There’s a lot of pressure regarding being a PhD student. And while it may seem like getting your PhD proposal done on time is one way you can fail, it doesn’t have to be. If you can nail down exactly what question you want to answer, how you’ll do it and why it’s important, writing your proposal in 2 days won’t be nearly as complicated as you think!
Identify a general research topic.
To find a topic, start by identifying the problem you want to solve. Think about what you are passionate about, and make sure it is relevant and exciting to others. You should also consider whether your research question is manageable. Do not choose a topic that has already been done or one that will require too much time or funding.
Finally, check if your research question is new and original so that you can stand out when applying for PhD programs or publishing papers later on in your career!
Determine the specific focus of your topic.
Your topic should be a specific subject area, but it will also help to narrow in on a specific aspect of that subject. For example, “the effect on human health of exposure to air pollution” is too broad. A better way to look at this would be “the effect on human health of exposure to air pollution from automobile exhaust during rush hour traffic in the city centre”.
This is where you will want your research question drawn up! Be sure that you have clearly defined the problem or issue you intend on addressing throughout this process by asking yourself questions such as: What are the leading causes? Why do they matter? How do they affect people’s lives? What are some possible solutions? If this was something I could fix, what would I do differently?
Do the required background reading to determine what the most critical related research questions are.
Start by reading the required background to determine the most critical related research questions. This will help you formulate a hypothesis and narrow down your topic area. Then, find out how relevant other researchers have been in this area and what they have done with it. If any work has already been conducted on your topic, evaluate it to see if any limitations or gaps in knowledge need to be filled. Look at what other researchers are currently working on and projects planned for the future; these might inform your future directions!
On a side note, if you are a PhD student who needs PHD proposal help, there are so many writing services available on the internet that can help you with this task in 2 days.
Conduct a literature review to determine the methods used to answer similar questions.
Before you begin your research, it’s important to establish what methods have been used to answer similar questions. To do this, conduct a literature review using a search engine like Google Scholar or Scopus. You can also use your university’s library or other resources (e.g., academic databases) to find relevant studies and articles.
Once you’ve found some relevant articles, make sure you understand them thoroughly before starting any research of your own! It is easy for researchers without much experience reading academic papers to misunderstand what they read because they don’t know what keywords mean or where certain concepts are discussed in an article.
Develop a hypothesis based on your findings from doing this research.
You can develop a hypothesis based on your findings from doing this research. A reasonable hypothesis should be testable, specific, measurable, and have a yes or no answer. For example:
- I hypothesise that the number of books in the library will decrease when students start to use e-books for their research.
- I hypothesise that the money I spend on food will increase if I go shopping alone rather than with others (I know this because I did it once).
Write the proposed methodology and why you think it will give you an answer.
The method section is where you will describe the specific steps you will take to answer your research question. The first part of this section should explain why you think your chosen methodology will answer; why it is essential and significant. If it isn’t, there may be something wrong with your research question or hypothesis.
For example: “I intend to conduct my study using a quantitative approach, which will allow me to test my hypothesis (that students who have tutors perform better than those without tutors) against data gathered from previous studies on student tutoring and test scores.”
Provide specifics about how you intend to analyse your results/findings.
You should also be specific about how you intend to analyse your results. For example, what is it, and why was it chosen if you are using a statistical test? If you are collecting data on a large population, how will you ensure that the sample size is large enough?
If possible, include an example of how one of these methods could be used in practice to illustrate its usefulness. For example: “The chi-square test compares two frequencies (for example, gender) to see if they differ significantly from each other (this would be true if p < 0.05).
The interpretation of this statistic depends on whether we have calculated one or two degrees of freedom for the Chi-square table, which is based on the number of rows and columns in our table (e.g., 1 degree = 2*(n-1)).
Get as much feedback as possible in advance of submitting your proposal.
Get as much feedback as possible in advance of submitting your proposal. This will allow you to incorporate their suggestions and ensure that your committee members are on the same page before they start reading. This will also give you time to think through all your ideas, identify possible weaknesses and develop strategies to overcome them.
You don’t want to be in a situation where your committee is reading through something they didn’t expect or agree with, so make sure everyone has had a chance to see it beforehand.
Conclusion
If you can nail down exactly what question you want to answer, how you’ll do it and why it’s important, writing your proposal won’t be nearly as complicated as you think. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the steps involved in putting together a good proposal; however, breaking it down into smaller pieces, focusing on one at a time or getting PhD proposal help will make your job easier without sacrificing quality.
Author Bio
Carmen Troy is a research-based content writer, who works for Cognizantt, a globally recognized professional SEO service and Research Prospect; an 论文和论文写作服务 Mr Carmen holds a PhD degree in mass communication. He loves to express his views on various issues, including education, technology, and more.
