Page 51 - SREENARAYANAGURU OPEN UNIVERSITY

the proposed methodology, the benefits of the research and the
resource required to conduct the research. The proposal is the ◆ Draft plan
result of continuous revision in response to constructive criticism
and suggestions from experts.
Research proposals are written for a variety of reasons, including
requesting funding for the research they describe, meeting research
certification requirements, as a task in tertiary education, or as a ◆ Purpose of research
requirement for employment at a research institution. proposal

1.4.2 Process of Preparation of Research Proposal

The primary goal of a research proposal is to persuade the
reader of the project’s value. The researcher must demonstrate that ◆ Work plan
he/she has a work plan and that his/her project will be successful.
The following are the steps to writing a research proposal:
a. Determine the area of research
The first and most basic step is to select a general study topic
or subject area to investigate. Researchers should take care ◆ Selection of broad
that the problem should be one which can be clearly identified area
and formulated. Further, while choosing the research area the
researcher should look into the availability of information relevant
to the topic.

b. Literature survey
In the second stage, researchers must read as much literature
as possible on the general topic. Take notes and summarise the
purpose and findings of each study. It is also possible for the
researcher to get in touch with people who have authorised books
or conducted research relevant to this area of study. The researcher ◆ Extensive literature
can either access a bibliographic database which displays only review
the bibliographic citations like name of author, title of the book,
publisher, year, volume and page number. He can also use an
abstract database which along with bibliographic citation also
provides him with an abstract of the article. The researcher can
also use full text databases which contain the entire text.
c. Identification of research gaps

The previous step’s goal is to determine what studies have
already been done on the subject of the research proposal and then ◆ Choosing
identify any obvious gaps in the literature. Determine where the unexplored area
researcher can add to the existing body of knowledge.

d. Make a purpose statement
The research proposal’s goal is to sell the idea to the funding
agency. At this stage, the researcher must explain why he is ◆ Formulate research
investigating this topic, what he intends to do, and why others purpose
should be interested in his research. This is known as a purpose

SGOU - SLM - MCom Research Methodology 45