What does a master’s proposal entail?

[Mitchell Atherton]

Hey all, I have to prepare a research proposal for my master’s course. Just looking for a way to begin. Any input as to what does it contain?

[Gabriella621]

For me, proposal is like a mini-dissertation. It’s like writing first three chapters of a dissertation, Introduction, Literature review and Research methodology in a short yet sufficient amount. Your University must have provided you with some guidelines, right? Haven’t they mentioned about how to prepare a proposal?

[ArchieCasey]

Proposal is basically a comprehensive document that shows your intention of conducting research, how it can contribute to the literature, whether the research is justified or not and what methods will you choose to reach the desired conclusions. I am from University of Salford Manchester, and my proposal had this format:

1. Executive summary
2. Aim
3. Research objectives
4. Justification
5. Statement of program alignment
6. Background of the research
7. Literature review
8. Research strategy: research paradigm, research approach, research design and sampling method
9. Practical implementation: data collection method and analysis technique
10. Work schedule
11. Description of ethical approach
12. Summary
13. References

Yes, it was HUGE and no it wasn’t easy. So, plan your work out and try to do it before deadline. Here, read this blog about managing your work:

Work-To-Rule: Advice for meeting a deadline

[Mitchell Atherton]

Wow, thanks a lot. Quite descriptive. I have a format too, which is somewhere along the line of your proposal. My supervisor doesn’t really care, so could you just explain briefly what all needs to be included in these headings?

[Jade Fisher]

Hi Mitchell! I am sharing this article with you which is prepared by the research students of University of Adelaide. It’s a thorough piece of work which entails all the guideline which needs to be kept in mind while writing your proposal.

https://www.adelaide.edu.au/graduatecentre/forms/admission/docs/admision-research-proposal-template-guide.pdf

[Claudia Hoffmann]

A proposal is like a brief document that explains of intention of doing a research. I’d say that focus less on headings and more on the flow of your document. I read about proposal writing on the below link, and you can refer it too:

http://www.dissertationtutors.co.uk/dissertation-proposal-writing.php
I don’t think that it’s too difficult. All the best!

[ArchieCasey]

Well, I can’t really elaborate all the headings of the proposal. But yeah, I can summarise and cut it short. The major portions that catches the eye of a professor, is the problem statement and the rationale of the study. That is the most crucial part and showed be laid down perfectly with lots of references. Latest references are something that should be in abundant amount, I don’t why, but the universities admire that work which is backed by large literature. Alright, so apart from that, you need to maintain the flow of the document, the transition from research background to problem statement to research objectives should be neat (the order should be as per your format). Define your tentative methods then propose a timeline. That’ll should be all.

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