way deter you from taking on a challenging project (adapted from Lyon 27). Depending on your field of study, some of these might be more relevant to you than others, but nonetheless useful to reiterate and pose to yourself.
Your book proposal should include the following elements:
The following proposal structure, as outlined by Peter E. Dunn for thesis and fellowship proposals, provides a useful guide to composing such a long proposal (Dunn, Peter E. “Proposal Writing.” Center for Instructional Excellence, Purdue University, 2007):
Most proposals for manuscripts range from thirty to fifty pages and, apart from the subject hook, book information (length, title, selling handle), markets for your book, and the section about the author, all the other sections are optional. Always anticipate and answer as many questions by editors as possible, however.
Finally, include the best chapter possible to represent your book's focus and style. Until an agent or editor advises you to do otherwise, follow your book proposal exactly without including something that you might not want to be part of the book or improvise on possible expected recommendations.
Publishers expect to acquire the book's primary rights, so that they can sell it in an adapted or condensed form as well. Mentioning any subsidiary rights, such as translation opportunities, performance and merchandising rights, or first-serial rights, will add to the editor's interest in buying your book. It is enticing to publishers to mention your manuscript's potential to turn into a series of books, although they might still hesitate to buy it right away—at least until the first one has been a successful endeavor.
Since editors generally expect to see about one-tenth of a book, your sample chapter's length should reflect that in these building blocks of your book. The chapter should reflect your excitement and the freshness of the idea as well as surprise editors, but do not submit part of one or more chapters. Always send a chapter unless your credentials are impeccable due to prior publications on the subject. Do not repeat information in the sample chapter that will be covered by preceding or following ones, as the outline should be designed in such a way as to enable editors to understand the context already.
Depending on the subject of your book, it is advisable to include illustrations that exemplify your vision of the book and can be included in the sample chapter. While these can make the book more expensive, it also increases the salability of the project. Further, you might consider including outstanding samples of your published work, such as clips from periodicals, if they are well-respected in the field. Thirdly, cover art can give your potential publisher a feel for your book and its marketability, especially if your topic is creative or related to the arts.
In addition, professionally formatting your materials will give you an edge over sloppy proposals. Proofread the materials carefully, use consistent and carefully organized fonts, spacing, etc., and submit your proposal without staples; rather, submit it in a neat portfolio that allows easy access and reassembling. However, check the submission guidelines first, as most proposals are submitted digitally. Finally, you should try to surprise editors and attract their attention. Your hook, however, should be imaginative but inexpensive (you do not want to bribe them, after all). Make sure your hook draws the editors to your book proposal immediately (Adapted from Larsen 154-60).
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Types of project proposals, project proposal vs. project charter, project proposal vs. business case, project proposal vs. project plan, project proposal outline, how to write a project proposal, project proposal example, project proposal tips, what is a project proposal.
A project proposal is a project management document that’s used to define the objectives and requirements of a project. It helps organizations and external project stakeholders agree on an initial project planning framework.
The main purpose of a project proposal is to get buy-in from decision-makers. That’s why a project proposal outlines your project’s core value proposition; it sells value to both internal and external project stakeholders. The intent of the proposal is to grab the attention of stakeholders and project sponsors. Then, the next step is getting them excited about the project summary.
Getting into the heads of the audience for which you’re writing the project proposal is vital: you need to think like the project’s stakeholders to deliver a proposal that meets their needs.
We’ve created a free project proposal template for Word to help structure documents, so you don’t have to remember the process each time.
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Use this free Project Proposal Template for Word to manage your projects better.
In terms of types of project proposals, you can have one that’s formally solicited, informally solicited or a combination. There can also be renewal and supplemental proposals. Here’s a brief description of each of them.
All the elements in the above project proposal outline are present in our template. This free project proposal template for Word will provide you with everything you need to write an excellent project proposal. It will help you with the executive summary, project process, deliverables, costs—even terms and conditions. Download your free template today.
A project proposal is a detailed project document that’s used to convince the project sponsor that the project being proposed is worth the time, money and effort to deliver it. This is done by showing how the project will address a business problem or opportunity. It also outlines the work that will be done and how it will be done.
A project charter can seem like the same thing as a project proposal as it also defines the project in a document. It identifies the project objectives, scope, goals, stakeholders and team. But it’s done after the project has been agreed upon by all stakeholders and the project has been accepted. The project charter authorizes the project and documents its requirements to meet stakeholders’ needs.
A business case is used to explain why the proposed project is justified. It shows that the project is worth the investment of time and money. It’s more commonly used in larger companies in the decision-making process when prioritizing one project over another.
The business case answers the questions: what is the project, why should it be taken up, who will be involved and how much will it cost? It’s therefore related to a project proposal, but the project proposal comes before the business case and is usually part of the larger proposal.
Again, the project proposal and the project plan in this case are very similar documents. It’s understandable that there would be some confusion between these two project terms. They both show how the project will be run and what the results will be. However, they’re not the same.
The project proposal is a document that aims to get a project approved and funded. It’s used to convince stakeholders of the viability of the project and their investment. The project plan, on the other hand, is made during the planning phase of the project, once it’s been approved. It’s a detailed outline of how the project will be implemented, including schedule, budget, resources and more.
There are several key operational and strategic questions to consider, including:
In addition to these elements, it’s advisable to use a cover letter, which is a one-page document that helps you introduce your project proposal and grab the attention of potential clients and stakeholders.
To make the best proposal possible, you’ll want to be thorough and hit on all the points we’ve listed above. Here’s a step-by-step guide to writing a persuasive priority proposal.
The executive summary provides a quick overview of the main elements of your project proposal, such as your project background, project objectives and project deliverables, among other things. The goal is to capture the attention of your audience and get them excited about the project you’re proposing. It’s essentially the “elevator pitch” for the project life cycle. It should be short and to the point.
The executive summary should be descriptive and paint a picture of what project success looks like for the client. Most importantly, it should motivate the project client; after all, the goal is getting them to sign on the dotted line to get the project moving!
The project background is a one-page section of your project proposal that explains the problem that your project will solve. You should explain when this issue started, its current state and how your project will be the ideal solution.
You’ll need to define your project vision. This is best done with a vision statement, which acts as the north star for your project. It’s not specific as much as it’s a way to describe the impact your company plans to make with the project.
It’s also important to set up success criteria to show that the project is in fact doing what it’s proposed to do. Three obvious project success criteria are the triple constraint of cost, scope and time. But you’ll need to set up a way to measure these metrics and respond to them if they’re not meeting your plan.
To reduce the impact of risk in your project, you need to identify what those risks might be and develop a plan to mitigate them . List all the risks, prioritize them, describe what you’ll do to mitigate or take advantage of them and who on the team is responsible for keeping an eye out for them and resolving them.
The project scope refers to all the work that’ll be executed. It defines the work items, work packages and deliverables that’ll be delivered during the execution phase of your project life cycle. It’s important to use a work breakdown structure (WBS) to define your tasks and subtasks and prioritize them.
The best mindset when developing goals and objectives for your project proposal is to use the SMART system :
Your project approach defines the project management methodology , tools and governance for your project. In simple terms, it allows project managers to explain to stakeholders how the project will be planned, executed and controlled successfully.
If you want to convince internal stakeholders and external investors, you’ll need to show them the financial benefits that your project could bring to their organization. You can use cost-benefit analysis and projected financial statements to demonstrate why your project is profitable.
Project resources are critical for the execution of your project. The project proposal briefly describes what resources are needed and how they’ll be used. Later, during the planning phase, you’ll need to create a resource management plan that’ll be an important element of your project plan. Project requirements are the items, materials and resources needed for the project. This section should cover both internal and external needs.
All the resources that you’ll need for your project have a price tag. That’s why you need to estimate those costs and create a project budget . The project budget needs to cover all your project expenses, and as a project manager, you’ll need to make sure that you adhere to the budget.
Once you’ve defined your project scope, you’ll need to estimate the duration of each task to create a project timeline. Later during the project planning phase , you’ll need to create a schedule baseline, which estimates the total length of your project. Once the project starts, you’ll compare your actual project schedule to the schedule baseline to monitor progress.
Now let’s explore some project proposal examples to get a better understanding of how a project proposal would work in the real world. For this example, let’s imagine a city that’s about to build a rapid transit system. The city government has the funds to invest but lacks the technical expertise and resources that are needed to build it, so it issues a request for proposal (RFP) document and sends it to potential builders.
Then, the construction companies that are interested in executing this rapid transit project will prepare a project proposal for the city government. Here are some of the key elements they should include.
Whatever project proposal you’re working on, there are a few tips that apply as best practices for all. While above we suggested a project proposal template that would have a table of contents, meaning it would be many pages long, the best-case scenario is keeping the proposal to one or two pages max. Remember, you’re trying to win over stakeholders, not bore them.
Speaking of project stakeholders , do the research. You want to address the right ones. There’s no point in doing all the work necessary to write a great proposal only to have it directed to the wrong target audience. Whoever is going to read it, though, should be able to comprehend the proposal. Keep the language simple and direct.
When it comes to writing, get a professional. Even a business document like a project proposal, business case or executive summary will suffer if it’s poorly constructed or has typos. If you don’t want to hire a professional business writer, make sure you get someone on your project team to copy, edit and proof the document. The more eyes on it, the less likely mistakes will make it to the final edition.
While you want to keep the proposal short and sweet, it helps to sweeten the pot by adding customer testimonials to the attachments. Nothing sells a project plan better than a customer base looking for your product or service.
ProjectManager allows you to plan proposals within our software. You can update tasks for the project proposal to signify where things stand and what’s left to be done. The columns allow you to organize your proposal by section, creating a work breakdown structure (WBS) of sorts.
When building a project proposal, it’s vital to remember your target audience. Your audience includes those who are excited about the project, and see completion as a gain for their organization. Conversely, others in your audience will see the project as a pain and something to which they aren’t looking forward. To keep both parties satisfied, it’s essential to keep language factual and concise.
Our online kanban boards help you think through that language and collaborate on it effectively with other team members, if necessary. Each card shows the percentage completed so everyone in the project management team is aware of the work done and what’s left to be done.
As you can see from the kanban board above, work has begun on tasks such as product documentation and design. Tasks regarding stakeholder feedback, ideation, market research and more have been completed, and there’s a good start on the engineering drawings, 3D rendering, supply chain sourcing and translation services.
A PDF is then attached to the card, and everyone added to the task receives an email notifying them of the change. This same process can be used throughout the life-cycle of the project to keep the team updated, collaborating, and producing a first-class project proposal. In addition to kanban boards, you can also use other project management tools such as Gantt charts , project dashboards, task lists and project calendars to plan, schedule and track your projects.
Project proposals are just the first step in the project planning process. Once your project is approved, you’ll have to solidify the plan, allocate and manage resources, monitor the project, and finally hand in your deliverables. This process requires a flexible, dynamic and robust project management software package. ProjectManager is online project management software that helps all your team members collaborate and manage this process in real-time. Try our award-winning software with this free 30-day trial .
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Learning outcomes.
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
Sometimes writing a paper comes easily, but more often writers work hard to generate ideas and evidence, organize their thoughts, draft, and revise. Experienced writers do their work in multiple steps, and most engage in a recursive process that involves thinking and rethinking, writing and rewriting, and repeating steps multiple times as their ideas develop and sharpen. In broad strokes, most writers go through the following steps to achieve a polished piece of writing:
Like other kinds of writing projects, a proposal starts with assessing the rhetorical situation —the circumstance in which a writer communicates with an audience of readers about a subject. As a proposal writer, you make choices based on the purpose for your writing, the audience who will read it, the genre , and the expectations of the community and culture in which you are working. The brainstorming questions in Table 6.1 can help you begin:
Rhetorical Situation Element | Brainstorming Questions | Your Responses |
---|---|---|
Are you free to choose your own problem and solution to write about, or is your topic specified? | What do you want to know more about? What requirements do you have? Do you need to do research? | |
What is the purpose of the proposal? | Is the purpose to examine a problem and explain possible solutions? Or is it to recommend a specific solution? | |
Who will read your writing? | Who is your primary audience—your instructor? Your classmates? Other students or administrators on your campus? People in your community? How will you shape your writing to connect most effectively with this audience? Do you need to consider secondary audiences, such as people outside of class? If so, who are those readers? | |
In what format should you prepare your proposal? | Should you prepare a written proposal or use another medium? Should you include visuals and other media along with text, such as figures, charts, graphs, photographs, audio, or video? What other presentation requirements do you need to be aware of? | |
How do the time period and location affect decisions you make about your proposal? | What problems in your city, county, state, area, nation, or the world need a solution? What current events or new information might relate to the problem? Is your college or university relevant to the problem? | |
What social or cultural assumptions do you or your audience have? | How will you show awareness of your community’s social and cultural expectations in your writing? |
Write a proposal that discusses a problem you want to learn more about and that recommends a solution. The problem you choose must be a current problem, even though it may have been a problem for many years. The problem must also affect many people, and it must have an actual solution or solutions that you can learn about through research. In other words, the problem cannot be unique to you, and the solution you recommend cannot be one you only imagine; both the problem and the solution must be grounded in reality.
One way to get ideas about a problem to write about is to read a high-quality newspaper, website, or social media account for a week. Read widely on whatever platform you choose so that you learn what people are saying, what a newspaper’s editorial board is taking a stand on, what opinion writers are making cases for in op-eds, and what community members are commenting on. You’ll begin to get a handle on problems in your community or state that people care about. If you read a paper or website with a national or international audience, you’ll learn about problems that affect people in other places.
You will need to consult and cite at least five reliable sources. They can be scholarly, but they do not have to be. They must be credible, trustworthy, and unbiased. Possible sources include articles from reputable newspapers, magazines, and academic and professional journals; reputable websites; government sources; and visual sources. Depending on your topic, you may want to conduct a survey, an interview, or an experiment. See Research Process: Accessing and Recording Information and Annotated Bibliography: Gathering, Evaluating, and Documenting Sources for information about creating and finding sources. Your proposal can include a visual or media source if it provides appropriate, relevant evidence.
Another Lens. Another way to approach a proposal assignment is to consider problems that affect you directly and affect others. Perhaps you are concerned about running up student loan debt. Or perhaps you worry about how to pay your rent while earning minimum wage. These concerns are valid and affect many college students around the United States. Another way is to think about problems that affect others. Perhaps students in your class or on your campus have backgrounds and experiences that differ from yours— what problems or challenges might they have encountered during their time in college that you don’t know about?
As you think about the purpose and audience for your proposal, think again about the rhetorical situation, specifically about the audience you want to reach and the mode of presentation best suited to them and your purpose. For example, say you’re dissatisfied with the process for electing student leaders on your campus. If your purpose is to identify the problems in the process and propose a change, then your audience would include other students, the group or committee that oversees student elections, and perhaps others. To reach other students who might also be dissatisfied, you might write an article, editorial, or letter for the campus newspaper, social media page, or website, depending on how students on your campus get news. In addition, you might organize a meeting of other students to get their input on the problem. To reach the decision makers, which may include elected students, faculty, and administrators, you might need to prepare an oral presentation and a slide deck.
Below in Figure 6.7 are three slides from Shawn Krukowski’s proposal that he adapted for a presentation: the title slide, a slide on one aspect of the problem, and a slide introducing one of the proposed solutions.
A proposal must address a real-life problem and present one or more workable solutions. Usually, problems worth writing about are not easily solved; if they were, they would no longer be considered problems. Indeed, problems in proposals are often complex, and solutions are often complicated and involve trade-offs. Sometimes people disagree about whether the problem is a problem at all and whether any proposed solutions are viable solutions.
One way to generate ideas about a problem is to brainstorm. To explore a topic for your proposal, use a graphic organizer like Table 6.2 to write responses to the following statements and questions:
Exploring Questions | Your Responses |
---|---|
What problem am I interested in learning about? | |
How do I know this is a problem? | |
What are a few examples of the problem? | |
What causes the problem? | |
Who is affected by the problem? | |
What are some negative effects of the problem? | |
Why should the problem be solved? | |
What are the potential consequences of the problem if nothing is done? | |
What are some realistic solutions to the problem? |
For example, perhaps you’re considering a career in information technology, and you’re taking an IT class. You might be interested in exploring the problem of data breaches. A data breach is a real-world problem with possible solutions, so it passes the first test of being an actual problem with possible solutions. Your responses to the questions above might look something like those in Table 6.3 :
Exploring Questions | Sample Responses |
---|---|
A problem I’m interested in learning more about is… | Data breaches |
How I know data breaches are a problem… | In my class, we’re spending a lot of time on data security and breaches. Also, data breaches are in the news almost constantly, and a Google search turns up many that don’t make the news. |
What are a few examples of data breaches? | I’ve heard about people getting their information stolen. I’ve heard about foreign governments, like Russia, stealing national security information and trying to interfere in recent elections. In my class, I’m learning about businesses that have customer and employee information stolen. |
What causes data breaches? | Hackers have a variety of methods to break into websites, to get people to click on links, and to lure people to give out information. |
Who is affected by data breaches? | Individual people, businesses, utility companies, schools and universities, governments (local, state, and national)—pretty much anyone can be affected. |
What are some negative effects of data breaches? | Identity theft, financial theft, national security, power shutdowns, and election interference. Data breaches cause chaos and cost a lot of money. |
Why should the problem of data breaches be solved? | People need the personal, financial, and medical information they share with businesses and other organizations to remain private. Businesses and organizations need to keep their operations secure. Governments need to keep national security secrets from getting into the hands of people who want to harm them. |
What are the potential consequences of data breaches if nothing is done? | People will continue to be victims of identity theft and all that goes with it, including losing money, and they will lose trust in institutions they used to trust, like banks, hospitals, and the government. |
What are some realistic solutions to data breaches? | Increased security for individuals, like two-factor authentication, stronger passwords, and education to avoid getting scammed. For companies and governments, stronger protections on websites. I need to learn more. |
Many problems for a proposal can be too broad to tackle in a single paper. For example, the sample above reveals that data breaches are indeed a problem but that several aspects can be explored. If you tried to cover all the aspects, you would be left writing general paragraphs with little specific information. The topic needs to be narrowed and focused.
The data breaches example above could be narrowed to the following problems—and possibly even more. Note that the questions start to zero in on possible solutions, too. In your own writing, as you brainstorm, try placing subtopics you discover into their own categories and asking more questions, as shown in Table 6.4 .
Problem: Hackers get into computer systems and steal information. | What tactics do hackers use? What do they steal? What do they do with what they steal? How successful are they? How can hacking be stopped or reduced? |
Problem: Data breaches harm individuals. | What happens to people when their information is stolen? In what ways is their information used? What should people do when they discover their information has been stolen? Are there steps they can take to protect their information? |
Problem: Data breaches harm businesses, organizations, and medical systems. | What happens to businesses, organizations, and medical systems when hackers break in? What kind of information is stolen? How is the information used? What do businesses, organizations, and medical systems do, or what should they do, when they know about a breach? How can data breaches be prevented? |
Problem: Data breaches harm governments. | What happens to governments when hackers break into their systems? What kind of information is stolen? How is the information used? What should governments do when they know about a breach? How can data breaches be prevented? |
The following broad topics are potentially suitable as a start for a proposal. Choose one of these or one of your own, and ask the exploring questions. Then look at your responses, and ask focusing questions. Continue to focus until you have a specific problem that you can discuss in sufficient depth and offer a concrete solution or solutions.
Proposals are rooted in information and evidence; therefore, most proposal assignments require you to conduct research. Depending on your assignment, you may need to do formal research, an activity that involves finding sources and evaluating them for reliability, reading them carefully and taking notes, and citing all words you quote and ideas you borrow. See Research Process: Accessing and Recording Information and Annotated Bibliography: Gathering, Evaluating, and Documenting Sources for detailed instruction on conducting research. If you are proposing a solution to a problem in your local community or on your campus, you may need to conduct primary research as well, such as a survey or interviews with people who live or work there.
Whether you conduct in-depth research or do background reading, keep track of the ideas that come to you and the information you learn. You can write or dictate notes using an app on your phone or computer, or you can jot notes in a journal if you prefer pen and paper. Then, when you are ready to begin to organize what you have learned, you will have a record of your thoughts and information. Always track the source of the information you gather, whether from your reading or a person you interviewed, so that you can return to that source if you need more information and can credit the source in your paper.
You will use evidence to demonstrate that the problem is real and worthy of being solved and that your recommended solution is workable. Choose evidence for your proposal that is rooted in facts. In addition, choose evidence that best supports the angle you take on your topic and meets your instructor’s requirements. Cite all evidence you use from a source. Consider the following kinds of evidence and examples of each:
Definition : an explanation of a key word, idea, or concept.
The Personal Data Notification & Protection Act of 2017 defines a security breach as “a compromise of the security, confidentiality, or integrity of, or the loss of, computerized data that results in… (i) the unauthorized acquisition of sensitive personally identifiable information; or (ii) access to sensitive personally identifiable information that is for an unauthorized purpose, or in excess of authorization.”
Example : an illustration of an idea or concept.
Every month, university staff members receive a fake phishing email from the IT department. The goal is to train employees of the university to be critical readers of every email they receive.
Expert opinion : a statement by a professional whose opinion is respected in the field.
In The Sixth Extinction , science writer Elizabeth Kolbert observes that humans are making the choice about “which evolutionary pathways will remain and open and which will be forever closed” (268).
Fact : information that is true and can be proven correct or accurate. Statements of fact are built on evidence and data.
In March and April of 2020, 43 states in the United States issued orders directing residents to stay home except for essential activities.
Interview : a person-to-person, phone, or remote conversation that involves an interviewer posing questions to another person or group of people.
During an interview, I asked about parents’ decisions to vaccinate their children. One pediatrician said, “The majority of parents see the benefits of immunizations for their children and for public health. For those who don’t, I talk to them and try to understand why they feel the way they do.”
Quotation : the exact words of an author or speaker.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, SpaceX was required to conduct a “comprehensive review of the company’s safety culture, operational decision-making, and process discipline,” in addition to investigating the crash of its prototype spacecraft (Chang).
Statistics : numerical fact or item of data.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, more than 40 million tons of food waste were generated in 2017, comprising 15.2% of all trash sent to landfills (DeSilver).
Survey : a structured interview in which respondents are all asked the same questions and their answers are tabulated and interpreted. Surveys reveal attitudes, beliefs, or habits of the general public or segments of the population.
In a survey of adults conducted in July 2020, 64 percent of respondents said that social media have a mostly negative effect on American society (Auxier).
Drafting a thesis.
When you have a solid grasp of the problem and solution, try drafting a thesis . A thesis is the main idea that you will convey in your proposal and to which all the paragraphs in the paper should relate. In a proposal, you will likely express this main idea in a thesis statement of one or two sentences toward the end of the introduction.
For example, in the thesis statement Shawn Krukowski wrote for his proposal on climate change, he identifies the problem and previews the solutions he presents:
student sample text What is needed to slow climate change is unified action in two key areas—mitigation and adaptation—spurred by government leadership in the United States and a global commitment to addressing the problem immediately. end student sample text
Here is another example that identifies a problem and multiple solutions:
student sample text The number of women employed in the IT field is decreasing every year, a trend that can be changed with a multifaceted approach that includes initiatives in middle schools, high schools, and colleges; active recruitment; mentoring programs; and flexible work arrangements. end student sample text
After you draft a thesis statement, ask these questions and revise it as needed:
A proposal has a recognizable shape, starting with an introduction, followed by discussions of the problem, possible solutions, potential objections to the solutions, and a conclusion with a recommendation. A graphic organizer like Table 6.5 can help you organize your ideas and evidence.
Introduction (usually one paragraph, but can be two) | Draw readers in with an overview. Provide necessary background here or in the description of the problem, defining terms as needed. State the thesis. | |
Description of the Problem (one or more paragraphs) | Explain the problem, establishing it as a problem in need of a solution. Develop the paragraph(s) with evidence. | |
Possible Solution or Solutions (one or more paragraphs) | Describe possible solutions, one at a time. Develop the paragraph(s) with evidence. | |
Objections (one or more paragraphs) | Explain objections readers are likely to raise to the solutions given in the previous paragraph(s). Develop the paragraph(s) with evidence. | |
Conclusion and Recommendations (one or more paragraphs) | Conclude with a summary of the points and recommend a solution or a course of action. |
With a tentative thesis, an organization plan, and evidence, you are ready to begin drafting your proposal. For this assignment, you will discuss a problem, present possible solutions, address objections to the solutions, and conclude with a recommendation.
You may choose to write the introduction first, last, or midway through the drafting process. Whenever you choose to write it, use it to draw readers in. Make the proposal topic clear, and be concise. End the introduction with your thesis statement.
Opening a proposal with an overview of your topic is a reliable strategy, as shown in the following student-written example on women working in IT. The thesis statement, which appeared earlier in this section, is underlined:
student sample text People who work in the information technology (IT) field often start their careers fixing computers and other electronic devices for others. Through experience and education, an IT worker’s career path can branch out to specialize in everything from programming new software to setting up and maintaining networks. The IT field is growing because of the constant development of technology, and the demand for employees also is growing. underline Yet the number of women employed in the IT field is decreasing every year, a trend that can be changed with a multifaceted approach that includes initiatives in middle schools, high schools, and colleges; active recruitment; mentoring programs; and flexible work arrangements end underline . end student sample text
The body paragraphs of your proposal should present the problem, the solution or solutions, and potential objections to the proposed solution(s). As you write these paragraphs, consider using the point , evidence , and analysis pattern:
The paragraphs that follow show the point-evidence-analysis pattern in practice.
Follow the introduction with a discussion of the problem. Using paragraph structure, define the problem and discuss it, drawing on evidence from your sources. This paragraph (or paragraphs) should answer these questions: What is the problem? Why is this a problem? The following example, from the proposal on women working in IT, answers the first question:
student sample text The information technology (IT) field is continuously expanding, with many more positions available than workers to fill them. In fact, the pool of IT professionals was so small that in 2001, Congress raised the visa limit in an effort to fill the gap with employees from overseas (Varma, 2002). And yet the number of women represented in the occupation is decreasing. From 1990 to 2020, the percentage of women in IT declined from 31 percent to 25 percent, even though women make up 47 percent of all employed adults in the United States. According to White (2021), only 19 percent of women pursue a computer science major in college, compared to 27 percent in 1997. Of those women who graduated with a computer science degree, 38 percent are working in the field compared to 56 percent of men, a statistic that indicates women are not staying in the field. Although gender diversity supposedly is valued in the workplace, the underrepresentation of women in IT is clearly a problem. end student sample text
The writer then goes on to answer the second question: Why is this a problem? The writer discusses stereotypes, lack of encouragement and role models, workplace culture, pay, and prospects for advancement (not shown here).
After presenting and explaining the problem, use specific information from the sources you consulted to present the solution or solutions you have discovered through your research. If you are proposing more than one solution, present them one at a time, using headings as appropriate.
The solutions section will likely be the longest part of your proposal. Below are two paragraphs from the proposal about women working in IT. Note how the first paragraph introduces the solutions and how the second paragraph uses evidence to develop the first proposed solution. Also note the informative boldface headings.
student sample text The following suggestions are ways to encourage women to enter IT and build their careers, with the eventual goal of achieving gender balance in the field. The solutions discussed include encouraging interest in computer technology among girls in middle school and high school, actively recruiting college-age women to study IT, and within the field, mentoring women and expanding workplace flexibility to improve retention. end student sample text
student sample text The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) is an organization that encourages girls in middle school and high school to explore their interest in IT. One program, the NCWIT’s Aspirations in Computing, supports women in high school by showing them that they can succeed in technology and introducing them to other students with similar interests. The same program matches middle-school girls with female high-school and college students and awards scholarships for computing and programming competitions. In addition, internships and IT courses in middle school and high school provide opportunities to learn what a career in IT entails, with or without a degree in IT. Opportunities like these give girls and women support and a sense of belonging. end student sample text
The paragraphs that follow (not shown here) continue the discussion of the possible solutions.
Depending on the problem and solution, consider the objections readers may raise, and explain why your proposal is necessary and worthwhile. For example, the proposal on women in IT does not discuss objections because few people would object to the writer’s proposal. Shawn Krukowski, however, in his proposal on climate change, includes a section on objections to taking action. He focuses the discussion on people who deny that climate change is a problem. Would you do the same? Consider whether this section of Shawn’s proposal might have been stronger had he addressed objections to the solutions he proposed—mitigation and adaptation—instead of objections to the problem.
student sample text Despite scientific evidence, some people and groups deny that climate change is real or, if they admit it exists, insist it is not a valid concern. Those who think climate change is not a problem point to Earth’s millennia-long history of changing climate as evidence that life has always persisted. Most of the change, however, predates human civilization, which has benefited from thousands of years of stable climate. The rapid change since the Industrial Revolution is unprecedented in human history. end student sample text
student sample text Those who deny climate change or its dangers seek primarily to relax or remove pollution standards and regulations in order to protect, or maximize profit from, their industries. To date, their lobbying has been successful. For example, the world’s fossil-fuel industry received $5.3 trillion in 2015 alone, while the U.S. wind-energy industry received $12.3 billion in subsidies between 2000 and 2020 (Green America, 2020). end student sample text
The conclusion and recommendation section of your proposal is the part in which you interpret your findings and make a recommendation or give a call to action. At this point, focus on the solution that will best solve the problem, suggesting or summarizing specific actions.
Below is the recommendation section from the proposal about women in IT. In the full conclusion (not shown here), the writer summarizes the main points of the proposal. In the recommendation paragraph that follows, the writer calls for specific actions:
student sample text Many researchers have studied why few women choose IT as a career and why some decide to leave the field. Although the numbers cannot be improved immediately, the following changes in school and the workplace could recruit and retain more women in IT: end student sample text
student sample text With time and effort, these actions may result in more women seeing themselves in long-term IT careers. end student sample text
Including any data you gathered through primary research, such as a survey you created and administered, interviews you conducted, or observational notes you took, you must cite the sources you consulted. These sources appear in the text of your proposal and in a bibliography at the end. The paragraphs in the previous section, including Shawn Krukowski’s proposal, use APA documentation style. For more on documenting sources, see Index and Guide to Documentation , MLA Documentation and Format , and APA Documentation and Format .
An abstract (or executive summary) summarizes your proposal. The purpose is to present information briefly and economically so that readers can decide whether they want to read further. Include your main points, but not the evidence.
Although an abstract or executive summary comes first in a proposal, it is advisable to write it after you have completed your proposal and are certain of your main points. The example below is the abstract from the proposal about women in IT.
student sample text The purpose of this proposal is to raise awareness of the small number of women working in the information technology (IT) field, to examine the factors that contribute to discouraging women from entering IT, and to propose ways to draw women into the field and retain them. Although the IT field is growing, the number of women employed within it remains low. Women may be reluctant to pursue a career in IT because of stereotypes, few role models, and lack of encouragement. Women who have already established a career in IT report leaving the field for these reasons, as well as family responsibilities and lack of advancement. There are several potential ways to raise the number of women in IT. Encouraging interest in computer technology among girls in middle school and high school, recruiting college-age women to study IT, mentoring young professional women, and improving workplace flexibility will, over time, break down stereotypes and increase the number of women in the IT field. end student sample text
With a complete draft in hand, you may engage in peer review with your classmates, giving feedback to each other about the strengths and weaknesses of your drafts. For peer review within a class, your instructor may provide a list of questions or a form for you to complete as you work together.
Other people can provide feedback on your writing beside your classmates. If you have an on-campus writing center, it is well worth your time to make an online or in-person appointment with a tutor at any point in your writing process. You will get valuable comments and improve your ability to review your own writing.
Another way to get fresh eyes on your writing is to ask a friend or family member to read your draft. To get useful feedback, provide a list of questions or a form such as the one shown in Table 6.6 for them to complete as they read.
Does the introduction interest you in the problem? | |
Can you find the thesis statement? Underline it for the writer. | |
Does the thesis state the problem and suggest that a solution will be proposed? | |
Can you identify a paragraph or paragraphs that define and explain a problem? | |
Can you identify a paragraph or paragraphs that propose one or more solutions to the problem? | |
Does the writer address possible objections to the solution or solutions? If not, are there objections the writer should consider? | |
Does each paragraph start with a point stated in the writer’s own words, and does that point relate to the thesis? Mark paragraphs that don’t have a clear point. | |
Does each paragraph support the main point of the paragraph with details and evidence, such as facts, statistics, or examples? Mark paragraphs that need more support and/or explanation. | |
Does each paragraph end with analysis, in the writer’s own words, that draws a conclusion? Mark paragraphs that need analysis. | |
Is there a clear conclusion that makes a recommendation and connects to the thesis statement? | |
Where do you get lost or confused? Mark anything that is unclear. | |
Does the proposal flow from one point to the next? | |
Does the essay have a clear, descriptive title? |
A strong college paper is rarely written in a single draft, so build in time to revise your work. Take time with the comments you receive from your readers, and read your own work with a critical eye.
When you receive feedback from readers—whether from your instructor, your classmates, a writing tutor, or someone else—read each comment carefully to understand what the reader is communicating. Do your best not to become defensive, and be open to suggestions for improvement. Remind yourself that your readers are trying to help. As someone who hasn’t thought about your proposal as much as you have, a new reader can often see strengths and weaknesses that you cannot. Analyze each response, and decide whether acting on a suggestion will make your writing better. Remember that you remain the author, and you make the final call on your writing.
As you read, keep track of the comments your readers make. Pay special attention to strengths and weaknesses that more than one reader identifies. Use that information to improve later assignments as well as your proposal.
The following revising strategies can help you read your draft critically and carefully:
Publishing is a final step in the writing process. You may want to consider publishing your full proposal in your campus newspaper (or rewriting it as a letter to the editor) if your topic is related to your school. Or you may want to present it to an organization or committee on campus that can help you make your solution a reality. If your topic is related to the community in which you live, consider submitting your proposal to the local newspaper or presenting it at a city council meeting. (Note that if you decide to present your proposal orally, you’ll need to figure out in advance the procedure for speaking or getting on a meeting agenda.) If your topic is more general and involves substantial research, consider submitting your proposal to one of these journals that publish undergraduate research work in all fields:
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Honors291g-cdg’s blog.
How to Write a Paper Topic Proposal & Thesis Statement
• PART 1 OF THE ASSIGNMENT: PAPER TOPIC PROPOSAL The formal research paper or honors thesis will provide you with an opportunity to more fully develop the background and implications of one of the topics presented during the semester or explore a related topic not covered. Your paper topic proposal requires research in order to make your proposal as close to your paper topic as possible. I strongly suggest you come to office hours to discuss your topic proposal with me, because I will review all proposals for viability and reject any inappropriate or undoable topics. The written proposal must include the following 2 things: 1. Your proposed paper topic: This part of the proposal is one sentence. Keep your paper topic narrow (but not so narrow that there are no scholarly sources available on the topic). 2. Why the topic is interesting and important: Address how you will focus the topic. If you choose a topic that is not of interest to you, it will show in your paper. This topic must remain of interest to you for two semesters, so give it some serious consideration. As we cover topics in class, undoubtedly something will come up that you want to learn more about. This would be an ideal paper topic. This part of the assignment requires that you include two to three paragraphs about why this topic is interesting and important. Why should the reader care about Roger Williams’s relationship with the Narragansett Indians? If you simply retell the story of his exile from Massachusetts and what he thought of the Narragansett religious beliefs and practices, that’s a book report, not an honors level research paper. However, if you explore the significance Narragansett religion had on Williams, his writings, and his life, you have the makings of an interesting and important research paper. It would require research pertaining to the role of missionaries in the American colonies, research of the Puritan philosophy and why Williams was banned from Massachusetts Bay Colony, and research of Narragansett beliefs and religious views and how they were impacted by the English and Dutch.
What should your paper topic be? Select a course-related topic. I suggest you write about an area that most interests you and in which you might already have some background knowledge. What do you want to learn more about? What are you interested in? Avoid choosing a topic that bores you. Sustained interest in your topic is important, as a topic that bores you makes for a boring paper. It is unlikely you will be able to fool the reader into believing you liked a topic that you didn’t actually like.
Now, narrow down your topic: Once you’ve chosen a topic, ask yourself if it’s narrow enough for you to tackle in the paper or honors thesis you will be writing. Narrow topics generally result in the best papers. One important consideration is the availability of material. Therefore, before making a final decision on your topic, do some initial research to find out the type, quality, and quantity of information available. Finally, how much time do you have to write your paper? The earlier you begin your paper, the more thorough the treatment your topic will receive. If you can’t begin your paper early in the semester, consider limiting your topic so you can deal with it adequately.
• PART 2 OF THE ASSIGNMENT: THESIS STATEMENT What is a thesis statement? A thesis statement is “a proposition stated as a conclusion which you will then demonstrate or ‘prove’ in your paper.” It is the focal point around which your research will revolve. It is usually stated in the form of an assertion or statement you resolve through your research. It’s not a question; it’s an answer, such as: “Key decisions in large U.S. cities are made by a handful of individuals, drawn largely from business, industrial, and municipal circles, who occupy the top of the power hierarchy.” “Cigarette smoking harms the body by constricting the blood vessels, accelerating the heartbeat, paralyzing the cilia in the bronchial tubes, and activating excessive gastric secretions in the stomach.” A thesis takes a position on an issue. Because you must take a position or develop a claim about a subject, you need to convey that position or claim in a thesis statement in your research paper. It is different from a topic sentence in that a thesis statement is not neutral. It announces, in addition to the topic, the argument you want to make or the point you want to prove. This is your own opinion that you intend to back up. This is your reason and motivation for writing. A thesis statement: i) tells the reader how you will interpret the significance of the subject matter under discussion. ii) is a road map for the paper; in other words, it tells the reader what to expect from the rest of the paper. iii) directly answers the question asked of you. A thesis is an interpretation of a question or subject, not the subject itself. The subject, or topic, of an essay might be World War II or Moby Dick; a thesis must then offer a way to understand the war or the novel. iv) makes a claim that others might dispute. v) is usually a single sentence somewhere in your first paragraph that presents your argument to the reader. The rest of the paper, the body of the essay, gathers and organizes evidence that will persuade the reader of the logic of your interpretation. After you have done some preliminary research and reading on your narrowed-down topic, you should formulate a single-sentence thesis statement.
Writing in college often takes the form of persuasion – convincing others that you have an interesting, logical point of view on the subject you are studying. Persuasion is a skill you practice regularly in your daily life. You persuade your roommate to clean up, your parents to let you borrow the car, your friend to vote for your favorite candidate or policy. In college, course assignments often ask you to make a persuasive case in writing. You are asked to convince your reader of your point of view. This form of persuasion, often called academic argument, follows a predictable pattern in writing. After a brief introduction of your topic, you state your point of view on the topic directly and often in one sentence. This sentence is the thesis statement, and it serves as a summary of the argument you’ll make in the rest of your paper.
What is the purpose of the thesis statement? The thesis statement guides you, enabling you to focus your research paper and outline what you will write. It allows you to clarify your thinking and determine what is relevant and irrelevant as you do your research. Your research paper must be thesis-driven. A high school level “report” will not receive a passing grade. The thesis must pull together the analysis that follows. Your thesis statement must be specific – it should cover only what you will discuss in your research paper and must be supported with specific evidence. The thesis statement usually appears at the end of the first paragraph of a paper. Early in your paper I should be able to locate the thesis statement. If I ask you “Where is the thesis statement?” you should be able to point to it immediately.
How do you come up with a thesis statement? A thesis is the result of a lengthy thinking process and careful deliberation after preliminary research. Formulating a thesis is not the first thing you do after reading a writing assignment. Before you develop an argument on any topic, you have to collect and organize evidence, look for possible relationships between known facts (such as surprising contrasts or similarities), and think about the significance of these relationships. Once you do this thinking, you will probably have a “working thesis,” a basic main idea, an argument that you think you can support with evidence but that may need adjustment along the way. Your topic may change somewhat as you write, so you may need to revise your thesis statement to reflect exactly what you have discussed in the paper.
Thesis Statement Samples: 1) The non-thesis thesis: You must take a stand or you’ll end up with a “non-thesis thesis.” a) Bad Thesis 1: In his article, Stanley Fish shows that we don’t really have the right to free speech. b) Bad Thesis 2: This paper will consider the advantages and disadvantages of certain restrictions on free speech. c) Better Thesis 1: Stanley Fish’s argument that free speech exists more as a political prize than as a legal reality ignores the fact that even as a political prize it still serves the social end of creating a general cultural atmosphere of tolerance that may ultimately promote free speech in our nation just as effectively as any binding law. d) Better Thesis 2: Even though there may be considerable advantages to restricting hate speech, the possibility of chilling open dialogue on crucial racial issues is too great and too high a price to pay. 2) The overly broad thesis: A thesis should be as specific as possible, and it should be tailored to reflect the scope of the paper. It is not possible, for instance, to write about the history of English literature in a five-page paper. In addition to choosing simply a smaller topic, strategies to narrow a thesis include specifying a method or perspective or delineating certain limits. a) Bad Thesis 1: There should be no restrictions on the First Amendment. b) Bad Thesis 2: The government has the right to limit free speech. c) Better Thesis 1: There should be no restrictions on the First Amendment if those restrictions are intended merely to protect individuals from unspecified or otherwise unquantifiable or unverifiable “emotional distress.” d) Better Thesis 2: The government has the right to limit free speech in cases of overtly racist or sexist language because our failure to address such abuses would effectively suggest that our society condones such ignorant and hateful views. 3) The incontestable thesis: A thesis must be arguable. And in order for it to be arguable, it must present a view that someone might reasonably contest. Sometimes a thesis ultimately says, “people should be good,” or “bad things are bad.” Such thesis statements are redundant or so universally accepted that there is no need to prove the point. a) Bad Thesis 1: Although we have the right to say what we want, we should avoid hurting other people’s feelings. b) Bad Thesis 2: There are always alternatives to using racist speech. c) Better Thesis 1: If we can accept that emotional injuries can be just as painful as physical ones we should limit speech that may hurt people’s feelings in ways similar to the way we limit speech that may lead directly to bodily harm. d) Better Thesis 2: The “fighting words” exception to free speech is not legitimate because it wrongly considers speech as an action. 4) The “list essay” thesis: A good argumentative thesis provides not only a position on an issue but also suggests the structure of the paper. The thesis should allow the reader to imagine and anticipate the flow of the paper, in which a sequence of points logically proves the essay’s main assertion. A list essay provides no such structure, so that different points and paragraphs appear arbitrary with no logical connection to one another. a) Bad Thesis 1: There are many reasons we need to limit hate speech. b) Bad Thesis 2: Some of the arguments in favor of regulating pornography are persuasive. c) Better Thesis 1: Among the many reasons we need to limit hate speech the most compelling ones all refer to our history of discrimination and prejudice, and it is, ultimately, for the purpose of trying to repair our troubled racial society that we need hate speech legislation. d) Better Thesis 2: Some of the arguments in favor of regulating pornography are persuasive because they ask pornography proponents to ask themselves whether such a profession would be on a list of professions they would desire for their daughters or mothers. 5) The research paper thesis: In another course this would be acceptable, and, in fact, possibly even desirable. But in this kind of course, a thesis statement that makes a factual claim that can be verified only with scientific, sociological, psychological, or other kind of experimental evidence is not appropriate. You need to construct a thesis that you are prepared to prove using the tools you have available, without having to consult the world’s leading expert on the issue to provide you with a definitive judgment. a) Bad Thesis 1: Americans today are not prepared to give up on the concept of free speech. b) Bad Thesis 2: Hate speech can cause emotional pain and suffering in victims just as intense as physical battery. c) Better Thesis 1: Whether or not the cultural concept of free speech bears any relation to the reality of 1st amendment legislation and jurisprudence, its continuing social function as a promoter of tolerance and intellectual exchange trumps the call for politicization (according to Fish’s agenda) of the term. d) Better Thesis 2: The various arguments against the regulation of hate speech depend on the unspoken and unexamined assumption that emotional pain is trivial.
How do I know if my thesis is strong? If there’s time, run it by a professor or make an appointment at the Writing Center to get some feedback (http://www.umass.edu/writingcenter/index.html). Even if you do not have time to get advice elsewhere, you can do some thesis evaluation of your own. When reviewing your first draft of your working thesis, ask yourself the following: 1) Do I answer the question? Re-reading the question prompt after constructing a working thesis can help you fix an argument that misses the focus of the question. 2) Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? If your thesis simply states facts that no one would, or even could, disagree with, it’s possible that you are simply providing a summary, rather than making an argument. 3) Is my thesis statement specific enough? Thesis statements that are too vague often do not have a strong argument. If your thesis contains words like “good” or “successful,” see if you could be more specific: why is something “good”; what specifically makes something “successful”? 4) Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test? If a reader’s first response is, “So what?” then you need to clarify, to forge a relationship, or to connect to a larger issue. 5) Does my essay support my thesis specifically and without wandering? If your thesis and the body of your essay do not seem to go together, one of them has to change. It’s okay to change your working thesis to reflect things you have figured out in the course of writing your paper. Remember, always reassess and revise your writing as necessary. 6) Does my thesis pass the “how and why?” test? If a reader’s first response is “how?” or “why?” your thesis may be too open-ended and lack guidance for the reader. See what you can add to give the reader a better take on your position right from the beginning.
Jane M. Smith Honors ____ [Date] Paper Topic Proposal and Thesis Statement Proposed paper topic: [One sentence.] Why the topic is interesting and important: [Two to three paragraphs.] See details above on what is required of this section. Thesis statement: [One sentence.]
Easy steps to create an effective essay proposal in minutes.
In today’s educational landscape, one of the most crucial skills that students need to possess is the ability to present a compelling argument through a well-written essay. However, crafting a convincing paper requires a solid foundation and careful planning. This article aims to guide you through the process of developing an impactful essay proposal – a blueprint for your future masterpiece. By following these steps, you will gain a deeper understanding of the proposed topic and increase your chances of delivering a persuasive and coherent paper.
To embark on this exciting journey, it is essential to first identify a topic that resonates with your personal interests and expertise. A thoughtful and engaging proposal distinguishes itself by selecting a subject that not only captivates your readers but also allows you to demonstrate your knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject matter. Once you have selected a topic, it is time to refine your focus and develop a clear thesis statement that encapsulates the main argument of your essay.
After determining your topic and thesis, it is crucial to conduct thorough research to support your proposed argument. Utilize reputable sources, such as academic journals, books, and reputable websites, to gather evidence and develop a persuasive case. Remember to critically evaluate the sources you choose and consider multiple perspectives to provide a well-rounded analysis in your essay proposal. Utilize the power of paraphrasing and quoting to strengthen your arguments and provide credibility to your assertions. Additionally, compiling an annotated bibliography can help you track and organize the sources you plan to use in your final paper.
Before diving into the specifics of writing an essay proposal, it is essential to have a clear understanding of its purpose. An essay proposal serves as a preliminary outline of your intended essay, highlighting key ideas and arguments that will be explored in your writing. It acts as a roadmap, guiding both the writer and the reader through the main points that will be covered in the coming essay.
One of the primary objectives of an essay proposal is to present a compelling argument or thesis statement. This statement should clearly state the main point you will be making in your essay and provide a preview of the supporting evidence or arguments that will be presented. By doing so, the essay proposal sets the stage for the essay itself and helps the writer stay focused on the main ideas they want to convey.
Furthermore, an essay proposal allows the writer to demonstrate their understanding of the subject matter and their ability to articulate their thoughts clearly. Through the proposal, the writer can showcase their research skills, knowledge of relevant literature, and critical thinking abilities. It is also an opportunity to demonstrate that the writer has a unique angle or perspective on the topic, which can add value to the overall discussion.
In addition, an essay proposal serves as a tool for receiving feedback and guidance from instructors or peers. By presenting a concise summary of your essay’s main points and arguments, others can provide valuable insights and suggestions for improvement. This feedback can help refine and strengthen the overall argument and ensure that the essay effectively addresses the intended audience.
Overall, understanding the purpose of an essay proposal is crucial for successful essay writing. It provides an opportunity to plan and organize your thoughts, present a persuasive argument, showcase your knowledge and skills, and seek guidance from others. By having a clear understanding of the purpose, you can approach the task of writing an essay proposal with confidence and effectiveness.
To create a compelling and well-informed essay, it is crucial to thoroughly research your chosen topic. By conducting in-depth research, you will gain a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter, allowing you to craft an essay that is both insightful and engaging for your readers.
When researching your topic, it is important to explore a variety of reputable sources, such as academic journals, books, and credible websites. These sources will provide you with the necessary evidence and information to support your arguments and strengthen the overall credibility of your essay.
In addition to sourcing information, it is also essential to critically analyze and evaluate the material you gather during your research. Take note of any conflicting viewpoints or gaps in existing knowledge, as these can serve as potential areas for exploration and discussion in your essay. By conducting thorough research, you can offer a well-rounded and balanced perspective on your chosen topic.
Furthermore, conducting comprehensive research will also help you identify any potential biases or assumptions that may exist within the existing literature. By being aware of these biases, you can ensure that you present a fair and objective analysis in your essay.
Overall, thorough research is a vital step in the essay writing process. By delving deep into your topic and exploring a range of reliable sources, you will not only enhance your own understanding but also provide your readers with a well-researched and informative essay.
One of the most crucial elements of an essay proposal is a clear and concise thesis statement. The thesis statement is the central point or argument that you will be making in your essay. It serves as a roadmap for the reader, giving them a clear understanding of the main idea you will be exploring. In order to effectively communicate your thesis statement, it is important to choose your words carefully and ensure that your message is strong and impactful.
When stating your thesis statement, it is important to use strong and definitive language. Avoid vague or uncertain phrases, and instead, opt for clear and concise statements that leave no room for confusion. Your thesis statement should be specific and focused, clearly indicating the direction your essay will take. This will help your reader understand exactly what you will be arguing and what evidence you will be presenting to support your claims.
Additionally, it is important to ensure that your thesis statement is compelling and engaging. Use language that grabs the reader’s attention and makes them excited to delve into your essay. Consider using powerful verbs and vivid descriptions to make your thesis statement stand out. By clearly stating your thesis statement in a captivating manner, you will make an immediate impact on your reader and set the tone for the rest of your essay.
To summarize, clearly stating your thesis statement is essential in writing an effective essay proposal. It provides a clear direction for your essay and gives the reader a sense of what to expect. Use strong and definitive language, avoid vagueness, and make your thesis statement compelling and engaging. By doing so, you will captivate your reader and lay a strong foundation for the rest of your essay.
Organizing your essay in a clear and logical structure is crucial to effectively communicate your ideas to the reader. In this section, we will discuss how to outline your proposed essay structure.
To begin, it is important to decide on the main points or arguments that you will be addressing in your essay. These main points will serve as the core of your essay, and each one should be supported by evidence or examples.
Remember to use logical transitions between paragraphs to ensure a smooth flow of ideas. Additionally, using headings and subheadings can help organize your essay and make it easier for the reader to navigate through your arguments.
By outlining your proposed essay structure, you will have a clear roadmap for your writing process. This will make it easier for you to develop your ideas and ensure that your essay is well-structured and coherent.
In order to successfully persuade your audience to accept your proposal, you must present a compelling argument that not only clearly conveys your ideas, but also provides strong evidence and reasons to support your claims. A convincing argument will appeal to the logical and emotional side of your readers, making them more likely to be swayed by your proposal.
Emphasize the Benefits: One effective way to make your argument convincing is by highlighting the potential benefits that your proposal can bring. Explain how your proposal addresses a specific problem or need, and how it can lead to positive outcomes. Use specific examples and evidence to demonstrate the advantages and the potential impact your proposal can have.
Address Counterarguments: When making a persuasive argument, it is important to acknowledge any potential counterarguments or objections that might be raised by your audience. By addressing these counterarguments and offering well-reasoned responses, you can strengthen your argument and show that you have considered different perspectives. This demonstrates your credibility and ability to anticipate potential challenges or concerns.
Provide Evidence: To support your argument, it is crucial to provide solid evidence that illustrates the validity of your proposal. This can include statistics, research findings, expert opinions, or real-life examples that demonstrate the effectiveness or feasibility of your proposal. Make sure your evidence is reliable, up-to-date, and relevant to your argument.
Appeal to Emotions: While logic and evidence play a significant role in a convincing argument, appealing to your audience’s emotions can also be highly persuasive. Tap into their values, beliefs, and emotions by using persuasive language, personal anecdotes, or powerful imagery. When your readers can connect with your proposal on an emotional level, they are more likely to empathize and support your argument.
Conclusion: By providing a convincing argument for your proposal, you can increase your chances of gaining support and acceptance. Remember to emphasize the benefits, address counterarguments, provide evidence, and appeal to emotions. This will help you create a strong case for your proposal and make your essay more persuasive overall.
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A research proposal is a strategic tool for a world of uncharted discoveries. It is the entrance to the world of scientific inquiry, where the bounds of human knowledge are pushed, and new perspectives are unveiled.
Here’s a quick breakdown of how to write a research proposal :
Research proposals accomplished two things at once: 1) persuade the academics that the proposed study deserves funding and 2) lead the researcher on an exciting intellectual quest.
The proposal combines a call to action, a request for financial support, and a mission statement. It's a creative work that unites the brilliance of creation with the powerful ability to persuade, opening up a whole new range of alternatives.
Its main goal is to persuade a funding organization or other interested parties that the suggested project is worth the investment and that the scholar has the competence and assets necessary to complete it adequately.
The proposal has to be crystal clear, direct to the point, and persuasive, making a strong argument for the significance of the study, its future contribution, and the original strategy the scholar would employ. Each ambitious researcher should have a strong study proposal, which may lead to funding possibilities, team projects, and even brand-new insights.
We bet you'd fancy a guide on how to write a proposal for a research paper with detailed information and explaining steps required to complete your work successfully. Then, let's delve into the following sections right away!
The length of a research proposal can vary depending on several factors, but here's a quick guide:
There is no research proposal template that is universally applicable to all types of papers. However, no matter how extensive and in-depth your study is, you will discover that the majority of research paper proposal example templates contain the following information:
So, how to start a research proposal? The logical answer is to first come up with a proper title. A well-written title can greatly increase the likelihood of a research article being read and referenced. For instance, a study titled 'The Effect of Media Platforms on Social Development: A Systematic Review' effectively communicates the study's focus while clarifying how it was conducted. The reader will find it simpler to comprehend the study's goal and any potential ramifications owing to the title's precision and informational nature.
An abstract provides a 150-300 word summary of a research paper and its primary objectives, methods, results, and conclusions. As it is frequently the first thing readers see and can influence whether they continue reading the complete article, the abstract is an important part of a research study. An effective abstract should summarize the paper's ideas, be simple to read, and emphasize the importance and possible influence of the work. It should give readers a thorough understanding of the paper's scope and purpose while piquing their interest in learning more.
If you're wondering how to write a research proposal context, remember that here you should provide your paper's structure and background information. Typically, you should discuss related literature reviews and any research gaps you'll explore throughout the study. It's also suggested that you stress the importance of undertaking the research and mentioning related theoretical and conceptual frameworks employed. Considering these, providing the context in your proposal is crucial since it helps your audience comprehend the study's relevance and how it fits into a broader perspective.
The research question is the foundation of your proposal that shapes your study design and defines its main goal. It demonstrates your desire to learn more while furthering your academic career. Suppose you're writing a proposal about comparing the US and UK healthcare systems. In that case, you can come up with the following research question: 'How do low-income citizens with severe diseases do in terms of their physical well-being in the US and the UK?'
In the research proposal, you should go into depth about how you conducted your study. Explain your key research tools and the techniques you employed to get your results. If you conducted interviews, tell the reader about the subjects of your questions. Lastly, provide your analysis of the results.
Afterward, you should describe the significance of your work. Every research proposal sample will briefly explain how your research is unique and contributes to the topic of study. You might wish to provide reasoning for the necessity of your study at this given moment. For example: 'The study's findings connect Psycho with other contemporary movies that share the same shock-factor traits. The startling aspect is more difficult to create today, as seen by the rise of low-budget, badly made horror movies that rely on shock rather than suspense to keep viewers' interest.'
Finally, you should compile a list of the articles and books most helpful to your research. You may need to do so according to the guidelines set forth by your instructor for research papers (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.). You could also develop an annotated bibliography in which you explain how each resource aided your inquiry.
Your outline format should look like the research proposal example provided above. Ensure you have a well-defined research topic and a clear plan for organizing your approach before starting the proposal writing process. Our history essay writer suggests that the following be included in your research proposal outline:
I. Introduction
II. Literature Review
III. Methodology
IV. Expected Results
V. Timeline
VII. Conclusion
VIII. References
This research paper outline should give you a clear idea of how to write a research proposal example effortlessly. Now, let our research proposal writing service tells out more about the formatting details.
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A research proposal format might be as short as a few paragraphs or as extensive as up to ten pages for dissertations. When unsure how to format a research proposal, first discuss details with your teacher, such as length, content, style, etc.
However, one of the most demanded styles is the APA research proposal format, which follows a specific format as given in the American Psychological Association guidelines. As it guides the project and helps guarantee that the study is thorough, ethical, and evidence-based, a research proposal example APA is usually generated before the study is conducted.
Here is the general APA format:
Research proposals are the foundation of scholarly investigation. Therefore, thinking of fresh and distinctive research proposal ideas might be difficult. Due to this, our paper writers have supplied some excellent research proposal topics that will add excitement and enthusiasm to your academic endeavor:
Here is a research proposal example APA. Notice the structure of a short research paper (around 15 pages) and the APA formatting.
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To wrap up, we hope our article assisted you in writing a research proposal. In addition to providing a thorough analysis of all the crucial elements of a research project, we provided guidance on how to write a research paper proposal that stands out.
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What is a research proposal, what is the format of a research proposal.
Daniel Parker
is a seasoned educational writer focusing on scholarship guidance, research papers, and various forms of academic essays including reflective and narrative essays. His expertise also extends to detailed case studies. A scholar with a background in English Literature and Education, Daniel’s work on EssayPro blog aims to support students in achieving academic excellence and securing scholarships. His hobbies include reading classic literature and participating in academic forums.
is an expert in nursing and healthcare, with a strong background in history, law, and literature. Holding advanced degrees in nursing and public health, his analytical approach and comprehensive knowledge help students navigate complex topics. On EssayPro blog, Adam provides insightful articles on everything from historical analysis to the intricacies of healthcare policies. In his downtime, he enjoys historical documentaries and volunteering at local clinics.
Some applications will ask for an essay outlining a proposed project, including details of the design and plan for carrying it out. Remember that your essay is essentially an exercise in expository writing, but with a twist—it also needs to be persuasive.
As you get ready to write, think about the following questions:
Selection committees want to learn about you . Be sure to connect the opportunity at hand to your past experiences—compelling moments in your personal and/or academic life, interesting anecdotes, something that shaped your outlook or motivated you. Make sure you focus on relevant experiences, though. Your essay should not be a narrative version of your resume nor a cover letter. Tell the committee who you are, what you value, what makes you "tick," what you want to do, how you plan to do it, and why it’s important—and do so in an honest voice.
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Published on 30 October 2022 by Shona McCombes and Tegan George. Revised on 13 June 2023.
A research proposal describes what you will investigate, why it’s important, and how you will conduct your research.
The format of a research proposal varies between fields, but most proposals will contain at least these elements:
Literature review.
While the sections may vary, the overall objective is always the same. A research proposal serves as a blueprint and guide for your research plan, helping you get organised and feel confident in the path forward you choose to take.
Research proposal purpose, research proposal examples, research design and methods, contribution to knowledge, research schedule, frequently asked questions.
Academics often have to write research proposals to get funding for their projects. As a student, you might have to write a research proposal as part of a grad school application , or prior to starting your thesis or dissertation .
In addition to helping you figure out what your research can look like, a proposal can also serve to demonstrate why your project is worth pursuing to a funder, educational institution, or supervisor.
Show your reader why your project is interesting, original, and important. | |
Demonstrate your comfort and familiarity with your field. Show that you understand the current state of research on your topic. | |
Make a case for your . Demonstrate that you have carefully thought about the data, tools, and procedures necessary to conduct your research. | |
Confirm that your project is feasible within the timeline of your program or funding deadline. |
The length of a research proposal can vary quite a bit. A bachelor’s or master’s thesis proposal can be just a few pages, while proposals for PhD dissertations or research funding are usually much longer and more detailed. Your supervisor can help you determine the best length for your work.
One trick to get started is to think of your proposal’s structure as a shorter version of your thesis or dissertation , only without the results , conclusion and discussion sections.
Download our research proposal template
Writing a research proposal can be quite challenging, but a good starting point could be to look at some examples. We’ve included a few for you below.
Like your dissertation or thesis, the proposal will usually have a title page that includes:
The first part of your proposal is the initial pitch for your project. Make sure it succinctly explains what you want to do and why.
Your introduction should:
To guide your introduction , include information about:
As you get started, it’s important to demonstrate that you’re familiar with the most important research on your topic. A strong literature review shows your reader that your project has a solid foundation in existing knowledge or theory. It also shows that you’re not simply repeating what other people have already done or said, but rather using existing research as a jumping-off point for your own.
In this section, share exactly how your project will contribute to ongoing conversations in the field by:
Following the literature review, restate your main objectives . This brings the focus back to your own project. Next, your research design or methodology section will describe your overall approach, and the practical steps you will take to answer your research questions.
? or ? , , or research design? | |
, )? ? | |
, , , )? | |
? |
To finish your proposal on a strong note, explore the potential implications of your research for your field. Emphasise again what you aim to contribute and why it matters.
For example, your results might have implications for:
Last but not least, your research proposal must include correct citations for every source you have used, compiled in a reference list . To create citations quickly and easily, you can use our free APA citation generator .
Some institutions or funders require a detailed timeline of the project, asking you to forecast what you will do at each stage and how long it may take. While not always required, be sure to check the requirements of your project.
Here’s an example schedule to help you get started. You can also download a template at the button below.
Download our research schedule template
Research phase | Objectives | Deadline |
---|---|---|
1. Background research and literature review | 20th January | |
2. Research design planning | and data analysis methods | 13th February |
3. Data collection and preparation | with selected participants and code interviews | 24th March |
4. Data analysis | of interview transcripts | 22nd April |
5. Writing | 17th June | |
6. Revision | final work | 28th July |
If you are applying for research funding, chances are you will have to include a detailed budget. This shows your estimates of how much each part of your project will cost.
Make sure to check what type of costs the funding body will agree to cover. For each item, include:
To determine your budget, think about:
Once you’ve decided on your research objectives , you need to explain them in your paper, at the end of your problem statement.
Keep your research objectives clear and concise, and use appropriate verbs to accurately convey the work that you will carry out for each one.
I will compare …
A research aim is a broad statement indicating the general purpose of your research project. It should appear in your introduction at the end of your problem statement , before your research objectives.
Research objectives are more specific than your research aim. They indicate the specific ways you’ll address the overarching aim.
A PhD, which is short for philosophiae doctor (doctor of philosophy in Latin), is the highest university degree that can be obtained. In a PhD, students spend 3–5 years writing a dissertation , which aims to make a significant, original contribution to current knowledge.
A PhD is intended to prepare students for a career as a researcher, whether that be in academia, the public sector, or the private sector.
A master’s is a 1- or 2-year graduate degree that can prepare you for a variety of careers.
All master’s involve graduate-level coursework. Some are research-intensive and intend to prepare students for further study in a PhD; these usually require their students to write a master’s thesis . Others focus on professional training for a specific career.
Critical thinking refers to the ability to evaluate information and to be aware of biases or assumptions, including your own.
Like information literacy , it involves evaluating arguments, identifying and solving problems in an objective and systematic way, and clearly communicating your ideas.
If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.
McCombes, S. & George, T. (2023, June 13). How to Write a Research Proposal | Examples & Templates. Scribbr. Retrieved 9 September 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/the-research-process/research-proposal-explained/
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Reporter, HuffPost National Desk
Five years ago, Kris Kobach, Kansas’ former secretary of state, announced on Fox Business Network that, in order to quickly deport undocumented immigrants seeking asylum in the United States, the Trump administration would need “camps.”
Or, as he also put it, “processing towns.”
The U.S. government owns “thousands of empty mobile home trailers,” Kobach told host Lou Dobbs , and it should “deploy them to border cities and create processing towns that are confined.” People who cross the border seeking refuge in the United States, he said, should be detained there until their claims are rejected, then promptly expelled from the country.
Kobach, then the general counsel of a private border wall-building effort — two former leaders of which later went to prison for defrauding donors – was a lonely voice at the time. But in the years since, the Trump wing of the Republican Party has come around to his point of view.
Key allies and advisers aren’t mincing their words: In order to carry out Trump’s mass deportation agenda, the United States will need enormous prison camps for immigrant families, part of an effort to deport millions of people at a record pace.
The mass deportation operation will be a “bloody story,” Trump said last weekend . And key advisers have promised a historic infrastructure project to churn people out of the country.
The camps will be built “on open land in Texas near the border” and should have the capacity to house as many as 70,000 people, which would double the United States’ current immigrant detention capacity , Stephen Miller, the main point man on immigration in Trump’s White House, said last year . In multiple interviews , Miller has gleefully described daily flights out of the camps to all corners of the world, an undertaking he said would be “greater than any national infrastructure project” in American history.
“Trump comes back in January — I’ll be on his heels coming back, and I will run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen,” Thomas Homan , who served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the Trump administration, said in July at a conference for Trump-aligned conservatives.
“They ain’t seen shit yet,” Homan said. “Wait until 2025.”
Trump himself, as usual, has stayed away from the details of his plan to deport more than 10 million people, and his campaign didn’t respond to HuffPost’s questions about specific policies.
Instead, the campaign’s national press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said in a statement: “President Trump will restore his effective immigration policies, implement brand new crackdowns that will send shockwaves to all the world’s criminal smugglers, and marshal every federal and state power necessary to institute the largest deportation operation of illegal criminals, drug dealers, and human traffickers in American history.”
Trump has frequently invoked former President Dwight D. Eisenhower ― whose administration infamously oversaw a massive, deadly deportation program named after a slur, “Operation Wetback” — as a model.
That program, launched in 1954 to push undocumented migrants into Mexico, has been a Trump hobbyhorse for years. In 2016, CNN ’s Jake Tapper pressed Trump to respond to critics who called it a “shameful chapter in American history”; Trump countered by saying, “Some people think it was a very effective chapter.”
Eisenhower “did a massive deportation of people,” Trump told Time in April this year. “He got very proficient at it.”
“I will run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen ... They ain’t seen shit yet. Wait until 2025.” - Thomas Homan, former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the Trump administration
Eisenhower’s deportation effort resulted in the expulsion of more than 1 million people, according to a government report. That tally is likely exaggerated , though, and includes a significant number of people who today might be said to have “self-deported” ― that is, they left the country on their own rather than face arrest or deal with court proceedings.
Government records detail a militaristic operation using trucks, jeeps and planes. The government conducted naval deportations on cargo ships that a congressional investigation later compared to cramped slave ships — and which led to highly publicized drownings . Law enforcement agencies, from local police up to the federal Border Patrol, pitched in on mass sweeps of industrial areas and immigrant-dense neighborhoods.
Press clippings from the time noted numerous camps were used to house people awaiting deportation. The Los Angeles Times described one such “concentration camp” as “a wire-fenced security camp” capable of holding 1,000 people in Elysian Park. Within a few years, the same area would host Dodger Stadium. Subsequent coverage included a photo of a 10-month-old in her mother’s arms — “youngest internee,” the caption reads — and a 1-year-old American citizen being deported along with his family. Other stories referred to “ human freight ” being shipped back to Mexico.
“I have seen mothers deport[ed] and leave on this side their nursing babies,” one South Texas resident reportedly wrote to the attorney general . “What is wrong with this country any way?”
The nature of immigration, and immigration law, was much different in the ’50s , when the U.S.-Mexico border was more porous and seasonal migration was common. But Trump and the modern Republican Party have embraced the Eisenhower operation’s purge of immigrants: At the Republican National Convention, scores of people held up “Mass Deportation Now!” signs distributed by organizers, and this year’s GOP platform promises “the largest deportation operation in American history.”
Aspects of Trump’s plan would almost certainly be challenged in court . But the scope of Republicans ’ ambitions is nonetheless startling.
The GOP platform calls for immigration arrests executed in cooperation with local police and “massive portions of Federal Law Enforcement” who’ve been shifted from their normal work over to immigration enforcement, alongside “thousands of Troops” who would be transferred to the border. The platform also calls for invoking the Alien Enemies Act , an 18th-century law that gives the president broad powers to deport people from hostile nations. Trump has reportedly considered using the law as a pretext to deport people whose countries of origins contain drug cartels and gangs, accusing them of invading the United States.
If Trump and his team are serious about deporting every undocumented person in America, they’ll need a place to put them first.
Despite Trump’s hatred for “catch-and-release”— the fishing term he uses to describe the policy of releasing immigrants from custody as their legal cases proceed — the simple fact is there was, and is, nowhere near enough detention space available to incarcerate everyone Trump wants to deport.
Immigration officials struggled to keep up with the Trump White House’s demand for space to detain immigrants in deportation proceedings, according to records obtained by NPR . Trump increased the number of proceedings initiated against undocumented immigrants each year — but that didn’t mean that everyone facing deportation was actually forced to leave the country. Instead, it just left behind a huge backlog of cases for his successor.
Over the course of Trump’s presidency, U.S. migrant detention expanded to new heights , part of a decades-long trend of putting more and more people behind bars.
Miller was perhaps the most influential voice in Trump’s ear on immigration, including on Trump’s infamous family separation policy and his ban on immigrants from several Muslim-majority countries.
And he has been clear about his plans for Trump’s next term in office.
Rather than simply trying to block immigrants and asylum seekers from entering the country in the first place, as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is trying to do with his militarized “ Operation Lone Star ,” Miller envisions a “detain-and-remove strategy,” as he told Charlie Kirk last September . Such a strategy would involve local, state and federal law enforcement, as well as the U.S. military, he said, including “deputized” National Guard soldiers.
“You would need to switch to indiscriminate, or large-scale, enforcement activities ― involving, basically, going into any place where there’s known congregations of illegals and holding everybody on sight, determining who’s there illegally, and then taking people who are there illegally into federal detention,” he said on “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show” in November.
The detention facilities Miller envisions would be massive. He’s described them as “large-scale staging grounds near the border, most likely in Texas,” and “an extremely large holding area” that “could hold upwards of 50, 60, 70 thousand illegal aliens.”
The camps would have “constantly” operating runways, Miller said separately in November, with a packed schedule of lights — “probably military aircraft, some existing DHS assets” — shipping deportees around the world.
Miller isn’t the only one thinking about this. Former Trump officials told NBC News in July that the mass deportation effort would likely involve the Pentagon, which “would be asked to participate in either setting up detention camps or relocating migrants to foreign military bases.”
The Interior Department would be asked to provide federal land for deportation sites, the report added, describing interviews with the former officials. The Department of Justice and Department of Health and Human Services would also be involved, according to the report — the latter because it’s the government agency that currently deals with unaccompanied children.
Trump has not denied or distanced himself from any of this. Shortly after he praised Eisenhower’s “massive deportation” operation to Time, Trump said he would use the National Guard to round up people — and “if they weren’t able to, then I’d use the military.”
Without naming him, Trump also embraced Miller’s theory that undocumented people are actually enemy invaders, and therefore fair game to be deported by the military. And, pressed by his interviewer on the need to build new migrant detention camps, the former president dodged the question before saying, “I would not rule out anything.”
“It’s possible that we’ll do it to an extent but we shouldn’t have to do very much of it, because we’re going to be moving them out as soon as we get to it,” Trump said.
On this point — that massive camps won’t be necessary, because the deportations will happen very quickly — Miller and others with experience in the Department of Homeland Security disagree.
“If a deportation team goes to a particular house and arrests an illegal alien family — so, say, a mother, a father, and four children — there’s not just a plane on a tarmac that’s 10 minutes away ready to take them,” Miller told Kirk.
Rather, Miller said, “you need to then build massive staging facilities” to hold people until they’re shipped out of the country.
Other Homeland Security veterans agree with that assessment, even if they’re less giddy about it.
“The nightmare becomes obvious,” Thomas Warrick, a former DHS deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism policy, wrote in The Hill Thursday . “A second Trump administration could detain hundreds of thousands of people, but it does not have the ability or the capacity to move them out of the country as fast as ICE, the National Guard and local law enforcement can bring them in. Expect to see families behind barbed wire in overcrowded camps, desperate U.S.-citizen children looking for missing immigrant parents, and U.S. citizens swept up in immigration raids.”
To get a sense of what future deportees might find in these camps, just look to historic conditions in immigration detention ― particularly at processing centers near the border, where migrants are sent after being arrested by Border Patrol.
In 2019, during a period of more frequent migration, the government erected tent cities to detain new arrivals. Conditions were poor. At one point, government lawyers argued that the administration wasn’t required to provide soap to children. Squalid living arrangements and dangerous overcrowding were common.
At an El Paso Border Patrol facility, border agents told government investigators that “some of the detainees had been held in standing-room-only conditions for days or weeks.” Separately, investigators observed detainees standing on toilets “to make room and gain breathing space.” Multiple children died after being detained while entering the United States, including several who died from the flu .
“The way they were treated in the facilities was horrific, horrific. Total medical neglect,” the medical director of a non-governmental migrant shelter near the border told HuffPost recently, recounting people they treated who’d passed through the processing centers in late 2018 and 2019. “It was like watching ‘Schindler’s List.’”
Perhaps most troubling to activists and advocates concerned with migrants’ rights is the rightward shift both parties have taken on the border in recent years.
After all, former President Barack Obama removed more people from the country in each of his two terms than Trump did in his one term, earning himself the nickname “ deporter-in-chief .”
There are some caveats to that statistic, though. For one thing, Trump dramatically reduced legal immigration . For another, the COVID-19 pandemic reduced the number of people arriving at the border, both because fewer people made the trip to the United States and because Trump cited the pandemic to invoke a rule called Title 42 , which allowed Border Patrol agents to turn away even those seeking asylum.
The Trump administration also created the so-called “Remain in Mexico” policy — formally called the “ Migrant Protection Protocols ” — to force certain migrants seeking asylum to await their court dates south of the border, frequently in dangerous and unsanitary conditions . Trump has said he would pursue this policy again as president.
President Joe Biden has opened legal pathways for migrants seeking to enter the United States , and the overall number of border crossings during this presidency has been much higher than during the Trump administration — though Biden has also removed far more people from the country than Trump did.
Biden has also recently dramatically limited asylum rights at the border — echoing some of the Trump administration’s legal strategies — by placing new restrictions on the ability to pursue asylum that are triggered on the number of unauthorized crossings per day . The policy prevents “countless” asylum seekers from exercising their right to seek safe haven in the United States, an ongoing lawsuit from immigrant rights groups alleges.
Since Biden implemented that asylum cap, the Kino Border Initiative, a migrant aid program with locations in the United States and Mexico, has received hundreds of would-be asylum seekers at its Mexican clinic who were turned around and expelled back into Mexico at the U.S. border.
“For the last eight years or so, we have been consistently — with different policies — blocking people’s access to asylum,” Pedro De Velasco, the group’s director of education and advocacy, said of U.S. authorities.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, has played up her experience as a “border state prosecutor” in campaign ads , a sign she’s likely to continue Biden’s more restrictive border stances . And, like Biden, she supported a bipartisan border bill that would have expanded some legal immigration pathways while also limiting asylum rights.
Still, there’s little doubt that a return to Trump would shift U.S. immigration and border policy even further to the right. Project 2025 , an ideological handbook for a second Trump term authored by scores of former Trump administration officials ― though technically not part of the GOP candidate’s campaign platform ― offers hints at what could be to come.
On top of laying out plans to severely limit legal migration , the Project 2025 playbook offers several steps to weaken the protections offered by “sanctuary cities,” which, broadly defined, limit local police departments’ ability to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. Those sanctuary policies are a major reason Trump wasn’t able to deport as many people as Obama .
Project 2025 calls for a nationwide detention standard that “allow[s] the flexibility to use large numbers of temporary facilities such as tents.” It also reiterates a goal of Trump’s first term — ending the Flores Settlement Agreement, a 1997 consent decree that places limitations on the detention of migrant children.
Put together, the overlapping arrest, imprisonment and deportation operation imagined for a second Trump term would, like Miller has said, be a historic feat of logistics — and, potentially, a new frontier in cruelty. And there appears to be plenty of other plans being developed behind the scenes.
Russ Vought, who was director of the Office of Management and Budget during Trump’s presidency, was a key co-author of Project 2025. He was also policy director of the Republican National Convention’s platform committee. And he’s in line for a high-ranking post if Trump wins a second term.
He recently told undercover reporters that he was working on about “350 different documents” full of plans for the next administration — including on mass deportations.
“You may say, ‘OK, all right, DHS, we want to have the largest deportation,’” Vought said in a secretly recorded meeting. “What are your actual memos that a secretary sends out to do it? Like, there’s an executive order, regulations, secretarial memos. Those are the types of things that need to be thought through so you’re not having to scramble or do that later on.”
The plans won’t be public, Vought said — but rather, “very, very close hold.”
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More in politics.
Opinion Guest Essay
Credit... Photo illustration by Stephanie Ross
Supported by
By Steven Rattner
Graphics by Taylor Maggiacomo
Mr. Rattner is a contributing Opinion writer. He served as counselor to the Treasury secretary in the Obama administration.
When Donald Trump takes the debate stage on Tuesday, he will doubtless again try to disavow Project 2025, the radically conservative blueprint spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation for the next Republican administration.
We shouldn’t let him.
Seventy-eight percent of the contributors to the effort were members of his last administration and many of them are likely appointees to his next team if he’s re-elected. As the old Washington saying goes, “personnel is policy.”
The group of authors includes Russell Vought, who headed the Office of Management and Budget; Chris Miller, one of Mr. Trump’s acting defense secretaries; Ken Cucinelli, Mr. Trump’s deputy secretary of homeland security; and Peter Navarro, a longtime Trump adviser who was closely involved in the ex-president’s attempt to overturn the election.
We’ve seen this movie before. In 2016, ahead of Mr. Trump’s first term, the Heritage Foundation released the seventh edition of its “Mandate for Leadership.” One year into his presidency, Mr. Trump had embraced 64 percent of its policy recommendations, ranging from leaving the Paris climate accord to raising military spending to increasing drilling offshore and on federal lands.
Based on Mr. Trump’s campaign utterances and Project 2025’s proposals, expect far more radical actions from a second Trump presidency. Relying on analysis by the Center for American Progress and others, below are eight examples of how Project 2025’s proposals could alter American life.
The 2025 plan would condense seven tax brackets into just two, leading to higher tax rates for lower-income Americans and lower rates for the rich.
How tax rates would change
For a married couple filing jointly
Current marginal tax rates
P r oject 2025 marginal tax rates
Household Income
How the amount of tax paid would change
Average tax liability for a married couple with two children, filing jointly
–$2,062
–$10,457
–$14,417
Current marginal
P r oject 2025
marginal tax rates
Household income
Tax increases
Almost 95 million Americans were enrolled in Medicaid in 2021. If lifetime caps are implemented, over 19 million people, or 5% of the country’s population, would be at risk of losing their health care coverage.
Share of child care centers that are Head Start grantees
Title I provides federal funding to low-income public schools. Without it, the entire country could lose around 6% of its teacher work force, affecting over 2.8 million students.
Payments per month would increase substantially for new loans compared with Biden’s SAVE Plan, the current income-driven loan repayment plan.
Clean energy funding and tax credits would be eliminated and multiple emissions regulations would be reversed if the I.R.A was repealed.
Medication abortions quickly became the most common method of abortions after the F.D.A. approved mifepristone and misoprostol in 2000.
By reclassifying policy-related positions to remove civil service protections and make employees easier to fire, the president’s influence over federal agencies would expand, though the exact number of positions that would be affected is unclear.
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Look for areas where change or improvement is needed, as these topics often make for compelling proposal essays. 3. Consider your audience: When selecting a subject, it's crucial to consider your audience. Think about who will be reading your essay and what topics they might find interesting or relevant.
Show the audience that you know what you are doing. The more prepared you look the better your chances are to get the proposal passed (or get a better grade if it is for a class). 8. Conclusion. Do not restate your introduction here if you choose to mention the "history" of a certain proposal.
First, the essay encourages you to evaluate sources and select the most relevant ones. Second, the proposal exercises your ability to evaluate many solutions and select the best one based on logic. Enhanced research skills. Writing a proposal essay takes your research skills to the next level.
Develop an Outline. Create a clear and logical structure: Divide your proposal into sections or headings that will guide your readers through the content. Consider the typical structure of a proposal: Introduction: Provide a concise overview of the problem, its significance, and the proposed solution. Background/Context: Offer relevant ...
A project proposal is a persuasive tool for securing project approval and resources, while a project plan is an operational guide, providing step-by-step instructions for executing, managing, and controlling the approved project. A project proposal is a document crafted before a project is OK'd, which aims to obtain approval, funding, or support.
Before you can start writing your proposal essay, you need to choose a topic. There are several factors to consider when choosing a topic, including your personal interests, the scope of the project, and the needs of your audience. Here are some tips to help you choose a great proposal essay topic: Factors to Consider When Choosing a Topic. 1.
Write an essay proposal outline. When planning your project, you need to keep the elements of style in mind. Take the time to get familiar with the specifics of writing a proposal for an essay before you dive in. ... To write a proposal essay, start by choosing a specific, relevant issue that interests you and conducting thorough research to ...
Draft: Write your essay clearly, avoiding jargon and ensuring logical arguments. Follow the required proposal paper format. Revision: Review your draft for coherence, strengthen arguments, correct errors, and ensure clarity. Proofreading: Finally, proofread your text for minor mistakes or inconsistencies.
Your project proposal should summarize your project details and sell your idea so stakeholders feel inclined to get involved in the initiative. The goal of your project proposal is to: Secure external funding. Allocate company resources to your project. Gain stakeholder buy-in. Build momentum and excitement.
Discuss why your approach is unique and why previous attempts to solve the problem have failed. 5. Expected Outcome: Here, discuss the positive results you expect from the implementation of your proposal. Provide a clear, concise picture of the improvements and advantages your solution will bring. 6.
Research proposal examples. Writing a research proposal can be quite challenging, but a good starting point could be to look at some examples. We've included a few for you below. Example research proposal #1: "A Conceptual Framework for Scheduling Constraint Management".
Putting It All Together. Now put the whole thing together: the cover sheet (if appropriate), the proposal itself, the budget and the supplementary materials. Add a cover letter if you wish. Don't put the proposal in a fancy binder; a paper clip is fine.
An important part of the work completed in academia is sharing our scholarship with others. Such communication takes place when we present at scholarly conferences, publish in peer-reviewed journals, and publish in books. This OWL resource addresses the steps in writing for a variety of academic proposals. For samples of academic proposals ...
Here's a step-by-step guide to writing a persuasive priority proposal. 1. Write an Executive Summary. The executive summary provides a quick overview of the main elements of your project proposal, such as your project background, project objectives and project deliverables, among other things.
Are you writing a research proposal to get funding or approval for your project? In this video, you'll learn the four aims of a research proposal, and how to...
Introduces your topic. States your problem statement and the questions your research aims to answer. Provides context for your research. In a research proposal, an introduction can be a few paragraphs long. It should be concise, but don't feel like you need to cram all of your information into one paragraph.
Introduction; 3.1 Identity and Expression; 3.2 Literacy Narrative Trailblazer: Tara Westover; 3.3 Glance at Genre: The Literacy Narrative; 3.4 Annotated Sample Reading: from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass; 3.5 Writing Process: Tracing the Beginnings of Literacy; 3.6 Editing Focus: Sentence Structure; 3.7 Evaluation: Self-Evaluating; 3.8 Spotlight on …
1. Your proposed paper topic: This part of the proposal is one sentence. Keep your paper topic narrow (but not so narrow that there are no scholarly sources available on the topic). 2. Why the topic is interesting and important: Address how you will focus the topic.
Section 1: Executive summary. Write an introductory section, called the executive summary, to summarize your project. Just like the introduction of an essay, this section should aim to catch your recipient's attention and encourage them to read on. Your executive summary should include details about the following:
To summarize, clearly stating your thesis statement is essential in writing an effective essay proposal. It provides a clear direction for your essay and gives the reader a sense of what to expect. Use strong and definitive language, avoid vagueness, and make your thesis statement compelling and engaging.
Research Method. In the research proposal, you should go into depth about how you conducted your study. Explain your key research tools and the techniques you employed to get your results. If you conducted interviews, tell the reader about the subjects of your questions. Lastly, provide your analysis of the results.
Writing Project Proposals. Some applications will ask for an essay outlining a proposed project, including details of the design and plan for carrying it out. Remember that your essay is essentially an exercise in expository writing, but with a twist—it also needs to be persuasive. As you get ready to write, think about the following questions:
Research proposal aims. Relevance. Show your reader why your project is interesting, original, and important. Context. Demonstrate your comfort and familiarity with your field. Show that you understand the current state of research on your topic. Approach. Make a case for your methodology. Demonstrate that you have carefully thought about the ...
The nature of immigration, and immigration law, was much different in the '50s, when the U.S.-Mexico border was more porous and seasonal migration was common.But Trump and the modern Republican Party have embraced the Eisenhower operation's purge of immigrants: At the Republican National Convention, scores of people held up "Mass Deportation Now!" signs distributed by organizers, and ...
Project 2025 doesn't believe in group child care. It proposes eliminating Head Start and giving the money to parents, either so a parent can afford to stay home with a child or pay for ...