A proposal is the plan of research and a researcher’s guide for executing the research. The purpose of writing a proposal is to get approval for conducting a research project and make it credible. So it is necessary for the researcher to provide the authorities and those who finance the project with a proposal.
This proposal should contain the purpose of the study, research questions, and methodology, as well as the required time and costs of the project. The researcher should try her/his best to make it easy for the reviewers to understand the purpose and significance of the study.
Before executing the research, the researcher needs to include her/his personal information at the beginning of the proposal. This includes first and last name, occupation, current position, degrees, research activities, and work experiences. Besides, it must provide information on the co-authors such as name, occupation, degree, and contribution to the study.
1. Title
- A research title should be short, informative, clear, and newsworthy. The title should start with phrases such as design, review, analysis, and model. It is better to include independent and dependent variables in the title. The research title should be up-to-date, relevant to the researcher’s field of study, efficient, and useful. Besides, the topic should be practical and in the interest of the researcher. It should also show the scope and timing of the research, as well as the purpose of the study.
2. Significance of the Study
The researcher should consider the novelty of the research topic, its significance, and the ability of the researcher. Besides, she/he must be aware of the provision of material and information resources, and their cost-effectiveness. At this stage, the researcher should clarify the necessity and priority of this research for the target audience.
3. Statement of the Problem
In this section, the researcher should try to entice the audience by asking tempting questions. She/he should try to create a challenge in the mind of her audience.
Stating a clear, precise, and executable problem is the most difficult step of the research. The reason is that it should be able to express the importance of the problem, the scope of the study, and the general goals of the research. It should also provide a framework for presenting the results of the research. At this point, the researcher depicts the context of the problem. Besides, the characteristics of the problem, its extent, and its possible causes are also identified.
Research objectives fall into two main categories:
- General Objectives: These are drawn from the main research topic
- Specific Objectives: They are drawn from the general goals and indicate what the plan will finally achieve.
4. Research Questions
The research problem can be expressed as a question in both qualitative and quantitative studies, and often the question form of the problem is preferred because it is simple and expressive, since it leads the researcher to answer these questions.
The research questions can be divided into three categories:
A – Descriptive Questions: By descriptive questions, we mean questions like “What is it?” and “How does it work?”. For example, regarding the achievement of middle school students in s specific district of a city who participated in a test, we can say: What is the level of academic achievement of middle school students in subordinate districts of Tehran province?
B- Questions Regarding the Relationships: This group of questions considers the relationship between two or more variables. For example, what is the relationship between the concept of self and academic achievement?
- Questions Regarding the Differences: These questions deal with the different levels of variables and are usually expressed in the following example:
Is there a difference between the academic achievement of girls and boys in middle school?
5. Research Hypotheses
Research hypotheses are rational estimations that the researcher has about two or more variables of his research. Research hypotheses should be informative and reflect the expected results of the research. For example: “There is a positive relationship between the concept of self and academic achievement”.
A hypothesis is never proved or refuted, but only confirmed or rejected based on the obtained data. Hypotheses are logical conjectures. The empirical evidence enables the researcher to conclude that his statement is probably correct and can be reasonably accepted.
6. Literature Review
Every research falls under the same category as the previous similar ones. Therefore, the researcher should study the related literature to validate her/his research by making references to them. When writing this section, you should:
- Know the framework of the problem
- Demonstrate the similarities and differences between the current research with the previous ones
- Acquire information about the previously tested methods
- Use the information provided by the previous research
- Identify the strengths and weaknesses of previous research
7. Statistical Population
A statistical population is a set of individuals or units with at least one common trait. Typically, in any research, the population under study is a statistical population that the researcher would like to study the variable (s) of its units.
8. Sample Size
In general, in every research project, the researchers need to pick a sample from the statistical society. The statistical population is the population that is eligible to be included in the current research project. The reason we select a sample from the population is that it is neither necessary nor possible to include all of a population in a research project. So, by implementing the mathematical formulas the sample size is calculated for each research project. The sample size is dependent on the research hypothesis, the type of study, the power of the study, and the significance level. The sample is the minimum of subjects that can be included in a study to reach the aim of the study. It means hiring subjects more than the calculated sample size is also a waste of money and time. The sample size calculation is performed by statisticians. The sampling is the next step which is how the desired sample will be selected from the population.
data represent facts, concepts, or guidelines. If data are in the form of words describing the facts, then they are called qualitative data. But if they are in the form of numbers, they are called quantitative.
9. Data Analysis
One of the following methods can be used to collect the needed data from the statistical population:
Census: In this method, the complete data is collected from each member of the statistical population.
Sampling is as follows: a) simple random b) systematic random c) cluster e) multistage f) stratified
10. Description of Theoretical Frameworks of Research
“Theory” illuminates the realities of the theorems, which means that the theorems can be tested with real empirical data in the real world.
The theory is always presented in the process of “research”. Sometimes “research” is performed to test the theory. In some cases, the “research hypothesis” is taken from the theory. In most studies, analysis methods are considered to be strong and appropriate only when they guide the findings along theories.
It is necessary for the researcher to express the theory of scientists and researchers that is relevant to the subject of research in the research design and to move forward within the framework of the theory to the end of his research.
11. Budget and Services
In this section, the researcher identifies the number of personnel and their type of responsibilities, the total hours spent on the research, and the amount of manpower required for the execution of the project, supplies, and equipment, then estimates the cost of the plan. After this, She/he provides the credit provider organization with a proposal.
12. Works Cited
It is necessary to list all the resources used in the preparation of the proposal, including books, proposals, theses, articles, journals, and scientific papers.
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