Graduate Research School

The Guidelines for Preparing Research Proposals state:

How you should approach this

1. Clearly state your objective

What is the purpose of your research and what does it hope to achieve? You could write your aims in the form of a concise literature review.

Initially state, in one or two sentences, the topic of your research. Frame this as a problem or question that you will answer. Include additional information that demonstrates you understand the problem. Provide background or context from which your research has emerged.

Writing this section as a concise literature review means that you can easily orientate your reader toward your research question. You will be providing information that assists in understanding the significance of the work, strengthening your claim to originality and showing you have engaged with the relevant literature and can therefore justify the worth of the project.

2. Identify your method

The term "methodology" refers to a body of practices, or a set of working methods, used to engage in an enquiry - in particular, for gathering, presenting and analysing data.

In the methodology section, you need to identify the general methodology you will employ. In social science research, for example, it is common for researchers to use a qualitative or quantitative methodology.

Describe the specific techniques or procedures you propose to use to collect and analyse your data. Convince the reader that these techniques or procedures are appropriate for the type of study you are proposing - and that you have, or have a strategy to acquire, the skills to enable you to apply these methods effectively.

Qualitative research, for instance, uses a stock of techniques for recording and conceptualising social life. These include interviews, participant observation, surveys or questionnaires and the interpretation of material culture.

Finally, you should show how these distinct techniques will be used. Outline in a concise yet systematic manner a research design tailored to your specific study.

Justify your approach

Because the person reviewing your research proposal is unlikely to have expert knowledge of your research field, it is highly recommended you mention research similar to your own that has successfully employed the same research methodology. In this way, you can justify the approach you have selected for conducting your investigation and assessing your evidence.

3. Do not duplicate previous work

Doctoral students need to show how the work they are embarking upon will make an original contribution to scholarship in the field, so it goes without saying that you should be able to convincingly argue that your work will not duplicate that of others. Although the requirement for originality does not apply to master's by research students, you still need to address this question.

In addressing the previous section on the requirement of originality, it is envisaged that you should have already identified gaps in previous research and in undertaking your study, shown how you will be extending previous knowledge. This is likely to be further consolidated here.

However, this section does give you the opportunity to describe the actions you have taken in searching for previous research relating to your topic. For instance, you may want to document the fact that you have conducted extensive library and archival research, including thesis and journal databases (which you can list). You may also have contacted scholars in the field, including, of course, your supervisor, to enquire if they are aware of research which is similar to your own.