How to Write a Quality Research Proposal
Most students and beginning researchers do not fully understand what a research
proposal means, not do they understand its importance .To put it bluntly, one`s research is
only as a good as one`s proposal. An ill-conceived proposal dooms the project even if it
somehow gets through the Thesis Supervisory committee. A high quality proposal, on the
other hand, not only promises success for the project, but also impresses your thesis
committee about your potential as researcher.
A research proposal is intended to convince others that you have a worthwhile
research project and that you have the competence and the work plan to complete it.
Generally, a research proposal should contain all the key elements involved into the research
process and include sufficient information for the readers to evaluate the proposal study.
Regardless of your research area and the methodology you choose, all research
proposals must address the following, what you plan to accomplish, why you want to d o it
and how you are going to do it.
The proposal should have sufficient information to convince your readers that you
have an important research idea, that you have a good grasp of the relevant literature and the
major issues, and that your methodology is sound.
The quality of your research proposal depends not only on the quality of your
proposed project but also on the quality of your proposal writing .A good research project
may run the risk of rejection simply because the proposal is poorly written. Therefore, it pays
if your writing is coherent, clear and compelling.
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Relationship of Open & Close Influence Strategies with
Job Satisfaction and Moderating Effect of Sales
Performance among Sales People in Pharmaceutical
Industry of Islamabad and Rawalpindi
By
Murtaza Ali Qureshi
125-MSBA/Isb/Feb12
A Research Proposal Submitted to the Faculty of Management Sciences,
National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
(PhD/MSBA)
Supervisor Name:
______________________________________
DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCES
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF MODERN LANGUAGES
ISLAMABAD
SEPTEMBER, 2014
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Research Title
Capital Each Letter
Relationship of Spiritual Leadership withWorkplaceBehavior
in Retail Marts of a Local City of Pakistan
A title should summarize the main idea of the manuscript simply and, if possible, with style. It
should be a concise statement of the main topic and should identify the variables or theoretical issues
under investigation and the relationship between them in given industry/sector/section. An example of
a good title is "Effect of Transformed Letters on Reading Speed in Among Local University
Students."
The title should be typed in uppercase and lowercase letters, centered between the left and
right margins, and positioned in the upper half of the page.
1. Introduction
The main purpose of the introduction is to provide the necessary background or
context for your research problem. How to frame the research problem is perhaps the biggest
problem in proposal writing.
If the research problem is framed in the context of a general, rambling literature
review, then the research question may appear trivial and uninteresting. However the same
question is placed in the context of a very focused and current research area, its significance
will become evident.
However, try to place your research question in the context of either a current “hot” area
or an older area that remains viable. Secondly you need to provide a brief but appropriate
historical backdrop. Thirdly, provide the contemporary context in which your proposed
research question occupies the central stage. Finally, identify “key players” and refer to the
most relevant and representative publications. In short, try to paint tour research question in
broad brushes and at the same time bring out its significance.
The introduction typically begins with a general statement of the problem area, with a
focus on a specific research problem, to be followed by the rational or justification for the
proposed study. The introduction generally covers the following elements:
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1. State the research problem, which is often referred to as the purpose of the study.
2. Provide the context and set the stage for your research question in such a way as to
show as its necessity and importance.
3. Present the rationale of your proposed study and clearly indicate why it is worth
doing.
4. Briefly describe the major issues and sub-problems to be addressed by your research.
5. Identify the key independent and dependent variables of your experiment.
Alternatively, specify the phenomenon you want to study.
6. Set the delimitation or boundaries of your proposed research in order to provide a
clear focus.
7. Provide delimitations of key concepts. (This is optional.)
Therefore, introduction section must cover the following heads:
1.1 Background of the study
1.2 Problem Statement
1.3 Research Questions
1.4 Research Objectives
1.5 Significance of the Study
1.6 Scope of the Study (It covers delimitation)
2. Literature Review
Sometimes the literature review is incorporated into the introduction section. However, most
professors prefer a separate section, which allows a more thorough review of the literature.
The literature review serves several important functions:
1. Ensure that you are not “reinventing the wheel”.
2. Gives credit to those who have laid the groundwork for your research.
3. Demonstrates your knowledge of research problem.
4. Demonstrates your understanding of the theoretical and research issues related to your
research question.
5. Shows your ability to critically evaluate relevant literature information.
6. Indicates your ability to integrate and synthesize the existing literature.
7. Provides new theoretical insights or develops a new model as the conceptual
framework for your research.
8. Convinces your reader that your proposed research will make a significant and
substantial contribution to the literature (i.e., resolving an important theoretical issue
or filling a major gap in the literature)
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Most students’ literature reviews suffer from the following problems:
• Lacking organization and structure.
• Lacking focus, unity and coherence.
• Being repetitive and verbose.
• Failing to site influential papers.
• Failing to keep up with recent developments.
• Failing to critically evaluate cited papers.
• Citing irrelevant or trivial references.
• Depending too much on secondary sources.
Your scholarship and research competencies will be questioned if any of the above
applies to your proposal.
There are different ways to organize your literature review. Make use of subheadings to
bring order and coherence to your review. For example, having established the importance of
your research area and its current state of development, you may devote several subsections
on related issue as: theoretical models, measuring instruments, cross cultural and gender
difference, etc.
It is also helpful to keep in mind that you are telling a story to an audience. Try to tell it in
a stimulating and engaging manner. Do not bore them, because it may lead to rejection of
your worthy proposal. (Remember professors and scientists are human too.
2. Literature Review covers the following:
2.1 Clearly showing the relationship among study variables
2.2 Identify Research Gap
2.3Construct the schematic diagram of TheoreticalFramework
2.4 Mention Hypotheses showing the relationship of variables with consist to
research title
2. Research Design & Methodology
Method section is very important because it tells your Research Committee hoe you
plan to tackle your research problem. It will provide your work plan and describe the
activities necessary in completion of your project.
The guiding principal for writing the Method section is that it should contain
sufficient information for the readers to determine whether methodology is sound. Some even
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argue that a good proposal should contain sufficient details for another qualified researcher to
implement the study.
You need to demonstrate your knowledge of alternative methods and make the case
that your approach is the most appropriate and most valid way to address your research
question.
Please note that your research question may be best answered by qualitative research.
However, since most mainstream psychologists are still biased against qualitative research,
especially the phenomenological variety, you may need to justify qualitative method.
Furthermore, since there are no well-established and widely accepted canons in
qualitative analysis your method section needs to be more elaborate than what is required for
traditional qualitative research. More importantly the data collection process in qualitative
research has a far greater impact on the result as compared to quantitative research. That is
another reason for greater care in describing how you will collect and analyze your data.
(How to write the method section for qualitative research is a topic for another paper.)
Research Design & Methodology
3.1 Population
3.2 Sample Technique
3.3 Unit of Analysis
3.4 Sample Size
3.5 Data Collection Methods
3.6 Detail of data Collection Instrument
3.7 Data Collection Procedure
3.8 Data Analysis Software and Statistical Methods
4. Discussion:
It is important to convince your reader of the potential impact of your proposed
research. You need to communicate a sense of enthusiasm and confidence without
exaggerating the merits of your proposal. That is why you also need to mention the
limitations and weaknesses of the proposed research, which may be justified by time and
financial constraints as well as by the early developmental stage of your research area.
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5 .Time Frame to Complete Research Thesis
6. References
(Add those reference which you thoroughly read and cited in literature review, don’t do copy
paste references from research papers)
7. Appendix (attach your questionnaire)
COMMON MISTAKES IN PROPOSAL WRITING
1. Failure to provide the proper context to frame the research question
2. Failure to delimit the boundary conditions for your research
3. Failure to cite landmark studies
4. Failure to accurately present the theoretical and empirical contributions by other
researchers
5. Failure to stay focused on research question
6. Failure to develop a coherent and persuasive argument for the proposed research
7. Too much detail on minor issues, but not enough detail on major issues
8. Too much rambling—going “all over the map” without a clear sense of direction.
(the best proposals move forward with ease and grace like a seamless river.)
9. Too long or too short
10. Failing to follow the APA style of writing
11. Slopping writing –poor grammar
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Brief Research Proposal Contents Suppose To Be Covered in a High
Quality Research Proposal
1. Introduction
1.1 Background of the study
1.2 Problem Statement
1.3 Research Questions
1.4 Research Objectives
1.5 Significance of the Study
1.6 Scope of the Study (It covers delimitation)
2. Literature Review
2.1 Clearly showing the relationship among study variables
2.2 Identify research gap
2.3Construct the schematic diagram of Theoretical Framework
2.4 Mention Hypotheses showing the relationship of variables with consist to research
title
3. Research Design & Methodology
3.1 Population
3.2 Sample Technique
3.3 Unit of Analysis
3.4 Sample Size
3.5 Data Collection Methods
3.6 Detail of data Collection Instrument
3.7 Data Collection Procedure
3.8 Data Analysis Software and Statistical Methods
4. Discussion:
5 .Time Frame to complete your research thesis
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6. References
7. Appendix (attach your questionnaire)
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Total Number of Pages:
1. MBA & MSBA >9 pages, Excluding Title Pages, Forms
References & Questionnaire
2. Ph.D. > 11pages, Excluding Title Pages, Forms References &
Questionnaire
Formatting Requirements
• 1stLevel Heading: 12 font size Centered,+ Boldface+ Uppercase and Lowercase
Heading(font style: New Time Roman)
• 2ndLevel Heading: 12 font size + Flush right side of the page +
Boldface+Uppercase and Lowercase Heading (font style: New Time Roman)
• 3rdLevel Heading: 12 font size Indented+ boldface + lowercase paragraph
heading ending with a period (font style: New Time Roman) [all level headings
must be properly numbered]
• 4thLevel Heading: indented+ boldface +italicized + lowercase paragraph heading
• 5thLevel Heading:Indented+Italicized + lowercase paragraph heading
• Body text 12 font size (font style: New Time Roman)
• Line space 1.5
• Paragraph starts with one indent
• One line gap between paragraphs
• Page number at right bottom
• No right justification (Left aligned)
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