a research plan contains the following specifications

How to write a research plan: Step-by-step guide

Last updated

30 January 2024

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Today’s businesses and institutions rely on data and analytics to inform their product and service decisions. These metrics influence how organizations stay competitive and inspire innovation. However, gathering data and insights requires carefully constructed research, and every research project needs a roadmap. This is where a research plan comes into play.

There’s general research planning; then there’s an official, well-executed research plan. Whatever data-driven research project you’re gearing up for, the research plan will be your framework for execution. The plan should also be detailed and thorough, with a diligent set of criteria to formulate your research efforts. Not including these key elements in your plan can be just as harmful as having no plan at all.

Read this step-by-step guide for writing a detailed research plan that can apply to any project, whether it’s scientific, educational, or business-related.

• What is a research plan?

A research plan is a documented overview of a project in its entirety, from end to end. It details the research efforts, participants, and methods needed, along with any anticipated results. It also outlines the project’s goals and mission, creating layers of steps to achieve those goals within a specified timeline.

Without a research plan, you and your team are flying blind, potentially wasting time and resources to pursue research without structured guidance.

The principal investigator, or PI, is responsible for facilitating the research oversight. They will create the research plan and inform team members and stakeholders of every detail relating to the project. The PI will also use the research plan to inform decision-making throughout the project.

• Why do you need a research plan?

Create a research plan before starting any official research to maximize every effort in pursuing and collecting the research data. Crucially, the plan will model the activities needed at each phase of the research project.

Like any roadmap, a research plan serves as a valuable tool providing direction for those involved in the project—both internally and externally. It will keep you and your immediate team organized and task-focused while also providing necessary definitions and timelines so you can execute your project initiatives with full understanding and transparency.

External stakeholders appreciate a working research plan because it’s a great communication tool, documenting progress and changing dynamics as they arise. Any participants of your planned research sessions will be informed about the purpose of your study, while the exercises will be based on the key messaging outlined in the official plan.

Here are some of the benefits of creating a research plan document for every project:

Project organization and structure

Well-informed participants

All stakeholders and teams align in support of the project

Clearly defined project definitions and purposes

Distractions are eliminated, prioritizing task focus

Timely management of individual task schedules and roles

Costly reworks are avoided

• What should a research plan include?

The different aspects of your research plan will depend on the nature of the project. However, most official research plan documents will include the core elements below. Each aims to define the problem statement, devising an official plan for seeking a solution.

Specific project goals and individual objectives

Ideal strategies or methods for reaching those goals

Required resources

Descriptions of the target audience, sample sizes, demographics, and scopes

Key performance indicators (KPIs)

Project background

Research and testing support

Preliminary studies and progress reporting mechanisms

Cost estimates and change order processes

Depending on the research project’s size and scope, your research plan could be brief—perhaps only a few pages of documented plans. Alternatively, it could be a fully comprehensive report. Either way, it’s an essential first step in dictating your project’s facilitation in the most efficient and effective way.

• How to write a research plan for your project

When you start writing your research plan, aim to be detailed about each step, requirement, and idea. The more time you spend curating your research plan, the more precise your research execution efforts will be.

Account for every potential scenario, and be sure to address each and every aspect of the research.

Consider following this flow to develop a great research plan for your project:

Define your project’s purpose

Start by defining your project’s purpose. Identify what your project aims to accomplish and what you are researching. Remember to use clear language.

Thinking about the project’s purpose will help you set realistic goals and inform how you divide tasks and assign responsibilities. These individual tasks will be your stepping stones to reach your overarching goal.

Additionally, you’ll want to identify the specific problem, the usability metrics needed, and the intended solutions.

Know the following three things about your project’s purpose before you outline anything else:

What you’re doing

Why you’re doing it

What you expect from it

Identify individual objectives

With your overarching project objectives in place, you can identify any individual goals or steps needed to reach those objectives. Break them down into phases or steps. You can work backward from the project goal and identify every process required to facilitate it.

Be mindful to identify each unique task so that you can assign responsibilities to various team members. At this point in your research plan development, you’ll also want to assign priority to those smaller, more manageable steps and phases that require more immediate or dedicated attention.

Select research methods

Research methods might include any of the following:

User interviews: this is a qualitative research method where researchers engage with participants in one-on-one or group conversations. The aim is to gather insights into their experiences, preferences, and opinions to uncover patterns, trends, and data.

Field studies: this approach allows for a contextual understanding of behaviors, interactions, and processes in real-world settings. It involves the researcher immersing themselves in the field, conducting observations, interviews, or experiments to gather in-depth insights.

Card sorting: participants categorize information by sorting content cards into groups based on their perceived similarities. You might use this process to gain insights into participants’ mental models and preferences when navigating or organizing information on websites, apps, or other systems.

Focus groups: use organized discussions among select groups of participants to provide relevant views and experiences about a particular topic.

Diary studies: ask participants to record their experiences, thoughts, and activities in a diary over a specified period. This method provides a deeper understanding of user experiences, uncovers patterns, and identifies areas for improvement.

Five-second testing: participants are shown a design, such as a web page or interface, for just five seconds. They then answer questions about their initial impressions and recall, allowing you to evaluate the design’s effectiveness.

Surveys: get feedback from participant groups with structured surveys. You can use online forms, telephone interviews, or paper questionnaires to reveal trends, patterns, and correlations.

Tree testing: tree testing involves researching web assets through the lens of findability and navigability. Participants are given a textual representation of the site’s hierarchy (the “tree”) and asked to locate specific information or complete tasks by selecting paths.

Usability testing: ask participants to interact with a product, website, or application to evaluate its ease of use. This method enables you to uncover areas for improvement in digital key feature functionality by observing participants using the product.

Live website testing: research and collect analytics that outlines the design, usability, and performance efficiencies of a website in real time.

There are no limits to the number of research methods you could use within your project. Just make sure your research methods help you determine the following:

What do you plan to do with the research findings?

What decisions will this research inform? How can your stakeholders leverage the research data and results?

Recruit participants and allocate tasks

Next, identify the participants needed to complete the research and the resources required to complete the tasks. Different people will be proficient at different tasks, and having a task allocation plan will allow everything to run smoothly.

Prepare a thorough project summary

Every well-designed research plan will feature a project summary. This official summary will guide your research alongside its communications or messaging. You’ll use the summary while recruiting participants and during stakeholder meetings. It can also be useful when conducting field studies.

Ensure this summary includes all the elements of your research project. Separate the steps into an easily explainable piece of text that includes the following:

An introduction: the message you’ll deliver to participants about the interview, pre-planned questioning, and testing tasks.

Interview questions: prepare questions you intend to ask participants as part of your research study, guiding the sessions from start to finish.

An exit message: draft messaging your teams will use to conclude testing or survey sessions. These should include the next steps and express gratitude for the participant’s time.

Create a realistic timeline

While your project might already have a deadline or a results timeline in place, you’ll need to consider the time needed to execute it effectively.

Realistically outline the time needed to properly execute each supporting phase of research and implementation. And, as you evaluate the necessary schedules, be sure to include additional time for achieving each milestone in case any changes or unexpected delays arise.

For this part of your research plan, you might find it helpful to create visuals to ensure your research team and stakeholders fully understand the information.

Determine how to present your results

A research plan must also describe how you intend to present your results. Depending on the nature of your project and its goals, you might dedicate one team member (the PI) or assume responsibility for communicating the findings yourself.

In this part of the research plan, you’ll articulate how you’ll share the results. Detail any materials you’ll use, such as:

Presentations and slides

A project report booklet

A project findings pamphlet

Documents with key takeaways and statistics

Graphic visuals to support your findings

• Format your research plan

As you create your research plan, you can enjoy a little creative freedom. A plan can assume many forms, so format it how you see fit. Determine the best layout based on your specific project, intended communications, and the preferences of your teams and stakeholders.

Find format inspiration among the following layouts:

Written outlines

Narrative storytelling

Visual mapping

Graphic timelines

Remember, the research plan format you choose will be subject to change and adaptation as your research and findings unfold. However, your final format should ideally outline questions, problems, opportunities, and expectations.

• Research plan example

Imagine you’ve been tasked with finding out how to get more customers to order takeout from an online food delivery platform. The goal is to improve satisfaction and retain existing customers. You set out to discover why more people aren’t ordering and what it is they do want to order or experience. 

You identify the need for a research project that helps you understand what drives customer loyalty. But before you jump in and start calling past customers, you need to develop a research plan—the roadmap that provides focus, clarity, and realistic details to the project.

Here’s an example outline of a research plan you might put together:

Project title

Project members involved in the research plan

Purpose of the project (provide a summary of the research plan’s intent)

Objective 1 (provide a short description for each objective)

Objective 2

Objective 3

Proposed timeline

Audience (detail the group you want to research, such as customers or non-customers)

Budget (how much you think it might cost to do the research)

Risk factors/contingencies (any potential risk factors that may impact the project’s success)

Remember, your research plan doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel—it just needs to fit your project’s unique needs and aims.

Customizing a research plan template

Some companies offer research plan templates to help get you started. However, it may make more sense to develop your own customized plan template. Be sure to include the core elements of a great research plan with your template layout, including the following:

Introductions to participants and stakeholders

Background problems and needs statement

Significance, ethics, and purpose

Research methods, questions, and designs

Preliminary beliefs and expectations

Implications and intended outcomes

Realistic timelines for each phase

Conclusion and presentations

How many pages should a research plan be?

Generally, a research plan can vary in length between 500 to 1,500 words. This is roughly three pages of content. More substantial projects will be 2,000 to 3,500 words, taking up four to seven pages of planning documents.

What is the difference between a research plan and a research proposal?

A research plan is a roadmap to success for research teams. A research proposal, on the other hand, is a dissertation aimed at convincing or earning the support of others. Both are relevant in creating a guide to follow to complete a project goal.

What are the seven steps to developing a research plan?

While each research project is different, it’s best to follow these seven general steps to create your research plan:

Defining the problem

Identifying goals

Choosing research methods

Recruiting participants

Preparing the brief or summary

Establishing task timelines

Defining how you will present the findings

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FLEET LIBRARY | Research Guides

Rhode island school of design, create a research plan: research plan.

• Research Plan
• Literature Review
• Ulrich's Global Serials Directory
• Related Guides

A research plan is a framework that shows how you intend to approach your topic. The plan can take many forms: a written outline, a narrative, a visual/concept map or timeline. It's a document that will change and develop as you conduct your research. Components of a research plan

1. Research conceptualization - introduces your research question

2. Research methodology - describes your approach to the research question

3. Literature review, critical evaluation and synthesis - systematic approach to locating,

    reviewing and evaluating the work (text, exhibitions, critiques, etc) relating to your topic

4. Communication - geared toward an intended audience, shows evidence of your inquiry

Research conceptualization refers to the ability to identify specific research questions, problems or opportunities that are worthy of inquiry. Research conceptualization also includes the skills and discipline that go beyond the initial moment of conception, and which enable the researcher to formulate and develop an idea into something researchable ( Newbury 373).

Research methodology refers to the knowledge and skills required to select and apply appropriate methods to carry through the research project ( Newbury 374) .

Method describes a single mode of proceeding; methodology describes the overall process.

Method - a way of doing anything especially according to a defined and regular plan; a mode of procedure in any activity

Methodology - the study of the direction and implications of empirical research, or the sustainability of techniques employed in it; a method or body of methods used in a particular field of study or activity *Browse a list of research methodology books  or this guide on Art & Design Research

Literature Review, critical evaluation & synthesis

A literature review is a systematic approach to locating, reviewing, and evaluating the published work and work in progress of scholars, researchers, and practitioners on a given topic.

Critical evaluation and synthesis is the ability to handle (or process) existing sources. It includes knowledge of the sources of literature and contextual research field within which the person is working ( Newbury 373).

Literature reviews are done for many reasons and situations. Here's a short list:

Sources to consult while conducting a literature review:

Online catalogs of local, regional, national, and special libraries

meta-catalogs such as worldcat , Art Discovery Group , europeana , world digital library or RIBA

subject-specific online article databases (such as the Avery Index, JSTOR, Project Muse)

digital institutional repositories such as Digital Commons @RISD ; see Registry of Open Access Repositories

Open Access Resources recommended by RISD Research LIbrarians

works cited in scholarly books and articles

print bibliographies

the internet-locate major nonprofit, research institutes, museum, university, and government websites

search google scholar to locate grey literature & referenced citations

trade and scholarly publishers

fellow scholars and peers

Communication                              

Communication refers to the ability to

• structure a coherent line of inquiry
• communicate your findings to your intended audience
• make skilled use of visual material to express ideas for presentations, writing, and the creation of exhibitions ( Newbury 374)

Research plan framework: Newbury, Darren. "Research Training in the Creative Arts and Design." The Routledge Companion to Research in the Arts . Ed. Michael Biggs and Henrik Karlsson. New York: Routledge, 2010. 368-87. Print.

About the author

Except where otherwise noted, this guide is subject to a Creative Commons Attribution license

source document

  Routledge Companion to Research in the Arts

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• Last Updated: Sep 20, 2023 5:05 PM
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Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Assignments

• Annotated Bibliography
• Analyzing a Scholarly Journal Article
• Group Presentations
• Dealing with Nervousness
• Using Visual Aids
• Grading Someone Else's Paper
• Types of Structured Group Activities
• Group Project Survival Skills
• Leading a Class Discussion
• Multiple Book Review Essay
• Reviewing Collected Works
• Writing a Case Analysis Paper
• Writing a Case Study
• About Informed Consent
• Writing Field Notes
• Writing a Policy Memo
• Writing a Reflective Paper
• Writing a Research Proposal
• Generative AI and Writing
• Acknowledgments

The goal of a research proposal is twofold: to present and justify the need to study a research problem and to present the practical ways in which the proposed study should be conducted. The design elements and procedures for conducting research are governed by standards of the predominant discipline in which the problem resides, therefore, the guidelines for research proposals are more exacting and less formal than a general project proposal. Research proposals contain extensive literature reviews. They must provide persuasive evidence that a need exists for the proposed study. In addition to providing a rationale, a proposal describes detailed methodology for conducting the research consistent with requirements of the professional or academic field and a statement on anticipated outcomes and benefits derived from the study's completion.

Krathwohl, David R. How to Prepare a Dissertation Proposal: Suggestions for Students in Education and the Social and Behavioral Sciences . Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2005.

How to Approach Writing a Research Proposal

Your professor may assign the task of writing a research proposal for the following reasons:

• Develop your skills in thinking about and designing a comprehensive research study;
• Learn how to conduct a comprehensive review of the literature to determine that the research problem has not been adequately addressed or has been answered ineffectively and, in so doing, become better at locating pertinent scholarship related to your topic;
• Improve your general research and writing skills;
• Practice identifying the logical steps that must be taken to accomplish one's research goals;
• Critically review, examine, and consider the use of different methods for gathering and analyzing data related to the research problem; and,
• Nurture a sense of inquisitiveness within yourself and to help see yourself as an active participant in the process of conducting scholarly research.

A proposal should contain all the key elements involved in designing a completed research study, with sufficient information that allows readers to assess the validity and usefulness of your proposed study. The only elements missing from a research proposal are the findings of the study and your analysis of those findings. Finally, an effective proposal is judged on the quality of your writing and, therefore, it is important that your proposal is coherent, clear, and compelling.

Regardless of the research problem you are investigating and the methodology you choose, all research proposals must address the following questions:

• What do you plan to accomplish? Be clear and succinct in defining the research problem and what it is you are proposing to investigate.
• Why do you want to do the research? In addition to detailing your research design, you also must conduct a thorough review of the literature and provide convincing evidence that it is a topic worthy of in-depth study. A successful research proposal must answer the "So What?" question.
• How are you going to conduct the research? Be sure that what you propose is doable. If you're having difficulty formulating a research problem to propose investigating, go here for strategies in developing a problem to study.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Failure to be concise . A research proposal must be focused and not be "all over the map" or diverge into unrelated tangents without a clear sense of purpose.
• Failure to cite landmark works in your literature review . Proposals should be grounded in foundational research that lays a foundation for understanding the development and scope of the the topic and its relevance.
• Failure to delimit the contextual scope of your research [e.g., time, place, people, etc.]. As with any research paper, your proposed study must inform the reader how and in what ways the study will frame the problem.
• Failure to develop a coherent and persuasive argument for the proposed research . This is critical. In many workplace settings, the research proposal is a formal document intended to argue for why a study should be funded.
• Sloppy or imprecise writing, or poor grammar . Although a research proposal does not represent a completed research study, there is still an expectation that it is well-written and follows the style and rules of good academic writing.
• Too much detail on minor issues, but not enough detail on major issues . Your proposal should focus on only a few key research questions in order to support the argument that the research needs to be conducted. Minor issues, even if valid, can be mentioned but they should not dominate the overall narrative.

Procter, Margaret. The Academic Proposal.  The Lab Report. University College Writing Centre. University of Toronto; Sanford, Keith. Information for Students: Writing a Research Proposal. Baylor University; Wong, Paul T. P. How to Write a Research Proposal. International Network on Personal Meaning. Trinity Western University; Writing Academic Proposals: Conferences, Articles, and Books. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Writing a Research Proposal. University Library. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Structure and Writing Style

Beginning the Proposal Process

As with writing most college-level academic papers, research proposals are generally organized the same way throughout most social science disciplines. The text of proposals generally vary in length between ten and thirty-five pages, followed by the list of references. However, before you begin, read the assignment carefully and, if anything seems unclear, ask your professor whether there are any specific requirements for organizing and writing the proposal.

A good place to begin is to ask yourself a series of questions:

• What do I want to study?
• Why is the topic important?
• How is it significant within the subject areas covered in my class?
• What problems will it help solve?
• How does it build upon [and hopefully go beyond] research already conducted on the topic?
• What exactly should I plan to do, and can I get it done in the time available?

In general, a compelling research proposal should document your knowledge of the topic and demonstrate your enthusiasm for conducting the study. Approach it with the intention of leaving your readers feeling like, "Wow, that's an exciting idea and I can’t wait to see how it turns out!"

Most proposals should include the following sections:

I.  Introduction

In the real world of higher education, a research proposal is most often written by scholars seeking grant funding for a research project or it's the first step in getting approval to write a doctoral dissertation. Even if this is just a course assignment, treat your introduction as the initial pitch of an idea based on a thorough examination of the significance of a research problem. After reading the introduction, your readers should not only have an understanding of what you want to do, but they should also be able to gain a sense of your passion for the topic and to be excited about the study's possible outcomes. Note that most proposals do not include an abstract [summary] before the introduction.

Think about your introduction as a narrative written in two to four paragraphs that succinctly answers the following four questions :

• What is the central research problem?
• What is the topic of study related to that research problem?
• What methods should be used to analyze the research problem?
• Answer the "So What?" question by explaining why this is important research, what is its significance, and why should someone reading the proposal care about the outcomes of the proposed study?

II.  Background and Significance

This is where you explain the scope and context of your proposal and describe in detail why it's important. It can be melded into your introduction or you can create a separate section to help with the organization and narrative flow of your proposal. Approach writing this section with the thought that you can’t assume your readers will know as much about the research problem as you do. Note that this section is not an essay going over everything you have learned about the topic; instead, you must choose what is most relevant in explaining the aims of your research.

To that end, while there are no prescribed rules for establishing the significance of your proposed study, you should attempt to address some or all of the following:

• State the research problem and give a more detailed explanation about the purpose of the study than what you stated in the introduction. This is particularly important if the problem is complex or multifaceted .
• Present the rationale of your proposed study and clearly indicate why it is worth doing; be sure to answer the "So What? question [i.e., why should anyone care?].
• Describe the major issues or problems examined by your research. This can be in the form of questions to be addressed. Be sure to note how your proposed study builds on previous assumptions about the research problem.
• Explain the methods you plan to use for conducting your research. Clearly identify the key sources you intend to use and explain how they will contribute to your analysis of the topic.
• Describe the boundaries of your proposed research in order to provide a clear focus. Where appropriate, state not only what you plan to study, but what aspects of the research problem will be excluded from the study.
• If necessary, provide definitions of key concepts, theories, or terms.

III.  Literature Review

Connected to the background and significance of your study is a section of your proposal devoted to a more deliberate review and synthesis of prior studies related to the research problem under investigation . The purpose here is to place your project within the larger whole of what is currently being explored, while at the same time, demonstrating to your readers that your work is original and innovative. Think about what questions other researchers have asked, what methodological approaches they have used, and what is your understanding of their findings and, when stated, their recommendations. Also pay attention to any suggestions for further research.

Since a literature review is information dense, it is crucial that this section is intelligently structured to enable a reader to grasp the key arguments underpinning your proposed study in relation to the arguments put forth by other researchers. A good strategy is to break the literature into "conceptual categories" [themes] rather than systematically or chronologically describing groups of materials one at a time. Note that conceptual categories generally reveal themselves after you have read most of the pertinent literature on your topic so adding new categories is an on-going process of discovery as you review more studies. How do you know you've covered the key conceptual categories underlying the research literature? Generally, you can have confidence that all of the significant conceptual categories have been identified if you start to see repetition in the conclusions or recommendations that are being made.

NOTE: Do not shy away from challenging the conclusions made in prior research as a basis for supporting the need for your proposal. Assess what you believe is missing and state how previous research has failed to adequately examine the issue that your study addresses. Highlighting the problematic conclusions strengthens your proposal. For more information on writing literature reviews, GO HERE .

To help frame your proposal's review of prior research, consider the "five C’s" of writing a literature review:

• Cite , so as to keep the primary focus on the literature pertinent to your research problem.
• Compare the various arguments, theories, methodologies, and findings expressed in the literature: what do the authors agree on? Who applies similar approaches to analyzing the research problem?
• Contrast the various arguments, themes, methodologies, approaches, and controversies expressed in the literature: describe what are the major areas of disagreement, controversy, or debate among scholars?
• Critique the literature: Which arguments are more persuasive, and why? Which approaches, findings, and methodologies seem most reliable, valid, or appropriate, and why? Pay attention to the verbs you use to describe what an author says/does [e.g., asserts, demonstrates, argues, etc.].
• Connect the literature to your own area of research and investigation: how does your own work draw upon, depart from, synthesize, or add a new perspective to what has been said in the literature?

IV.  Research Design and Methods

This section must be well-written and logically organized because you are not actually doing the research, yet, your reader must have confidence that you have a plan worth pursuing . The reader will never have a study outcome from which to evaluate whether your methodological choices were the correct ones. Thus, the objective here is to convince the reader that your overall research design and proposed methods of analysis will correctly address the problem and that the methods will provide the means to effectively interpret the potential results. Your design and methods should be unmistakably tied to the specific aims of your study.

Describe the overall research design by building upon and drawing examples from your review of the literature. Consider not only methods that other researchers have used, but methods of data gathering that have not been used but perhaps could be. Be specific about the methodological approaches you plan to undertake to obtain information, the techniques you would use to analyze the data, and the tests of external validity to which you commit yourself [i.e., the trustworthiness by which you can generalize from your study to other people, places, events, and/or periods of time].

When describing the methods you will use, be sure to cover the following:

• Specify the research process you will undertake and the way you will interpret the results obtained in relation to the research problem. Don't just describe what you intend to achieve from applying the methods you choose, but state how you will spend your time while applying these methods [e.g., coding text from interviews to find statements about the need to change school curriculum; running a regression to determine if there is a relationship between campaign advertising on social media sites and election outcomes in Europe ].
• Keep in mind that the methodology is not just a list of tasks; it is a deliberate argument as to why techniques for gathering information add up to the best way to investigate the research problem. This is an important point because the mere listing of tasks to be performed does not demonstrate that, collectively, they effectively address the research problem. Be sure you clearly explain this.
• Anticipate and acknowledge any potential barriers and pitfalls in carrying out your research design and explain how you plan to address them. No method applied to research in the social and behavioral sciences is perfect, so you need to describe where you believe challenges may exist in obtaining data or accessing information. It's always better to acknowledge this than to have it brought up by your professor!

V.  Preliminary Suppositions and Implications

Just because you don't have to actually conduct the study and analyze the results, doesn't mean you can skip talking about the analytical process and potential implications . The purpose of this section is to argue how and in what ways you believe your research will refine, revise, or extend existing knowledge in the subject area under investigation. Depending on the aims and objectives of your study, describe how the anticipated results will impact future scholarly research, theory, practice, forms of interventions, or policy making. Note that such discussions may have either substantive [a potential new policy], theoretical [a potential new understanding], or methodological [a potential new way of analyzing] significance.   When thinking about the potential implications of your study, ask the following questions:

• What might the results mean in regards to challenging the theoretical framework and underlying assumptions that support the study?
• What suggestions for subsequent research could arise from the potential outcomes of the study?
• What will the results mean to practitioners in the natural settings of their workplace, organization, or community?
• Will the results influence programs, methods, and/or forms of intervention?
• How might the results contribute to the solution of social, economic, or other types of problems?
• Will the results influence policy decisions?
• In what way do individuals or groups benefit should your study be pursued?
• What will be improved or changed as a result of the proposed research?
• How will the results of the study be implemented and what innovations or transformative insights could emerge from the process of implementation?

NOTE:   This section should not delve into idle speculation, opinion, or be formulated on the basis of unclear evidence . The purpose is to reflect upon gaps or understudied areas of the current literature and describe how your proposed research contributes to a new understanding of the research problem should the study be implemented as designed.

ANOTHER NOTE : This section is also where you describe any potential limitations to your proposed study. While it is impossible to highlight all potential limitations because the study has yet to be conducted, you still must tell the reader where and in what form impediments may arise and how you plan to address them.

VI.  Conclusion

The conclusion reiterates the importance or significance of your proposal and provides a brief summary of the entire study . This section should be only one or two paragraphs long, emphasizing why the research problem is worth investigating, why your research study is unique, and how it should advance existing knowledge.

Someone reading this section should come away with an understanding of:

• Why the study should be done;
• The specific purpose of the study and the research questions it attempts to answer;
• The decision for why the research design and methods used where chosen over other options;
• The potential implications emerging from your proposed study of the research problem; and
• A sense of how your study fits within the broader scholarship about the research problem.

VII.  Citations

As with any scholarly research paper, you must cite the sources you used . In a standard research proposal, this section can take two forms, so consult with your professor about which one is preferred.

• References -- a list of only the sources you actually used in creating your proposal.
• Bibliography -- a list of everything you used in creating your proposal, along with additional citations to any key sources relevant to understanding the research problem.

In either case, this section should testify to the fact that you did enough preparatory work to ensure the project will complement and not just duplicate the efforts of other researchers. It demonstrates to the reader that you have a thorough understanding of prior research on the topic.

Most proposal formats have you start a new page and use the heading "References" or "Bibliography" centered at the top of the page. Cited works should always use a standard format that follows the writing style advised by the discipline of your course [e.g., education=APA; history=Chicago] or that is preferred by your professor. This section normally does not count towards the total page length of your research proposal.

Develop a Research Proposal: Writing the Proposal. Office of Library Information Services. Baltimore County Public Schools; Heath, M. Teresa Pereira and Caroline Tynan. “Crafting a Research Proposal.” The Marketing Review 10 (Summer 2010): 147-168; Jones, Mark. “Writing a Research Proposal.” In MasterClass in Geography Education: Transforming Teaching and Learning . Graham Butt, editor. (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015), pp. 113-127; Juni, Muhamad Hanafiah. “Writing a Research Proposal.” International Journal of Public Health and Clinical Sciences 1 (September/October 2014): 229-240; Krathwohl, David R. How to Prepare a Dissertation Proposal: Suggestions for Students in Education and the Social and Behavioral Sciences . Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2005; Procter, Margaret. The Academic Proposal. The Lab Report. University College Writing Centre. University of Toronto; Punch, Keith and Wayne McGowan. "Developing and Writing a Research Proposal." In From Postgraduate to Social Scientist: A Guide to Key Skills . Nigel Gilbert, ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2006), 59-81; Wong, Paul T. P. How to Write a Research Proposal. International Network on Personal Meaning. Trinity Western University; Writing Academic Proposals: Conferences , Articles, and Books. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Writing a Research Proposal. University Library. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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Performing Academic Research: Creating a research plan

• The research process
• Creating a research plan
• Primary and secondary sources
• Academic vs. non-academic information
• Evaluating information: The PAARC test

What is a research plan?

When doing research, it pays to plan ahead. If you take some time to really think about your topic and how you're going to look for sources, you can save yourself hours in the long run. A well thought out research plan will help you find relevant books, ebooks, journal articles, encyclopedia articles, dictionary entries and more much more easily than if you just jumped right in to a database and hoped for the best. It's an easy and helpful way to organize your thinking about a topic, which will help you find what you need.

To help you with creating your research plan, we've set out the following steps:

Step one - Write down your topic

Start by writing out your topic, either on a piece of paper or in a notebook or typed out on your computer. Writing out your topic will help you visualize the parts of your topic, which will be helpful as you build your research plan.

For example, let's say our topic is:

How effective is social media in influencing the youth vote?

Write your topic out like we have here and take a moment to think about the topic and what it is really asking. If what you write out the first time turns out to not be the question you want to ask, try writing it down again with a different wording. Keep doing this until you're confident you've captured the topic you really want to explore.

Step two - Identify your core concepts

Next, take a look at your topic and try to identify what we call its  core concepts . The core concepts of a topic are the words that represent the major ideas that you'll explore with your topic.

Think of it this way: what would be the words in your topic that you would absolutely need to be able to identify your topic? Any words that you absolutely need are your core concepts. Any other words are just there to help contextualize those concepts in a sentence.

When identifying core concepts, it can help to circle or highlight them in your topic sentence. For our example, that would look like this:

Here, we've highlighted social media , youth and vote . These are the three major ideas that we'll be looking at with this topic. They are the "who" (youth) and the "what" (social media and voting) of your topic. All of the other words in your sentence simply relate to these three core concepts and help contextualize them in a sentence. Those words are helpful when you're trying to express a topic to someone else, but, when you're search for sources using a computer, all you need are the essential, core concepts. Anything else will simple get in the way of getting good results.

Step three - Find synonyms

Next, you need to think of synonyms for your core concepts, or other ways that you might express those words. This is critically important when you're doing any type of computer-based searching.

Here's why:

Different people will express the same idea different ways using different words, yet everyone can still get their point across. For example, while you might call a bicycle a "bike" or a "velocipede" (no, really, it's a real word), you're still able to understand that all of those words refer to "a vehicle having two wheels held one behind the other in a frame, typically propelled by a seated rider using pedals, and steered by means of handlebars at the front" (OED Online).

However, computers aren't very good at making those kinds of connections. For the most part, they will only search for the specific word you give them. For example, if you type "bike" into a database search box, you'll only find sources that use the word "bike". You won't find the sources that use "bicycle" even if those sources are appropriate to your topic. By finding and using different synonyms for your core concepts in your search, you increase your chances for finding more material on your topic.

Here's what it would look like to find the synonyms for the three core concepts in our example:

Social Media: social network, social networks, social networking, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr

Youth: young adult, young adults, teen, teens, teenager, teenagers, adolescent, adolescents, adolescence

Vote: voting, voter, voters, political, politics

Step four - Apply truncation

Now you have all these different words to express your core concepts, which is great. But it will be a real pain to type out five or six different ways to say the same word each time you do a search, right? Well, you're in luck! There is a technique called "truncation" that will save you time and effort when performing searches.

To use truncation, start by identifying the common "root" for your synonyms. This is the word, or even just part of a word , that many of your synonyms have in common. For example, from the synonyms we found above:

social network, social networking = social network

young adult, young adults = young adult

teen, teenage, teenager, teens, teenagers = teen

adolescence, adolescent, adolescents = adolescen

vote, voter, voters, voting = vot

political, politics = politic

"vote," "voter" and "voting" in the above list all share the same root as "vot." Everything that comes after the "t" is really just a matter of variations in spelling.

In some case, a word just won't have a "root", or maybe that "root" is actually the entire word. For example, from the synonyms we found above:

social media = social media

Facebook = Facebook

youth = youth

There's just no other way to say "youth" that means a teenager. While "Youthful," shares the same root with "Youth", it doesn't mean the same thing. The same goes for "social media." Finally, because "Facebook" is a proper name of a specific thing, you don't truncate it, either. This would apply to the name of any specific social media site.

Once you've identified your root words, you can apply what is called the truncation symbol , which is a special character that computers recoqnize as telling them "find me any word that starts with this root, no matter what the ending." By applying this special symbol, you can type just the root word into a database and it will retrieve all the variations in spelling for that word, doing some of your work for you. Most of the time, the truncation symbol is a " * ", although it can sometimes be a " $ " or a " ? ". Most databases will tell you which symbol to use.

For our example words, the roots with their truncation symbols would look like this:

social network*

social media

young adult*

Note that, because there's no other way to say "youth," "social media," or "Facebook we've left off the truncation symbols. If we put a "*" at the end, the computer would find references to words like "Youthful," or "social mediation," which we don't really apply to our topic.

Step five - Use Boolean operators and nesting

Now that you have your list of truncated terms, it's time to put them all together into a search phrase. To do this, you'll need to use two techniques: Boolean operators and nesting .

Boolean operators are three words that computers identify as having special functions when searching. These words are:

• AND - Putting "and" between two words tells the computer to give you all the results in a database that use both of those words. Use it whenever you need to combine two or more concepts.
• OR - Putting "or" between two words tells the computer to give you all the results in a database that use at least one of the words, as well as results that use both. Use it whenever you need to list synonyms for the same concept.
• NOT - Putting "not" before a word tells the computer to eliminate any result that uses the following word from the list of results. It is the trickiest of the three Boolean operators and the one that you will likely use least often. Only use it when you receive a large amount of off-topic results as a way to get rid of the off-topic entries.

Nesting is the technique of using multiple search boxes to control the way a search is run. By combining multiple search boxes together, you force the computer to do a series of mini-searches and combine the results of those mini-searches to create the results for your final search. It's similar to brackets in a mathematical equation. To solve an equation with brackets, you have to do the calculations inside of the bracket before you can complete what is outside the bracket. Nesting is asking the computer to do the same thing with your search.

If we apply Boolean operators and nesting to our example list of truncated terms, we'll get something that looks like this:

social media OR social network* OR Facebook OR Twitter OR Instagram OR Snapchat OR Tumblr

AND Young adult* OR youth OR teen* OR adolescen*

AND vot* OR politic*

In the above example, we've used "or" to combine "social media," "social network*," "Facebook," "Twitter," "Instagram," "Snapchat," and "Tumblr" in one search box (represented here by a black rectangle), used "or" again to combine "young adult*," "youth," "teen*" and "adolescen*" in a second search box. and used "or" again to combine "vot*," and "politic*" in a third search box. This creates three mini-searches, one that will find any result that uses any of the different ways to say "social media," one that will find any result that uses any of the different ways to say "youth," and one that will find any result that uses any of the different ways to say "vote." Finally, we combine the three boxes with "and," so that the final search will find any result that makes reference to at least one of the ways to say "social media," at least one of the ways to say "youth" and at least one of the ways to say "vote." By doing all of this, we've maximized our chances at getting a solid set of on-topic sources to work with.

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Creating a Research Plan

Creating a Research Plan for a Science Project Before starting work on a science project, a research plan should be created. While many researchers merely do this “in their head”, it should be formally contained within a document. The research plan describes many aspects of the project. It will help both the researchers and mentors understand the overall approach that is planned for the project. The contents of this web page should serve as a guide for creating a research plan.

A written research plan should contain a description of the following. 1. The goals of the project 2. The hypothesis 3. The factors that will be studied 4. The responses (results) that will be observed 5. How the data will be analyzed and interpreted 6. The materials and equipment that will be used 7. The experimental methods (procedure) that will be used 8. The facilities where the work will be done 9. How the research plan might change 10. Summary

11. A bibliography that includes at least five major references.

NOTE : Steps 1-5 are focused on setting up the overall ideas and objectives. Steps 6-8 are focused on the specifics of the experimentation, such as what, how, and where the experimentation will be performed. Steps 9-11 are important for anyone looking over the project, but are particularly important if you are applying for pre-approval because it gives those reviewing the application a better sense of how well the planning was done.

The Goals of the Project A description of the goals of the project should be a general discussion of the project. What will be studied? Why is it of interest? What do you hope to learn? This will set the stage for the rest of the research plan.

The Hypothesis Here is where the scientific hypothesis is laid out. A proposal is made about the factors to be studied and how they might affect the responses of interest. For example, a hypothesis about the growth of maple tree saplings might start with: “We believe that recently-sprouted maple tree saplings will have their growth stunted by excessive exposure to ultraviolet light.” From here, the hypothesis is discussed in enough detail for the reader to understand exactly what is being proposed about the state of the natural world that you hope to either prove or disprove.

The Factors That Will Be Studied In this section, you will spell out which factors will be studied in your research project as well as those that will be held constant. The factors that you study are the ones that you vary in a controlled fashion in order to explore the hypothesis. The factors that are held constant are factors that you do not want to affect the outcome of your experiment. A perfect example of these two kinds of factors at work would be growing plants in a greenhouse. The factors that are varied (for example, adding nutrients to the soil) will have the best chance of being the ones that affect the plants’ growth. By using a greenhouse, the factors that you do not wish to affect the outcome of your experiment (such as exposure of the plants to wind, rain, or animals) will not have a chance to affect the outcome.

The Responses (Results) That Will Be Observed The response is the result you observe as the output of your experiments. An observation may be qualitative (for example, a change of color) or quantitative (for example, a change in height determined by a measurement). In a chemical experiment the product of the reaction is the response. A botanical experiment might have the change in height of the plant or the number of leaves on the plant at the end of the growing period as the response. Mention should be made if you plan to get assistance in measuring your response by using an outside expert in the field of study.

How the Data Will Be Analyzed and Interpreted This section should discuss how the responses (results) will be treated in order to make conclusions about your work. How will the data be compared in order to make a conclusion? Will an average response be calculated? Standard deviation? Will a visual examination of the experiments be used as the basis of the data analysis? Include any details that will help the reader understand how the responses that were observed will be turned into understandable conclusions about your project.

The Materials and Equipment That Will Be Used In this part, the materials (expendables) and equipment that will be used for the science project are discussed. Will the materials be collected from nature? Will they be purchased from a scientific supply house? Will you use special glassware that is provided by your school? Describe the materials and equipment in enough detail so that someone can understand how they will be used in your science project.

The Experimental Methods (Procedure) That Will Be Used This section will cover how you will carry out your experiments. You will describe the methods (procedures) that you will use during your experiments. For example, a chemistry project might involve running a reaction and measuring the yield of a chemical that you make. The description would include how the chemical reaction will be run in special glassware and how the work up will isolate the product. You would also describe how the yield will be measured, such as weighing the resultant product on a balance. At the end of this section of the research plan, the reader should understand the general work flow of your experiments and how they will be run.

The Facilities Where the Work Will be Done Describe where the experiments will be done. Your home? Your school? A special laboratory? Give enough detail for the reader to understand where you will work on your science project.

How the Research Plan Might Change A research plan is just that, a plan! Plans don’t always proceed exactly as you envisioned them. If you have thought about changes that might need to be made as you are running your experiments, mention them here. This will indicate that you have thought about your work in great depth and are prepared to adjust accordingly.

Summary For this section, provide a general summary of your research plan. Tell the reader what you hope to accomplish and how you will do it.

Bibliography

Provide at least five major references that relate to the project.  This helps reviewers to understand better the depth of research that has been done in preparation for doing the research project.

2024 Fair results!

What a great fair!  The 2024 NHSEE fair was held on March 14, and we’re already looking forward to the 2025 fair – we hope you are too.

You can see the complete list of awards here. Besides the trophies and medals, we awarded a number of Special Awards provided by companies and associations that love helping students get and stay excited by science, and scholarships to the New Hampshire Academy of Science (NHAS) summer program .  Check out the list!

In the meantime, start thinking of an amazing project for 2025, how you can help a student with one, or how you can help the NHSEE 2025 fair. Judge, volunteer, sponsor? Let us know!

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Developing a Research Plan

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Home » How To Write A Research Proposal – Step-by-Step [Template]

How To Write A Research Proposal – Step-by-Step [Template]

Table of Contents

How To Write a Research Proposal

Writing a Research proposal involves several steps to ensure a well-structured and comprehensive document. Here is an explanation of each step:

1. Title and Abstract

• Choose a concise and descriptive title that reflects the essence of your research.
• Write an abstract summarizing your research question, objectives, methodology, and expected outcomes. It should provide a brief overview of your proposal.

2. Introduction:

• Provide an introduction to your research topic, highlighting its significance and relevance.
• Clearly state the research problem or question you aim to address.
• Discuss the background and context of the study, including previous research in the field.

3. Research Objectives

• Outline the specific objectives or aims of your research. These objectives should be clear, achievable, and aligned with the research problem.

4. Literature Review:

• Conduct a comprehensive review of relevant literature and studies related to your research topic.
• Summarize key findings, identify gaps, and highlight how your research will contribute to the existing knowledge.

5. Methodology:

• Describe the research design and methodology you plan to employ to address your research objectives.
• Explain the data collection methods, instruments, and analysis techniques you will use.
• Justify why the chosen methods are appropriate and suitable for your research.

6. Timeline:

• Create a timeline or schedule that outlines the major milestones and activities of your research project.
• Break down the research process into smaller tasks and estimate the time required for each task.

7. Resources:

• Identify the resources needed for your research, such as access to specific databases, equipment, or funding.
• Explain how you will acquire or utilize these resources to carry out your research effectively.

8. Ethical Considerations:

• Discuss any ethical issues that may arise during your research and explain how you plan to address them.
• If your research involves human subjects, explain how you will ensure their informed consent and privacy.

9. Expected Outcomes and Significance:

• Clearly state the expected outcomes or results of your research.
• Highlight the potential impact and significance of your research in advancing knowledge or addressing practical issues.

10. References:

• Provide a list of all the references cited in your proposal, following a consistent citation style (e.g., APA, MLA).

11. Appendices:

• Include any additional supporting materials, such as survey questionnaires, interview guides, or data analysis plans.

Research Proposal Format

The format of a research proposal may vary depending on the specific requirements of the institution or funding agency. However, the following is a commonly used format for a research proposal:

1. Title Page:

• Include the title of your research proposal, your name, your affiliation or institution, and the date.

2. Abstract:

• Provide a brief summary of your research proposal, highlighting the research problem, objectives, methodology, and expected outcomes.

3. Introduction:

• Introduce the research topic and provide background information.
• State the research problem or question you aim to address.
• Explain the significance and relevance of the research.
• Review relevant literature and studies related to your research topic.
• Summarize key findings and identify gaps in the existing knowledge.
• Explain how your research will contribute to filling those gaps.

5. Research Objectives:

• Clearly state the specific objectives or aims of your research.
• Ensure that the objectives are clear, focused, and aligned with the research problem.

6. Methodology:

• Describe the research design and methodology you plan to use.
• Explain the data collection methods, instruments, and analysis techniques.
• Justify why the chosen methods are appropriate for your research.

7. Timeline:

8. Resources:

• Explain how you will acquire or utilize these resources effectively.

9. Ethical Considerations:

• If applicable, explain how you will ensure informed consent and protect the privacy of research participants.

10. Expected Outcomes and Significance:

11. References:

12. Appendices:

Research Proposal Template

Here’s a template for a research proposal:

1. Introduction:

2. Literature Review:

3. Research Objectives:

4. Methodology:

5. Timeline:

6. Resources:

7. Ethical Considerations:

8. Expected Outcomes and Significance:

9. References:

10. Appendices:

Research Proposal Sample

Title: The Impact of Online Education on Student Learning Outcomes: A Comparative Study

1. Introduction

Online education has gained significant prominence in recent years, especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This research proposal aims to investigate the impact of online education on student learning outcomes by comparing them with traditional face-to-face instruction. The study will explore various aspects of online education, such as instructional methods, student engagement, and academic performance, to provide insights into the effectiveness of online learning.

2. Objectives

The main objectives of this research are as follows:

• To compare student learning outcomes between online and traditional face-to-face education.
• To examine the factors influencing student engagement in online learning environments.
• To assess the effectiveness of different instructional methods employed in online education.
• To identify challenges and opportunities associated with online education and suggest recommendations for improvement.

3. Methodology

3.1 Study Design

This research will utilize a mixed-methods approach to gather both quantitative and qualitative data. The study will include the following components:

3.2 Participants

The research will involve undergraduate students from two universities, one offering online education and the other providing face-to-face instruction. A total of 500 students (250 from each university) will be selected randomly to participate in the study.

3.3 Data Collection

The research will employ the following data collection methods:

• Quantitative: Pre- and post-assessments will be conducted to measure students’ learning outcomes. Data on student demographics and academic performance will also be collected from university records.
• Qualitative: Focus group discussions and individual interviews will be conducted with students to gather their perceptions and experiences regarding online education.

3.4 Data Analysis

Quantitative data will be analyzed using statistical software, employing descriptive statistics, t-tests, and regression analysis. Qualitative data will be transcribed, coded, and analyzed thematically to identify recurring patterns and themes.

4. Ethical Considerations

The study will adhere to ethical guidelines, ensuring the privacy and confidentiality of participants. Informed consent will be obtained, and participants will have the right to withdraw from the study at any time.

5. Significance and Expected Outcomes

This research will contribute to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence on the impact of online education on student learning outcomes. The findings will help educational institutions and policymakers make informed decisions about incorporating online learning methods and improving the quality of online education. Moreover, the study will identify potential challenges and opportunities related to online education and offer recommendations for enhancing student engagement and overall learning outcomes.

6. Timeline

The proposed research will be conducted over a period of 12 months, including data collection, analysis, and report writing.

The estimated budget for this research includes expenses related to data collection, software licenses, participant compensation, and research assistance. A detailed budget breakdown will be provided in the final research plan.

8. Conclusion

This research proposal aims to investigate the impact of online education on student learning outcomes through a comparative study with traditional face-to-face instruction. By exploring various dimensions of online education, this research will provide valuable insights into the effectiveness and challenges associated with online learning. The findings will contribute to the ongoing discourse on educational practices and help shape future strategies for maximizing student learning outcomes in online education settings.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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How to choose an Appropriate Method for Research?

Search form

Research and innovation menu, research and innovation, research plan content.

• When drafting the  Research Plan , follow the format and use the section headings (i.e. A – I) provided below, refer to the bulleted items for section content.
• For each section, this guidance includes a description of why the information is important for IRB review ( in italics ).

A.  Introduction and Background

In reviewing the protocol, the IRB must consider the rationale for the study and the importance of the knowledge that may reasonably be expected to result.

Briefly  summarize the nature, scientific or scholarly rationale and significance of the proposed study and any relevant background information on the topic. Explain the relevance of the study to previous and/or continuing work in the field. Discuss why novel inquiry is necessary. If there is a gap in knowledge, explain how it is anticipated that this research will address the gap. If this research is intended to replicate previous research, provide rationale.

B.  Specific Aims/Study Objectives

The IRB must evaluate the objectives of the research in order to determine whether the risks to participants are reasonable in relation to the importance of the knowledge that may be gained.

• Clearly  outline the specific research question(s). Include the study objective(s) and/or hypothesis.

C.  Methods, Materials, and Analysis

The study design, methods and procedures must be adequately described in order for the IRB to understand all activities in which human subjects will participate. The IRB must also be able to differentiate those procedures that are performed for research purposes from those that are performed for routine care or evaluation.

NOTE: The focus of this section is on methods and procedures. Risks must be discussed later in Section G.

Describe the study design and research methods used to meet the study aims and objectives stated above (e.g., on-line survey, open ended interview, randomized controlled trial, participant observation, field based research, lab/task based, etc.).

If there will be multiple groups of participants completing different sets of activities/tasks, clearly delineate the activities to occur for each group.

Describe in chronological order all research activities/procedures involving participants. This should walk the reader step-by-step through the research activities and include a description of the research procedures and instruments.

Include the title and descriptions of any measures, questionnaires, tasks, tests, and/or procedures. Titles need to be used consistently throughout the description(s).

The description must include whether these are standardized in the field or designed for this specific study.

Depending on the complexity or number of procedures, consider inserting a table or attaching an inventory list of measures or questionnaires as an appendix.

If the research involves any procedures typically used in a biomedical/clinical setting and/or administration of medications (e.g., blood draw, ultrasound, MRI, x-rays/radiographs, etc.) include the following:

The justification for the use of the procedures.

The dosage.

The qualifications of study personnel to conduct the procedures.

If research will be conducted at the  Lewis Center for Neuroimaging (LCNI),  the investigator will need to work with the LCNI director to ensure research procedures are in line with their standard operating procedures. The Research Plan will need to reference the established LCNI SOP in the Research Plan.

If using deception, discuss the related activities, what that deception entails, and when and how the debriefing process will occur.

Include an estimate of the time each participant will spend completing the activities (in minutes or hours), the number of sessions the participant will engage in, and the total length of participation (in days, weeks, months, or years) from the beginning to the end of the study.

If follow-up with participants is planned, discuss the procedures and under what circumstances follow-up will occur.

Describe the methods of data collection and recording that will be utilized in the study (e.g., hand-written notes, survey platform, computer programs, videotapes, audiotapes, photographs, etc.).

Describe the specific locations where the activities will be conducted (i.e., in what labs, clinics, field sites, or online platforms will the procedures occur?). The investigator must determine if additional local, State and/or international policies and regulations are applicable to the research and include this information in the Research Plan.

Explain how the data will be analyzed/studied (i.e., quantitatively or qualitatively and what statistical tests are planned), how the interpretation will address the research questions, and how the research will be disseminated.

Describe how the data will be reported (e.g., aggregated, anonymously, pseudonyms for participants, etc.).

D.  Research Population, Recruitment Methods, & Compensation

In order to approve research, the IRB must determine that the selection of participants is equitable and reasonably related to the purpose and aims of the research. The IRB must also consider whether adequate safeguards are in place to minimize any risks that are unique to vulnerable populations (e.g., pregnant women, fetuses, children, prisoners, cognitively impaired persons, etc.). To make this determination, the IRB must review all methods and materials used to contact and recruit potential participants, including letters, flyers, emails, etc.

1.  Participant Population

Describe the participant population:

Provide the rationale for including the participant population. When including any vulnerable populations in the study (e.g., children, prisoners, pregnant women, fetuses, etc.) explain why inclusion of this population is necessary to accomplish the research aims.

List the inclusion criteria such as age range, race or ethnicity, gender, language and literacy, etc.

List the exclusion criteria and rationale.

Address whether or not participants are fluent in English and/or if any of the study activities (i.e. recruitment, consent, assessments, etc.) will be carried out in a language other than English.

Describe how the research team member(s) are fluent in the language of the participants or if a translator will be used.

Describe how materials will be presented in the language understandable to participants (e.g. will translated materials be used?). If there is no written language, state this and explain translation.

Discuss the number of participants needed for the project including the following:

Provide the targeted number of individuals to be included in the research. If more than one group, provide numbers needed for each group and total number for the entire project. Ranges are acceptable (e.g. 20-25 individuals, survey distributed to 200 people and expected 65% response rate).

Provide rationale for targeted numbers.

2.  Recruitment Methods

Describe the process and/or method by which participants will be recruited for the research, including the following:

When and how will each step of recruitment occur (i.e., initial contact, introductions, follow-ups, etc.)?

Describe how the participant population is accessed. Discuss relevant permissions (e.g., access to listservs, online databases, etc.).

State any recruitment materials that will be used, such as advertisements, flyers, or verbal scripts. If there are no written recruitment materials, explain.

Explain which research roles (e.g., PI, Research Assistant, etc.) will recruit participants and how they will be trained.

Describe any screening tests and/or procedures that will be used to ensure that potential participants are eligible to participate.

If any part of the recruitment procedures involves a language other than English describe any differences in the recruitment procedures for non-English speaking participants.

For research involving treatment (e.g. behavioral intervention, drug or device studies, etc.):

Describe how research treatment will be distinguished from regular treatment.

Indicate whether the individuals who will recruit participants have provided or will provide treatment or care to the prospective participants. If treatment providers also have a role in the research, describe measures to avoid or diminish undue influence.

3.  Compensation/Reimbursement

If there is the possibility that there will be costs to the participant or to a third party (e.g., an insurer), identify the specific expenses (e.g., drug tests, procedures, hospitalization, travel, etc.) and provide a justification for those costs.

If participants are to receive compensation for their time, please describe the following or simply state no compensation will be offered:

The amount and nature of the compensation (e.g., cash, gift card, course credit, etc.).

Explain how and when compensation will be provided, including payment schedules, whether or not compensation will be reduced if the participant does not complete all activities in the study, and how any proration will occur.

Explain how the method and amount of compensation is appropriate for the participant population and study activities (e.g., based on time commitment, number of study visits, travel expenses, age of participant population, etc.).

E. Informed Consent Process

Informed consent is a process, not just a form and obtaining informed consent is a central protection for human participants. The IRB must ensure the informed consent process clearly discloses and facilitates the understanding of all information needed to make an informed decision to participate while promoting the voluntariness of participation.

Below are the key components of the informed consent process. In some cases it may be appropriate to seek a  waiver or alteration of informed consent or a waiver of documentation of informed consent  from the IRB.

1.  Informed Consent Process

Describe the informed consent process, including:

How the required  elements of informed consent  will be conveyed to participants (i.e., informed consent document, verbal script, online statement, letter, etc.).

Where and when the informed consent process will take place (i.e., in-person in private room, phone, etc.).

Any cultural considerations (e.g., tribal or group permission requirements, age of majority, technological limitations, etc.).

Steps that will be taken to ensure voluntary participation and to minimize the possibility of coercion or undue influence.

Which research roles (e.g., PI, Research Assistant, etc.) will conduct the consent process and how that person will be trained (e.g. previous experience or related training, one-on-one training with PI, etc.).

If multiple participant groups or consent procedures are to be included, these need to be clearly delineated.

In certain circumstances, the IRB may approve a consent process which does not include, or which alters, some or all of the elements of informed consent or waive the requirements to obtain informed consent. See the RCS  Waiver or Alteration of Informed Consent Guidance  for the criteria that must be met and information that must be included in this section to request consideration of a waiver or alteration of informed consent by the IRB.

2.  Facilitate Understanding

Describe how the investigator will ensure that the participants understand all aspects of their involvement in the research (i.e., will participants be asked questions about the procedures, or encouraged to ask questions?).

Describe any special provisions for individuals who might have trouble comprehending the consent information.

If any participants do not speak English, describe:

Whether or not the researcher is fluent in the language.

Whether or not and how a translator will be used.

Whether or not translated consent materials will be used.

Whether or not there are any differences in the consent process for different populations based on the language they speak.

Describe the process by which the investigator will ensure ongoing consent.

3.  Documentation

Describe how the researcher plans to document that each participant has provided informed consent and/or assent.

In certain circumstances, the IRB may waive the requirement to obtain a signed consent form based on specific criteria. See the RCS  Waiver or Alteration of Informed Consent Guidance  for the criteria that must be met and information that must be included in this section to request consideration of a waiver of documentation from the IRB.

4.  Additional Considerations

     If the research involves:

Minors (those under the age of majority) or individuals of diminished capacity:

Describe the capacity of the participant and their ability to assent.

Describe how assent to participate will be obtained and documented.

If a  waiver of assent or waiver of assent documentation  is being requested, provide justification.

Explain how the permission of the parent(s), guardian(s), or legally authorized representatives will be obtained and documented.

If a waiver of permission or waiver of permission documentation is being requested, provide justification.

Explain how participants will be deceived and why it is necessary for the study.

Deception is an alteration of informed consent; provide justification for how the use of deception meets the criteria for alteration of informed consent. See the RCS  Waiver or Alteration of Informed Consent Guidance  for the criteria that must be met and information that must be included in this section to request consideration of a waiver or alteration of informed consent by the IRB.

Describe the debriefing process and provide a script.

Protected Health Information:

If the research involves the use of  protected health information  from a covered entity (including those listed on the  UO Hybrid Entity Status and Documentation of HIPAA Covered Components declaration ), describe how authorization from participants to access and use their information will be obtained (i.e., signed HIPAA form).

If requesting a waiver of authorization, see the  HIPAA waiver  guidance for the criteria that must be met. Justification for how the criteria are satisfied must be included in this section.

Clinical Trials:

For a study that meets the definition of a clinical trial, one IRB approved informed consent form used to enroll subjects must be posted on a publicly available Federal Web site that has a repository for such informed consent forms. More information about the posting requirement and definitions can be found on our website here .

Describe in this section of the Research Plan where the consent form will be posted and acknowledge the required timeframe for posting (e.g., clinicaltrials.gov or the regulations.gov document portal ).  NOTE: the investigator will be responsible for demonstrating at the time of continuing review, progress reporting, and/or closure of the study that this requirement has been satisfied.

F.  Participant Privacy, Data Disposition, and Data Confidentiality

In order to approve research, the IRB must determine that there are adequate provisions in place to protect the privacy of subjects and maintain the confidentiality of research records and data collected.

1.  Privacy

Describe the steps that will be taken to promote the protection of participants’ privacy. Consider the following:

The methods used to identify and contact potential participants.

The settings in which an individual will be interacting with an investigator.

The appropriateness of all personnel present for research activities.

The methods used to obtain information about participants.

The sensitivity of the requested information:

In relation to the potential privacy risks of the information.

In relation to options for participants to disclose identity.

Privacy guidelines developed by relevant professional associations and scholarly disciplines (e.g., oral history, anthropology, psychology).

Steps to ensure access to the minimum amount of information necessary to complete the study.

Information that is obtained about individuals other than the “target participants,” and whether such individuals meet the regulatory definition of “human participant” (e.g., a participant provides information about a family member for a survey).

Describe what personal or identifiable information will be obtained to facilitate the research and as part of data collection. If participant data will be collected without identifiers, please state this.

2.  Data Disposition

Describe what data will be collected, including identifiable information and audio/video/digital recordings or photos. In addition, consider the following:

Any other information collected to facilitate the research (i.e., contact information for recruitment).

Any exiting data and its disposition (i.e. obtaining data from another source coded, or identifiable etc.).

3.  Confidentiality

Describe the steps that will be taken to secure data and/or specimens for the research:

Describe if participants’ private information will be coded (i.e., identifying information has been replaced with a number, pseudonym, etc.), include:

How the key to decipher the code (i.e., list linking participants’ names with pseudonyms or participant number) will be stored?

Who will have access to the code key?

If, how, and why the code key will be retained.

If participant identities will be disclosed as a result of this research (e.g., attributing a direct quote, etc.), provide:

Justification for appropriateness of direct identification.

Parameters for disclosure (e.g., will participants be allowed to review prior to dissemination).

How permissions from participant will be solicited including any restrictions.

 Describe storage and transfer including:

How the data will be collected and stored, including format (e.g., audio/video recordings or photographs, hard or electronic copy,  identifiable  or  de-identified ).

Security during transmission and sharing between researchers and participants.

Who will have access to data (e.g., training of staff, authorization of access).

How long the records will be kept after the study is completed.

The security of the area where data will be stored (e.g., locked office, password protected computer, encryption, firewalls, virus detection, etc.).

Describe any intent for future use of data beyond this research including:

If other researchers will be permitted access/use the data.

How data will be maintained and stored.

How participant permissions for the future use will be obtained and tracked.

If seeking a Certificate of Confidentiality through NIH, this needs to be stated.

G. Potential Research Risks and Discomforts to Participants

In order to approve the research, the IRB must consider the risks posed to participants by the research and any efforts to mitigate those risks. The IRB needs to determine that the risks have been both minimized and are reasonable in relation to the anticipated benefits to participants as well as to the importance of the knowledge that may be gained. The IRB will also consider whether the informed consent process provides potential participants with an accurate and fair description of the risks or discomforts.

Describe any reasonably foreseeable risks of harm or discomforts for individuals and/or groups that may result from participation in the research. While risks associated with participation may not be expected, most protocols carry some risk. Consider the following:

Information risks (e.g., loss of privacy and/or breach of confidentiality).

Psychological or emotional risks (e.g., fear, stress, confusion, guilt, loss of self-esteem, depression, triggering of past emotional experiences).

Social risks (e.g., social stigma, chance of being ostracized or shunned), economic risks (e.g., change in employment or insurability).

Physical risks or harms (e.g., fatigue, pain or discomfort, potential for injury, illness or disease, or death, side effects and contraindications of drugs or substances used in the research).

Legal risks (e.g., risk of prosecution, mandatory reporting).

Genetic privacy risk (e.g., stigmatization, self-stigmatization, limits to insurance coverage or employability, misattributed paternity, etc.).

For  each  identified risk, explain all of the following:

Likelihood of the risk occurring.

Magnitude of the effects the risk would have should they occur.

How the risk will be minimized.

How the risk will be disclosed in the informed consent process.

If the protocol involves treatment or intervention, describe the “standard of care” and describe how the risks of the research treatments or interventions compare.

When appropriate, describe any provisions for data and safety monitoring for the progress of the research and the safety of the participants.

 If there is a separate Data and Safety Monitoring Plan (DSMP), state this and attach.

If there is an established Data and Safety Monitoring Board/Committee (DSMB/C) to monitor the progress of the research and the safety of participants, clearly indicate this. The frequency and operations of the DSMB/C should be covered in the DSMP.

H.  Potential Benefits of the Research

In order to approve this research, the IRB must determine that the anticipated benefits to research participants and the knowledge researchers expect to gain are reasonable in relation to the potential risks.

Describe any anticipated benefits that may result from the research. Consider the following:

Direct benefits that may result from participation (e.g., psychological or emotional benefits, learning benefits, physical benefits, diagnostic or therapeutic benefits, etc.). If there are no direct benefits to participants, clearly state this.

Benefits to the general participant population.

General benefits of the research for society, science and humanity; potential generalizable knowledge.

NOTE: Compensation for participation is not a benefit and should not be included in this section.

I.  Investigator Qualifications, Roles, & Training

In order to approve this research, the IRB needs to determine that research personnel are adequately trained and knowledgeable regarding the study procedures and the protection of human research participants.

1.  Investigator Qualifications

Provide a brief description for all key research personnel (i.e., Principal Investigator, Faculty Advisor, Co-Investigators or any other research personnel with responsibility for study oversight and research design). Include all of the following:

Academic background.

Research experience.

Experience with the proposed participant population.

Experience with the proposed procedures and methodology.

For students, include any applicable coursework (e.g., research methodology courses).

2.  Roles and Research Duties

Describe the roles and the associated research activities/duties. For example, Research Assistants will consent participants and administer surveys.

Do not list individual names. Limit roles to Principal Investigator, Co-Investigator, Faculty Advisor, Research Assistant, and Project Coordinator.

3.  Training and Oversight

Describe how the study personnel will be adequately trained to conduct research activities in accordance with the approved protocol and in compliance with federal regulations and university policy.

Describe any specific training or expertise required for procedures proposed in this research. Explain all of the following:

Training standards or requirements that must be met.

Who will be providing the training?

How will the training be tracked/documented?

4.  Translator

If a translator will be used for any aspects of the research, provide the translator’s name and qualifications for translation (e.g. native speaker, student of the language, etc.).

Chapter 9: Proposals

Staci Bettes

Chapter Synopsis

This chapter defines when, where, and how you should use a proposal. Before drafting, you define some preliminary qualities, including if the proposal is written for internal or external audiences, is solicited or unsolicited, and if you are proposing a known or unknown solution. Next, the chapter discusses further considerations for your audience, followed by a breakdown of common sections present in most proposals. As proposal content can vary depending on the type and purpose and audience, a section is included with additional, project-specific sections which could be included in your proposal, such as client analysis and implementation. The standard design and format of a proposal is discussed, with emphasis on adaptability for the reader. The end of this chapter contains a revision checklist for proposals.

9.1 Introduction

This chapter focuses on the proposal —a type of document that gets you or your organization approved or hired to complete a project, or requests time and resources to study difficult problems. The proposal is your opportunity to pitch your idea for change (oftentimes an improvement) within an organization, or to draft a research plan to investigate an issue that is of concern to your institution. Proposals often demonstrate that a problem or opportunity exists that needs attention, and addresses a very specific audience, one with the authority to move your suggestions forward.

A proposal is an offer or bid to complete a project for someone. They may contain other elements—technical background, recommendations, results of surveys, information about feasibility, and so on. But what makes a proposal “a proposal” is it asks the audience to approve, fund, or grant permission to do the proposed project. It should contain information that would enable the reader to decide whether to approve a project, to approve or hire you to do the work, or both. To write a successful proposal, put yourself in the place of your audience—the recipient of the proposal—and think about what sorts of information that person(s) would need in order to feel confident having you complete the project.

It is easy to confuse proposals with other kinds of documents in technical writing. Imagine that you have a terrific idea for installing some new technology where you work, and you write up a document explaining how it works, showing the benefits and then urging management to install it. All by itself, this would not be a complete proposal. This is a feasibility report , which studies the merits of a project and then recommends for or against it. However, all it would take to make this document a proposal would be to add elements that ask management for approval for you to go ahead with the project. A main difference between a proposal and other documents is that a proposal will sell the writer (or the writer’s organization) as the one to complete a future project.

In a technical writing course, the proposal assignment is an opportunity for you to present an idea you have to improve a certain aspect of a company, organization, center, or other business. It is written to a specific, known reader, who has the power to approve or deny your project. A good proposal often leads to conducting research and creating a report; therefore, whatever topic you choose, you must be able to conduct research on it, which will be integrated into that final report. In addition to primary research such as interviews and surveys, if your technical writing course requires that you integrate scholarly research into your final report, choose a topic for which you can readily find such material.

Not all research topics are appropriate for technical writing. Topics that are based on values and beliefs do not fall into the category of technical . Historical and literary topics do not qualify. For example, a proposal on the topic “ Gone with the Wind is the best book ever written” would not be appropriate, as you cannot prove and verify an opinion—everyone has their own taste. However, you could write a proposal to research the feasibility of declaring Gone with the Wind the “official novel” of Atlanta, Georgia.

9.2 Types of Proposals

Consider the situations in which proposals occur. A company may send out a public announcement requesting proposals for a specific project. This public announcement—called a request for proposals (RFP)—could be issued through websites, emails, social media, newspapers, or trade journals. Firms or individuals interested in the project would then write proposals in which they summarize their qualifications, project schedules and costs, and discuss their approach to the project. The recipient of all these proposals would then evaluate them, select the best candidate based on the plan which best suits the company’s needs, and then work up a contract.

But proposals can also be less formal. Imagine that you are interested in doing a project at work (for example, investigating the merits of bringing in new technology to increase productivity). You met with your supervisor and tried to convince her of this. She might respond by saying, “Write me a proposal and I’ll present it to upper management.” This is more like the kind of proposal you will write in a technical writing course.

There are several aspects of the proposal that you need to determine before drafting. Identifying these factors are vital to creating a proposal which will be accepted—whether the proposal is written for internal or external readers , the proposal is solicited or unsolicited , and if the solution is known or unknown.

Internal or External

• Internal: A proposal written to someone within your organization (a business, a government agency, etc.). With internal proposals, you may not have to include certain sections (such as qualifications) or as much information in them. For example, if your manager asks for ideas to improve the average time it takes to return customer inquiries, you would create an internal proposal.
• External: A proposal written from one separate, independent organization or individual to another such entity. With an external proposal, you will need to not only persuade the reader that you have a solid plan, but establish your credibility with the reader. The typical example is an independent consultant proposing to do a project for another firm.

Solicited or Unsolicited

• Solicited: The recipient has requested the proposal. If you have been asked to submit a proposal, it is considered solicited. The solicitation may come in the form of a direct verbal or written request, but normally solicitations are indirect, open-bid to the public, and formally published for everyone to see. A request for proposal (RFP), request for quotation (RFQ), and invitation for bid (IFB) are common ways to solicit business proposals for business, industry, and the government.

Proposals can also be solicited on a local level. For example, you could be explaining to your boss about a new software you think should be installed in the office; your boss might get interested and ask you to write up a proposal that offered to do a formal study of the idea.

• Unsolicited: The recipient has not requested your proposal. With unsolicited proposals, you sometimes must convince the recipient that a problem or need exists before you can begin the main part of the proposal. Unsolicited proposals are the “cold calls” of business writing. They require a thorough understanding of the market, product and/or service, and their presentation is typically general rather than customer-specific. They can, however, be tailored to specific businesses with time and effort, and the demonstrated knowledge of specific needs or requirement can transform an otherwise generic, brochure-like proposal into an effective sales message.

Getting your tailored message to your target audience is often a significant challenge if it is unsolicited. Unsolicited proposals are often regarded as marketing materials, intended more to stimulate interest for a follow-up contact than make direct sales. A targeted proposal is your most effective approach, but you should recognize the importance of gaining company, service, or brand awareness as well as its limitations.

Known Solution or Unknown Solution

• Unknown Solution: You can identify a problem, but are unsure what the solution is without further inquiry. Your proposal will focus on describing the problem, showing need for improvement, and planning research to discover the most effective solution. With an unknown solution, you may have a hypothesis —an idea that you think will solve the problem. However, this “educated guess” needs to be proven or disproven through research. The findings and recommendations will be included in a future report (e.g. recommendation report). For example, you notice that the office computers are lagging and crashing often, but are unsure why. You would propose research on making the computers more efficient.
• Known Solution: Instead of focusing on a problem that needs research, your proposal focuses on feasibility—i.e. can a specific solution resolve the problem, and what is the best way to implement the specific action, item, or idea? You propose research on areas such as cost, effectivity, location, and other factors connected to your solution. An example of a known solution is proposing your department replace a dozen 2016 Dell computers with the newest MacBook Pro model in an effort to improve computer speed, decrease user frustration, and increase employee productivity.

9.3 Proposal Purpose and Audience

Remember that, in a technical writing course, the proposal assignment serves several purposes:

• It gives you some experience in writing formal requests.
• It gets you started planning your major assignment.
• It gives your instructor a chance to work with you on your project, to make sure you have a viable topic.

For the second and third reasons, you need to include specific elements in your proposal (as noted in your assignment sheet), some of which may not seem appropriate in a real-world proposal.

The proposal is often the beginning of a weeks-long research and writing process that goes through many stages until it gets to the end point: the recommendation report. In this case, you only submit the proposal once during this process; in a real-world setting, you may have to submit a proposal multiple times—making corrections, adding details to your research plan—before you receive approval to move forward with the project. And even after submitting the proposal and receiving permission, you may need to write and submit additional documents along the way such as: a progress report, an outline, an annotated bibliography, a graphics draft, a recommendation report draft, and a final recommendation report. Be careful to use the term proposal only if you are specifically referring to the proposal stage of your project.

Another point to keep in mind relates to the audience for different kinds of documents that may be produced for the same project. Consider the example of a proposal written to a supervisor at a solar power company suggesting the creation of a policy manual for residential installers. The proposal’s audience may be an executive, whose knowledge of the technicalities is very broad. Let us imagine the executive approves the proposal and requests completion of the manual, which will be produced well after the proposal. The manual’s audience is the technicians, who may have more specialized knowledge than the executive. The content and language used for these two different audiences will need to be adjusted to fit the writing situation. (See chapter 2)

To write for the specific document’s audience, it is a good idea to define your reader and sketch out some qualities about them before you begin drafting. This information will help you effectively persuade the reader to approve your proposed project, and help you stay on task writing for that reader. It can also help you shape your proposed research strategy and guide the type of information you include in your proposal.

Ask yourself:

• Who is your reader? Your reader should be someone with decision-making authority over your problem. Theoretically, they could implement any changes you ultimately suggest. They are an action-taker in a corporation, organization, business, or agency.
• What type of reader are they? Expert, technician, executive, gatekeeper, and/or non-specialist?
• What is their background and knowledge level on the topic? What are their needs and interests? What will likely persuade them to approve your proposed idea? Wants? Values? For example, if you want to request time and resources to investigate whether changing your company’s workweek schedule from a standard five days to four extended work days, you would want to frame the idea in terms that management would be interested in—increases in productivity, savings in building upkeep and utilities, and so on.

9.4 Common Proposal Sections

The following provides a review of the sections you will commonly find in proposals. Do not assume that these sections must be in every proposal you write, nor that they have to be in the order they are listed. Refer to the assignment sheet provided by your instructor (or if on the job, review all content and submission requirements) and consider other kinds of information unique to your topic that should be included in your particular proposal.

Most proposals include the following sections: Introduction; Description of the problem, opportunity, or situation; Background of the problem; Method and procedure; a Schedule; Cost and required resources; Benefits and feasibility; Conclusion; and References.

Introduction

Plan the introduction to your proposal carefully. Make sure it contains all the following rhetorical moves (but not necessarily in this order) that apply to your particular proposal:

A) Define the subject.  Make it clear to the reader what the topic will be.

B) State the purpose of the document. The purpose of proposals is typically to request time and resources to study a problem, develop a new product, or investigate previously proposed solutions, etc.

C) State the main point of the document .  The main point is often to convince your reader (usually a supervisor or client) that the proposed project is deserving of approval. Be clear and concise about why you wrote the proposal and what action you want the reader to take.

D) Stress the importance of studying this problem or implementing your solution. The importance may relate to the topic’s urgency.

E) Develop at least one brief motivating statement that will encourage the recipient to read on and to consider approving the project (especially if it is an unsolicited or competitive proposal).

F) Forecast the organization of the proposal. Give an overview of the contents in the document.

Description of the Problem, Opportunity, or Situation

Often occurring just after the introduction, this section discusses what has brought about the need for the project— it introduces, then states and discusses the problem—what problem, what opportunity exists for improving things, what the basic situation is. It is helpful to cover the 5 W’s of the problem ( who, what, where, when , and why ). For example, management of a chain of day care centers may need to ensure that all employees know CPR because of new state mandate. You would explain the mandate, that all employees are not yet properly trained, and how this can affect child safety and state licensing.

Background of the Problem

You may also want to include background on the problem. While a known audience for the proposal may understand the problem very well, writing the background section is useful in demonstrating your particular view of the problem. In these cases, you can give background information as part of the description of the problem, the causes of the problem, previous solutions to the problem, and the consequences—both short and long term—of leaving the situation unaddressed. On the other hand, if the proposal is unsolicited, a separate background section is almost a requirement—you will need to convince the audience that the problem or opportunity exists, has urgency, and should be addressed in a timely manner.

Method and Procedure

In most proposals, you will need to explain how you will go about completing the proposed work. This acts as an additional persuasive element; it shows the audience you have a sound, thoughtful approach to the project. Also, it serves to demonstrate that you have the knowledge of the field to complete it. Often, the method and procedure section begins with several, tangibly stated research goals before being divided into three or more individual phases . For example, you might state that you want to “compare OSU’s dining options to those of other universities” or “interview at least two professional experts in the field.” The individual phases then outline how research will be performed as a way of creating a comprehensive approach to the topic. (See chapter 10 for different types of research) For each phase, you will identify the type of research you will perform and any critical details associated with it (e.g. Why is a certain database or website reliable? Who aggregates the information, how long have they been doing so? Do they have an agenda? Or why was a certain person chosen to be interviewed? What can you disclose about their professional background that will convince the reader of your proposal that this is an appropriate person to interview and a good use of your time?). In addition to these major and minor details, you will also want to reveal the deliverables or outcomes expected, and justify your research decisions.

Most proposals contain a section that shows not only the projected completion date but also key milestones for the project. If you are doing a large project spreading over many months, the timeline would also show dates on which you would deliver progress reports. (See chapter 11 for  Progress Report content and style) It is often helpful to back plan your schedule—work backwards from your due date to set important deadlines. If you cannot cite specific dates, cite amounts of time for each phase of the project.

Costs and Required Resources

Most proposals also contain a section detailing the costs of the project. With external projects, you may need to list your hourly rates, projected hours, costs of equipment and supplies, and so forth, and then calculate the total cost of the complete project. Internal projects, of course, are not free, so you should still list the project costs—hours you will need to complete the project, equipment and supplies you will be using, assistance from other people in the organization, and so on. These costs and resources are based on your needs to complete the research, not for implementing your solution—that information will appear in the report.

Benefits and Feasibility of the Proposed Project

Most proposals briefly discuss the advantages or benefits of completing the proposed project. This acts as a type of argument in favor of approving the project. There is little reason why your proposal should be accepted if there are no meaningful benefits. Thus, be sure to show that your solution will result in substantial benefits for the organization. Some proposals discuss the likelihood of the project’s success. In an unsolicited proposal, this section is especially important—you are trying to sell the audience on the project, so your stated benefits should appeal to the reader’s wants, needs, and values.

The final paragraph or section of the proposal should bring readers back to focus on the positive aspects of the project. In the final section, you can urge them to contact you to work out the details of the project (provide contact information, even if listed at the beginning of the document), remind them of the benefits of doing the project, and maybe make one last argument for you or your organization as the right choice for the project.

The reference page is a separate page where you list any and all source information used in your proposal, properly formatted, using a standard format in your field. List information sources— citations for specific books, articles, reference works, and other kinds of sources used in your report.

Project-Specific Sections

The preceding sections are typical or common in written proposals, not absolute requirements. Always ask yourself what else might your audience need to understand the project, the need for it or the benefits arising from it, your role in it, and your qualifications to do it. What else do they need to see in order to approve the project and to approve you to do it? Some special project-specific sections are listed in the next section.

9.5 Project-Specific Sections

Depending on the writing situation, your proposal may need to include other specialized sections. Your supervisor might ask you to include any of the following sections: Audience or client analysis, Solution, Method of operation, Description of proposed work/Project results, Research, Implementation, Team management, Risk management, Legal clauses, and/or Appendices.

Audience/Client Analysis

Describe the audience of the final recommendation report (which may be different than the audience for the proposal, especially if the proposal is an internal document [requesting time and permission from someone within the organization] but the final report is an external document [the recommendation can only be put into action by someone outside the author’s organization]). You may need to discuss for whom the report is designed, their titles and jobs, their technical background, and their ability to understand the report.

If you are writing a known-solution proposal, you may want to include a section which focuses on your solution. To create this section, you will need to do some research on topic and use published source information. This section will not present the solution to your problem. However, it will discuss similar problems and solutions that have been attempted in the past. This research will provide information that may be used to formulate a solution relative to your specific problem.

Methods of Operation

In known-solution proposals, this section will tell how the solution will fit into and be used as a functional part of the day to day operation of the company/business. Detail the date you expect to launch the solution into the operation the company, the place from where the solution will operate, how it will operate, and who will be involved (identify their responsibilities, duties, and any titles, certifications, degrees, etc., needed).

Description of the Proposed Work (Results of the Project)

Many proposals describe the finished product of the proposed project. In a technical writing course, this means describing the written document you propose to write (a.k.a. recommendation report) as well as its audience and purpose; providing an outline, and discussing items such as length, use of graphics, binding, and so forth. In this scenario, there may be other work such as conducting training seminars or providing an ongoing service. At this early stage, you might not know all that it will take to complete your project, but you should at least have an idea of some of the steps required.

Provide research on your topic. Your sources should be current, within the last two (2) or three (3) years if possible. It may be helpful to focus on research journals or newspapers for published articles, published interviews, published speeches, etc. for topics which need then newest statistics and information. You will need at least three or four documents that address a problem similar to the one you have chosen. Although you will not find your exact situation/problem, you will find documents about similar problems. These documents should have similar populations, environments, workforces, etc. For example, if you propose to implement a shuttle bus service from the parking lot to your work place for efficiency, you may find documents from other workplaces, with similar circumstances, which experienced similar problems and solved them by providing shuttle bus services. The research will provide you with information that validates your topic as a problem and your solution, as well as validating your proposed implementation, methods of operation, costs, and benefits as credible.

Implementation

In known-solution proposals, you may describe when, why, and how the solution will be used for the first time. This is similar to the Methods of operation section; however, it focuses on a trial period to see if the solution is feasible as planned. Thus, you will pick a time that does not impact the normal operation of existing programs/patterns of operation/etc. In addition, describe the logics: the location, who will be involved, costs, what is expected to happen, the date and time, the duration, and so on. Explain why you chose this time for implementing the solution. Identify how you will observe and record the progress during this trial.

Team Management

If working in teams, this section addresses four main points: a) When, where , and how frequently will your group meet to discuss the ongoing progress of the project? b) When not meeting in person, what methods and technologies will the group use to communicate with one another? c) How will conflicts between group members be resolved? d) What roles will your group members serve in the group structure? (See chapter 11 for information on team roles and management)

Risk Management

This section lists possible issues that could occur during the implementation of your proposal plan, with means to overcome these issues. Information will include possible roadblocks and what you will do to overcome these setbacks. These can be technical hurdles, research-based issues, scheduling obstacles, budgetary limits, or even problems implementing your solution.

Legal Clauses

  Some proposals include legal clauses which outline any legal or contractual agreements made for the project. In the workforce, agreements are often made based on performance, meeting deadlines, and/or quality of work, which can affect payment or incur fees. Additionally, your company may have boilerplate legal clauses to accompany all written documents. These are common in many private industries and governmental departments.

  Appendices

Appendices contain any information that may be interesting to the reader, but which are not completely necessary to the proposal content. They may include full summaries and responses, a problem analysis, and any information that is meaningful to the proposal. For example, a list of potential survey or interview questions to be asked, common statistical data on the topic, or other more in-depth information that helped shaped the project. Appendices are generally usually labeled with letters (Appendix A, Appendix B, etc.) and are the last components of the document. (See chapter 11 for more detail on appendices content)

9.6 Proposal Design and Style

Your proposal should be visibly attractive, but also easy to read and follow standard format for the type of document used. The most important part of any proposal is for the reader to easily find the information they need to approve your project.

Most proposals follow a standard block format—one inch margins, single spaced text, skip one space between paragraphs, with no paragraph indentation. You also need headings and subheadings to identify and group areas of content and specific sections. The headings levels should contrast with one another, while remaining consistent throughout the document. You may also have graphics in your report, which should be designed to create a consistent style with the text. Last, even though most of your proposal is formatted in block paragraphs, you still need to consider the major elements of design—contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity (CRAP). (See chapter 5 for more information on document design)

Proposals are written in a professional, but not bureaucratic, style. Think of this as a plain (non-literary) style, but with some appeal to emotion (pathos). Make sure you use terms that are easily understood by the audience and define terms where necessary. Be as clear and concise as possible.

A professional appearance is a basic requirement. If your document is less than professional, you can count on its prompt dismissal. There should be no errors in spelling or grammar, and all information should be concise, accurate, and clearly referenced when appropriate. Information that pertains to credibility should be easy to find and relevant, including contact information. If the document exists in a hard copy form, it should be printed on a letterhead. If the document is submitted in an electronic form, it should be in a file format that presents your document as you intended. Word processing files may have their formatting changed or adjusted based on factors you cannot control—like screen size—and information can shift out of place, making it difficult to understand. In this case, PDF format may be used to preserve content location and avoid any inadvertent format changes when it is displayed.

9.7 Revision checklist for proposals

As you draft and revise your proposal, check for the following:

• Make preplanning decisions: Identify what kind of proposal you will be writing (internal/external; solicited/unsolicited; known or unknown solution) and identify the audience type, skill level, needs, and interests.
• Use the right format : Often, proposals follow a block format, but check with your instructor or the proposal submission guidelines to insure you are using the format requested. If there are samples provided, use them for visual comparison.
• Check submission guidelines: How should the proposal be submitted? What types of follow-up documents or actions are connected to your proposal if accepted? Who will these document address, and when are they required?
• Draft your proposal: Make decisions about the type of content/sections to include in your proposal to meet the submission requirement, the requirements for the type of proposal, and the most effective way to present your idea to the reader.
• Style and Design: Ensure that the sections of your proposal are in a logical, natural order and that you use sub-headers and bullets (and any other formatting styles) correctly.
• Revise, revise, revise : A less than professional, grammatically-incorrect proposal can be rejected. Ensure you have included all content necessary, and revise and edit to ensure clarity and correct style of the audience.

9.8 Proposal Example (Internal, Solicited, Unknown Solution)

Click here to download a copy of the Sample Proposal above

9.9 The Elevator Pitch

On the job, you may be asked to create smaller, more concise proposals, often limited to a single page or, when spoken, a few minutes. Busy decision-makers may not have time to read a lengthy report, and want your proposal parred down to the key points. These reports must focus on capturing the audience’s attention and delivering the information as concisely as possible. Any extraneous information is a waste of precious time. Clear and concise proposals serve the audience well and limit the range of information to prevent confusion.

One type of brief report you may need to create is the elevator pitch . An elevator pitch is a concise, oral proposal, used to persuade the audience in a short amount of time—often less than one minute. An elevator pitch might be used by a salesperson to convince a local business owner to stock her product, or by a screenwriter trying to convince a movie executive to fund his film.

The elevator pitch usually contains the following information:

• Introduce yourself and provide your qualifications. People want to work with the person, not the idea. Making a good impression is key.
• If you are pitching to a general audience, describe your ideal client. This is not necessary if you are speaking to a single person, but you can let them know why you are pitching the idea to them, specifically.
• Grab the reader’s attention. Include a good story, relevant quotes or epigrams, startling statistics, personal anecdotes, and rhetorical questions that engage the audience’s participation or imagination These grab the reader’s attention, but also, people tend to walk away from a presentation remembering a story more than straight facts. Stories also make the audience more emotionally connected to the speaker.
• Summarize and describe your idea in a single sentence. Sometimes this summary might include a memorable slogan or motto.
• Include three compelling reasons why the audience might be interested. Remember to think about your audience’s needs, wants, and values.
• Mention how your idea is special or unique. Why is your idea superior, more necessary, or needed now, as opposed to other ideas? You can also include benefits of the idea once implemented.
• End with a memorable statement about yourself. Like in Step 1, creating a personal link so the audience will want to work with you in the future. If possible, leave them with contact information, such as a business card or a handout of your pitch’s highlights.

(See chapter 12 for tips on public speaking to help you pitch your idea effectively)

Attribution

Material in this chapter was adapted from the works listed below. The material was edited for tone, content, and localization.

Technical Writing , by Allison Gross, Annamarie Hamlin, Billy Merck, Chris Rubio, Jodi Naas, Megan Savage and Michele DiSilva, licensed CC-BY-NC-SA .

ENGL 145 Technical and Report Writing ,  by the Bay College Online Learning Department , licensed CC-BY .

Chapter 9: Proposals Copyright © 2019 by Staci Bettes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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How To Write Project Specifications (Example & Guide)

• November 25, 2022

Specifications are an important part of any project. They lay out the requirements for what needs to be delivered, and they provide a roadmap for the project team. But how do you go about writing specifications?

If you don’t specify what the project is all about, there’s always a risk that things will go sideways, and scope creep will eventually find its way in. Whether you’re working on launching a website or a digital project, laying out the specifications for the project is critically important. 

In this guide, we are going to discuss all the details about writing project specifications and provide a template for a project specification document that you can use. Let’s go! 

What is a Project Specification Document?

A project specification document (PSD) is a living document that outlines the scope of a project. It includes the project’s objectives , deliverables , timeline , and budget . The project specification document is created during the planning phase of a project and is reviewed and updated throughout the project’s lifecycle.

A well-written project specification document is essential to the success of a project. It ensures that all stakeholders have a clear understanding of the project’s objectives and deliverables. 

It also allows for better management of the project’s timeline and budget . Without a clear and concise project specification document, it is difficult to track progress and ensure that the project stays on track.

How to Write Project Specifications

The PSD acts as a blueprint for the project, providing information on what the objectives of the project are, what needs to be delivered, who will be involved, and how much budget has been allocated.

Here are a few tips for how to create a solid project specification document.

Define the scope of the project 

The first step in creating a PSD is to define the scope of the project. This means outlining what the project aims to achieve and what deliverables are expected. It is important to be as specific as possible at this stage so that there is no confusion later on down the line.

Once the scope has been finalized, it should be approved by all stakeholders before work on the project begins.

Identify the stakeholders 

Who will be using the end product? Who will be affected by the project? These are the stakeholders. It’s important to identify them early on so that you can tailor the specifications to their needs.

Gather input from all stakeholders

Once you’ve identified the stakeholders, it’s time to gather input from them. This can be done through interviews, surveys, or focus groups. 

The goal is to get a clear understanding of their needs and expectations for the project. 

Create a timeline for the project 

After the scope has been approved, it’s time to start creating a timeline for the project. This will involve mapping out all of the tasks that need to be completed and assigning them deadlines. 

It is important to be realistic when creating the timeline so that there is no pressure on team members to meet unrealistic goals. Once the timeline has been created, it should be reviewed and approved by all stakeholders.

Assign roles and responsibilities

Now that you have a clear picture of what needs to be done and when it needs to be done by, it’s time to start assigning roles and responsibilities. 

This includes deciding who will be responsible for each task and making sure that everyone understands their role in the project. 

It is important to ensure that there is enough overlap between team members so that no one feels like they are being overloaded with work. 

Once roles and responsibilities have been assigned, they should be reviewed and approved by all stakeholders.

Define a communication plan

Communication is key to any successful project, so it’s important to set up a communication plan at this stage. 

This involves deciding how team members will communicate with each other, and with stakeholders, during the course of the project. 

It is important to make sure that everyone understands how they can raise any concerns they may have about the project. 

Once the communication plan has been put in place, it should be reviewed and approved by all stakeholders.

Draft a preliminary version of the specifications

Now it’s time to start drafting your specifications. Begin by creating a skeleton outline of what needs to be included. Don’t worry about getting everything perfect at this stage; just get your thoughts down on paper (or in a digital document). 

Add a deliverables section 

The deliverables section lists all of the end products that will be delivered as part of this project. These could be anything from reports and presentations to software applications or websites. 

For each deliverable, include a brief description, as well as information about who will be responsible for creating it and when it will be due. This helps to ensure that everyone knows what needs to be done – and the deadline. 

Define the project budget

The budget section outlines all of the costs associated with completing the project. This might include things like labor costs, materials costs, or marketing expenses. 

Be sure to include both fixed costs (those that won’t change regardless of how long it takes to complete the project) and variable costs (i.e., those that will fluctuate based on how long it takes to complete the work). 

Doing so will give you a more accurate picture of how much money needs to be allotted for this particular undertaking. 

Get feedback on the draft specification from all stakeholders

Show your draft specification to all stakeholders and solicit their feedback. What do they like? What don’t they like? What’s missing? Use this feedback to improve your specification before finalizing it.

Finalize the specifications after getting approvals

Once you’ve incorporated all of the feedback, you’re ready to finalize your specification document! 

Make sure to get approval from all stakeholders before moving forward with the project; this will help ensure that everyone is on the same page and avoid surprises down the road. 

Make sure all stakeholders understand the specifications

The final step is to make sure that everyone involved in executing the project understands and agrees to follow the specification document. 

This includes not only those within your organization but also any external partners or contractors working on the project. 

Revise and review regularly

One of the most important things to remember about a PSD is that it is not set in stone – it should be reviewed and revised regularly as needed throughout the course of the project.

Things will inevitably change as a project progresses, so it’s important to make sure that your PSD evolves along with it.

By regularly reviewing and revising your PSD, you can help ensure that your project stays on track and meets its objectives successfully.

Project Specifications Document Template

Here’s a free template for project specifications that you can use:

Project Title: [add title here]

Project Date: [add project starting date here]

Project Manager (s): [add project manager(s) here]

Key members: [add names of key people here]

Project Scope:

• Add the scope of the project.
• You can also add the quality assurance (QA) plan here, as it falls within the scope of the project. 

Initial Stage 

• Add a summary of the entire project 
• Define any key steps required to kick off the project 

Key Personas

• Who is your end user? Define your key personas for the project. 

Deliverables

• Outline the key deliverables, including responsible individuals for each.
• Define the deadlines for each milestone/deliverable. 
• You can prepare a log of all risks or issues faced by stakeholders throughout the project. 
• You can add the total budget for the project and then add the expenditure, including net burn, as the project progresses. 

Communication Plan

• Identify key individuals, add their contact details, including their responsibilities. 

Key Takeaways (Optional)

• If you prefer, you can also use this section to outline any important lessons learned throughout the project. 

A Project Specifications Document Improves Project Performance

A well-written specification document is essential for any successful project. By taking the time to outline the purpose, goals, deliverables, and requirements for your project, you can ensure that everyone involved knows exactly what needs to be done in order for the project to be successful. 

One of the key aspects of successful project management is communication . If you have a solid communication strategy within your teams, between teams, and with clients, then everything else becomes much easier to handle.

With Atarim , your teams and clients can communicate visually and easily , with comments attached directly to web pages that need work and those comments automatically generating tasks .

Try Atarim today and discover how easy communication and collaboration can be.

If you’re interested in learning more about writing project specifications and management, this paper on Initiating a Project is an excellent read.

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