Scribd
Upload
29 views

How To Write A Research Paper Proposal

Uploaded by

Rain
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
29 views

How To Write A Research Paper Proposal

Uploaded by

Rain
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

How to Write a Research Paper Proposal

The research proposal is highly formulaic. Let’s break it down. It needs to contain the following:
1) A big picture problem or topic widely debated in your field.
2) A review of the research literature outlining the main positions in the debate so far.
3) A gap in the literature on this topic. Explain how your argument fills this gap.
4) The specific material that you examine in the paper.
5) A forecast for how your argument is going to unfold.
6) A concluding sentence that emphasizes what the point of the research project is.

Each of these six elements can mostly be communicated in a single sentence.


Sentence 1: A big picture problem or topic that is intensively debated in your field, with
references to other scholars. In other words, the state of knowledge, which should include
summaries/citations of your research sources. (e.g., “The question of xxx has been widely
debated in xxx field, with scholars such as xxx and xx arguing xxx”).
Sentence 2: A gap in the research on this topic. Or, the knowledge deficit—what is being
insufficiently discussed in your research sources? The deficit can be something big, such as a
minority position not prevalently held by other researchers in the field. Or the deficit can be
something small, something that simply adds nuance to an existing scholarly conversation: a
different perspective on an issue researchers have not considered; a relevant factor that has often
been overlooked in researchers’ data-collection processes; a problem you see commonly
occurring in research on a given topic which does not necessarily require you to provide the
solution but which does need to be acknowledged more widely by researchers to be a problem,
etc. (e.g., “However, these articles / arguments / perspectives have not adequately addressed
the concept of xxxx.”).
Sentence 3+ (more than one sentence may be possible here): Your project proposing to fill the
gap / your original argument. Discuss how your paper is going to fill in the knowledge deficit.
State your main argument and contribution to the state of knowledge. If you are wondering—
how do I make an argument when I haven’t written the paper yet? Well—that’s the challenge.
Come up with a plausible, reasonable argument for the purposes of the proposal. If you end up
writing something different in the paper itself, that’s ok! (e.g., “My paper addresses the issue
of xx. With special attention to xxx, “I argue that…”).
Sentence 4+ (more sentences may be possible here): The specific material that you examine in
the paper—the main arguments / articles you will be orchestrating throughout (not simply
surveying in the intro), the data sets you will be relying on (you can’t generate your own in this
course but are welcome to borrow by citing others’), the cases and examples you will be giving
to prove your argument (again, it is best to borrow these from the work of others, and to bring
together multiple sources). (e.g., “In my project, I will examine xxx and xxx, in order to show
xxxx. I will discuss xx and xx, and juxtapose them against xx and xx, in order to reveal the
previously misunderstood connections between xx and xx.”)
Sentence 5: A forecast. Use self-reference/the discursive “I” and give an outline of the
steps/sections/paragraphs by which your paper will unfold—if you haven’t thought far enough
ahead to do this yet that’s ok too. Just make something up—give yourself, and me, a potential
research plan to follow—you can always change your mind when you’re actually writing. (e.g.,
“First, I begin… Second, I review… Third, I propose… Fourth, I further argue… Finally, I
conclude…”)
Sentence 6: A strong concluding sentence (e.g., “In conclusion, this project, by closely
examining xxxxx, explores and emphasizes the consequences of the neglected/little
recognized/rarely acknowledged issue of xxxxx. “).

Start by writing out your own version of the sentences above as succinctly as you can (do not
model yours on them word for word!). One of the key points of the paper proposal is that it is
very short, and every word must count. No fluff, no filler, no blather. Remove wordy phrases
like, “it can be argued that,” “It is commonly acknowledged that,” “I wish to propose the
argument that”—these are all empty filler. Work in short, declarative sentences.

For your reference, here are two proposals that demonstrate how the principles above work. Each
has parts missing, as noted. Inclusion would have strengthened the proposal:

1. Access to marriage or marriage-like institutions, and the recognition of lesbian and gay
familial lives more generally, has become central to lesbian and gay equality struggles in recent
years [Sentence 1–Big problem]. [Sentence 2–Gap in literature MISSING here]. This paper
considers what utopian fiction has to offer by way of alternatives to this drive for ever more
regulation of the family [Sentence 3–Her project fills the gap]. Through analysis of Marge
Piercy’s classic feminist novel, Woman on the Edge of Time, and Thomas Bezucha’s award-
winning gay film, Big Eden, alternative ways of conceptualizing the place of law in lesbian and
gay familial lives are considered and explored [Sentence 4–Her specific material in the paper].
Looking to utopia as a method for rethinking the place of law in society offers rich new
perspectives on the issue of lesbian and gay familial recognition [Sentence 5–Her argument,
weak]. I argue that utopian fiction signals that the time is now ripe for a radical reevaluation of
how we recognize and regulate not only same-sex relationships but all family forms [Sentence 6–
a strong conclusion.].
Harding, Rosie (2010). Imagining a different world: reconsidering the regulation of family lives.
Law and Literature, 22(3), 440-62.

2. History, it seems, has to attain a degree of scientificity, resident in the truth-value of its
narrative, before it can be called history, as distinguished from the purely literary or political
[Sentence 1–Big problem]. Invoking the work of Jacques Rancière and Hayden White, this essay
investigates the manner in which history becomes a science through a detour that gives speech a
regime of truth [Sentence 2–Literature, no gap mentioned]. It does this by exploring the
nineteenth-century relationship of history to poetry and to truth in the context of the emerging
discipline of history in Bengal [Sentence 3–Her project fills the gap]. The question is discussed
in relation to a patriotic poem, Palashir Yuddha (1875), accused of ahistoricality, as well as to a
defense made by Bengal’s first professional historian, Jadunath Sarkar, against a similar charge
in the context of Bankimchandra Chatterjee’s historical novels [Sentence 4–Her specific material
in the paper]. That the relationship of creativity to history is a continuing preoccupation for the
historian is finally explored through Ranajit Guha’s invocation of Tagore in “History at the Limit
of World-History” (2002) [Sentence 5–Her argument, weakly stated]. [MISSING Sentence 6—a
strong conclusion].
Chaudhuri, Rosinka (2007). History in poetry: Nabinchandra Sen’s “Palashir Yuddha” and the
question of truth. The Journal of Asian Studies, 66(4), 897-918.

You might also like