Research Proposal and Literature Review

Research proposal is the formal way of clarifying your own ideas and convincing a supervisor about your topic of research. At the start of the proposal we have only a general idea of our research topic. The research proposal for a short introductory study might be only one or two pages but for longer studies like PhD thesis it varies from 4–10 pages. The proposal is written in present or future tense, whereas final study normally uses past tense because it describes complete research. The research proposal is a blue print of the proposed project. It can be compared with the blue print of a building, which is prepared by an architect before the bids are let and the construction is started. It is also called the outline or the synopsis of the study.