Guideline for writing a Good Research Proposal and Structure for a master’s dissertation
In-Brief
- A research proposal is a brief and logical summary of your proposed research. A dissertation is sometimes known as a thesis.
- A dissertation is a research project completed as part of an undergraduate or postgraduate degree.
- Your research title must give a clear overview of your proposed researched approach or research problem.
Introduction
Research proposal writing is a brief and logical summary of your proposed research work. It sets out the fundamental problem or questions that you need to address. It outlines the overall area of study within which your research falls, referring to the present state of understanding and any recent discussions on the research topic.
A dissertation is sometimes known as a thesis. It is a research project completed as part of an undergraduate or postgraduate degree. It helps the researcher to present their findings in response to a question or proposition that they choose themselves. The project aims to test the independent research skills scholars have acquired during their time at the institution, with the assessment helping to define their finishing grade. This blog provides you with a brief outline of the research proposal and dissertation.
Outline of a Research Proposal
1. Title
Your research title must give a clear overview of your proposed researched approach or research problem. Since it is the first line of every research proposal, present it precisely, i.e. by seeing the title itself, the title itself the reader must get an idea about your research work and methodology.
2. Research Background and Rationale
The literature review helps showcase your knowledge on a particular research area; it is a study about your research field’s existing work and other studies. It clearly shows the reader what you have modified from previous work or your contribution towards the particular research field.
If you are planning to change the existing work or well-recognized theory, clearly state the existing research gap or add knowledge to existing work by referring and studying different methodology, which might improve the current state of research.
At least five other studies must be included in the literature review. After you have written, please read it carefully and make sure it is clear without any grammatical error or spelling mistakes. Notice whether you can determine how the proposal is built up based on the previous studies and the line of research you newly added with your study.
While referring to other studies, you must be cautious about citing them by the author’s name and publication date. It must be in a standard format like APA. Masters research proposal writing services the UK help you with all aspects of research work to get a precise proposal work.
3. Research Questions
The literature review helps identify a research question; you must mention and give a perfect explanation of why it is worthy of exploring.
4. Research Methodology
Writing methodology for research proposal is a long and complicated process and which includes the following:
You must provide an outline of
- The theoretical framework
- The resource has drawn to form them
- The research approach appropriate for the proposed research
- A brief explanation of the advantage and limitation of your research work.
- These sections very much depend on your area of research.
5. Plan of work & schedule
You must indicate an outline of various stages and corresponding timelines involved in developing and implementing the research, including thesis writing.
6. Bibliography
You must list a set of references you used to reference your research work, articles, and other literary works. It is necessary to choose relevant resources which are appropriate to the proposed work. If you have difficulty framing a research proposal, you can get Research Proposal Writing Help from experts online.
Masters dissertation structure
No dissertation follows the same structure. There will be differences found in the master’s programs from institution to institution and country to country.
There are several essential components which make up the structure of a master dissertation:
Abstract –
An abstract summarises research work, where the entire research work is described in a sequence. Usually, it contains one paragraph of 250 to 300 words. It must include the following
- The overall objective of the research study and the problem statement you investigated
- The basic structure of the research study
- Findings or trends which are found as the result of your research analysis
- Summary of interpretation and conclusion
- It should cover the research problem you aim to answer, your fundamental argument and your conclusion.
Introduction – The main objective of writing an introduction is to offer a background for the rest of the dissertation work, sorting out the aims and the scope of your research work, deciding on what you want to attain with your research work. It must give an overview of the dissertation chapters.
The literature review contains an analysis of various research works, which has already been published in your research area. You must describe how your research work will contribute to the research field in which you are currently working.
Research methodology – Not all dissertations need research methodology section; it depends on the field in which you are going to research example arts and science and humanities thesis does not need sections. However, if you are using some specific methods to gather data for your dissertation, you must explain the foundation behind your choice of methodology. Those in the arts and science area will generally outline the theoretical perspective and methodologies as part of the introduction, rather than demanding a detailed explanation of the methodology for their data collection and analysis.
Results/findings – If your research is in the form survey or experiment, you need to present the result in that particular part. Based on the type of study, the result might be in the form table, graph or chart or even just a description of the research findings and what the research involved or contained.
Discussion – This section forms most of the thesis or dissertation and must be carefully structured using a sequence of related chapters. There must be progress from one section to the next, with each part based on its predecessor’s argument. It helps project your entire dissertation work as a sequence of carefully interlinked essays, rather than one overwhelming paper.
Conclusion – Here, you should draw composed the threads of the previous discussion chapters and make your last concluding statements, the picture on evidence and arguments you’ve already discovered throughout the thesis. Explain the implication of your findings and point in the direction of future research.
References/bibliography – While development and writing your thesis, you should keep a broad, organized record of any documents, sources or books you’ve quoted. You must list a set of references you used to reference your research work, articles, and other literary works. It is necessary to choose relevant resources which are appropriate to the proposed work.
Conclusion
Writing a proposal for a research paper and dissertation play an essential role in a research study, it is always necessary to state them in an exact and precise form to increase your work scope. If you are struggling with the dissertation or proposal writing part, you can get help from the research proposal writing service UK, our group of experts help you with all aspects of research writing.
References:
- Terrell, S. R. (2015). Writing a proposal for your dissertation: Guidelines and examples. Guilford Publications.
- Sudheesh, K., Duggappa, D. R., & Nethra, S. S. (2016). How to write a research proposal?. Indian journal of anaesthesia, 60(9), 631.