Hi.
I m Karen McKee and this is another video about scientific writing.
Today, I m going to focus on a special type of scientific document, the research prospectus.
A research prospectus is a description of research to be conducted, typically by a graduate
student in pursuit of a master's or doctoral degree and is usually prepared in consultation
with the student's advisor and other faculty members.
Such a document can be challenging to write because it requires a well-defined question
or series of questions as well as knowledge of the literature and of the methods to be
used in the proposed research.
The idea of writing such a prospectus can be scary for someone with limited knowledge
of the topic and little or no experience conducting research.
Consequently, before you begin writing, you need to have some discussions with your advisor
to nail down the main problem your dissertation or thesis will address.
You will need to do a deep dive into the literature on the overall topic and identify some important
questions that remain unanswered.
You and your advisor will consider the pros and cons of each option, including its importance,
feasibility, available research funding, and logistics to choose a question or hypothesis
that can be reasonably addressed within the time frame of your graduate program.
Keep in mind that your prospectus needs to convince your graduate committee that the
selected topic is important, that the central question or hypothesis is original, and that
the proposed plan of action is feasible.
In planning your research, PowerPoint slides or post it notes may help to initially organize
your ideas, including text, photographs, data, graphics, and diagrams.
Let s now take a look at the format of a research prospectus.
Of course, you should consult your advisor about what format to use and ask for examples
written by previous students.
Generally, the prospectus will run anywhere from ten to twenty-five single-spaced pages,
depending on the complexity of the proposed research and what your committee expects.
There will be a title page that looks something like this with the title of your proposed
project, your university information, your name and the names of your committee members.
The first section is the project summary, which gives a brief overview of the proposed
research.
It should be relatively short, like an abstract.
About two or three hundred words, summarizing the problem and research plan.
The next main section is the background.
In this section you spell out the research problem to be tackled and review the literature
relevant to your topic, beginning with the broad view and quickly narrowing the focus
to your specific topic.
Basically, this section will summarize what is known about the topic and point out areas
that have not been fully explored.
You will also present any theoretical issues and assumptions related to your selected problem
and how they factor into your research plan.
The background may run a thousand words or more and contain many citations of previous
research.
Your goal in writing this section is to show your committee that you have a strong grasp
of the topic and have identified an important problem to study.
The next section should set forth the objectives of your research and spell out the specific
questions your work will attempt to answer.
The objectives section is usually relatively short and should naturally flow from the background
section.
The fourth section describes the research plan, which can be quite lengthy depending
on the number of experiments and analyses to be carried out.
It can be subdivided into a description of the proposed study sites, experimental design,
various analytical methods, and data analysis.
You may also include a subsection that describes the expected duration of the project and a
timeline with major milestones.
This subsection can be important in demonstrating to your committee that you have carefully
thought through your plan and that it is sound.
You may want to include tables, maps, diagrams, photographs, and graphics in the research
plan to illustrate where and how the study will be carried out.
The fifth section describes the expected results and potential benefits.
Here, it s important to emphasize what new information your proposed research will produce
and how that will contribute to a better understanding of the topic, provide benefits to society,
or lead to practical applications.
The final section is the Literature Cited, which lists all the sources cited in the narrative.
When you have a finished draft, you will present it to your advisor and committee members.
They will likely have questions and suggestions for changes.
Remember, your research prospectus will be the first written document you share with
your committee, and you want to make a good impression.
Thus, it s important to put an effort into writing a clear and concise document.
Thanks for watching and please leave a comment if you have a suggestion or a question.