All the key pointers, steps involved in the process, and research tools that guide your dissertation.

Have you ever wondered why a researcher writes a research proposal at the start of a study? Because a Research Proposal is like a skeleton that guides your dissertation. 

It is important to understand while working on a research paper or a dissertation, you cannot be starting your final draft without having a blueprint for your work. 

Without a proper guiding process, you cannot even get your research started right. What are you looking to establish? What is the aim of your study? Do you have any objectives you wish to achieve?

Do you even have a research problem, to begin with? These are all important aspects that you get clarity on as you write your research proposal.

Our professors constantly nag us about how a research proposal is a “guiding framework” for your thesis. But only as you start working on it do you realize that it does set the foundation of your dissertation. 

Let's have a look at the steps involved in the process of writing a research proposal:

Every Article on the Internet has the same dissertation help when it comes to research paper writing. With a few modifications here and there, the basic skeleton of writing a research proposal is the same.

What matters is the few important elements that most sites don't mention. Let's have a look at the key elements of Research Proposal Writing:

1. Identifying Your Research Problem: Dissertation writing is more about finding conclusive evidence or solutions to research problems. What does it exactly mean?

For eg: if you choose to work on a topic like shrinkflation (where the cost of products may remain the same but quantity reduces) you have to realize you are trying to look at why shrinkflation is a problem first.

So your research problem could be to identify how consumers react to shrinkflation, either positively or negatively. Because the problem here is that they do not get the same quantity as they used to even if the price remains constant.

When you identify your research problem you understand what is the purpose of your research and what are you trying to conclude through your dissertation.

2. Statement of Problem: Identifying your problem and stating it is not the same. You know that consumers dislike the idea of shrinkflation but why is it a problem worth studying or writing a dissertation on? 

When it comes to a statement of a problem you have to make your point as to why it is a problem that deserves to be studied or researched.

Here, your problem states that consumers are dissatisfied and have no other option but to keep buying the products because no one addresses shrinkflation as an economic threat. 

3. Title of your Research or Dissertation: now that you have decoded your research problem and statement, your next step is to come up with a crisp title that prevents your study from going haywire. 

Taking from the previous example: you are studying shrinkflation and how consumers react after noticing it. So your title becomes A Detailed Study on the Economic Concept of Shrinkflation and how Consumers Feel About It.

Having a title prevents you from taking up unnecessary angles on your dissertation. For eg: shrinkflation and production costs that are borne by companies etc. You know you want to gauge consumer reaction and your title limits you to it. 

Note: Have a crisp and precise title that prevents you from taking up unnecessary angles in your dissertation.

4. Aims and Objectives of your Research: The Aim should talk about the key areas of your dissertation topic you wish to discuss or highlight in your study. Your aim will be the driving factor for the research and will help you conclude.

While on the other hand your objectives are supposed to break down and shed light on individual aspects that you study that add meaning to your dissertation. 

For eg: The aim here is: To understand how shrinkflation is leading to dissatisfaction amongst consumers.

The Objectives here are

a. To study shrinkflation as an economic concept.

b. To study which top brands are making use of shrinkflation.

c. To study the consumer behavior of those brands and to understand why they continue to buy from them.

d. To study consumer dissatisfaction and how shrinkflation leads to it.

Note: always begin Aim and Objectives by using ‘To Understand’ and ‘To Study’ respectively. 

Note: Aim is a holistic statement that helps you research while objectives are individual factors that collectively would help you understand how they have an impact on your subject of interest.

5. Literature Review: Literature Review is using all the information that is readily available in the context of your research topic. You can go through scholarly articles, academic papers, case studies, news articles, etc that will help you build up material for your dissertation.

While writing a literature review in the proposal- make sure you mention the sources you have referred to while conducting your research.

The main purpose of the Literature review is to “avoid duplication of previously conducted studies”. 

Note: a literature review is used as a tool to refer to information. Avoid copy-pasting the same material and plagiarising your research work. Research papers are supposed to be authentic and original.

Even if you use the information generated by some other researcher, make sure you cite the source and quote the author or researcher. 

6. Hypothesis: You have now gathered relevant data for your study. Relevant enough to predict what the conclusion of your study would be. You must notice how you have 2 predictive conclusions.

Something might be the case OR it might not be the case. These predictive statements about what the conclusion of your study could be are known as hypotheses.

Hypothesis locks in the only possible conclusions of your study that you have predicted. You can be certain that one of the two will be the conclusion of this study. 

When you write Hypotheses you give a minimum of 2 statements- 1st that either something could happen and the 2nd one being something could not happen. 

For example in the shrinkflation case: your hypotheses would-be consumers are dissatisfied with shrinkflation OR consumers are satisfied with shrinkflation as long as the prices don't increase. Either of the two could be your conclusion. 

7. Research Methodology:  as you get closer to beginning your final draft for the dissertation, you must choose your research methodology, approaches, and Theories that you would use.

Whether you should use Qualitative or Quantitative Methods, etc should be identified at this stage of Research Proposal Writing. 

8. Sampling and Data Collection Methods: If you want to understand consumer behavior and reaction to shrinkflation, you will have to find a way to interact with actual consumers.

You can not be interacting with all the consumers and so you would pick a small sample that can be reached out to. This is called sampling. You have to specify the number of samples (I.e people you would interact with to get conclusive data).

Now you have a fixed number of samples but how will you get data from them? Through interviews, by using questionnaires? Or by using focus group discussions? Your Data collection methods would have to be specified here. 

Note: Be specific and mention your Sample Size, Sampling Frame, and Unit as well. Also, mention the Type of Sampling- I.e Probability or Non-Probability Sampling.

9. Utility and Scope of Research: Academic Research has to be of use to other students and academic researchers in the future. You will have to mention how and to whom your research will benefit in the future.

10. Limitations and Delimitations of Research: As a student, you won't be able to conduct mass research or large-scale research. This is where the limitations come into the picture.

You have to mention how with limited time on hand and other restraints your study is a one-time study and does not re-evaluate aspects. Identify the cons of your research here and talk about all the limitations at hand. 

With this, you have arrived at the end of your Research Proposal. With all of the above-mentioned key points, you can now begin your final dissertation draft with clarity. Data Analysis and Conclusion are not discussed in Research Proposal.

A Research Proposal is a Mini Proposition of your Actual Research Work or Dissertation. Whenever you feel a little confused or lost in terms of where your research paper is headed, you can always refer to your research proposal for clarity.