How to write a Research Proposal?

[DerPumuckl]

I'm not talking of a personal statement, but an actual research proposal (for a Masters (Research)). How would the general structure look like?

Thanks.

[walt526]

What's the suggested page length (i.e., how complete does your literature review need to be at this state)?

[Unidentified]

The structure of a research proposal is quite simple:

You start with a question/hypothesis, this part should be kept very short. Then you need to argue why the question/hypothesis is worth investigating.

The next part is the critical literature review. What have others done, and what are the gaps of the literature and how you try to fill it.

The next part is the methodology section. This part answers the question how you want to answer your question.

Last part is the conclusion. Basically summarize the preceding sections and show why your research idea is worth investigating.

I would say for an MRes (are you going to the UK) the most important parts are your idea and the literature review.

And I would suggest that you google "how to write a research proposal" where you will find a lot more detailed resources and more detailed explanations about particular sections, or have a look at the university homepages.

[applicant12]

I have a question that may be a little relevant, but it would be great if you guys can help answer it.

Suppose the paper in question is an empirical paper and we've already come up with the appropriate regressors. In the literature review part, what kind of literature are we going to use? Should we use papers that have been written about the independent variable which have nothing to do with our regressors? or should we review works that others have done using the same (or similar since it'll be unlikely they'll be the same) regressors to explain the relation?

[asquare]

For an empirical paper, I'd use a structure similar to what Unidentified suggested. Here's my take on it:

1) Introduction and motivation. What is the research question? Define this clearly. Why do we care? What is the economic importance of this question? Is it policy relevant?

2) Literature review. In addition to summarizing the relevant literature, it's important to be clear about what your proposed research adds. How will your research fit into the existing literature?

3) Data. What data will you use? An existing data set? If so, provide summary statistics for the key variables. If not, how will you go about collecting the necessary data?

4) Methodology. What is the source of identification? What are your Ys and Xs?

5) Plan/timeline. What steps will you follow to carry out your research plan?

[postgradecon]

You say Masters (Research). If by that you mean something like the MSc Economics (Research) at LSE, then I would say that what was suggested above is way too specific for the research proposal. In fact, I know a lot of people who got in by just stating their interests and talk about them in a little more details than in a regular statement of purpose.

If you're talking about a MRes or PhD level, then I agree with what was suggested above.

[DerPumuckl]

Originally Posted by postgradecon

You say Masters (Research). If by that you mean something like the MSc Economics (Research) at LSE, then I would say that what was suggested above is way too specific for the research proposal. In fact, I know a lot of people who got in by just stating their interests and talk about them in a little more details than in a regular statement of purpose.

If you're talking about a MRes or PhD level, then I agree with what was suggested above.

I'm talking about the MSc Economics (Research)!

Maybe i should have specified.