怎样写一篇好的RESEARCH PROPOSAL,研究生Proposal应该怎么写
网友回答
每个学术研究者必须经历的一道关卡，就是Research Proposal的写作。它大致对应中文里的“开题报告”、“选题报告”、“研究报告”，是一项研究开始之前的提纲、规划和陈述；既是为了帮助自己梳理文献、整理思路、廓清方向，也常常是写给相关他人的说明：研究动机和意义何在？可能有何成果？为什么它值得你的资助/认可/支持/批准？不知道是否可以说，好的proposal是研究成功的一半。但实际而功利的说，如果你的proposal很烂，可能根本就不会有开始研究的机会。
How to write a research proposal?
能否写出漂亮的proposal，本质上取决于你对研究的思考深度和专业水准。但形式也很重要。英文的Research Proposal自有一套“八股”。程式化和结构化的好处就在于，可以让读者直接集中注意到最本质的内容上，而不是为形式分神。对于非英语native speaker的我们，如何理解英文学术世界的规范或曰思维定势，也是写作proposal之前必备的背景知识。下面这篇流传甚广的Research Proposal写作指南，言简意赅，颇具启发，对我自己的写作有所帮助，也希望能给更多的学界同仁带来便利。[点击这里，查看更多关于RESEARCH PROPOSAL以及GRANT PROPOSAL、PROJECT PROPOSAL写作的网上资源]
文章作者Paul T. P. Wong, Ph.D., C.Psych. (Research Director, Graduate Program in Counselling Psychology. Trinity Western University Langley, BC, Canada). 题为：How to Write a Research Proposal. 全文转载如下：
Most students and beginning researchers do not fully understand what a research proposal means, nor do they understand its importance. To put it bluntly, one’s research is only as a good as one’s proposal. An ill-conceived proposal dooms the project even if it somehow gets through the Thesis Supervisory Committee. A high quality proposal, on the other hand, not only promises success for the project, but also impresses your Thesis Committee about your potential as a researcher.
A research proposal is intended to convince others that you have a worthwhile research project and that you have the petence and the work-plan to plete it. Generally, a research proposal should contain all the key elements involved in the research process and include sufficient information for the readers to evaluate the proposed study.
Regardless of your research area and the methodology you choose, all research proposals must address the following questions: What you plan to acplish, why you want to do it and how you are going to do it.
The proposal should have sufficient information to convince your readers that you have an important research idea, that you have a good grasp of the relevant literature and the major issues, and that your methodology is sound.
The quality of your research proposal depends not only on the quality of your proposed project, but also on the quality of your proposal writing. A good research project may run the risk of rejection simply because the proposal is poorly written. Therefore, it pays if your writing is coherent, clear and pelling.
This paper focuses on proposal writing rather than on the development of research ideas.
TITLE:
It should be concise and descriptive. For example, the phrase, “An investigation of . . .” could be omitted. Often titles are stated in terms of a functional relationship, because such titles clearly indicate the independent and dependent variables. However, if possible, think of an informative but catchy title. An effective title not only pricks the reader’s interest, but also predisposes him/her favourably towards the proposal.
ABSTRACT:
It is a brief summary of approximately 300 words. It should include the research question, the rationale for the study, the hypothesis (if any), the method and the main findings. Descriptions of the method may include the design, procedures, the sample and any instruments that will be used.
INTRODUCTION:
The main purpose of the introduction is to provide the necessary background or context for your research problem. How to frame the research problem is perhaps the biggest problem in proposal writing.
If the research problem is framed in the context of a general, rambling literature review, then the research question may appear trivial and uninteresting. However, if the same question is placed in the context of a very focused and current research area, its significance will bee evident.
Unfortunately, there are no hard and fast rules on how to frame your research question just as there is no prescription on how to write an interesting and informative opening paragraph. A lot depends on your creativity, your ability to think clearly and the depth of your understanding of problem areas.
However, try to place your research question in the context of either a current “hot” area, or an older area that remains viable. Secondly, you need to provide a brief but appropriate historical backdrop. Thirdly, provide the contemporary context in which your proposed research question occupies the central stage. Finally, identify “key players” and refer to the most relevant and representative publications. In short, try to paint your research question in broad brushes and at the same time bring out its significance.
The introduction typically begins with a general statement of the problem area, with a focus on a specific research problem, to be followed by the rational or justification for the proposed study. The introduction generally covers the following elements:
1. State the research problem, which is often referred to as the purpose of the study.
2. Provide the context and set the stage for your research question in such a way as to show its necessity and importance.
3. Present the rationale of your proposed study and clearly indicate why it is worth doing.
4. Briefly describe the major issues and sub-problems to be addressed by your research.
5. Identify the key independent and dependent variables of your experiment. Alternatively, specify the phenomenon you want to study.
6. State your hypothesis or theory, if any. For exploratory or phenomenological research, you may not have any hypotheses. (Please do not confuse the hypothesis with the statistical null hypothesis.)
7. Set the delimitation or boundaries of your proposed research in order to provide a clear focus.
8. Provide definitions of key concepts. (This is optional.)
LITERATURE REVIEW:
Sometimes the literature review is incorporated into the introduction section. However, most professors prefer a separate section, which allows a more thorough review of the literature.
The literature review serves several important functions:
1. Ensures that you are not “reinventing the wheel”.
2. Gives credits to those who have laid the groundwork for your research.
3. Demonstrates your knowledge of the research problem.
4. Demonstrates your understanding of the theoretical and research issues related to your research question.
5. Shows your ability to critically evaluate relevant literature information.
6. Indicates your ability to integrate and synthesize the existing literature.
7. Provides new theoretical insights or develops a new model as the conceptual framework for your research.
8. Convinces your reader that your proposed research will make a significant and substantial contribution to the literature (i.e., resolving an important theoretical issue or filling a major gap in the literature).
Most students’ literature reviews suffer from the following problems:
* Lacking organization and structure
* Lacking focus, unity and coherence
* Being repetitive and verbose
* Failing to cite influential papers
* Failing to keep up with recent developments
* Failing to critically evaluate cited papers
* Citing irrelevant or trivial references
* Depending too much on secondary sources
Your scholarship and research petence will be questioned if any of the above applies to your proposal.
There are different ways to organize your literature review. Make use of subheadings to bring order and coherence to your review. For example, having established the importance of your research area and its current state of development, you may devote several subsections on related issues as: theoretical models, measuring instruments, cross-cultural and gender differences, etc.
It is also helpful to keep in mind that you are telling a story to an audience. Try to tell it in a stimulating and engaging manner. Do not bore them, because it may lead to rejection of your worthy proposal. (Remember: Professors and scientists are human beings too.)
METHODS:
The Method section is very important because it tells your Research Committee how you plan to tackle your research problem. It will provide your work plan and describe the activities necessary for the pletion of your project.
The guiding principle for writing the Method section is that it should contain sufficient information for the reader to determine whether methodology is sound. Some even argue that a good proposal should contain sufficient details for another qualified researcher to implement the study.
You need to demonstrate your knowledge of alternative methods and make the case that your approach is the most appropriate and most valid way to address your research question.
Please note that your research question may be best answered by qualitative research. However, since most mainstream psychologists are still biased against qualitative research, especially the phenomenological variety, you may need to justify your qualitative method.
Furthermore, since there are no well-established and widely accepted canons in qualitative analysis, your method section needs to be more elaborate than what is required for traditional quantitative research. More importantly, the data collection process in qualitative research has a far greater impact on the results as pared to quantitative research. That is another reason for greater care in describing how you will collect and analyze your data. (How to write the Method section for qualitative research is a topic for another paper.)
For quantitative studies, the method section typically consists of the following sections:
1. Design -Is it a questionnaire study or a laboratory experiment? What kind of design do you choose?
2. Subjects or participants – Who will take part in your study ? What kind of sampling procedure do you use?
3. Instruments – What kind of measuring instruments or questionnaires do you use? Why do you choose them? Are they valid and reliable?
4. Procedure – How do you plan to carry out your study? What activities are involved? How long does it take?
网友回答
很多想要申请研究生的同学，对学校要求的Research
Proposal 都是一知半解，也很苦恼该如何写好它。今天我就谈一谈这个Research Proposal。
其实，有了topic或者研究方向, 就应该恭喜你了! 最艰难的一关你已经过了,既然已经有了topic或者大致了方向了, 那就等于有了最终的目标,
你已经不是无头苍蝇了。
搞学术嘛，归根结底就是解决问题所以接下来要做的：把你要解决的问题具体化形象化
如果可能的话拆分为几个小的问题。譬如：需要确定什么参数？需要测定什么数据？需要了解什么情况？等等。
着重关注方法学（Methodology）---
也就是“idea”。
即在现有的条件或环境下,
该如何实现这个目标或者解决这个(这些)问题。我以为一篇成功的proposal的Methodology是最重要的部份。
两个层面，第一个层面是比较基础的。譬如：需要什么手段？需要什么技术？需要什么仪器？需要什么模型？采用什么算法？等等
另一个层面则更为抽象和核心
简言之就是：你拿到这些原始数据或者初步结果之后你要如何处理或者分析这些初步的结果并解决你的问题？
前面已经强调了
Methodology是一篇Research Proposal最为核心的部份所谓“成也萧何败也萧何”。
Methodology部份如果没什么新意或者没什么价值，
sorry，没人会继续读你的下文了。形式上 需要注意的地方比较多，思路要清楚 逻辑要清晰
要全面要严谨要能够自圆其说。关注国内外同行的进展最主要的渠道就是查文献了。譬如：看看大家做到什么程度了看看别人都采用了什么手段？看看别人的结果如何？等等。这部份是比较痛苦的，三五十篇文献一点都不算多。
先列一个outline出来
我之前自己的Research
Proposal大致分为如下基本部份：
背景介绍
文献综述
研究目的
研究方法
预期结果
展望
参考文献列表
「文献综述」基本上就是“我们目前对这个问题瞭解到什么程度了”。
「研究目的」基本上就是“我想解决什么问题”，
显然这个是核心所在。
「研究方法」顾名思义就是“我们想通过何种途径来解决这个问题”。
整体的逻辑大该是：
基于我们目前的知识，我们还需要解决什么问题，以及我们该如何解决这个问题。
接下来就照著outline动手写吧，需要注意的问题：结构清晰思路清楚切忌罗嗦
而且要有可操作性。
比如，你的研究需要太过昂贵的或者过分尖端的仪器或者技术，你就需要思考一下可行性了。而且很重要的一点说话不能空口无凭要有凭有据！
譬如，某个观点是别人的研究里得出来的，那麽一定要列出来出处；或者某个观点是你总结归纳出来的，那麽论据要充分；或者某个观点是基于未发表的结果，那麽也要标注来源或出处。坦言我个人并不擅长写作，经验有但也不是太多。理工类科技类的写作(譬如受众多为专业人士的论文、专著等)并不刻意追求表达方面的艺术性，但是在文字或表述上有其特殊的要求和规范。
强调一点：逻辑清晰表述严谨。这一点非常重要，譬如"因为我肚子饿了
所以我要喝水" 显然这个论点和论据并无直接的联系，或者说 从论据无法推理得到该结论。这个例子很夸张很荒谬 但是这类问题发生的概率非常之高。
归结一下
常见的容易被直接枪毙的错误有：
(1)
混淆了“回归(regression)”与“相关(correlation)”之间的区别；
(2)
由表观上的“相关关系”仓促给出“因果关系”。
先举一个虚幻一点的例子
我们来探究变量x与y之间的关系，倘若我们能够直接推理得到二者之间的函数关系(若有)
那么问题就解决了，但是实际上很多时候这种推导是极端困难甚至不可能完成的或者 x与y之间可能压根儿就没有本质上的函数关系。
实际操作中我们经常通过改变x的值并观察y是否发生了变化籍此来寻找二者之间的“联系”。假设实验发现改变x的值但并未观测到y发生了显著性的变化，于是你就给出结论说y是独立于x的，显然这是一个非常草率的结论…
因为倘若在你做实验的x区间内y对自变量x并不敏感，你自然不会观测到因变量y的显著变化了。
再举两个实际一点的例子
北京气象局公布的数据表明，进几十年来北京的全年气温呈现升高的态势，所以你给出了结论：全球气候确实变暖了…
虽然这个结论目前已经被普遍接受了，但是从该论据是无法推出这个结论的，首先，空间上，北京的情况也许可以反映但绝对不能代表全球的情况；第二，时间上，只有近几十年的数据实在是没有说服力。
全球气候变暖这个趋势基本是毋庸置疑的了，二氧化碳是最重要的一种人为排放的温室气体这个也是人尽皆知，二氧化碳的人为排放量自工业革命起就开始持续大幅度地增长，主要源于化石燃料的使用，而全球平均气温和二氧化碳排放量(或全球浓度，化石燃料使用等)确实存在正相关性。
所以你的结论是：气候变暖是化石燃料的大量使用造成的，这话基本ok，但是你若是在学术刊物中使用这类文字那基本是一定会遭到质疑的，气候变化是多种因素共同作用下的结果，作为最为重要的一种温室气体——二氧化碳排放量的大幅增加只是可能的原因之一。
其实这类问题发生的频率那是相当之高，甚至不少大牛有时也会偶尔出现这种疏漏，所以无论在动笔写的时候还是完稿之后检查的时候都应该著重注意，尽量避免这类问题。
最后一点：参考文献
科技类写作区别于其他体裁最显著的特徵之一就是引文系统。
所谓言出有据如果你的文章中引用或参考了别人的数据、方法、结论等，必须在参考文献中进行标注。参考文献的类型、格式、引用方式等我不多说，有兴趣请自己去查，强烈建议使用参考文献管理软件，譬如EndNote，RefWork等，有了这些软件你就再也不必为格式等等细枝末节的问题烦心了。这些软件上手都不难但是第一次整理你的文献库确实需要一定的时间(如果你只有几十篇一两百篇文献，可能只需要几个小时时间)，一旦创建好，日后只要形成习惯讲新的文献放进你的文献库即可，不要嫌麻烦，磨刀不误砍柴功这几个小时的时间会让你日后的工作事半功倍。
另外除了常规的已发表的论文、书籍、报告等，其他一些通常会接受的引文类型包括但不限于：
-
已接收但尚未发表的文章(accepted基本上与published无异)。
-
其他未接收或未发表的文章(如in review，manuscript in preparation等)。
-
或者未经或尚未经过同行评议的文章。
后两类类可统称“灰色文献”对于灰色文献的引用要谨慎。请注意，未被SCI、EI等知名索引系统所录用的学术期刊（如一些国内核心期刊、xx大学学报等）所发表的文章是以作为参考文献的，只不过这类期刊影响力有限所以“参考”意义也就非常有限罢了。
不用问我格式怎么搞 ？research proposal如果有给定的模板或者引文格式要求 那就严格按照要求来；如果没有通常情况下随便遵从一个标准即可，通行的引文格式标准很多
有兴趣自己去查 (如果你使用文献管理软件格式问题就是小菜一碟)。
不要觉得参考文献不重要
如果你的引文格式乱七八糟，引用内容牛头不对马嘴，会给人留下极其不好的印象。相反参考文献也切忌滥，有关系没关系的文章都一股脑地放上来，也会给人滥竽充数之感。
题外话引用文献请注意实效性，有些领域发展很快。以环境类学科为例一些十多年前大牛提出的经典理论或共识已经被大幅修改甚至完全推翻。所以无论在研读文献、确定研究方向还是引用参考的时候都应该留心方向是否有最新进展。