Writing a research paper doesn’t necessarily have to be rocket science. On the contrary, it is rather simple once you know how to do it. No matter what the topic, you need to properly understand what a research proposal means.
The purpose of writing a research proposal is to show others that you have a potential research project and have the ability and competence to complete it.
It should contain all the necessary elements involved in the research process and pass critical information along to readers so that they can form an idea about the proposed study.
No matter what methodology you use, your research proposal should elaborate what you want to accomplish, what is the reason that you want to do it and what steps will you take to do it. Everything in your proposal must be crystal clear and demonstrate sound judgement.
Remember that both research writing and research proposals should be delivered with quality in mind. Having both properly balanced, your writing would become compelling and interesting to read while your research proposal will be coherent and clear. This will make your proposal more acceptable to the authorities[1].
Here is how you outline a research proposal:
Title
Your title should clearly tell reader what to expect. It should provide insights to your proposal while indicating independent and dependent variables. Try to think of a title that is both informative and appealing. An effectual title will leave a good impression on the reader and compels him/her to further read your proposal.
Abstract
Abstract can be defined as a brief summary of what readers will find in the research proposal. It should contain a research question, hypothesis (if any), the operandi[2] and discoveries. You can describe the procedure further by including the design, sample or any utensils that’ll[3] be used.
Introduction
First off, you need to clearly speak of what problem or issues the research is focused on and support it with some background and context. You want to frame your research question in a focused context, so that its importance becomes immediately apparent. This depends on your creativity and how well you understand the depth of the problems involved in the research. The more knowledge you have on your research, the easier it becomes to think clearly and write a stellar research proposal.
Next, you’ll need to define the issues and problems that lead to your research. You’ll continue further and explain the independent and dependent variables of your experiment; defining the phenomenon that you are eager to study is an option too. If you have any hypothesis in your research, do explain it afterwards and conclude your introduction by delivering a clear delimitation focus. You can also define significant concepts, but again, this can be seen as optional.
Literature Review
Although literature review is something that is attached to the introduction section, it is recommended that you make a separate section for it because that’s how professors prefer it. This is because it provides a more concise review to the reader.
Here are some factors:
- Literature review clarifies that you are not duplicating the work of others.
- It also gives credibility to people from whom you have created your research.
- Reveals how well-versed you are on the research problem.
- Denotes how well you understand theoretical and research issues related to your research question.
- Reveals how critically you can assess the literature information.
- Demonstrates that you are able to combine and produce the literature.
- It delivers a conceptual model of what your research is all about and provides new insights on theoretical concepts and problems.
- Compels your reader that your research proposal will make an important and considerable handout to the literature[4] .
That’s about it! You are now armed with the necessary tools to write a highly compelling research proposal on genetics in the 21st century. In case you missed the previous guide where we provided 20 topics on genetics in the 21st century along with a sample research paper, check that out and revisit our very first guide containing 12 facts on genetics in the 21st century for an academic research paper to get a better idea of how it all fits together.