1. Prof.Fatimah R.Hasan Bajalani
Proposal Writing
Prof.Fatimah R.Hasan Bajalani
Methods of Research for MA students at Salahaddin University-Erbil
2017

2. Why this presentation?
Familiarize students of the steps of writing a proposal for their MA thesis,
Enable them to choose a suitable topic,
Show them how to write the problem, research questions, aims, hypotheses, literature review, procedures, scope and definitions of basic terms,
Show them how to write results, conclusions, suggestions and recommendations for the thesis.

3. Introduction
Proposal : a research contract that spells out the details of your research plan.
The thesis proposal helps you focus your
research aims, clarify its importance and the
need, describe the methods, predict problems and outcomes, and plan alternatives and interventions.

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5. Before writing a proposal
What do you want to do, how much will it cost, and how much time will it take?
How does the proposed project relate to the sponsor's interests?
What difference will the project make to: your students, your field, your patients, the state, the nation, the world, or whatever the appropriate categories are?
What has already been done in the area of your project?
How do you plan to do it?
How will the results be evaluated or analyzed?
Why should you, rather than someone else, do this project?

6. Components of a Proposal
Choosing a topic
Introduction
Problem Statement/Background
Aims and Hypotheses
Significance
Methodology
Literature review

7. Components of a Proposal
Definition of basic terms
Scope and limitations
Procedure

8. Routine Information
This can be a full cover page or a quarter page header.
• Name
• Address, telephone and details
• Degree for which you are a candidate
• Supervisor’s and co-supervisor’s names
• Thesis proposal title
• Date

9. Choosing a title Interesting Solves a Problem in the community
Sources available
Novel/original( could be replicated for MA)
Enough time to carry it out

10. Introduction
If you are required to write an introduction, write it so it captures the reader’s interest in this overview. It does not have to be perfect.
You can write this section last. Your best overview of your project most likely will come after you have written the other sections of your proposal.

11. Problem Statement/Background
First formulate a research question. Next restate the question in the form of a statement.
The type of study determines the kinds of question you should formulate, such as:
- Is there something wrong in society, theoretically
unclear or in argument, or historically worth studying?
-Is there a program, drug, project, or product that
needs evaluation?
- What do you intend to create or produce and how
will it be of value to you and society?

12. Problem Statement/Background
Capture the reader’s interest and convince him/her of the significance of the problem.
Give some reasons why the problem you have chosen is important to you and society, and specify some concrete examples of the problem.

13. Example
"The dropout rate for students with behavioral challenges has increased in the last five years. The aim of this study is to explore the reasons students with behavioral challenges leave school before graduating"
This tells the reader that the researcher saw a problem and used his research to find possible solutions.
Those potential solutions can be included as findings and recommendations in his thesis.

14. Aims and Hypotheses
Begin with “The aim of this study is to…” interpret, evaluate, analyze, or find out solutions to the problem.
State your aim completely. Remember, it should be some form of investigative( research, analytical, exploratory, fact finding) activity.
A good research hypothesis is a testable, focused, clear, declarative statement of relationships between variables based on previous observations.

15. Aims & Hypotheses
Sometimes working hypotheses (per aim) are used in place of a central hypothesis.
Sometimes research questions are used in place of hypotheses.
This decision is often based on common practice in the discipline or field.

16. Aims and Hypotheses
State clearly and briefly what you expect the results of your study to show.
Focus more on the nature of what you expect to find and less on how you will test for those expectations.

17. Significance
Focus on the benefits of your study not the research problem.
Place yourself in the position of responding to someone who says “so what?” Provide a persuasive rationale for your argument by answering the following questions:
-Why is your study important?
-To whom is it important?
-What can happen to society, or theory, or a
program if the study is done or not done?

18. Methodology
Describe your proposed methods in sufficient detail so that the reader is clear about the following:
• What kind of information will you be using?
• From what sources will the information be
obtained?
• What resources will you require?
• What methodology will you be using?
• Why have you selected this approach?
• What ethical and safety issues have you identified
and how do you propose to proceed?

19. Literature Review
The literature review should explain the relation of your topic and research aims to significant literature and recent ( current) research in your field.
The form of the literature review may vary according to the nature of the field: experimental, philosophical, theoretical, comparative, etc., but its purpose will be the same in all fields.

20. Literature Review
The literature review should demonstrate your awareness of significant similar or relevant research.
Locate and briefly describe those studies and theories that support and oppose your approach to the problem in context through a critical analysis of selected researches.

21. Literature Review
• Identify major omissions, gaps or neglected emphases in these studies?
If there are various theories on your topic or in your field, which one(s) will you use in your
conceptual framework for your thesis?

22. Definition of Terms
Describe for the reader the exact meaning of all terms used in the problem, aim and methodology sections.
Include any terms that, if not defined, might confuse the reader.
State the clearest definition of each term using synonyms, analogies, descriptions, examples etc.
Define any theoretical terms as they are defined by advocates of the theory you are using.

23. Scope & Limitations
Disclose any conceptual and methodological limitations.
Use the following questions to identify the limitations of your study: What kind of design, sampling, measurement, and analysis would be used “in the best of all possible worlds”? How far from these ideals is your study likely to be?

24. Procedure
Describe in detail all the steps you will carry out to choose samples, construct variables, develop hypotheses, gather and present data, such that another researcher could imitate your work.
Remember the presentation of data never speaks for itself, it must be interpreted.

25. Research program timetable: milestones
This will usually be from the date you began your degree to when you expect to submit the completed thesis/dissertation.
The time-line can be formatted as a table or a list. Include when you will start and finish important aspects of your research, such as:
-literature research,
-required training or attending courses,
-stages of experiments or investigations,
-beginning and completing chapters,
-reviews and seminars you will give,
-and completing the thesis.

26. Tentative thesis chapter outline
You should check with your supervisor if this is a required section of the thesis proposal.
Present the chapter outline as a draft contents page with brief notes of expected content or stages.
Follow the standard sections relevant to your type of research. Look at past theses in your area and discuss your ideas with your supervisor.

27. The following slides are for thesis writing
Acknowledgements
Researchers thank:
-funders, supervisors, proofreaders and editors,
-Institutions that have aided the research in some
way,
-close colleagues and family,
Typically the structure moves from thanking
the most formal support to the least formal
thanks.
My supervisor, who kept a sense of humor when I had lost mine”;
“my supervisor, whose maddening attention to detail drove me to finally learn to punctuate prose”;
or “my supervisor, whose selfless time and care were sometimes all that kept me going

28. Abstract
The abstract of dissertation is the first impression readers will have of a research.
It is a summary of the researcher’s work and can be used to help readers decide if reading the entire dissertation would be worthwhile.
A well-composed abstract can attract people to the research study.

29. Abstract
The abstract is commonly placed after the title page of the dissertation.
The department can guide the researcher to the institution's specific requirements for word count of abstract.
The maximum sizes for abstracts are 150 words (Master thesis) and 350 words (Doctoral dissertation).

30. Basic Ingredients of abstract
The abstract includes:
the problem and purpose of the research,
the research questions and any associated hypotheses,
the research methodology and design, a general description of the participants or subjects,
prominent findings, conclusions and recommendations.
The trick is to include all of this information in very limited space.

31. Results of the Study
Write the results of thesis before discussion section.
Results should be arranged according to the methods outlines and aims of study.
The data should be best presented in the form of text, figures, graphs, or tables.
The text should complement the figures
or tables, not repeat the same information.

32. Results of the Study Number figures and tables consecutively in
the same sequence they are first mentioned
in the study. Provide a heading for each
figure & table.
Make sure that the data are accurate and
consistent throughout the study.

33. Results of the Study
The presented results should be relevant to the question(s) presented in the Introduction irrespective of whether or not the results support the hypothesis(es).
Use the past tense when you refer to your
results.
Write with accuracy, brevity and clarity.

34. Discussion
The researcher should present her/ his interpretations and opinions.
This section is considered the heart of the study and usually requires several writing attempts.
Use present tense in writing the discussion.

35. Discussion Its main function is to:
answer the questions posed in the Introduction,
explain how the results support the answers and,
how the answers fit in with existing knowledge on the topic.

36. Steps of writing a good discussion
Organize the discussion from the specific to the general: results to the literature, to theory, to practice.
Use the same key terms, and the same point of view that are used when posing the questions in the Introductory chapter.
Re-state the hypotheses that tested and answered the questions posed in the introductory chapter.

37. steps to write a good discussion
Support the answers with the results and explain how the results relate to expectations and to the previous literature. State clearly why they are acceptable and how they are consistent or fit in with previously published knowledge on the topic.
Address all the results related to the questions, regardless of whether or not the results were statistically significant.

38. steps to write a good discussion
Defend the answers by explaining both why this answer is satisfactory and why others are not. Only by giving both sides to the argument that the explanation would be convincing.
Discuss and evaluate conflicting explanations of the results. This is the sign of a good discussion.
Explain how the results and conclusions of this study are important and how they influence our knowledge or understanding of the problem being examined
Discuss any unexpected findings.

39. Conclusions,Recommendations, Suggestions
Restate your thesis argument in a more general form to show the reader you have a cohesive argument that is evident in your work from start to finish.
Explain the implications of research findings, and make suggestions for future research based on what you have argued.
Show how your argument might advance knowledge in a discipline, take a position in a larger debate, or provide solutions to a problem.

40. Recommended Readings
Francis, J. Bruce .The Proposal Cookbook: A Step by Step Guide to Dissertation and Thesis Proposal Writing
Allen, G.R. (1976) The graduate student`s guide to theses and dissertations: A practical manual for writing and research.San Francisco, CA, Jossey-Bass.
Cryer, P. (1996) The research student`s guide to success. Buckingham, Open University Press.
Davis, G.B. & Parker, C.A. (1979) Writing the doctoral dissertation: A systematic approach. Woodbury, NY, Barrons Educational Series.
Laws, K. (1995) Preparing a Thesis or Dissertation Proposal. University of Sydney.
Phillips, E.M. & Pugh D.S. (1987) How to get a Ph. D.: A handbook for students and their supervisors. 2nd Ed. Buckingham, Open University Press.
Postgraduate Board, Student Guild (1998) Practical aspects of producing a thesis at the University of New South Wales. 3rd Ed. Available from the Student Guild, First Floor East Wing, Quadrangle Building, The University of New SouthWales.
Karathwohl, D.R. (1988) How to prepare a research proposal. Guidelines for funding and dissertations in the social and behavioural sciences. 3rd Ed. New York, Syracuse University Press.

41. San Francisco Edit. Twelve steps to writing an effective results section, In:
Scientific, Medical and General Proofreading
and Editing . Retrieved from :
Spencer, T. How to write a dissertation abstract. Retrieved from:
dissertation-abstract-1585.html
Research in Education by John W.
Carter, S. (2013). Writing the acknowledgments: the etiquette of thanking. Retrieved from :
Lye, M. ( 2009). How to write an effective conclusion. Laurier Writing Centre. Retrieved from:

42. Contact information
Prof.Fatimah R.Hasan Al Bajalani
PhD in Applied Linguistics
English Department,College of Languages,SU.
Director of curricula development at SU
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