Writing a Research Proposal: Guideline for prospective students at University of New England, Australia
Introduction
Formal research proposals are very important aspect of professional life, both within and beyond academia. They are the central means through which one obtains approval to do a research study at a University, to obtain grants or external funding, and to obtain support and approval from various stakeholders with an interest in research being conducted. Despite this, there are very few simple guides to the fundamentals of writing proposals, particularly in the heritage sector. Hence, this guide is designed to aid students in archaeology, cultural heritage and the humanities more generally, who need to prepare a research proposal. These kinds of documents are first encountered by students during their degrees, often in advance of starting a dissertation-scale project, such as an Honours, Masters or PhD project. They are also important for small-scale research projects completed as a component of a coursework Masters and commonly ranging fro 6000-18000 words in length.
The context of research
Good research takes time, and lots of it, and should be carefully designed and thought through before it is attempted. This ensures a clear focus in your work, as well as as a solid rationale for doing so; why do a research study if others have already done something similar? There can be good reasons for repeating a study, but as most research requires resources, including time of people including you, your supervisors, and other stakeholders, as well as funding or other material needs, it is important you consider the need for research before commencing. Research can also pose risks, most notably, risk of causing harm to human participants in your research.
Research is not solely an academic pursuit. Heritage professionals, community development professionals, planners and many others will write ‘research proposals’ whenever they apply for a grant for funding or other resources to support a new project. Because cash and resources are generally finite and hard to obtain, formal proposals help decision makers to choose which projects can be supported. Hence, if you can write a strong research proposal you will be better able to attract funding to support your work.
The University sector is usually where you learn to write a research proposal. Indeed, academic departments are where a majority of scholarly research proposals are written because of the flow of graduates into higher studies—such as an Honours and Doctoral programs. When academic departments are considering accepting a new student researcher at this higher level, they are usually doing so in a context where there are limited resources (e.g. few staff to supervise, lack of available space, scarce internal funding). Not all project ideas can or will be supported. As such, here again the proposal serves to help others to consider your case for access to those limited resources. Prospective students are required to demonstrate they have a clear idea of what they will research and how they will do it before they are accepted into a program.
Thus, learning about writing research proposals is quite important for attaining higher-level university qualifications, as well as more broadly in professional life to obtain even meagre resources to undertake discrete projects. Indeed, it is the case that your capacity to write a high quality research proposal will very much determine whether you can go on to obtain higher level qualifications through so called ‘Higher Degree Research’ degrees (i.e. Honours and Doctoral programs). You might even say that without a good proposal, your project will be doomed before it can even start.
Topic selection
Deciding what research topic you should focus on can sometimes be difficult. Some students have a very clear idea about what they would like to do, while others may only have a general feeling. It is best to meet with a potential supervisor only after you have made some initial decisions about your research topic, namely:
What sub-discipline would you like to work in, and where do you see most opportunities?
Is there a particular area of research within that sub-discipline that interests you? Do not set out to research a topic that does not ‘do it’ for you!
Are there theoretical approaches that you would like to explore further? This is especially important in larger-scale projects where extensive engagement with current or historical theoretical debates is mandatory.
Are there methods that you want to use? You may wish to learn all about spatial analysis of historical datasets, or some specialised methodology or analytical approach. Your proposal should absolutely be shaped to reflect and extend on your personal interests and goals.
There are of course many other considerations in choosing a topic. A key issue to keep in mind at this point is that all academic staff have long-standing areas of research interest, and these are clearly outlined on staff research pages. Look at the publications we author and the list of our current research projects. Can you see a staff member who you would like to work with and learn from? Are there staff working on questions and issues that interest you? In most academic proposals, this is vitally important to finding a supervisor and having your proposal accepted.
Components of a viable topic
A core element of any research proposal is choosing a ‘viable topic’. This is one of more difficult tasks faced for novice researchers, particularly those coming into a Masters or Honours program, and where assistance will usually be required. What is ‘viable’ depends on the type of project you are proposing and generally speaking you should take note of the following points
Time and scope.
You need to be able to complete the research and write the thesis within the study period. There is no sense proposing to conduct a large program of research that will not be able to completed within the timeframe available to you. For smaller scale projects, a trimester or semester long study might be all the time you have. For an Honours/Masters Courwork project, 8-10 months is more commonly available, while Masters of Philosophy and Doctorate scale projects extend over 2-4 years.
Human research ethics approvals.
There should be no insurmountable ethical reasons that the research should not go ahead. Ask yourself, will you be able to obtain permission to work on a collection, visit a study area, or to use the methods described? Is the topic of your research going to immediately raise concerns about ethics? Obtaining research ethics approval is certainly a surmountable task, and indeed, adds much value to the research conducted. In all cases, research proposals should explicitly address the question of whether an ethics approval will be required to conduct the research. If not, explain why. If you feel ethics is warranted, be sure to explain how and why. Most studies that involve ethics include one of more of these components:
undertaking interviews or questionnaires;
using personal information, especially of people within living memory;
doing invasive, destructive or damaging cultural heritage sites, objects or materials;
studies that are upsetting, traumatic, or otherwise potentially cause emotional or physical harm to participants;
using unpublished or otherwise not publicly available Indigenous heritage information (site records, oral histories, material culture collections);
using cultural information that is restricted to a particular gender, cultural grouping, language group, cultural seniority, or community;
This is not exclusive and there are many other examples of projects that will warrant an ethics approval. Such projects will almost always warrant both community approvals at least a low-risk ethics approval process.
Resources
A good proposal will identify the resources needed to complete the research, and have good prospect of obtaining those. This might include access to appropriate primary sources or samples, having access to the right equipment, and of course, in some cases, having access to stipend or other funding to support you while you undertake the research. If you need money to pay costs of volunteers or community participants, you need to say so and explain how you will cover that. You should always address resources and funding requirements very clearly in your proposal, and make it clear what resources are needed and how you will get them. Most proposals benefit by including a table summarising the financial and non-financial resources required.
Supervision
Your project will need to be supervised if undertaken at a University. Your proposal will be rejected if staff members feel that they are unable to adequately supervise it. Few, if any, academic departments in history or archaeology in Australia have sufficient staff to cover all sub-fields and specialisations available. A common example I have seen many times in academic departments is when, for example, a group of Australianists receive a very nicely written proposal to research something on Celtic funerary practices in south western Ireland. If we don’t have the expertise, we will not be able to supervise it.
Student keen on putting forward a proposal should in the first instance be sure that their project is within sub-field or research area that available staff can supervise. If you’re not sure, ask, but in the first instance take a detailed look at relevant staff pages.
Understand what is expected
It is important that you take some time to read a thesis in your study area and at the scale you are expected to write well before you write a proposal. This will help you to understand the scale or scope of research required at different levels, and in turn help you with revising and refining your own proposal. This is also important if you are not sure just want these kinds of projects involve—for example, do not apply for a PhD position unless you really do want to spend 3+ years of your life studying. If you have questions about the requirements of these degrees, talk to key staff or a Higher Degree by Research (HDR) Coordinator; however, talking to students who are currently working on a thesis is certainly worthwhile. Current students provide the best window in on life as a research student at your preferred institution.
What is a research proposal?
The purpose of a research proposal is just as it sounds—to guide research. In it, the purposes of the research are formally enunciated and the course it will take is laid out. Writing a proposal clarifies thought by determining specifically what questions will be addressed and how they will best be answered. It therefore facilitates the creation of data by determining exactly what will be considered data for the purposes of answering the questions posed, and how it will be analysed. The research design should also highlight a central problem that the question relates to. Essentially, the research design or thesis proposal makes explicit the assumptions and informal plans of the researcher.
For these reasons the proposal must be written early in the research process. Its role as a plan or guide becomes irrelevant if it is written after the research is completed. It is an initial phase in the work and there are certain things that it cannot and is not expected to do. Firstly, it is not ‘written in stone’ and no-one expects that the final research project will exactly reflect the plans laid out in a proposal. It is a plan of what you intend to do without actually doing it. To do otherwise would be both impossible and undesirable given the unexpected circumstances that inevitably arise during research and given the importance of remaining open to new or contradictory findings. This being said, it is expected that the proposal will continue to hold some relevance to the project and the research will not digress too far from the original plan.
Secondly, it is not expected that the proposal will hold ‘answers’ to the questions posed. If it does, the project itself would be pointless. If ‘answers’ are known before the research is done, then the questions are probably too simplistic and more challenging ones need to be asked. All research should aim to generate new knowledge about a particular issue or problem. Often, your research problem will have multiple dimensions. For instance, you might be addressing a local or regional gap in terms of knowledge but, through your case study, you are developing an internationally relevant theoretical framework in interesting and important new ways. So, in this case, your project would be of local and international significance. You need to do your best to spell this out to the reader. Who cares about your study? Why?
In order to pose reasonable questions and probable outcomes, it is necessary to have some idea of what you want to research and why. For this reason the thesis proposal is going to be the very first stage of the project. Before writing the formal proposal it is necessary to decide why the project is to be done and what areas are of interest. It is also necessary to do quite a lot of reading in the general area of interest. If the topic has already been investigated, as is often the case, this will involve initial research into the history and background, and any previous work done. This will help you to more accurately outline an actual problem
To learn more about defining research problems, and the differences and similarities between practical or applied problems on the one hand, and scholarly or academic problems on the other, see G. C. Booth Colomb (2019). These authors provide an excellent overview and you should read at least the first four chapters—if not the entire book!
Why is a proposal necessary?
A research proposal is one of the most important parts of your research journey and should be taken seriously. In academic settings, ultimately, your proposal needs to convince at one or more people of the merits of your proposed study. This ranges from winning the support of one supervisor who you will, ideally, work with closely for the duration of your study. It also is the case that proposals are reviewed by a whole panel of experienced academics, for instance, when you are applying for a scholarship or funding. In all cases, the proposal needs to make clear that you have the required knowledge, skills and experience to do the proposed work. It can also be an opportunity for you to obtain robust feedback on the proposal, hopefully with an invitation to resubmit if work is needed to improve on it. In doing this, reviewers will generally aim to be supportive and helpful, and will outline ways to improve the quality of your proposal rather than merely criticising or rejecting it.
Importantly, some proposals are rejected, and here are some common reasons for that. These include proposals that:
are written by a chatbot ‘AI’ and are not your work;
are on a topic that does not align with expertise of the supervisor, research group, or department you are applying to;
are infeasible because of ethical, financial, technical, safety or other concerns you have not addressed;
are ‘thin’, and lack sufficient detail in areas that matter, and finally;
lack references, or do not illustrate even basic knowledge of the literature.
If the proposal has merit but needs work, these things will be pointed out to you. If the proposal is very poor quality, you might not even hear a response. Academics are busy, and have plenty of great projects of our own to work on—so you need to convince us you have done the work and have a great project idea!
There are benefits of going through the process of writing a proposal, and submitting your work to a wider audience:
The prospect of having to perform in front of a critical audience does seem to galvanise most people into action. Hypotheses and research questions become sharper, the methods are explored in greater depth, and the validity and reliability of the study is considered.
Many readers have probably had some experience of what you are proposing, and will often come up with suggestions that will improve your proposal. Equally, the criticisms and comments that they make can be noted and addressed in the research itself. It can be a valuable exercise to use the proposal process to vent a problem or issue that you are grappling with, and obtain the thoughts of your audience.
The proposal helps you identify problems early in the research process and establish whether your project is feasible, as noted.
The proposal document can be used as a basis for a final thesis or write-up. Some academics claim that a good proposal can form Chapter One of a final thesis draft. While this may not always be the case, a robust proposal is certainly an early down payment on getting those all-important background and methods chapters written. It also helps you to think through what your thesis will look like.
The proposal gives the impetus to create timelines, milestones and contingencies, which will help to keep you on track. Use these as a basis for managing your time, your energy, your wellbeing, and your inexorable progress towards your deadline.
How long should a proposal document be?
Very simply put: as long as the relevant guidelines require!
The length of the proposal varies depending on the degree. PhD candidates submit two different proposals: the first for admission, the second for confirmation of candidature (at the first year review point).
Word counts listed below exclude references and any tables, figures or appendices, and are intended to provide a general guide only:
Honours and Coursework Masters applicants: 500-2000 words ;
Masters by Research: 1500-3000 words;
PhD application for admission: 2000-4000 words;
A word of advice: Do not start off on the wrong foot with the academic panel by submitting a document that is too long or too short (i.e. > ±10%). The word limits are there for a reason—to help evaluate your writing ability. If you go over or are too brief, your application will run the risk of being ruled out entirely for this reason.
Importantly, these figures are general guidance—those submitting research proposals for a small reading unit can aim for the lower end of the word limit.
What should be included?
A key question to remember when planning your proposal is: why you are doing the research in the first place? A major requirement of any research is that the proposed study makes an original contribution to knowledge. It might be a small contribution, but a contribution it must make!
During the examination process, once a thesis is written, students must demonstrate that they have carried out significant, critical research and have produced an original body of work or critically synthesised existing knowledge into a new and meaningful way so as to become a useful contribution to existing scholarship. It is difficult to do that if your topic is well researched and published already. What is different about your study?
Thus, the most important thing is that your proposal should explain a broad problem or gap in existing scholarship and then outline what you will do to address it: what will your contribution be?
Organisation is critical, especially in the beginning of your research. How you organise your research will determine how your reader interprets your ideas. As an indicative format, your thesis should include:
1. Cover page.
This should include a title, your name and the names of your nominated supervisors where these have been identified. List any prior qualifications (degrees).
The project title is usually a difficult thing, and there is no requirement to make it anything other than a clear statement of what the project is about. What your final thesis title will be is another matter, something you will worry about in future, so at this stage ensure your title communicates clearly what the project will be about. Avoid alienating the reader with jargon or other words not commonly used in your field. It will just annoy someone!
2. Introduction.
This is a broad synopsis of the proposal. Read G. C. Booth Colomb (2019) on how to develop a thesis statement, and write one. Use that to start the propsoal as this is exactly the kind of clear, snappy, all-encompassing formal statement summarising the research project. This should include giving the reader a sense of your specific question, your wider problem, and the significance of this study at this time. It is also good to note what the project involves, its timeline, study area and any other major issues that emerge in your proposal.
An introduction in the order of 100-300 words long is recommended.
3. Research design
This is undoubtedly the more difficult aspect of a research proposal, and outlined here in detail. Start the research design with a clear statement of your problem and topic, but try to paraphrase this differently to the introduction to the proposal.
Start the proposal by outlining a central problem. This will be based on a literature review and so it is the case that the first major part of the proposal you write should be the literature review. That should be usually the largest part of a research proposal. Take your time, read widely, and present a solid, well referenced account of previous research and, in that, identify what the problem is. There are many great guides to writing a literature review (see [4. Literature Review]).
Once you have completed the literature review, you should be able to concisely write a paragraph that outlines the research problem. When you have done that, you are ready to write a research design.
3a. Research question/s.
Identify a central question or several questions that your thesis will investigate. This should be phrased as a question, not as a statement. Do not list out a series of loosely-related questions or ‘quasi-questions’ that often resemble unformed ideas. Rather than impressing the reader with your many ideas, this is more likely to send the message that the research question at the heart of the project is unfocused and unclear, and needs refinement. While Doctoral and Masters by Research proposals might often include 2-3 carefully articulated questions, projects with a smaller scope will usually require only one question.
One approach to doing this is to create a ‘question bank’ (a list of possible questions in your notes) as you make your way through your long reading list. This is a really important step in developing a question, but requires a further step of ‘winnowing’ and revising your potential list of questions to something more focused and specific. Mind-maps are a great way to do this, particularly for those of us who like to think visually. Do it with a computer or a large sheet of paper, the outcome will hopefully be the same: a clear, focused question.
The research question should clearly outline how you will address the problem. It will not be the only way, or even the best way to address the problem, but that link should be made clear.
3b. Research aims.
The best way to think about research aims is that they are your ‘to do’ list for your project. That is, they should ideally spell out what research you need ‘to do’ to answer the question. What do you need to achieve to enable you, in your final discussion, to consider and make a case addressing your central question?
Importantly, these are not statements about your methods, but are more about what you need to achieve through the research to answer your question. For example, a historical research question about social life and experiences of new Irish immigrants on a 19th century goldfield may well have objectives such as:
Characterise the pattern, pace and context for establishment of new goldfields in the study area at the time, both in relation to local and global forces and processes;
Explore and thematically analyse historical scholarship on the Irish diaspora in Australia;
Document popular attitudes to Irish and other immigrants on north Queensland goldfields, from the mid-1800s onwards;
Identify and complete life-histories of prominent Irish people and families working across goldfields in the study area at the time, and;
Characterise the extent and nature of interaction between Irish people through analysis of letter books and other primary sources.
Now these are not necessarily good or even feasible ‘aims’; just examples to help you think. But, looking at them, can you see how each will help to generate a particular body of work? For aim 1, the researcher might review literature on gold mining in the late colonial period (>1850s). Aims 2 and 3 would require more focused research into secondary sources for the study area. (‘north Queensland’). Achieving the final two aims would warrant more intensive work on primary sources. An archaeological or cultural heritage study might include more detail on collecting spatial data on Irish settlements, or analysing symbolic motifs on headstones of those born in Ireland in a local cemetery.
3c. Methodology
These should clearly explain what methods you will adopt to address your aims and answer your research question/s. These need to be detailed rather than brief or generic statements. Spell out the specifics of what you plan to do.
Methodology should ultimately aim to outline aspects of:
Your research strategy. Will you be using qualitative or quantitative data? How do you proposed to use these data, what is your broader approach to integrating various lines of evidence together to help address your question?
Theoretical frameworks? Is there a particular theory you wish to explore through your work? What assumptions are you working though in undertaking this study? Theory can also take a more central role, for instance, in the definition of the problem or the framing of the study from the outset.
What particular methods will you use? This covers both the steps in creating (or collecting) data, as well as how you will embark on your analysis.
Where is the case study or context for your work?
What are the possible limitations and constraints, as well as any other issues that might impact on the feasibility of the project? Don’t complain that you need lots of money, but do highlight things that might get in the way; e.g. archive access, finding appropriate primary sources; having access to collections; and so on. If you are using data created by others, it is a fact that you can not control the way others have created their data—so your project will potentially be constrained by that.
Historians will often be less concerned with methods and techniques than with framing how they will approach the analysis at a more conceptual level (e.g. ‘Here I use Foucault’s theory of ’governmentality’ to explore XYZ’, and going on to explain this in detail). Archaeological methodologies tend to be oriented toward this as well as a range of discrete methods (radiocarbon dating, PXRF analysis, geochemistry, fauna analysis, spatial analysis, etc). Of course, both disciplines involve work that is different to these stereotypical approaches, and for example, historians will make considerable use of a range of quite specific methods. One common example increasingly is their use of sophisticated computational methods to analyse massive text corpora. Similarly, many archaeologists love to delve into a large collection of primary sources for fragments of information to help unpack the story of a particular place, building or community in the past. It is for these reasons the differences between history and archaeology are more imagined than real, and students certainly stand to benefit from learning about methodology across different disciplines. Do not restrict your thinking to a perceived disciplinary silo!
Before attempting to write up your methods, be sure to look for examples in your particular field of study. A recent completed thesis is a great place to read about methodology! Often, lots of detail about methodology is stripped out of publications and so these are not always as useful as a thesis for learning about methods. The best place to start is the UNE library’s RUNE (Research @ UNE) repository. Trove has a capacity to search theses also (select ‘Research Reports’ and ‘thesis’ from the search options).
3d. Project rationale.
A discussion of the key reasons that this project is significant in relation to the literature. E.g. are you applying a new theoretical framework or research method to a long-standing problem? Will you generate new data that provides a completely new perspective on the research problem? What is the significance of your study? Why do we need to do this research now, or even at all? The other dimention of this is relevance to a stakeholder, for instance, a project might be requested by a community organisation to address a need or problem. This is important, so tell us!
3e. Collaboration, community and stakeholder engagement and human research ethics.
There is very little research that happens entirely in isolation, separated from the need to collaborate, consult or consider human research ethics. Indeed, all researchers have a responsibility to address ethical matters pertaining to their research well in advance of undertaking that research. It is for this reason you should include a heading on collaboration, consultation and ethics in your proposal—so that you can, even briefly, reassure the reader that you are on top of these issues.
Collaboration requires a statement about the wider context of the research. Many students increasingly take on research projects as part of larger, longer-term studies, so in these situations you would outline that wider context and support network you are enmeshed with. Collaboration might also be with community members or organisations supporting your work, or indeed the actual participants you wish to work with. This does not need to be a detailed section, but be sure to explain what the wider context is for your study. If there are funding arrangements in place set up by others before your involvement in the study, not them here. This is important.
Similarly, community and stakeholder engagement reflects the fact that often we need to discuss our work with others at various points, or to seek formal approvals. This should definitely be canvassed at the start of any project. Who might you need to talk to? Why? Are there approvals required? Do you need to report on your work, or provide a copy of outcomes of your research once completed (e.g. a poster, publication or report). Tell the reviewers. This might be a property owner, local Aboriginal land council, local council or manager of the archive you intend to work in.
If you need to apply for ethics permission through the university you need to do this early, but not before you are enrolled. You can read more about Human Research Ethics at UNE on the relevant webpage. A project that involves exploration of an aspect of Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property will almost always require ethics approval. See also the AIATSIS guidelines (AIATSIS, 2020).
4. Literature Review
This comprises a literature review that identifies a broad research problem (or series of research problems) that you will set out to address. The focus is largely to explain the literature and to identify problems, gaps, key findings and insights, theories, debates and so on. This should represent at least 30-50% of your proposal, in terms of word count and effort. There are many guides to writing a thesis, and these all generally include commentary on how to write a literature review [e.g. see (Barzun, 2004; Bill Mcdowell, 2013; Bolker, 1998; A. Booth et al., 2012; G. C. Booth Colomb, 2019; Burke et al., 2017; Connah, 2010; Eco, 2015; Fagan, 2006; Hayot, 2014; Murray, 2017).
5. Timeline and resources
Provide a summary of the major milestones in your research and an indication of what resources are required for each stage. Noting any resource issues is particularly important for thesis projects involving fieldwork, travel or specialised analytical procedures. If you are happy to ‘self-fund’ some expenses, then certainly say so. If you are applying for a PhD position, you are likely to be able to access funding to support your work—so find out about that and ensure your budget is within scope. If not, identify what grants you will apply for an when. List that out to show you have thought this though!
6. References
Follow your discipline here, and for proposals at UNE, use either History Footnoting or APA7. Despite being a common question asked by students, there is no ‘fixed number’ of references to cite, but certainly you should have 1-2 pages in most cases, and possibly more.
Do use a reference manager to help manage your sources. I strongly recommend https://zotero.org over Endnote or other paid-for tools, since it is a resource you will develop and use as long as you need into the future.
Do I need to find a supervisor?
Yes, but ensure you have done some homework first.
The role of an academic supervisor is broadly to support and guide the development of your thesis. Because a thesis begins with your proposal, it follows that you should begin to think about an appropriate supervisor very early in the development of a proposal. This is to ensure that you develop a proposal that falls within an area of expertise of at least one staff member. If your proposal does not fit this broad prerequisite, then it is possible that your proposal will be rejected outright—or at least be asked to complete a major rewrite and to identify a new topic. The second reason to find a potential supervisor early is because they will, hopefully, be able to read your proposal draft and provide feedback to help improve it, but only if you give them enough time to comment. If you find yourself with a supervisor who is friendly, responsive and supportive as well as being a leader in their field, and who reads thing and provides useful comments, then you are off to a good start!
A good proposal should be developed with a specific supervisor in mind. So, if you have an idea for a project, take some time to review the websites of Academic Staff to identify individuals with broad expertise in your research area. Once you find a potential supervisor, take the time to read relevant publications they have authored while you are conducting your literature review. Look into the kinds of topics they teach and the research projects they are involved in. In some cases, staff members have very specific projects in mind for future students or will be only open to supervising projects within a very specific research area. Whatever the case, it is advisable to make contact with a potential supervisor very early in the development of your proposal, ideally two months before your proposal is due. This provides ample opportunity to develop a proposal that is tightly integrated with current research being conducted, and more importantly, that is of interest and relevance to your supervisor. This will help to ensure that the proposal you develop is a good match for the supervisor/s and will result in a stronger project and high quality outcomes. Again, this speaks to feasibility.
If you are unsure what a supervisor does then take time to read the University’s guidelines on the roles of supervisors.
General Tips
These are offered for those of you who might be thinking about doing an Honours, Masters or PhD project at some point in the near- to medium-term.
Are you ready? Think very seriously about whether you can commit to a research thesis before you apply. An Honours or Coursework Masters thesis will take you at least six to eight months of sustained full-time research, if not longer. A PhD thesis will take you at least three years full time, and most students take closer to four years full time. Can you focus on a research project for this length of time? Are you up to the task of writing a thesis? It is a big decision, and good to discuss with family, friends or academic mentors.
Take note of word limits. They are there for a reason: to show that you can present a clear account of your proposed research in a concise way. Do not give the person/people reviewing your proposal a reason to doubt you;
Write a strong literature review. Make sure your ‘research problem’ is backed up with a first class literature review and careful in text referencing/footnotes. That is, try and impress the reader by showing evidence that you have worked hard to identify a problem that is of wide significance and that you have a scholarly approach to research. While your opinion and arguments do matter, we also need to see that you are aware of what other researchers have said about the topic at hand. It is usually the case that a weak proposal is weak because the author has limited knowledge of the extant literature, and fills the proposal with unsupported claims about a major problem that they haven’t bothered to properly research. That is, they have not read enough, or widely enough, to be able to say anything meaningful about their research problem, question or its significance.
Do not submit ‘surprise’ proposals. If you are submitting a research proposal for a formal position in, say, an Honours or PhD program, then be sure that you have discussed your thesis ideas with a potential supervisor, as noted earlier, at least a couple of months in advance. If you are unsure who to approach, find out. When you do approach a potential supervisor, provide a half page summary of your central topic and approach, so that they can (hopefully) give you some broad advice before you do the work required for a fully formed proposal. This will help to ensure that your proposal is more likely to be accepted by the potential supervisor, and that it is a feasible proposal in line with the research expertise of the Department you hope to enter!
Finally, do not rely on AI. Do your literature review the hard way (search Google Scholar, OpenAlex.org, your library databases, and so on, thoroughly); read the papers and book chapters, summarise the key points yourself. Don’t ever rely on AI generated slop. AI doesn’t have a brain like you do, and the point of study is to learn, to improve your understanding and knowledge. If you proposal is based on AI slop, your professionalism will be immediately questioned since an astute supervisor will likely see through it in a second and ignore your proposal as a result. Show us you are a human with a human brain who wants to learn and who can think.
Good luck!
Mick Morrison
(c) 2025
Acknowledgements
This has been developed based on teaching research design and proposal writing in two Australian universities, UNE and Flinders. It includes and indeed has significantly benefited from ideas, experience and time in the trenches teaching with colleagues including Professor Heather Burke, Professor Claire Smith, Professor Lynley Wallis and Professor Wendy van Duivenvorde. The document is authored by Mick Morrison and has been developed since 2017.