how to write a research proposal - mit ….pdf

How To Write a Research Proposal What’s a Research Proposal For? Research Proposals Make You: OUTLINE steps in your proposed research THINK through your experiments Be CREATIVE (and you can use parts of it in your FINAL PAPER) JUSTIFY your research Provide Intellectual CONTEXT Anticipate a realistic TIMETABLE Anticipate Potential PROBLEMS What are the Essential Ingredients? Who is the Audience for your Proposal? How will that affect the content? Guidelines You’ve been given specific guidelines , follow them to the letter. All sections in your proposal (except the title) should be identified with corresponding headings that stand out from the rest of the text (bold) : Specific Aims Background & Significance Research Design & Methods References Your Title is a mini -Abstract Paint a quick picture of the key ideas The title should be clear, unambiguous, and not cute The words should reflect the focus of your proposal Put the most important words first Title #1 - Red Haired Musicians and their Preference for Musical Style Title #2 - Music Style Preference of Red Haired Musicians The project with Title #1 appears to be focused on Red Haired Musicians . The project with Title #2 app ears to be focused on Musical Style Preference . Write the title last Why? Specific Aims Specific aims are the statements of what you hope to plish , but they are not measurable – Each specific aim will probably require more than one experiment. – Have these experiments in mind when you write your specific aims.