We can’t promise that reading these tips you will be able to write a research proposal for a Ph.D. application easily, but they will definitely help you on the way. Combine these tips with your professor’s requirements.
Pay Attention to the Approaches
Historical:
- Analysis of works, experience, developments, achievements of famous scientists or one author (for example, in philology — the writer’s work).
- Study of the development of scientific trends.
- Comparison of methods and academic positions of different periods, eras.
Descriptive:
- Presentation of unexamined, but documented evidence.
- Disclosure of the topic of the diploma using new or otherwise interpreted well-known facts.
The share of analytics is present in author’s generalizations, estimates. Little-known information found, for example, in archives, is not enough — it is necessary to analyze the degree of their reliability and draw conclusions by the facts stated.
Methodological:
- Comparison of various research methods and development of entirely new methodological bases.
Practical Part is King!
The specific content of the practical chapter depends on the type of thesis work that can be:
- Empirical. Based on the processing and interpretation of materials of experimental or applied research, especially conducted by the author to confirm the hypothesis proposed in the introduction.
- Theoretical. Based on the evaluation analysis of information contained in scientific sources, which serves as the foundation for the presentation of their own, original, and possibly contrary to the generally accepted point of view of the author’s views on the problem under consideration.
- Combined. Combining the first two campaigns to research and a clear structured into two parts: theoretical and practical, in which personal empirical research of the author confirms information obtained from scientific sources.
- Project-like. A development designed to be put into practice.
Typically, such work is written by future engineers, technologists, architects, to suggest ways to improve the subject of research or to develop an independent project from scratch. In this case, the main part of the research proposal should consist of preliminary drawings or their description. The central material of the second chapter might be in the form of recommendations for the introduction of theoretical ideas in the field of professional activity or the development of a full-fledged corrective, evaluation, diagnostic methodology.
Use Proper Phrases and Vocabulary
A theme of work and the rationale for choosing the topic
- The research work offered to the reader is devoted to…
- The theme of this work: “…”. I chose this topic for research, because…
Relevance
- Today has become an integral part of our lives. We use… without hesitation…
- The relevance of the topic of our work is determined by the fact that currently…
- In today’s world… is of great importance, since…
- In recent years, we often hear and use the word…
- Many are interested / get carried away / think …
- Today the problem… is one of the most urgent, because…
- The question… in recent years is in the focus of research attention
- The topic is the subject of lively discussions…
- This is explained by the fact that… affects our health / mood / success
- The problem… attracts the close attention of scientists and the public due to the fact that…
- Recently it appeared… and people began to think more and more often about that…
- Probably, every person at least once in his life thought about that
- …always caused people a lot of questions …
- To date, there are two opposing views on this issue…
- Today there are disputes / there is no consensus on this issue…
Objectives and Tasks
- The purpose of the work is to find out why…
- The main goal of the work is to answer the question… / prove that
- To achieve this goal we need to solve the following tasks:
- To achieve this goal, we set ourselves the following tasks:
- Objectives of work:
- The tasks of the work include:
- To study the literature on the topic
- Find out the meaning of terms …
- Find examples… in…/gather material …/study composition…/measure level …
- Survey / experimental / observation
- Compare/compare/analyze the results
- Draw conclusions about…
Of course, research proposal writing is much more complex than a combination of these tips, but it is for sure that this set of practical rules will come in handy. If it happens that you need instant help from PhD proposal writers, go to a custom research proposal writing service which will save your application. Save it to bookmarks and come back to it every time needed!
