8.3 Research Proposal
Research Proposal
A research proposal is a brief document—only one typed page—that summarizes the preliminary ideas and current progress regarding your research essay. Your purpose is to formalize your plan for research and present it to your instructor for feedback. Your research proposal should be in complete sentences and paragraphs (and lists of information where appropriate), and should use MLA format.
A research proposal should address all of the following (the order of this information is allowed to change):
- Briefly summarize the subject and its issues, controversies, or context.
- Briefly explain of the significance or relevance of researching this subject.
- State your main research question about the subject.
- List any sub-questions related to your main research question (consider who, what, when, where, why, and how).
- State your working thesis.
- State the kinds of sources you plan to seek, or the types you have found, and/or your plan for finding sources.
Remember that your working thesis is not set in stone. You can and should change your working thesis throughout the research writing process if the information you find does not support your original thesis. Never try to force information into fitting your argument. For example, suppose your working thesis is this: “Mars cannot support life-forms.” Yet a week into researching your subject, suppose you find an article in the New York Times detailing new findings of bacteria under the Martian surface. Instead of trying to force that information into fitting your argument, such as arguing that bacteria are not life forms, you might instead alter your thesis to something like, “Mars cannot support complex life-forms.”
Below is an example of a research proposal from a student, which addresses all of the above:
Research Proposal
In recent years, subjects related to diet, nutrition, and weight loss have been covered extensively in the mainstream media. Different experts recommend various, often conflicting strategies for maintaining a healthy weight. One highly recommended approach, which forms the basis of many popular diet plans, is to limit the consumption of carbohydrates. Yet experts disagree on the effectiveness and health benefits of this approach. What information should consumers consider when evaluating diet plans?
In my research, I will explore the claims made by proponents of the “low-carb lifestyle.” My primary research question is this: Are low-carbohydrate diets as effective for maintaining a healthy weight as they are portrayed to be?
My secondary research questions are these:
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Who can benefit from following a low-carb diet?
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What are the supposed advantages of following a low-carb diet?
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When did low-carb diets become a hot topic in the media?
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Where do average consumers get information about diet and nutrition?
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Why has the low-carb approach received so much media attention?
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How do low-carb diets work?
My working thesis is this: Low-carb diets are not as effective as the mass media attention suggests. To do this research, I will review mass media articles as well as scholarly articles that discuss the relationship between low-carb diets, weight loss, and long-term health. I will use general Google searches as well as Google Scholar, JSTOR, and other databases available through the campus library Website.
Attributions
The Writing Textbook by Josh Woods, editor and contributor, as well as an unnamed author (by request from the original publisher), and other authors named separately is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
This chapter has additions, edits, and organization by James Charles Devlin.
