Content Issues in Students’ Research Proposals

The purpose of this contextualized study is to explore typical content issues in master’s degree students’ research proposals. Comments in collated reviewer forms for twenty proposals referred back for corrections by a school research committee were analyzed, clustered into themes and interpreted. Seven themes were identified, namely: logical continuity, superficiality, justification of choices, subjectivity, and research proposal sections, foundational methodological knowledge, and technicalities. The findings demonstrate students’ lack of in-depth understanding of the elements of a research proposal and how they ‘hang together’, and that they fail to appreciate the important of staying focused on a central research question. They are also unable to apply textbook knowledge to ‘flesh out’ the proposal. Lastly, they exhibit an unscientific mindset. Based on the findings it is recommended that research proposal writing guidelines should include clear and comprehensive examples of proposal elements. However, guidelines alone do not provide enough information to steer students in the right direction. They should also participate in “nitty-gritty” proposal writing assignments. In addition, scaffolding as well as proposal sampling should be used to develop their research proposal writing skills. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p1533

[1]  S. Nethra,et al.  How to write a research proposal? , 2016, Indian journal of anaesthesia.

[2]  Aceme Nyika.  Postgraduate research methodological flaws detected at final examination stage: Who is to blame? , 2014 .

[3]  Pitchai Balakumar,et al.  The critical steps for successful research: The research proposal and scientific writing: (A report on the pre-conference workshop held in conjunction with the 64th annual conference of the Indian Pharmaceutical Congress-2012) , 2013, Journal of pharmacology & pharmacotherapeutics.

[4]  E. Proctor,et al.  Writing implementation research grant proposals: ten key ingredients , 2012, Implementation Science.

[5]  Mary Y. Lee,et al.  Twelve tips for writing educational research grant proposals , 2012, Medical teacher.

[6]  C. Ng,et al.  The novel 'Prepare-Intensive Coaching-Compete (PICC)' model to learn research. , 2012, Education for primary care : an official publication of the Association of Course Organisers, National Association of GP Tutors, World Organisation of Family Doctors.

[7]  Robyn Henderson,et al.  Doing qualitative research: a practical handbook , 2011 .

[8]  J. Creswell.  Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches , 2010 .

[9]  E. Thomas,et al.  A first qualitative project: qualitative descriptive design for novice researchers. , 2009, Journal for specialists in pediatric nursing : JSPN.

[10]  Glenn A. Bowen.  Document Analysis as a Qualitative Research Method , 2009 .

[11]  Carlo P. Magno,et al.  Writing Your Winning Thesis , 2009 .

[12]  Ricardo Pietrobon,et al.  Scientific Writing of Novice Researchers: What Difficulties and Encouragements Do They Encounter? , 2009, Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

[13]  Steve Cunningham,et al.  The art of proposal writing , 2008, SIGGRAPH '08.

[14]  R. Wredling,et al.  How to write a research proposal , 2006 .

[15]  R. Endacott.  Clinical research 6: writing and research. , 2005, International emergency nursing.

[16]  P. Garcia,et al.  Engaging Students in Research: The Use of Professional Dialogue , 2003 .

[17]  D. Bradley.  DEVELOPING RESEARCH QUESTIONS THROUGH GRANT PROPOSAL DEVELOPMENT , 2001 .

[18]  Christine B. Feak,et al.  Academic Communications and the Graduate Student , 2001 .

[19]  J. Jablonski.  Teaching the Complexity of Business Proposals , 1999 .

[20]  John W. Creswell,et al.  Research Design: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches , 1997 .

[21]  T. Nolinske.  Writing a Research Proposal , 1996 .

[22]  Bill G. Rainey.  Proposal Writing: A Neglected Area of Instruction. , 1974 .

[23]  Yair Levy,et al.  Framework of Problem-Based Research: A Guide for Novice Researchers on the Development of a Research-Worthy Problem , 2008, Informing Sci. Int. J. an Emerg. Transdiscipl..

[24]  J. Iqbal.  Learning from a Doctoral Research Project : Structure and Content of a Research Proposal , 2007 .

[25]  Richard Dunford,et al.  Developing a research proposal , 2004 .

[26]  Donald Alan Thomas.  A general inductive approach for qualitative data analysis , 2003 .

[27]  M. Patton.  Qualitative research & evaluation methods , 2002 .

[28]  Kate Cadman,et al.  English for Academic Possibilities: the research proposal as a contested site in postgraduate genre pedagogy , 2002 .

[29]  C. Tynan,et al.  Writing a Research Proposal , 2000 .

[30]  Paul D. Leedy.  Practical Research: Planning and Design , 1974 .

[31]  T. Ellis,et al.  Issue S in Informing Science and Information Technology towards a Guide for Novice Researchers on Research Methodology: Review and Proposed Methods , 2022 .