A complete guide on writing a proposal for a research paper

Academic life is full of different assignments. As a student, you need to write English essays, book reviews, various papers, and an essay or review that relies on research and work with original sources. It does not matter whether you are studying in the USA or the UK. It does not matter whether you are a college or university student. There will always be an assignment to complete. 

At a particular point in your academic journey, you will face a research paper. Writing a good research paper is a sign of academic competency. However, every research starts with a proper proposal. You need to invest time and effort to create a custom proposal, the one that will guide your research. If you can do this in a right way, you will have an easy time following a project proposal template in the future. Here, we would like to offer you a complete guide on writing a good proposal, the insights that will make writing the research easy and understandable.

1. Concentrating on the target

Writing a good research proposal is like narrowing down from a broad picture to some specific aspect. 

• The initial point of any research proposal is to identify the particular research area you want to explore. Besides, you need to be ready to prove that this research realm is worth exploring in the first place.
• The second major part of zeroing is to identify the existing research gap. Your research problem needs to address this gap.
• The third aspect of zeroing is to showcase who your research will address the given research problem. It is about illustrating a new approach to existing or newly identified issues.
• The final point is to show that your research can address the research problem within a particular period of time. 

2. Timeline

Having a proper timeline illustrates how viable your research is. The primary aspect of a timeline is to set goals and present respective dates to achieve each goal. You need to focus on segments like – looking for original sources, analyzing evidence, writing a research proposal, etc. 

Remember, if you are unable to meet the goals set in the timetable, you can ask for professional assistance. There are a number of companies that offer top-quality services, including research proposals, for a relatively cheap price. As a respective customer, you can buy personalized academic papers online while using a professional research paper writing service with a team of experts. The company and the service have a website and make it easy to receive expert research help online. 

3. The value of the introduction

The introductory section is one of the most important aspects of a research proposal. In the segment, you need to consider the following aspects:

• The background of the research. In the part, you introduce the research topic and briefly give contextual information about the research problem at hand.
• The significance of the research. In the subsection, you need to elaborate on why the topic is significant to you and the broader audience.
• Justification of the research. At the end of the introductory section, you need to demonstrate that the research is worth exploring, namely because it offers narrowing down an existing literature gap and offers theoretical and practical implications.

Essentially, the introduction communicates the fundamentals of your research project.

4. Constructing a research question

In the best research, everything revolves around the research question. You may ask what is a good research question? A good research question is one offering a clear and focused direction for the research. Notably, a good research question allows a reader to witness that your research will be viable and worth exploring. There are the following fundamentals of a good research question: relevancy, importance, clarity, precision, researchability. 

A research question must be free of error and must be precise enough to help you and your audience navigate the research process. 

5. Review of literature

Any research needs to be grounded in original sources. The key purpose of a literature review for a research proposal is to survey primary academic words in the field of research to gather enough evidence to navigate the research. Books, peer-reviewed journals, and postgraduate theses are major sources for a literature review in a research proposal.

In the proposal, you need to outline the key findings of the sources you selected, illustrate the existing literature gap, and suggest how you will address the gap through new evidence. It is better to construct a literature review section based on key patterns offered by the authors you use for the research. 

6. Research design

The study design is the methodological skeleton of future research. Within the scope of the research proposal, there are three particular questions that must be integrated within the research design section. First, you need to indicate what kind of data or sources you will use. Second, you need to show how you will collect the data. Third, it is vital to mention the methodological techniques you will employ to analyze the data.

The key to composing a clear study design is to consider methods and theories that other researchers have used. The research design needs to be written based on the research problem at hand. For students and researchers, you must select an appropriate research framework, one that will not be too complex to implement. Set realistic goals and find appropriate study designs to answer your research question. 

In all other cases, having a good timeline ensures that you will conduct your research paper in a timely manner. 

7. Expected outcomes

Perhaps, for writers demonstrating expected outcomes is one of the most important aspects of any research and research proposal. In the concluding section, a writer needs to demonstrate whether you had enough evidence to give an answer to your initial research question. Give your audience a sense of completion and present both theoretical and practical implications you expect from your research. Importantly, in the section, you need to avoid repetition of the elements mentioned above and focus predominantly on the expected findings of the research. 

Final remark

Follow the key steps mentioned above and you will be able to construct a good research proposal. As we told you before, having a clear and focused proposal is the key to navigating well-constructed research. The most complicated thing about a research proposal is to construct a good research question and select methods that will help you answer the question. Besides, remember about credible literature to use for your research. Focus on peer-reviewed journals, books written by experts, and postgraduate theses. Keeping all the aspects in mind, with a good proposal writing professional research will be an easy process.