A PhD proposal is a mandate that every student has to submit before starting with the research paper. Without approval of the proposal, a student cannot begin with the research paper. The reason universities stress the proposal is because it gives them a clear idea about your thought process and research ability. However, most of the time common question that a student asks regarding proposal writing is

“How should I write a proposal?”

Well, if you are into the same confusion or you want to improvise on your proposal writing skills, you have reached the right place.

The basic structure of a proposal includes

• Title

• Overview

• Literature review

• Methodology

• References

Title

The title of your research paper should include the important keywords on which you would perform your research. This title need not remain the same throughout your research. You can change the title according to your needs.  The main purpose of a good title is to make your area of research look good in the first place. The title should be self-explanatory and should give a hint of your key questions and approach.

Overview

In this section, the students have to provide an overview of the research. With more specificity, you will draft a good overview. Moreover, try to link your research with the current problems and its contribution to the department. This section will contain three main aspects of your research

• Research questions and its rationale

• Approaches applied and its rationale

• Importance of the research

Literature Review

The literature review is necessary to show that you have referred relevant sources for your research and have implied the learnings from it. Mentioning the key references also shows that the supervisor that you have done your research well. A literature review might sound simple, however, there are certain things you should take care while writing one.

• It is not just a summary of the literature.

• It should discuss the area of improvement in the reviewed literature.

• It should discuss the future implications of the literature.

• It should discuss the key findings of the literature.

Methodology

This section will discuss the methodology that you have mentioned in your overview. It should explain how you will use the mentioned methodology in your research and how it will benefit the research. Moreover, you should also mention why you have selected the methodology and why it is better than other methodologies. A comprehensive comparison of the methodologies at this stage will indicate the depth of your research for your thesis.

References

The references section is very critical section in any piece of writing. It gives the rightful credit of the information to the right owner. Therefore, you too have to mention all the credits from which you have borrowed your idea or information. This will help you avoid any sort of plagiarism. Also, referencing is a good habit as it shows that you have done enough research to back your claims in your study.

Following the basic structure of the research proposal properly can help you improve your proposal writing skills. However, as a student, it becomes difficult for most of them to master the art of writing. In such cases, you can get help from Uniresearchers. The experts at Uniresearchers, can craft you a winning PhD proposal.