Research Proposal Format

1. Your proposed topic should address a significant problem and, therefore,

advance the state of knowledge in that field.
2. You have identified an appropriate methodology and underlying theory to
address the problem, including data collection methods and equipment, if
required.
3. Your methods of data analysis are outlined and appropriate to your data
set so that you can draw useful conclusions from your work.
4. You have an organized plan for your work, including a timeframe.
The structure and size of your Research Proposal will vary depending the
requirements of your Faculty or School so the initial step is to find out
departmental guidelines and requirements. Nevertheless, there are certain
elements that any Research Proposal requires and these should be presented in
the following order.
Proposal Format

1. Title or Cover Page:

2. Table of Contents:
3. Abstract
4. Introduction
5. Statement of the Problem
6. Objective
a. General Objective
b. Specific Objective
7. Significance of the Project
8. Scope of the Project
9. Methodology (methods to be used and Block Diagrams)
10. Materials Needed (Hardware and Software Requirement)
11. Time Schedule
12. Cost Analysis / Cost Benefit and Analysis

Elements of Research Proposal format

Title or Cover Page: identifies the research project title, the student researcher,
the institution, department, and the project mentors or supervisors.

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 The title should be brief and descriptive and may use a colon (:) to
separate the topic from the focus (e.g. Stormwater Harvesting: managing
the hazards of surface water pollution by run-off).
Table of Contents: lists the sections of the Research Proposal (headings and
indented sub-headings) and the corresponding page numbers.
Abstract: The abstract should present in about 350 words. The abstract should be
self-contained, concise, readable, and one page or less. It should outline
what you intend to do, why you believe it needs to be done and what the
results will mean in theory and in practice. Do not include any information
that is not contained in the body of the paper. Research abstracts are used
throughout the research community to provide a concise description about
a research project. It is typically a short summary of your completed
research. If done well, it makes the reader want to learn more about your
research. Some students present their research findings at local and
national conferences. Research abstracts are usually requested as part of
the application process for conference presenters.

These are the basic components of an abstract in any discipline:

1. Motivation/problem statement: Why do we care about the problem?
What practical, scientific, theoretical or artistic gap is your research
filling?
2. Methods/procedure/approach: What did you actually do to get your
results? (e.g. analyzed 3 novels, completed a series of 5 oil paintings,
interviewed 17 students)
3. Results/findings/product: As a result of completing the above
procedure, what did you learn/invent/create? 4)
Conclusion/implications: What are the larger implications of your
findings, especially for the problem/gap identified in step 1?
However, it's important to note that the weight accorded to the different
components can vary by discipline. For models, try to find abstracts of
research that is similar to your research.

Steps to Writing Effective Abstracts

Reread the article, paper, or report with the goal of abstracting in mind.
Look specifically for these main parts of the article, paper, or report:
purpose, methods, scope, results, conclusions, and recommendation. If
you're writing an abstract about another person's article, paper, or report,
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 the introduction and the summary are good places to begin. These areas
generally cover what the article emphasizes. After you've finished rereading
the article, paper, or report, write a rough draft without looking back at
what you're abstracting. Don't merely copy key sentences from the article,
paper, or report: you'll put in too much or too little information. Don't rely
on the way material was phrased in the article, paper, or report: summarize
information in a new way.

Don’ts
 Do not commence with "this paper…”, "this report…" or similar. It is
better to write about the research than about the paper.
 Do not explain the sections or parts of the paper.
 Avoid sentences that end in "…is described", "…is reported", "…is
analyzed" or similar.
 Do not begin sentences with "it is suggested that…” "it is believed
that…", "it is felt that…"or similar. In every case, the four words can be
omitted without damaging the essential message.
 Do not repeat or rephrase the title.
 Do not refer in the abstract to information that is not in the document.
 If possible, avoid trade names, acronyms, abbreviations, or symbols.
You would need to explain them, and that takes too much room.
The abstract should be about the research, not about the act of writing.

Introduction: provides background information for the research (i.e. the problem
being addressed) and is typically structured from general information to
narrow or focused ideas; whereupon your research question/s or
hypotheses are presented. The Introduction should be about 10% of your
proposal. Imagine you are writing for a general science reader rather than
an expert audience. The Introduction includes a brief review of relevant
literature or knowledge in the field, so that you are able to present the gap
in the existing knowledge and, therefore, the significance and originality –
the purpose and aims – of your research. Finally, articulate the scope of
your research; or what you will not be doing, so as to limit your task.

In your introduction, you need to answer questions such as

1. What do you hope to learn from your research?

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 2. What question is being asked?
3. Why is this research important?

This diagram provides an outline of the sequence of information that needs to be

presented in the introduction.

The introduction starts generally, introducing the broad context within

which your research fits. You need to provide a review of the literature that
impacts on your research area. The literature needs to provide the
reader/marker of your report with:

 an understanding of the conceptual and theoretical background,

context and justification for the research you are undertaking;
 an appreciation of the significance of this area and in particular your
topic; for example,

 why does this question need researching and

 how does it contribute to, fit in with, or differ from other
available work on this subject (Hay, 1996)?

Statement of the Problem: A problem statement is a brief piece of writing that

usually comes at the beginning of a report or proposal to explain the
problem or issue the document is addressing to the reader. In general, a
problem statement will outline the basic facts of the problem, explain why
the problem matters, and pinpoint a solution as quickly and directly as
possible. A problem statement is a clear description of the issue(s), it
includes a vision, issue statement, and method used to solve the problem.
The 5 'W's can be used to spark the discussion about the problem. A
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problem statement expresses the words that will be used to keep the effort
focused and it should represent a solveable problem.

A problem statement is a clear concise description of the issue(s) that

need(s) to be addressed by a problem solving team. It is used to center and
focus the team at the beginning, keep the team on track during the effort,
and is used to validate that the effort delivered an outcome that solves the
problem statement. It has a specific form: Vison , Issue Statement and
methods.

How to get started : The 5 'W's - Who, What, Where, When and Why - is a
great tool that helps get pertinent information out for discussion.

Who - Who does the problem affect? Specific groups, organizations,

customers, etc.

What - What are the boundaries of the problem, e.g. organizational, work
flow, geographic, customer, segments, etc. - What is the issue? -
What is the impact of the issue? - What impact is the issue causing?
- What will happen when it is fixed? - What would happen if we
didn’t solve the problem?

When - When does the issue occur? - When does it need to be fixed?

Where - Where is the issue occurring? Only in certain locations, processes,

products, etc.

Why - Why is it important that we fix the problem? - What impact does it
have on the business or customer? - What impact does it have on
all stakeholders, e.g. employees, suppliers, customers,
shareholders, etc. Each of the answers will help to zero in on the
specific issue(s) and frame the Issue Statement. Your problem

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 statement should be solveable. That is, it should take a reasonable
amount of time to formulate, try and deploy a potential solution.

Objective

c. General Objective
d. Specific Objective

Research objectives is a concrete statement describing what the research is

trying to achieve. A well-worded objective will be SMART, i.e. Specific,
Measurable, Attainable, Realistic , & Time-bound.

In general, research objectives describe what we expect to achieve by a

project.

Research objectives are usually expressed in lay terms and are directed as
much to the client as to the researcher. Research objectives may be linked
with a hypothesis or used as a statement of purpose in a study that does not
have a hypothesis.

Even if the nature of the research has not been clear to the layperson from the
hypotheses, s/he should be able to understand the research from the
objectives.

A statement of research objectives can serve to guide the activities of

research.

General objectives are broad and long-term. The general objective is met
through accomplishing each of the specific objectives.

Specific objectives are short term and narrow in focus.

Significance of the Project: relates the intended or expected outcomes of your

research to the original aims expressed in the Introduction so that the
significance of the study and the contribution to knowledge is apparent.

Scope of the Project: This is a place where the exact scope of the research is
mentioned. This is basically setting the boundary of your work. This will
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 help one to assess whether the research is feasible or not and also gives an
idea of what is expected. For example, in the research mentioned above
one can specify the scope by saying that:

 The research only considers students (postgraduate and/or

undergraduate) as end-users;
 The study will be conducted within a specified time-period, just in
one semester or in one month, say;
 The study only considers the OPAC interface available on the NTU
Intranet; and so on.
The scope of a research could depend on a number of factors, such as
resources – time, fund, manpower, and so on; accessibility to the
information, subject, and so on.

Methodology (methods to be used and Block Diagrams) : includes a description

and rationale for the methods of data collection and analysis, and the
materials used when solving the problem. When and how will you know,
for example, that sufficient experimentation has been done, and sufficient
and valid data analyzed, to support or invalidate the original hypothesis?

This section includes the dataset/s, calculations, equipment, calibration

graphs, and procedures to be used, lists project limitations and outlines
how ethical considerations of the research have been considered.
Typically, it uses subheadings (i.e. Subjects, Instrumentation, Data
Collection, Methods of Analysis etc.) And is written with a future aspect,
e.g. the research will initially examine water treatment processes in...

Then, ask yourself, what is different about your proposed method? What
kind of research are you proposing? This will give you your sub-headings.

• Experimental – equipment, materials, method

• Modeling – assumptions, mathematical tools, method
• Computational – inputs, computational tools, method.

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Materials Needed (Hardware and Software Requirement) : State all the materials
needed for the project .

Time Schedule: lists the stages of the research project in timeline, spreadsheet or
tabular format, and the deadlines for completion of these stages or tasks.
You should include any challenges to completion that you anticipate facing.

Cost Analysis / Cost Benefit and Analysis : Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) estimates
and totals up the equivalent money value of the benefits and costs to the
community of projects to establish whether they are worthwhile.

R E M I N D E R S:
Note: You are all required to prepare at least three title proposals to be presented
on the following dates:

April 17, 2017 - 4th year Computer Stream

April 18, 2017 - 4th year Communication Stream

April 19, 2017 - 4th year Control Stream

April 20, 2017 - 4th year Power Stream

The purpose of presenting at least three proposals is for the panelist will approve
or select one which will be presented before the final examination period.