Masters in Project Management Research Proposal
Department of Business Information Technology Faculty of Management http://www.uj.ac.za/bit
Research Project Proposal
To complete this research project proposal process, learners must locate a supervisor and submit a research proposal detailing the proposed research project to be undertaken before registering. The purpose of this research proposal is to help the learner design and plan a research project which the learner is interested in undertaking and to explain this project to other people. The proposal should include: • what you plan to do in your research • why this work is necessary or desirable • specifications for how you will do it • a persuasive argument that you are the right person for the position Your Supervisor will have the expert knowledge about your task, and will be best able to judge the merits of your objectives and plan of attack. The evaluators will be less well informed about the background and motivation of your research, so you will have to provide information that will help them put the details in perspective. No two proposals are alike, and there is no general recipe which, if followed to the letter, will guarantee a good proposal. Most proposals do share—or can share—a few common structural features, however. These are indicated by the headings below. A good proposal includes either a hypothesis (keep in mind that a hypothesis is not a foregone conclusion but a testable scientific idea) or a problem statement (a recognized problem in need of a solution). It is important to be realistic about the impact of your research project. While it may be unlikely that your project will result in a major breakthrough, indicate how it is a part of a research plan to address a larger scientific question. Do not repeat sections of your proposal as it can make reading a proposal difficult. If a point is important, revisit it, but not in a repetitious manner. PLAN AHEAD and provide yourself with enough time prior to the application/proposal deadline
Research Project Proposal
To complete this research project proposal process, learners must locate a supervisor and submit a research proposal detailing the proposed research project to be undertaken before registering. The purpose of this research proposal is to help the learner design and plan a research project which the learner is interested in undertaking and to explain this project to other people. The proposal should include: • what you plan to do in your research • why this work is necessary or desirable • specifications for how you will do it • a persuasive argument that you are the right person for the position Your Supervisor will have the expert knowledge about your task, and will be best able to judge the merits of your objectives and plan of attack. The evaluators will be less well informed about the background and motivation of your research, so you will have to provide information that will help them put the details in perspective. No two proposals are alike, and there is no general recipe which, if followed to the letter, will guarantee a good proposal. Most proposals do share—or can share—a few common structural features, however. These are indicated by the headings below. A good proposal includes either a hypothesis (keep in mind that a hypothesis is not a foregone conclusion but a testable scientific idea) or a problem statement (a recognized problem in need of a solution). It is important to be realistic about the impact of your research project. While it may be unlikely that your project will result in a major breakthrough, indicate how it is a part of a research plan to address a larger scientific question. Do not repeat sections of your proposal as it can make reading a proposal difficult. If a point is important, revisit it, but not in a repetitious manner. PLAN AHEAD and provide yourself with enough time prior to the application/proposal deadline
References: for Research Some references you might want to look at before starting to write your proposal are: 1. Basic research methods http://www.mapnp.org/library/research/research.htm http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/tutorial/tutorial.htm 2. Proposal writing http://john.regehr.org/reading_list/proposal.html http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/tse-portal/proposal/dan-ryan-proposal/propweb.htm 3. Writing a dissertation / thesis http://www.sce.carleton.ca/faculty/chinneck/thesis.html http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/thesis.html http://www.tele.sunyit.edu/ThesisHandbook.html 4. Referencing http://general.uj.ac.za/library/lidi/ujlic/Reference_Techniques.pdf http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/tipsonreferences.html http://lis.newport.ac.uk/sz/publications/Harvard_referencing.pdf 5. General academic writing http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/tipsonwriting.html http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/advise.html 6. What is expected from you http://www.cs.indiana.edu/how.2b/how.2b.html 7. Doing research http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/mleone/web/how-to.html http://www.kyvl.org/html/tutorial/research/ p. 8