The content of the research proposal

Title
This may be your first attempt at the title. It may changes as your work progresses. At this stage it should closely mirror the content of your proposal.

1. Introduction
What is the topic of your research; why the topic is relevant, what the general aim of your research is; define key terms and the outline of the structure of this report
You are expected to write around 250 words of introduction.

Don't use plagiarized sources. Get Your Custom Essay on
The content of the research proposal
Just from $13/Page
Order Essay

2. Significance of the research
This section is very important and refers to the academic importance of the topic; the fact that you decided to focus on a particular topic needs to be justified by its relevance in the current economic situation or by a gap in the literature for example:
Example 1: According to the authors the need for further research on the topic is justified by the controversial nature of results obtained by previous research in this topic;
Example 2: According to the authors the situation resulting from the financial crisis is of a difficult nature especially for young people, ; therefore it will be of significance to investigate how banks have reacted to the financial crisis and how that affects the future of young people.
This section should be about 400 words

3. Research question (main and sub)
The background section should lead smoothly into a statement of your research question(s) and the objectives. Theses should leave the reader in no doubt as to precisely what it is that your research seeks to achieve. Be careful here to ensure that your objectives are precisely written and will lead to observable outcomes.
This section should be about 150 words

4. Research aim and objectives
Content for the main research aim and how you will achieve this.
This section should be about 150 words

5. Research literature review and back ground
This is an important part of the proposal. It should tell the reader why you feel the research that you are planning is worth the effort. This may be expressed in the form of a problem that needs solving or something that you find exciting and has aroused your curiosity. The reader will be looking for evidence here that there is sufficient interest from you to sustain you over the long months (or years) ahead.

This is also the section where you will demonstrate your knowledge of the relevant literature. Moreover, it will clarify where your proposal fits into the debate in the literature. You will be expected to show a clear link between the previous work that has been done in your field of research interest and the content of your proposal. In short, the literature should be point of departure.
This section should be about 750 words.

6. Research methodology
This and the background section will be the longest of the proposal. It will detail precisely how you intend to go about achieving your research objectives. It will also justify your choice of method in the light of those objectives. These two aims may be met by dividing your method section into five parts: research philosophies, research approach, research strategy, data collection and analysis methods.
In the part on research philosophies you will explain which research philosophy (Positivism, Interpretivism) you will use. You will also need to justify your choice mainly by linking it to the nature of your research (e.g. descriptive, exploratory or explanatory).
In the part on research approaches, you will explain which approach (deductive or inductive) you intend to use to carry out this research and why you think it is appropriate to use this approach.
Following to this will be the section on research strategy (e.g. Case study, Survey, experiment, and archival research) to be used in the current research you should choose an appropriate strategy for your research based on the nature of your research questions and decisions about research philosophy and research approach. You can provide brief overview of your selected research strategy as well as provide justification of why this strategy is most appropriate to carry out this research.
The data collection section should also include an explanation of the general way in which you intend to carry out the research. Will it be based, for example, on a questionnaire, interviews, examination of secondary data or use a combination of data collection techniques? Here again it is essential to explain why you have chosen your approach. However if your research topic is more generic you will wish to explain, for example, which sector(s) of the economy you have chosen to research and why you chose these sectors. You will also need to explain the identity of your research population (e.g. managers or trade union officials) and why you chose this population. Your explanation should be based on the most effective way of meeting your research objectives.

The data collection section gives an overall view of the method chosen and the reason for that choice. The data collection goes into much detail about how specifically the data are to be collected. For example, if you are using a survey strategy you should specify your population and sample size. You should also clarify how the survey instrument such as a questionnaire will be distributed and how the data will be analysed. If you are using interviews, you should explain how many interviews will be conducted, their intended duration, whether they will be audio-recorded, and how they will be analysed. In short, you should demonstrate to your reader that you have thought carefully about all the issues regarding your method and their relationship to your research objectives. However it is normally not necessary in the proposal to include precise detail of the method you will employ, for example the content of an observation schedule or questionnaire questions.
You will also need to include a statement about how you are going to adhere to any ethical guidelines e.g. confidentiality of participants data. This is particularly important in some research settings, such as those involving medical patients or children.
Finally, data analysis section should clearly tell which data analysis methods you will use and what is the justification behind your choice. For example, if you are collected data using questionnaire, you can use statistical analysis methods such as descriptive statistics (e.g. mean, median, mode, etc.) and inferential statistic for testing of hypothesis (e.g chi-square, t-test, correlation and regression analysis). If you are using interviews in your research, qualitative data analysis methods which could be used include narrative analysis, thematic analysis, and content analysis or similar.

You should aim to write around 750 words in this section.

7. References
You need to provide list of references in Harvard style which you have cited in the report. You need to provide at least 20 Academic references of which at least 60% should not be older than five years. Use good journals in the reference list.

8. Bibliography
You will also include bibliography of the sources which you have not cited in text but used to wider your reading.