Formulating a research proposal

You need to submit a research proposal for your studies. Where to you start?

Choosing an institution / programme / supervisor: It is important to do your research with a supervisor who is as in enthusiastic about the topic as you are, and an EXPERT in their field.  This is a person you will need to have a good relationship with.  If something does not “gel” in your relationship, consider asking to be transferred.    Use a template for the proposal as provided by your institution – these differ from one institution to the next. If there is not a template available, ask your supervisor for approved proposals from the past -that should give you a good idea of what they are looking for.  Carefully read the instructions and requirements for a proposal at this institution.

Even before you formulate your topic, I suggest finding your research problem. What issue is your research going to answer? Why are you doing this research?   The research problem is one of the most important aspects of your proposal. Everything else is derived from that. For this, you should spend considerable time on reading and researching your topic of interest. The research problem forces you to read widely and narrow down what you want to know.    Research problems are often phrased as questions, such as: Does gaming affect the dexterity of surgeons?  Does attractiveness of a subject influence the evaluation of competence? 

There are several sources of research problems:

These are 

• Deductions from Theory
• A gap in relevant literature (something not researched yet, or not yet researched in your context / industry / country)
• Replication of another study
• Talking to experts and practitioners about issues in your field
• Personal experience of an issue. Personal experience cannot be the ONLY source of a research problem though

The research problem should also be evaluated in terms of more practical aspects, such as feasibility, personal interest, whether the topic fills a gap in current research, and has the potential to be published in an academic journal.  Will the results of the study be of interest to others, and does it make a meaningful contribution to the field of knowledge?

After this step, you can work backwards from your research problem to your research topic. Find a topic in an area that you are personally interested in, otherwise you may lose steam after a while. For the first example above under research problems, your topic may be: The relationship between gaming and the dexterity of surgeons.

The next step is to formulate an appropriate research question. The research question flows directly from your research problem.  If your research problem was that student’s marks seem to have dropped since textbooks have been replaced with electronic textbooks, your research question could be: Is there a difference in performance between children who use hard copy textbooks and those who use electronic textbooks?  This may be extended to secondary research -questions, such as:

• Is there a difference in mathematics marks between children using electronic textbooks and those using hard copy textbooks?
• Is there a difference in English marks between children using electronic textbooks and those using hard copy textbooks?
• Is there a difference in the perception of teachers regarding the performance of students using electronic textbooks and those using hard copy textbooks?

Formulate your research objective. Your research objective is your research question, turned into a statement.  Nothing more, nothing less.  For the main research question above, your objective would be: To investigate whether there is a difference in performance between children who use hard copy textbooks and those who use electronic textbooks.  This may be extended to secondary objectives in the same way.

Provide your supporting literature. Explore relevant theories, constructs, and discuss them in an organized manner. Frame your project around the work of others – research builds on the existing knowledge base, that is, upon the work of others. Provide references for everything you take from other sources, not just direct quotes, otherwise it is plagiarism. Make sure all your references are in your reference list.

Choose the most appropriate methodology for your topic. Your methodology typically includes your target population and sampling plan, your inclusion and exclusion criteria, the measuring instruments you are going to use (including their validity and reliability if existing instruments, or how you are going to develop your own instruments. The procedure section should state in a very clear fashion exactly what you are going to do.

For more information on this, click here.  The bottom line is that the methodology of your proposal must be so well written that someone else should be able to take it and execute the research!  Whether the study is qualitative or quantitative, make sure to explain EXACTLY how the data is going to be analysed!  You can always change it later, but you need to be sure that your analysis can answer your research questions. If you need assistance with this, please click here.  Apart from descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations, you will most probably also use inferential statistics.  Using a decision table (click here) for this is the easiest way to do this.  Find an example below.