Structuring key sections of a proposal
All research proposals need to cover the following three main areas:
- What you propose to research (written as question/s)
- Why the topic needs to be researched (address what’s missing in the literature)
- How you plan to research it (often called a ‘study design’)
The structure of a research proposal can vary significantly across these three areas. Check with your teachers for their preferred format, as some schools may provide a template.
Reflection
Think about how you might go about justifying your research.
- What key literature is your proposed research situated within?
- How will your research build on this?
- Who will benefit from your research and how?
- Are there industry stakeholders?
- Why should they care about your research?
Sentence frames commonly used to justify your research
Here is a list of phrases commonly used when writing about the rationale for your research.
- Although much previous research has …, this proposed study will …
- Previous research has … However, these studies do not explain …
- This issue will be addressed in the proposed research by …
- This practice-led research approach will …
- By demonstrating that … I will address the issue of …
- This study will build on and contribute to …
- The proposed research differs from previous studies by …
- There is an absence in the existing literature of …
- It is hoped that this research will inform …
- Although studies in … have analysed …, there has been little research on…
- The proposed research seeks to address the limited literature on…
- Relatively little literature exists on …
- The proposed research will have importance in terms of real-world applications such as …
- Research has generally concentrated on …, with very little addressing the issues in this proposed research.
- The main contributions of this study will be …
For some general RMIT discipline-based guidelines, consult RMIT’s discipline based guidelines to writing research proposals (DOCX, 1 page).
