As a master’s student, your research should be short and contain only the necessary information. It is usually between 500 and 1,000 words in length. Instead, doctoral proposals are longer, 1,000 to 2,500 words, and contain more comprehensive information. Regardless of whether you are writing a master’s or doctoral research proposal, however, it must cover the same key points:
What is the QUALITY of a good research proposal? A. It must be clearly written, well structured, and presumably follow the chronology described in the previous section. B. Your research project must be achievable and realistic and not overly ambitious. This means you need to pay attention to time constraints, support all statements in the relevant literature, and show that you can think consistently about your topic. C. Your research topic must fill some of the gaps in the relevant literature. D. If you are applying for a Ph.D. under a particular supervisor, you must demonstrate that you know his or her work and understand how it relates to your research topic. E. If you are applying for funding, you must ensure that your proposal clearly explains why your research is relevant both in the real world and in your research area, and you must provide compelling reasons for what makes your research idea excellent. F. Your research proposal must be driven by curiosity to expand your knowledge of your field of research, rather than choosing a research question just because you know it can be easily answered and earned a degree.
KEY POINTS • the research project is the core of many advanced courses. For doctoral students and graduates, it is the most important part of their course, while for taught master’s students, it is relatively less important, but still very relevant.
- Further research projects are usually prepared in the form of a dissertation.
- Teaching master’s students usually need to start thinking about a research project during or after the second course, while graduates and postgraduate students need to know their research project in advance and describe it in the research proposal when applying for the course
. • The first step of a research project is to choose a suitable research topic. The main factors to consider when choosing a research topic are whether it is personally inspiring to the student, whether it contributes to the existing literature in the field, and whether it is practical enough to be studied within a given time frame.
- Doctoral students usually have more freedom to choose their research topic because their course lasts 3-4 years and they have the necessary knowledge to deal with more complex research issues. However, the selection is limited by the supervisor’s research work and they must complete a project that can be completed during their course. In contrast, master’s students in teachers and researchers choose their research topics in a more limited way because their courses are shorter and their knowledge is not yet sufficiently advanced to answer more complex research questions.
- Once a suitable research topic has been selected, the student uses it to formulate a research proposal. Taught master’s students are usually required to submit their research proposal after the course begins, while graduates and doctoral students are required to submit it when applying for the course. Ph.D. research proposals are usually more comprehensive and 1000-2500 words long, while mastering’s research proposals are simpler and 500-1000 words long.
- Each research proposal must include a title, the main research question, a statement of the relevance of the research topic, a literature review, methodology, and timetable. • Good research proposals should have a clear structure and be tailored to the time constraints of the course completed and the benefits of the course supervisor’s research.
- Once the research proposal is approved, the student must begin the actual research project. This process usually consists of a few steps: conducting a more comprehensive literature review, reviewing the research question, developing and testing a more detailed methodology to determine its effectiveness, gathering and analyzing research data, drawing conclusions from data analysis.
- Dissertation projects are writing the thesis in small steps to ensure that they follow the book in their research. Students majoring in research are also encouraged to write their thesis in two or three stages to divide the research into smaller units that are easier to describe.
