A research proposal concentrates on a particular project and creates a set of structured

guidelines to provide justification for the proposed research. If you are to make a
proposal whether for academic or business use, read on before you start putting your
ideas into writing.
1.

Create an outline.

For every project, it is always beneficial to have a plan. A draft will largely help you how
to write your research proposal. Your mind will have the tendency to drift away from
your focus when you have plenty of ideas. Using an outline will systematically organize
your thoughts and place them on the sections of your proposal accordingly. Start your
outline with the significance of your research proposal and the reason for your interest in
the study. While you may be required to write in a specific format (that is usually the case
with students), your outline should detail necessary elements to project reliability of your
study. Your questions and statements must be precisely conveyed. Include a summary of
issues and debates associated with your subject, and ensure that you get credible
resources from libraries, the Internet, and agencies. Never plagiarize.
2.

Make use of the elements of a good proposal.

Statement of the Problem. In some cases, the statement of the problem is

incorporated into the introduction. Nevertheless, irrespective of your research
field, you should express a problem statement briefly and precisely in a way that
it is easily recognized. It should justify the reason to conduct your research.
Literature Review. The review of the literature should project that you have
comprehensive knowledge about the problem and that you have sufficient
methodology to address it. It should persuade the readers that your research
proposal would contribute to resolving significant theoretical issues in your study.
Carefully structure your content and avoid being repetitive, otherwise readers
might think you are not adequately familiar with your proposed project. In this
section you will also need to cite important resources and references.
Hypotheses or Questions. Raise new points of view and questions
that would stimulate your readers. The need to put your hypotheses to the test
should be clearly expressed and must complement the entire context of your
study.
This section is the central point of your research proposal because it details the
procedures you intend to implement. You will need to identify the methods of data
collection and analysis including the instruments by which to execute them. Thus
resources, references and samples should be put in writing as well. Solid
statements should support why your methods are the most fitting to the study.
Your methods establish the reliability and soundness of your proposal. Failure to
elaborate on how you propose to tackle your problem is usually the reason why
proposals are rejected.
Significance and Conclusion. Explain how your research would contribute to the
development of the area of study. If it needs funding, you will have to persuade

the organization that they should support your project because not only is it
interesting but undeniably beneficial as well.
Budget. Present everything that you will need and the corresponding costs.
Carefully study every aspect that needs monetary subsidy so you will neither be
over-budgeted or under-budgeted. When you present reasonable costs, your
request will be more likely to be considered.

Be cautious of your spelling, grammar and punctuation when writing your proposal. It
should be well written and easy to read. Careless writing will make a bad impression.

Guidelines on writing a research proposal

by Matthew McGranaghan
This is a work in progress, intended to organize my thoughts on the process of
formulating a proposal. If you have any thoughts on the content, or even the notion of
making this available to students, please share them with me.
Introduction
This is a guide to writing M.A. research proposals. The same principles apply to
dissertation proposals and to proposals to most funding agencies. It includes a model
outline, but advisor, committee and funding agency expectations vary and your proposal
will be a variation on this basic theme. Use these guidelines as a point of departure for
discussions with your advisor. They may serve as a straw-man against which to build
your understanding of both your project and of proposal writing.
Proposal Writing
Proposal writing is important to your pursuit of a graduate degree. The proposal is, in
effect, an intellectual scholastic (not legal) contract between you and your committee. It
specifies what you will do, how you will do it, and how you will interpret the results. In
specifying what will be done it also gives criteria for determining whether it is done. In
approving the proposal, your committee gives their best judgment that the approach to the
research is reasonable and likely to yield the anticipated results. They are implicitly
agreeing that they will accept the result as adequate for the purpose of granting a degree.
(Of course you will have to write the thesis in acceptable form, and you probably will
discover things in the course of your research that were not anticipated but which should
be addressed in your thesis, but the minimum core intellectual contribution of your thesis
will be set by the proposal.) Both parties benefit from an agreed upon plan.
The objective in writing a proposal is to describe what you will do, why it should be
done, how you will do it and what you expect will result. Being clear about these things
from the beginning will help you complete your thesis in a timely fashion. A vague, weak
or fuzzy proposal can lead to a long, painful, and often unsuccessful thesis writing
exercise. A clean, well thought-out, proposal forms the backbone for the thesis itself. The

structures are identical and through the miracle of word-processing, your proposal will
probably become your thesis.
A good thesis proposal hinges on a good idea. Once you have a good idea, you can draft
the proposal in an evening. Getting a good idea hinges on familiarity with the topic. This
assumes a longer preparatory period of reading, observation, discussion, and incubation.
Read everything that you can in your area of interest. Figure out what are the important
and missing parts of our understanding. Figure out how to build/discover those pieces.
Live and breath the topic. Talk about it with anyone who is interested. Then just write the
important parts as the proposal. Filling in the things that we do not know and that will
help us know more: that is what research is all about.
Proposals help you estimate the size of a project. Don't make the project too big. Our MA
program statement used to say that a thesis is equivalent to a published paper in scope.
That means about sixty double spaced pages, with figures, tables and bibliography, ought
to do it. Your proposal will be shorter, perhaps five pages and certainly no more than
fifteen pages. (For perspective, the NSF limits the length of proposal narratives to 15
pages, even when the request might be for multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is
the merit of the proposal which counts, not the weight.) Shoot for five pithy pages that
indicate to a relatively well-informed audience that you know the topic and how its logic
hangs together, rather than fifteen or twenty pages that indicate that you have read a lot of
things but not yet boiled it down to a set of prioritized linked questions.
Different Theses, Similar Proposals
This guide includes an outline that looks like a "fill-in the blanks guide" and, while in the
abstract all proposals are similar, each proposal will have its own particular variation on
the basic theme. Each research project is different and each needs a specifically tailored
proposal to bring it into focus. Different advisors, committees and agencies have different
expectations and you should find out what these are as early as possible; ask your advisor
for advice on this. Further, different types of thesis require slightly different proposals.
What style of work is published in your sub-discipline?
Characterizing theses is difficult. Some thesis are "straight science". Some are essentially
opinion pieces. Some are policy oriented. In the end, they may well all be interpretations
of observations, and differentiated by the rules that constrain the interpretation. (Different
advisors will have different preferences about the rules, the meta-discourse, in which we
all work.)
In the abstract all proposals are very similar. They need to show a reasonably informed
reader why a particular topic is important to address and how you will do it. To that end,
a proposal needs to show how your work fits into what is already known about the topic
and what new contribution your work will make. Specify the question that your research
will answer, establish why it is a significant question, show how you are going to answer
the question, and indicate what you expect we will learn. The proposal should situate the
work in the literature, it should show why this is an (if not the most) important question

to answer in the field, and convince your committee (the skeptical readers that they are)
that your approach will in fact result in an answer to the question.
Theses which address research questions that can be answered by making plan-able
observations (and hypothesis testing) are preferred and perhaps the easiest to write.
Because they address well-bounded topics, they can be very tight, but they do require
more planning on the front end. Theses which are largely based on synthesis of
observations, rumination, speculation, and opinion formation are harder to write, and
usually not as convincing, often because they address questions which are not wellbounded and essentially unanswerable. (The old saw about research in the social sciences
is: "some do and some don't". Try to to avoid such insight-less findings.) One problem
with this type of project is that it is often impossible to tell when you are "done". Another
problem is that the nature of argument for a position rather than the reasoned rejection of
alternatives to it encourages shepherding a favored notion rather than converging more
directly toward a truth. (A good proposal is a boon here, too.)
Literature review-based theses involve collection of information from the literature,
distillation of it, and coming up with new insight on an issue. One problem with this type
of research is that you might find the perfect succinct answer to your question on the
night before (or after) you turn in the final draft --- in someone else's work. This certainly
can knock the wind out of your sails. (But note that even a straight-ahead science thesis
can have the problem of late in the game discovering that the work you have done or are
doing has already been done, this is where familiarity with the relevant literature by both
yourself and your committee members is important.)
A Couple of Models for Proposals
A Two Page (Preliminary Proposal) Model

Here is a model for a very brief (maybe five paragraph) proposal that you might use to
interest faculty in sitting on your committee. People who are not yet hooked may
especially appreciate its brevity.
In the first paragraph, the first sentence identifies the general topic area. The second
sentence gives the research question, and the third sentence establishes its significance.
The next couple of paragraphs gives the larger historical perspective on the topic.
Essentially list the major schools of thought on the topic and very briefly review the
literature in the area with its major findings. Who has written on the topic and what have
they found? Allocate about a sentence per important person or finding. Include any
preliminary findings you have, and indicate what open questions are left. Restate your
question in this context, showing how it fits into this larger picture.
The next paragraph describes your methodology. It tells how will you approach the
question, what you will need to do it.

The final paragraph outlines your expected results, how you will interpret them, and how
they will fit into the our larger understanding i.e., 'the literature'.
The (Longer) Standard Model

The two outlines below are intended to show both what are the standard parts of a
proposal and of a science paper. Notice that the only real difference is that you change
"expected results" to "results" in the paper, and usually leave the budget out, of the paper.
A Basic Proposal Outline:
Introduction
Topic area
Research question
Significance to knowledge
Literature review
Previous research
others & yours
Interlocking findings and Unanswered questions
Your preliminary work on the topic
The remaining questions and inter-locking logic
Reprise of your research question(s) in this context
Methodology
Approach
Data needs
Analytic techniques
Plan for interpreting results
Expected results
Budget
Bibliography (or References)
The Basic Thesis Outline
Introduction
Topic area
Research question (finding?)
Significance to knowledge
Literature review
Previous research
others & yours
Interlocking findings and Unanswered questions
Your preliminary work on the topic
The remaining questions and inter-locking logic
Reprise of your research question(s) in this context
Methodology
Approach
Data needs
Analytic techniques
Plan for interpreting results
Results
Discussion and Conclusions
Bibliography

Another outline (maybe from Gary Fuller?).

Introduction
Topic area
Research Question and its significance to knowledge
Literature review
Previous research
Your preliminary work on the topic
The remaining questions and their inter-locking logic
Reprise of your resulting question in this context
Methodology
Approach to answering the question
Data needs
Analytic techniques
Plan for interpreting results
Budget
Expected results
Bibliography / References

Each of these outlines is very similar. You get the idea of what the proposal does for you
and organizing your thoughts and approach. The section below goes into slightly more
(boring) detail on what each of the points in the outline is and does.
The Sections of the Proposal
The Introduction

Topic Area
A good title will clue the reader into the topic but it can not tell the whole story. Follow
the title with a strong introduction. The introduction provides a brief overview that tells a
fairly well informed (but perhaps non-specialist) reader what the proposal is about. It
might be as short as a single page, but it should be very clearly written, and it should let
one assess whether the research is relevant to their own. With luck it will hook the
reader's interest.
What is your proposal about? Setting the topical area is a start but you need more, and
quickly. Get specific about what your research will address.
Question
Once the topic is established, come right to the point. What are you doing? What specific
issue or question will your work address? Very briefly (this is still the introduction) say
how you will approach the work. What will we learn from your work?
Significance
Why is this work important? Show why this is it important to answer this question. What
are the implications of doing it? How does it link to other knowledge? How does it stand
to inform policy making? This should show how this project is significant to our body of
knowledge. Why is it important to our understanding of the world? It should establish

why I would want to read on. It should also tell me why I would want to support, or fund,
the project.
Literature Review

State of our knowledge

The purpose of the literature review is to situate your research in the context of what is
already known about a topic. It need not be exhaustive, it needs to show how your work
will benefit the whole. It should provide the theoretical basis for your work, show what
has been done in the area by others, and set the stage for your work.
In a literature review you should give the reader enough ties to the literature that they feel
confident that you have found, read, and assimilated the literature in the field. It should
probably move from the more general to the more focused studies, but need not be
exhaustive, only relevant.
Outstanding questions
This is where you present the holes in the knowledge that need to be plugged and by so
doing, situate your work. It is the place where you establish that your work will fit in and
be significant to the discipline. This can be made easier if there is literature that comes
out and says "Hey, this is a topic that needs to be treated! What is the answer to this
question?" and you will sometimes see this type of piece in the literature. Perhaps there is
a reason to read old AAG presidential addresses.
Research Questions in Detail

Your work to date

Tell what you have done so far. It might report preliminary studies that you have
conducted to establish the feasibility of your research. It should give a sense that you are
in a position to add to the body of knowledge.
Methodology

Overview of approach
This section should make clear to the reader the way that you intend to approach the
research question and the techniques and logic that you will use to address it.
Data Collection
This might include the field site description, a description of the instruments you will use,
and particularly the data that you anticipate collecting. You may need to comment on site
and resource accessibility in the time frame and budget that you have available, to
demonstrate feasibility, but the emphasis in this section should be to fully describe

specifically what data you will be using in your study. Part of the purpose of doing this is
to detect flaws in the plan before they become problems in the research.
Data Analysis
This should explain in some detail how you will manipulate the data that you assembled
to get at the information that you will use to answer your question. It will include the
statistical or other techniques and the tools that you will use in processing the data. It
probably should also include an indication of the range of outcomes that you could
reasonably expect from your observations.
Interpretation
In this section you should indicate how the anticipated outcomes will be interpreted to
answer the research question. It is extremely beneficial to anticipate the range of
outcomes from your analysis, and for each know what it will mean in terms of the answer
to your question.
Expected Results

This section should give a good indication of what you expect to get out of the research.
It should join the data analysis and possible outcomes to the theory and questions that
you have raised. It will be a good place to summarize the significance of the work.
It is often useful from the very beginning of formulating your work to write one page for
this section to focus your reasoning as you build the rest of the proposal.
Bibliography

This is the list of the relevant works. Some advisors like exhaustive lists. I think that the
Graduate Division specifies that you call it "Bibliography". Others like to see only the
literature which you actually cite. Most fall in between: there is no reason to cite
irrelevant literature but it may be useful to keep track of it even if only to say that it was
examined and found to be irrelevant.
Use a standard format. Order the references alphabetically, and use "flag" paragraphs as
per the University's Guidelines.
Tips and Tricks
Read. Read everything you can find in your area of interest. Read. Read. Read. Take
notes, and talk to your advisor about the topic. If your advisor won't talk to you, find
another one or rely on 'the net' for intellectual interaction. Email has the advantage of
forcing you to get your thoughts into written words that can be refined, edited and
improved. It also gets time stamped records of when you submitted what to your advisor
and how long it took to get a response.

Write about the topic a lot, and don't be afraid to tear up (delete) passages that just don't
work. Often you can re-think and re-type faster than than you can edit your way out of a
hopeless mess. The advantage is in the re-thinking.
Very early on, generate the research question, critical observation, interpretations of the
possible outcomes, and the expected results. These are the core of the project and will
help focus your reading and thinking. Modify them as needed as your understanding
increases.
Use some systematic way of recording notes and bibliographic information from the very
beginning. The classic approach is a deck of index cards. You can sort, regroup, layout
spatial arrangements and work on the beach. Possibly a slight improvement is to use a
word-processor file that contains bibliographic reference information and notes, quotes
etc. that you take from the source. This can be sorted, searched, diced and sliced in your
familiar word-processor. You may even print the index cards from the word-processor if
you like the ability to physically re-arrange things.
Even better for some, is to use specialized bibliographic database software. Papyrus,
EndNote, and other packages are available for PCs and MacIntoshs. The bib-refer and
bibTex software on UNIX computers are also very handy and have the advantage of
working with plain ASCII text files (no need to worry about getting at your information
when the wordprocessor is several generations along). All of these tools link to various
word-processors to make constructing and formating your final bibliography easier, but
you won't do that many times anyway. If they help you organize your notes and thinking,
that is the benefit.
Another pointer is to keep in mind from the outset that this project is neither the last nor
the greatest thing you will do in your life. It is just one step along the way. Get it done
and get on with the next one. The length to shoot for is "equivalent to a published paper",
Forty pages of double spaced text, plus figures tables, table of contents, references, etc. is
probably all you need. In practice, most theses try to do too much and become too long.
Cover your topic, but don't confuse it with too many loosely relevant side lines.
This is not complete and needs a little rearranging.
The balance between Introduction and Literature Review needs to be thought out. The
reader will want to be able to figure out whether to read the proposal. The literature
review should be sufficiently inclusive that the reader can tell where the bounds of
knowledge lie. It should also show what has been done and what seem to be accepted
approaches in the field and the kinds of results that are being gotten.
The balance may change between the proposal and the thesis. It is common, although not
really desirable, for theses to make reference to every slightly related piece of work that
can be found. This is not necessary. Refer to the work that actually is linked to your
study, don't go too far afield (unless your committee is adamant that you do ;-).

Useful References:
Krathwohl, David R. 1988. How to Prepare a Research Proposal: Guidelines for
Funding and Dissertations in the Social and Behavioral Sciences . Syracuse University
Press.
Recent National Science Foundations Guidelines for Research Proposals can be found on
the NSF website, www.nsf.gov.
Chamberlain, T.C. "The Method of Multiple Working Hypotheses", reprinted in Science,
Vol 148, pp754-759. 7 May 1965.
Platt, J. "Strong Inference" in Science, Number 3642, pp. 347-353, 16 October 1964.
Strunk and White The Elements of Style
Turabian, Kate. 1955 (or a more recent edition) A Manual for Writers of Term Papers,
Theses and Dissertations, University of Chicago Press.
Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren. 1940 ('67, '72 etc). How to Read a Book.
Simon and Schuster Publishers. New York City, NY.
How to write a research proposal
When you are applying for a research degree, like the PhD, you will very
probably have to write a research proposal as a part of your application file. A
PhD is awarded mainly as the result of your making a genuine contribution to
the state of knowledge in a field of your choice. Even though this is not the
Nobel Prize yet, getting the degree means you have added something to what
has previously been known on the subject you have researched. But first you
have to prove you are capable of making such a contribution, and therefore
write a research proposal that meets certain standards. The goal of a research
proposal (RP) is to present and justify a research idea you have and to present
the practical ways in which you think this research should be conducted.
When you are writing a RP, keep in mind that it will enter a competition, being read in
line with quite a few other RPs. You have to come up with a document that has an impact
upon the reader: write clearly and well structured so that your message gets across easily.
Basically, your RP has to answer three big questions: what research project will you
undertake, why is important to know that thing and how will you proceed to make that
research.
In order to draw the researcher's attention upon your paper, write an introduction with
impact, and that leads to the formulation of your hypothesis. The research hypothesis has
to be specific, concise (one phrase) and to lead to the advancement of the knowledge in
the field in some way. Writing the hypothesis in a concise manner and, first, coming up

with a good hypothesis is a difficult mission. This is actually the core of your application:
you're going to a university to do this very piece of research. Compared to this, the rest of
the application is background scenery. Take your time to think of it. When you have an
idea, be careful at the formulation. A well-written hypothesis is something of an essay's
thesis: it provides a statement that can be tested (argues ahead one of the possible answers
to a problem), it is an idea, a concept, and not a mere fact, and is summed up in one
phrase. In some cases, you will have no idea what the possible answer to a problem worth
being researched is, but you will be able to think of a way to solve that problem, and find
out the answer in the meantime. It's ok in this case, to formulate a research question,
rather than a hypothesis. Let those cases be rare, in any way.
Another piece of advice when writing your hypothesis, regarding the trendy research
fields: chances are great that they're trendy because somebody has already made that
exciting discovery, or wrote that splendid paper that awoke everybody's interest in the
first place. If you're in one of these fields, try to get a fresh point of view upon the
subject; make new connections, don't be 100% mainstream. This will make the project
even more stimulating for the reader. Imagine that you are writing about the trendiest
subject, with absolutely no change in the point of view, and you are given the chance to
make the research. Trends come and go, fast; what are the chances that, in four years'
time, when your research is done and you are ready to publish your results, one of those
well-known professors who dispose of huge research grants has already said whatever
you had to say?
Remember how, in a structured essay, right after the thesis you would present the
organisation of your essay, by enumerating the main arguments you were going to
present? Same thing should happen in a RP. After stating your thesis, you should give a
short account of your answers to those three questions mention earlier. State, in a few
phrases, what will be learned from your research, that your project will make a
difference, and why is that important to be known. You will have to elaborate on both of
these later in the paper.
The next step in writing your proposal is to prove that that particular piece of research has
not been done yet. This section is usually called Literature Review. Inside it, you have to
enumerate and critically analyze an impressive list of boring bibliography. The
conclusion you should - objectively! - reach is that your idea of research has not been
undertaken yet. Even more, you use this opportunity to prove solid theoretical knowledge
in the field, and build the theoretical bases of your project. One tip: don't review all the
articles and books in the fields even if you mention them in the bibliography list; pay
attention in your analysis to those you will build on. Another one: avoid jargon when
writing your RP. The chances are great that the person(s) who will read your and another
1000 research proposals are not specialists in that very field - niche you are examining. If
you are applying for a grant with or foundation or something similar, it might happen that
those reading your paper are not even professors, but recruiters, donors, etc. And even if
they actually are professors, one of the reasons busy people like them agree to undertake
a huge, and sometimes voluntary, work, is the desire to meet some diversity, some change

from their work - so maybe they'll read applications for another specialisation. The
capacity to get your message across in clear, easy-to-grasp concepts and phrases is one of
the winning papers' most important advantages.
So far, you have proven you have a research idea, that you are familiar with the field, and
that your idea is new. Now, why should your project be worth researching? Because it
advances knowledge, ok. But is this knowledge that anybody will need? Maybe nobody
knows for sure how the shoelaces were being tied in the XIXth century, but who cares,
beyond two lace-tying specialists? Find arguments to convince the reader that s/he should
give you money for that research: practical use, accelerating the development of
knowledge in your or other fields, opening new research possibilities, a better
understanding of facts that will allow a more appropriate course of action are possible
reasons. Be clear and specific. Don't promise to save the world, it might be too much to
start with. Even James Bond succeeds that only towards the end of the movie.
We approach now one of the most difficult parts of writing a research proposal: the
methodology. In short, what actions are you going to take in order to answer the
question? When will you know whether the hypothesis has been proven wrong, or has
survived enough tests to be considered, for now, valid? Those tests and the way you are
supposed to handle them to give rigor to your research is what is understood under
methods. Methods divide in qualitative (interviews, questionnaires) and quantitative
(statistics, stuff that deals intensively with numbers). For some projects qualitative
methods are more appropriate, for some quantitative, while for most a mixture of the two
is adequate. You should pick your methods and justify your choice. Research
methodology, however, is too a complicated thing to be explained here. And this is why
it's so tough: not much attention is given to teaching it in Eastern Europe. Try, before
writing your RP, to read a bit more about methodology - on the Internet you will find for
sure some articles - and decide which methods suit your project best. Don't forget:
reading theoretical pieces of your work and providing a critical analysis of those is also a
kind of research. It's fine to provide a rough schedule of your research; some grant
programs will also require a detailed budget, even though for scholarships this is unlikely.
Conclusions: After working your way through the difficult methodological part, you only
have to write your conclusions. Shortly recap why your hypothesis is new, why it
advances knowledge, why is it worth researching and how, from a practical point of view,
are you going to do that. Overall, the capacity of your project to answer the research
question should come out crystal clear from the body of the paper, and especially from
the conclusions. If this happens, it means you have a well-written RP, and you have just
increased you chances for having a successful application.
One last word: how big should your RP be? In most cases, this is specified in the
application form. If it is not, we suggest that you keep it at about 1500 words (that's 3
pages, single-spaced, with 12 size Times New Roman). In fewer words it can be really
tough to write a good RP. With more you might bore your readers. Which we hope will
not happen.

Good luck!
Having 100% of project proposals accepted usually means that a freelance developer has
had very few clients. Low percentage rates usually mean that proposals are being sent to
people who didnt ask or the proposal writer simply needs a few good getting warmers
in the right direction. The following tried and tested tips are to encourage the 100%ers to
write more proposals and the low raters to take heart and give it another try. Lets get
started

1. Ask Questions - Before starting your proposal, take some time to make sure you
know exactly what youre proposing. If youre unclear about any part of the
project, ask your potential client a few meaningful questions. If anything seems
vague in their description of what they want, ask for clarification and then give
them a list of possible options as to what you think they might have meant. For
your sake, when preparing to give a price, its important that you and the client
both have the same amount of work in mind. Note: If you decide to include a
list of questions along with your proposal, include an educated guess as to what
their answers would be. Make it clear that your price is based on you having made
the correct guesses to the proposed questions and that if anything needs clarifying
or if anything is missed, you can adjust your quote accordingly.
2. Summarize The Project - Take all the information on the project that youre
received from the client thus far and summarize it briefly, using your own words,
in an opening paragraph. This not only helps you get a clearer concept of the
project in your own mind but also gives the client confidence that youve given it
thought and understand what they want. It also provides a solid opportunity for
them to clarify encase you didnt understand. Example: Below is a summary of
my understanding of the project based on our conversations thus far:

3. Break Down The Project Into A Nice To Do List After your summary,
follow-up with a solid To Do list, which is very useful for both you and the
client. List everything that theyve requested so far as well as your standard work
on the project. For designers, this would include listing the initial drafts, etc. For
programmers, this would include planning the database, building it, etc. Be
thorough in your list. It will help give the client a strong sense that you know
what youre doing and that youll do the job well. It will also help you make sure
nothing slips through the cracks. Use the list in your project updates and cross
things off as you move along.
4. Split The Project Into Phases - After your to do list, split the project up into a
number of clearly defined phases. I recommend starting out with a minimum of
three. Your first phase might be the Initial First Draft. During this phase, you
begin work on the project and end the phase by sending the client a first draft for
testing and revision. Your next phase, in a simple 3 phase project, could be Bug
Squashing and Customizing During this phase (I recommend project
appropriate naming conventions ; ) the project is tested and revisions are made
until the client is happy with the work and its ready for action. Your last phase is
Finalization. Once the work is finished, you send them an invoice, ask for
referrals, collect payment, and end with a virtual handshake, all parties satisfied
with a job well done. Bonus: A useful strategy to keep in mind when it comes to
pricing is splitting up a long to-do list into meaningful project phases and then
pricing each of the phases individually. This can be especially useful for
isolating features that require additional time and energy and being sure the client
recognizes the work involved when it comes time to give them the price.
5. Give Your Clients A Timeline Once youve gone over the project phases, let
your clients know approximately how long you expect the project to take. Be
generous (overestimate if need be, but gently) and then strive to finish up ahead of
time. While a project may only take you a few hours to finish up, keep in mind
that there will be waiting time between the initial drafts and the finished project as
the client reviews the work and provides feedback. If the client is in a rush, let
them know exactly when it can be finished and be sure to go over in detail exactly
what, if anything, needs to be done on their part to make that deadline possible.
6. Estimate Your Time Involved While not useful for all project types, giving an
estimate of time involved is useful for most and not only gives the client a sense
of what to expect and that you know what youre doing, but also helps you know
exactly what to plan ahead for. A large design/programming project, for example,
with a high dollar amount, can be an excellent opportunity to detail the hours
involved in each step of the to-do list. Be generous, but honest. The last thing you
want is word getting around that it takes you several hours to do what takes the
average freelancer 15 minutes ; ).
7. Use The Multiple Choice Price Strategy Now that all the details have been
clearly laid out and your client is confident in your understanding of the project
and your ability to see it through, its time to give them the price. Calculate your
predicted time involved and be sure that nothing is overlooked. Then, give them
the total number of hours along with your standard hourly rate followed by a
discounted flat rate. As an example, take a typical CSS design/coding project.

Lets say you estimate about 5-8 hours involved in the project and your hourly
rate is $40 an hour. Your proposal would then read something like this: At
around 5-8 hours of work, youre welcome to my basic hourly rate of $40 an hour
or a discounted flat rate of $250. 9 times out of 10 the client will choose the flat
rate over the hourly and will be happy with having had the freedom to choose.
Note: As an honest freelance artist whos abilities are constantly improving, youll
often reach a point where what once took you 5 hours now takes you an hour.
Once that happens, the multiple price strategy is no longer needed. Give them
your flat rate and do an excellent job : ). Be sure that, along with your price, you
give them your options for accepting payment.
8. Offer A Satisfaction Guarantee Once youve given them the price, be sure to
include your satisfaction guarantee. Let them know that youre committed to
working on the project until theyre fully satisfied and then, once theyve
accepted your proposal, stick to it. Theres always the possibility that it can
backfire with a client who just doesnt ever seem to be satisfied (we can talk about
dealing with them another day), but the vast majority of the time a solid guarantee
will give your clients an extra vote of confidence and help to close the deal.
Theres always the possibility of a project costing you more time than its worth,
but no matter. Give the project your absolute best and learn everything that you
can. Satisfied customers often end up being repeat customers and they are more
than worth the time spent on those who may not appreciate your work.
9. End With A Call To Action Finally, after all the details have been made clear,
and the price and guarantee given, end with what happens next. Let them know
exactly what they need to do to get started. If you require payment upfront, let
them know where to send the money. If everything prior has gone well, you now
have a client whos excited and eager to see their project come to life and you
want to make sure that they know what needs to happen next.
10. Write And Format Professionally - Nothing says unprofessional like a bunch
of misspellings, grammatical errors, and IM Style typing. Take the extra time
to proof read your proposal and fix any little errors that may have slipped in. Use
spacing between your paragraphs and divide your various sections (Project
Summary, Timeline, Price Quote, etc..) with subheadings. For extra points, put
your proposal up on a password protected page (make sure the password works!)
within your website. Note: If youre struggling with style or would just like
some extra ideas/opinions, put together an example proposal and share it with
family and friends along with a request for feedback.
And there you have it! Once the proposal has been accepted and the project complete, be
sure to always ask the client if they have any suggestions for how you can improve and
do even better work in the future. Ask them if your proposal was clear and ask, if youre
able, what the deciding factor was in choosing you to do the work. Take note of all you
learn and apply it to the next proposal you write.
Although not directly related to proposal writing, here are two other tips that are worth
mentioning:

1. Pre-Screen Your Clients To save both you and your clients time and energy,
its important to be sure that they are as informed and as prepared as possible
before they contact you. This is where your website can step in and do its job.
After theyve browsed through your portfolio and decided to go for a price on
your services, its important that you provide a clear path to follow. Create a page
specifically for those interested in working with you. Outline the types of projects
that you do and the processes that you use. Dont hide your prices. As well as
offering an hourly rate and flat rate estimates for various project types, I
recommend mentioning that youre always open to creative negotiations. You can
often end up with free projects that more than pay what you would have
charged them.
2. Respond Quickly While not always possible, when youre able to, respond to
your prospective and active clients immediately. If you have an expected delay, let
them know that you plan to be unavailable. Be punctual with all your
appointments and make sure that you meet your deadlines. If you miss a deadline
and youre at fault, take a hit on your earnings. This will let the client know that
you mean what you say and it will also help you to make sure it doesnt happen
again ; ).
Now go out there and do some excellent work : )

Outline for Research Project Proposal

(adapted from Course Materials for Psycholinguistics)
When writing, please use section headings to indicate where the information can be
found. Subheadings need not be used, though in long sections they may facilitate
organization.
1. Introduction
Explain the issue you are examining and why it is significant.
Describe the general area to be studied
Explain why this area is important to the general area under study (e.g., psychology of
language, second language acquisition, teaching methods)
2. Background/Review of the Literature
A description of what has already known about this area and short discussion of why the
background studies are not sufficient.
Summarize what is already known about the field. Include a summary of the basic
background information on the topic gleaned from your literature review (you can
include information from the book and class, but the bulk should be outside sources)
Discuss several critical studies that have already been done in this area(cite according
to APA style).

 Point out why these background studies are insufficient. In other words, what
question(s) do they leave unresolved that you would like to study?
Choose (at least) one of these questions you might like to pursue yourself. (Make sure
you do not choose too many questions)
3. Rationale
A description of the questions you are examining and an exploration of the claims.

List the specific question(s) that you are exploring.

o Explain how these research questions are related to the larger issues raised
in the introduction.
o Describe what specific claim, hypothesis, and/or model of
psycholinguistics you will evaluate with these questions.
Explain what it will show about the psychology of language if your hypothesis is
confirmed.
Explain what it will suggest about the psychology of language if your hypothesis
is disconfirmed.

4. Method and Design

A description of how you would go about collecting data and test the questions your are
examining. You are not required to come up with a new or original method (though you
can try!). Look journal articles to determine what methods are standardly used to assess
knowledge of language in your chosen area and adapt one of these for your needs.
Method: How would you collect the data and why?
Describe the general methodology you choose for your study, in order to test your
hypothesis(es).
Explain why this method is the best for your purposes.
Participants: Who would you test and why?
Describe the sample you would test and explain why you have chosen this sample.
Include age, and language background and socio-economic information, if relevant to the
design.
Are there any participants you would exclude? Why, why not?
Design: What would the stimuli look like and why?
Describe what kinds of manipulations/variations you would make or test for in order
to test your hypothesis(es).
Describe the factors you would vary if you were presenting a person with stimulus
sentences.
Explain how varying these factors would allow you to confirm or disconfirm your
hypotheses.
Explain what significant differences you would need to find to confirm or disconfirm
your hypothesis(es). In particular, how could your hypothesis(es) be disconfirmed by
your data?

 Controls: What kinds of factors would you need to control for in your study?
Describe what types of effects would be likely to occur which would make your
results appear to confirm, or to disconfirm your hypothesis(es).
Describe how you can by your design rule out or control for apparent effects.
Procedure
How are you going to present the stimuli?
What is the participant in the experiment going to do?
Analysis
How will you analyze the results?
What kind of results would confirm your hypothesis?
What kind of results would disconfirm your hypothesis
5. Significance and Conclusion
Discuss, in general, how your proposed research would lead to a significant improvement
over the original studies, and how it would benefit the field. (In other words, why should
someone care? If you were applying for money to do this, why would someone fund you?
If you wanted to publish your results, why would they be interesting?)
6. References
Include all references in APA style.

Elements of a research proposal and report

2005 David S. Walonick, Ph.D.
All research reports use roughly the same format. It doesn't matter whether you've
done a customer satisfaction survey, an employee opinion survey, a health care
survey, or a marketing research survey. All have the same basic structure and
format. The rationale is that readers of research reports (i.e., decision makers,
funders, etc.) will know exactly where to find the information they are looking for,
regardless of the individual report.
Once you've learned the basic rules for research proposal and report writing, you
can apply them to any research discipline. The same rules apply to writing a
proposal, a thesis, a dissertation, or any business research report.

The Research Proposal and Report

General

Style, layout, and page formatting

Outline of the chapters and sections
Chapter I - Introduction
Chapter II - Background
Chapter III - Methodology
Chapter IV - Results

Chapter V - Conclusions and Recommendations

General considerations
Research papers usually have five chapters with well-established sections in each chapter.
Readers of the paper will be looking for these chapters and sections so you should not
deviate from the standard format unless you are specifically requested to do so by the
research sponsor.
Most research studies begin with a written proposal. Again, nearly all proposals follow
the same format. In fact, the proposal is identical to the first three chapters of the final
paper except that it's writtten in future tense. In the proposal, you might say something
like "the researchers will secure the sample from ...", while in the final paper, it would be
changed to "the researchers secured the sample from ...". Once again, with the exception
of tense, the proposal becomes the first three chapters of the final research paper.
The most commonly used style for writing research reports is called "APA" and the rules
are described in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Any
library or bookstore will have it readily available. The style guide contains hundreds of
rules for grammar, layout, and syntax. This paper will cover the most important ones.
Avoid the use of first person pronouns. Refer to yourself or the research team in third
person. Instead of saying "I will ..." or "We will ...", say something like "The researcher
will ..." or "The research team will ...".
A suggestion: Never present a draft (rough) copy of your proposal, thesis, dissertation, or
research paper...even if asked. A paper that looks like a draft, will interpreted as such, and
you can expect extensive and liberal modifications. Take the time to put your paper in
perfect APA format before showing it to anyone else. The payoff will be great since it will
then be perceived as a final paper, and there will be far fewer changes.
Top

Style, layout, and page formatting

Title page
All text on the title page is centered vertically and horizontally. The title page has no page
number and it is not counted in any page numbering.

Page layout
Left margin: 1"
Right margin: 1"
Top margin: 1"
Bottom margin: 1"

Page numbering
Pages are numbered at the top right. There should be 1" of white space from the top of
the page number to the top of the paper. Numeric page numbering begins with the first
page of Chapter 1 (although a page number is not placed on page 1).

Spacing and justification

All pages are single sided. Text is double-spaced, except for long quotations and the
bibliography (which are single-spaced). There is one blank line between a section
heading and the text that follows it. Do not right-justify text. Use ragged-right.

Font face and size

Any easily readable font is acceptable. The font should be 10 points or larger. Generally,
the same font must be used throughout the manuscript, except 1) tables and graphs may
use a different font, and 2) chapter titles and section headings may use a different font.

References
APA format should be used to cite references within the paper. If you name the author in
your sentence, then follow the authors name with the year in parentheses. For example:
Jones (2004) found that...
If you do not include the authors name as part of the text, then both the author's name and
year are enclosed in parentheses. For example:

One researcher (Jones, 2004) found that...

A complete bibliography is attached at the end of the paper. It is double spaced except
single-spacing is used for a multiple-line reference. The first line of each reference is
indented.
Examples:
Bradburn, N. M., & Mason, W. M. (1964). The effect of question order on response.
Journal of Marketing Research 1 (4), 57-61.
Bradburn, N. M., & Miles, C. (1979). Vague quantifiers. Public Opinion Quarterly 43
(1), 92-101.
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Outline of chapters and sections

TITLE PAGE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I - Introduction
Introductory paragraphs
Statement of the problem
Purpose
Significance of the study
Research questions and/or hypotheses
CHAPTER II - Background
Literature review
Definition of terms
CHAPTER III - Methodology
Restate purpose and research questions or null hypotheses
Population and sampling
Instrumentation (include copy in appendix)
Procedure and time frame
Analysis plan (state critical alpha level and type of statistical tests)
Validity and reliability
Assumptions

Scope and limitations

CHAPTER IV - Results
CHAPTER V - Conclusions and recommendations
Summary (of what you did and found)
Discussion (explanation of findings - why do you think you found what you did?)
Recommendations (based on your findings)
REFERENCES
APPENDIX
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Chapter I - Introduction
Introductory paragraphs
Chapter I begins with a few short introductory paragraphs (a couple of pages at most).
The primary goal of the introductory paragraphs is to catch the attention of the readers
and to get them "turned on" about the subject. It sets the stage for the paper and puts your
topic in perspective. The introduction often contains dramatic and general statements
about the need for the study. It uses dramatic illustrations or quotes to set the tone. When
writing the introduction, put yourself in your reader's position - would you continue
reading?

Statement of the Problem

The statement of the problem is the focal point of your research. It is just one sentence
(with several paragraphs of elaboration).
You are looking for something wrong.
....or something that needs close attention
....or existing methods that no longer seem to be working.
Example of a problem statement:
"The frequency of job layoffs is creating fear, anxiety, and a loss of productivity in
middle management workers."
While the problem statement itself is just one sentence, it is always accompanied by

several paragraphs that elaborate on the problem. Present persuasive arguments why the
problem is important enough to study. Include the opinions of others (politicians,
futurists, other professionals). Explain how the problem relates to business, social or
political trends by presenting data that demonstrates the scope and depth of the problem.
Try to give dramatic and concrete illustrations of the problem. After writing this section,
make sure you can easily identify the single sentence that is the problem statement.

Purpose
The purpose is a single statement or paragraph that explains what the study intends to
accomplish. A few typical statements are:
The goal of this study is to...
... overcome the difficulty with ...
... discover what ...
... understand the causes or effects of ...
... refine our current understanding of ...
... provide a new interpretation of ...
... understand what makes ___ successful or unsuccessful

Significance of the Study

This section creates a perspective for looking at the problem. It points out how your study
relates to the larger issues and uses a persuasive rationale to justify the reason for your
study. It makes the purpose worth pursuing. The significance of the study answers the
questions:
Why is your study important?
To whom is it important?
What benefit(s) will occur if your study is done?

Research Questions and/or Hypotheses and/or Null Hypotheses

Chapter I lists the research questions (although it is equally acceptable to present the
hypotheses or null hypotheses). No elaboration is included in this section. An example
would be:
The research questions for this study will be:
1. What are the attitudes of...
2. Is there a significant difference between...

3. Is there a significant relationship between...

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Chapter II - Background
Chapter II is a review of the literature. It is important because it shows what previous
researchers have discovered. It is usually quite long and primarily depends upon how
much research has previously been done in the area you are planning to investigate. If
you are planning to explore a relatively new area, the literature review should cite similar
areas of study or studies that lead up to the current research. Never say that your area is
so new that no research exists. It is one of the key elements that proposal readers look at
when deciding whether or not to approve a proposal.
Chapter II should also contain a definition of terms section when appropriate. Include it if
your paper uses special terms that are unique to your field of inquiry or that might not be
understood by the general reader. "Operational definitions" (definitions that you have
formulated for the study) should also be included. An example of an operational
definition is: "For the purpose of this research, improvement is operationally defined as
posttest score minus pretest score".
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Chapter III - Methodology

The methodology section describes your basic research plan. It usually begins with a few
short introductory paragraphs that restate purpose and research questions. The
phraseology should be identical to that used in Chapter I. Keep the wording of your
research questions consistent throughout the document.

Population and sampling

The basic research paradigm is:
1) Define the population
2) Draw a representative sample from the population
3) Do the research on the sample
4) Infer your results from the sample back to the population
As you can see, it all begins with a precise definition of the population. The whole idea of

inferential research (using a sample to represent the entire population) depends upon an
accurate description of the population. When you've finished your research and you make
statements based on the results, who will they apply to? Usually, just one sentence is
necessary to define the population. Examples are: "The population for this study is
defined as all adult customers who make a purchase in our stores during the sampling
time frame", or "...all home owners in the city of Minneapolis", or "...all potential
consumers of our product".
While the population can usually be defined by a single statement, the sampling
procedure needs to be described in extensive detail. There are numerous sampling
methods from which to choose. Describe in minute detail, how you will select the
sample. Use specific names, places, times, etc. Don't omit any details. This is extremely
important because the reader of the paper must decide if your sample will sufficiently
represent the population.

Instrumentation
If you are using a survey that was designed by someone else, state the source of the
survey. Describe the theoretical constructs that the survey is attempting to measure.
Include a copy of the actual survey in the appendix and state that a copy of the survey is
in the appendix.

Procedure and time frame

State exactly when the research will begin and when it will end. Describe any special
procedures that will be followed (e.g., instructions that will be read to participants,
presentation of an informed consent form, etc.).

Analysis plan
The analysis plan should be described in detail. Each research question will usually
require its own analysis. Thus, the research questions should be addressed one at a time
followed by a description of the type of statistical tests that will be performed to answer
that research question. Be specific. State what variables will be included in the analyses
and identify the dependent and independent variables if such a relationship exists.
Decision making criteria (e.g., the critical alpha level) should also be stated, as well as
the computer software that will be used.

Validity and reliability

If the survey you're using was designed by someone else, then describe the previous
validity and reliability assessments. When using an existing instrument, you'll want to
perform the same reliability measurement as the author of the instrument. If you've

developed your own survey, then you must describe the steps you took to assess its
validity and a description of how you will measure its reliability.
Validity refers to the accuracy or truthfulness of a measurement. Are we measuring what
we think we are? There are no statistical tests to measure validity. All assessments of
validity are subjective opinions based on the judgment of the researcher. Nevertheless,
there are at least three types of validity that should be addressed and you should state
what steps you took to assess validity.
Face validity refers to the likelihood that a question will be misunderstood or
misinterpreted. Pretesting a survey is a good way to increase the likelihood of face
validity. One method of establishing face validity is described here. How to make sure
your survey is valid.
Content validity refers to whether an instrument provides adequate coverage of a topic.
Expert opinions, literature searches, and pretest open-ended questions help to establish
content validity.
Construct validity refers to the theoretical foundations underlying a particular scale or
measurement. It looks at the underlying theories or constructs that explain a phenomena.
In other words, if you are using several survey items to measure a more global construct
(e.g., a subscale of a survey), then you should describe why you believe the items
comprise a construct. If a construct has been identified by previous researchers, then
describe the criteria they used to validate the construct. A technique known as
confirmatory factor analysis is often used to explore how individual survey items
contribute to an overall construct measurement.
Reliability is synonymous with repeatability or stability. A measurement that yields
consistent results over time is said to be reliable. When a measurement is prone to
random error, it lacks reliability.
There are three basic methods to test reliability : test-retest, equivalent form, and internal
consistency. Most research uses some form of internal consistency. When there is a scale
of items all attempting to measure the same construct, then we would expect a large
degree of coherence in the way people answer those items. Various statistical tests can
measure the degree of coherence. Another way to test reliability is to ask the same
question with slightly different wording in different parts of the survey. The correlation
between the items is a measure of their reliability. See: How to test the reliability of a
survey.

Assumptions
All research studies make assumptions. The most obvious is that the sample represents

the population. Another common assumptions are that an instrument has validity and is
measuring the desired constructs. Still another is that respondents will answer a survey
truthfully. The important point is for the researcher to state specifically what assumptions
are being made.

Scope and limitations

All research studies also have limitations and a finite scope. Limitations are often
imposed by time and budget constraints. Precisely list the limitations of the study.
Describe the extent to which you believe the limitations degrade the quality of the
research.
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Chapter IV - Results
Description of the sample
Nearly all research collects various demographic information. It is important to report the
descriptive statistics of the sample because it lets the reader decide if the sample is truly
representative of the population.

Analyses
The analyses section is cut and dry. It precisely follows the analysis plan laid out in
Chapter III. Each research question addressed individually. For each research question:
1) Restate the research question using the exact wording as in Chapter I
2) If the research question is testable, state the null hypothesis
3) State the type of statistical test(s) performed
4) Report the statistics and conclusions, followed by any appropriate table(s)
Numbers and tables are not self-evident. If you use tables or graphs, refer to them in the
text and explain what they say. An example is: "Table 4 shows a strong negative
relationship between delivery time and customer satisfaction (r=-.72, p=.03)". All tables
and figures have a number and a descriptive heading. For example:
Table 4
The relationship between delivery time and customer satisfaction.
Avoid the use of trivial tables or graphs. If a graph or table does not add new information
(i.e., information not explained in the text), then don't include it.

Simply present the results. Do not attempt to explain the results in this chapter.
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Chapter V - Conclusions and recommendations

Begin the final chapter with a few paragraphs summarizing what you did and found (i.e.,
the conclusions from Chapter IV).

Discussion
Discuss the findings. Do your findings support existing theories? Explain why you think
you found what you did. Present plausible reasons why the results might have turned out
the way they did.

Recommendations
Present recommendations based on your findings. Avoid the temptation to present
recommendations based on your own beliefs or biases that are not specifically supported
by your data. Recommendations fall into two categories. The first is recommendations to
the study sponsor. What actions do you recommend they take based upon the data. The
second is recommendations to other researchers. There are almost always ways that a
study could be improved or refined. What would you change if you were to do your study
over again? These are the recommendations to other researchers.
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References
List references in APA format alphabetically by author's last name
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Appendix
Include a copy of any actual instruments. If used, include a copy of the informed consent
form.

Top

Do you have to compose a research proposal outline but you do not know how to make
it? Well, you are lucky to find this article, since here you will find the main steps every
research beginner should take in order to make a proper research proposal outline.

Start with answering the following question: What is your research significant
for? In order to complete this part of your research proposal outline, you will
have to find out the needs of the research community. As soon as you have got to
know them, make notes that will serve you as a good basis for composing this part
of your research proposal outline;
Formulate your objectives clearly enough. You should know exactly what your
efforts will be directed to. That is why the next point of your research proposal
outline will be devoted to the objectives of your investigation;
Conduct background research in order to compose the Conceptual Framework
section of your proposal. It means that you will have to find the works of different
researchers who investigated the topic you are dealing with. This information will
be the next part of your research proposal outlines;
Find out the best methods for your topic investigation. Your research proposal
outline needs information on the methods of investigation. This part of your
research proposal outline is a Methodology section, where you will explain why
these methods are the most applicable ones;
Tell about some possible results of your research. An important section will be
missing in your research proposal outline if you do not tell about what you
expect to find out.

Follow these tips to create a good research proposal outline and you will manage to
compose it properly.