How to Write a Perfect Research Proposal in One Day?

This research article will summarize the process of writing a research proposal and will suggest ways on how to write a final complete proposal within a day.

Writing a research proposal is not the easiest task but if you know the tricks, if you know how to write a proposal efficiently, it could be a very easy process. To write a proper research proposal, first focus on the research topic. Choose a topic that is relevant to your research area or personal choice or preferences. Once you know what the topic is, decide which are the variables that are central to your topic. So the first step stage 1 to writing a proposal is to choose a topic. To choose a topic, you have to work with your supervisor and possibly an essay writer who will help you to choose the topic.

The introductory process is obviously to turn yourself from a student to a researcher by conducting extensive research on your topic and research area. That when done, when you have significant information about the topic at your disposal, you are in a stronger position to negotiate your preferred research area with your supervisor. So it is always best to know your stuff. When your supervisor perceives you as knowledgeable and aware of the current issues in your research area, you are more likely to reach an agreement about the research topic sooner.

Reaching an agreement about your topic, with your supervisor is one of the essential steps to starting the research process. Once you have the topic, the next stage, stage 2 is to move on to collect information on the topic. Identify the variables or factors that are central to your topic. Once you have these variables ready, you should be able to refer back to your literature review and step 3 is collect all relevant information to come up with a hypothesis.

The hypothesis helps you to decide what you are trying to prove or disprove through your research, so after choosing your research topic and identifying your factors or variables, the next stage would be to identify or select the hypothesis.

So the first three important stages of writing a research proposal are done:

1. Choose the topic.

2. Identify the variables.

3. Come up with a hypothesis.

At this stage, you already have the essential components of a proposal - a research topic, the factors or variables and a hypothesis, so you are already in a strong position.

Let's continue to the stage when you actually sit down to write your research proposal.

This is stage 4. At this stage, you write down your topic and begin with your introduction of your research proposal. You must have a clear idea about how your methodology will look or what methods you will follow to actually collect data for your research. So step 4 is to identify your methods and your data collection procedures. Even if you are writing a basic outline rather than a detailed proposal, you would still need a detailed methodological approach for your study.

While choosing the correct methodology, read up on the different methodological approaches available. Qualitative research methods are distinct from quantitative research methods, so which method do you want to follow and which method would best suit your research direction? The methodology has to be chosen in accordance with the research aims and what you intend to find out or investigate through your research.

Usually quantitative methodology would help you to find exact measures and numbers to quantify your findings and qualitative methods will help you to find answers to the basic qualitative questions that you seek to study. Many researchers prefer to follow a mixed-methods approach to research to integrate the qualitative and quantitative aspects of research.

So stage 4 of selecting the research methodology is then followed by stage 5 in which you have to create an outline for your literature review. Collecting data or information from your relevant resources will help you to streamline the approach to writing a literature review. Stage 5 is this writing a literature review that is focused, with a specific direction that is meant to solve your research problem or directly tackle the research question. You can either write a full literature review or create an outline at this stage.

Stage 6 is about creating the skeletal framework for your proposal. So you already have the topic, you have the variables, identified the hypothesis, methodology and literature review, so now it's time to sit and create the structure or framework of the proposal. You must add research aims and objectives and rationale or justification while you do this.

Once you have the skeletal framework ready, you are 75% done with your research proposal. Next, stage 7 you must determine your schedule and draw up a Gantt chart that will provide a schedule for the research, data collection, write-up etc.

Stage 8 is about writing the full research proposal and this should be easy and quick and should not take more than an hour, since you already have the framework for the proposal ready. Stage 9 is to complete the proposal with expected findings and providing details on what you expect to achieve and how this would take your research area forward. In this stage you provide details on your own knowledge in the field and how this research topic or paper is expected to help move forward the overall research agenda.

The last stage, stage 10 is about writing the conclusion and interpretive directions of your proposal. You may in fact, not have the necessary data to reach conclusive statements, so best to provide an estimate, your expectations, schedule and overall expected findings of the research process. The final stage sets the stage for your research to actually take shape, as it provides your supervisor an overview of your research direction and a solid plan for your thesis paper.