Introduction
The main idea of a research proposal is identification of important social issues, for which an additional research is needed to clarify them, and, in some cases, to justify the need of sponsorship and to describe the main ideas of an investigation. Among the most important of this academic and sometimes business activity are succinct, yet informative abstract and introduction with an absorbing narrative hook. This paper discusses the main elements of these components of a research proposal, as well as it speculates about irrelevance of rhetorical questions in academic and business research.
Writing a Good Abstract
In the abstract section of a research proposal, an author should succinctly describe the field of research and mention research objectives. In addition, this part of a proposal is used to spark interest of a reader by emphasizing the main reasons of why the future research is important and what outcomes it may have. Because the main purpose of an abstract is to attract readers’ attention to read further, it should briefly mention the hypothesis, research methods and anticipated outcomes. Although it goes at the beginning of a proposal, abstract is written once the other parts are completed (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000).
The primary purpose of introduction is to demonstrate to the targeted audience that the research is meaningful and introduce the problem in detail. In other words, this part of a research proposal introduces background information of the future investigation and helps the readers to make a conclusion whether they really need to give heed to the future work.
A typical well-made introduction contains the following essential elements
It provides and substantiates the research subject
It introduces and describes research questions and objectives
It explains why the chosen research topic is important and how the writer focused on it
It provides the main assumptions of the future research project
It introduces research hypotheses of a future research
While emphasizing the importance of the research proposal for the targeted audience, it should explain why previous studies failed to answer the research questions in full and how the future research will complement their findings.
It provides a ‘road map’ of the research proposal, explaining to the reader what issues the research proposal covers (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000)
In addition, this section of a research proposal is used to briefly describe the results of previous research studies completed on the topic of interest, while the ‘literature review’ section analyzes previous works in detail and clarify whether they support or refute the research hypothesis (Silverman, 2011).
Using Narrative hook and Avoiding Rhetorical Questions
A narrative hook is a technique used in literature to grab the readers’ attention. Although in the past it was mainly used in fictional and creative writing, the practice shows that it is becoming common in academic writing as well. Because the number of similar research proposals is exorbitantly high, making the targeted audience interested in further reading is the first task of a research proposal, and, together with significance and novelty of the future study, a narrative hook is one of the most effective psychological techniques (Silverman, 2011). One of the most effective approaches is dramatizing the consequences of the future research, i.e. by showing to the readers what the study results may entail.
While rhetorical questions are popular in oratory and journalism, a professional academic research should avoid using them in research proposal writing for two reasons. Firstly, asking a rhetorical question assumes that the readers are familiar with the area of research and already know the answer. Foreign readers may have difficulties comprehending it and expect additional clarifications, which the author does not provide. Secondly, rhetorical questions are informal, which is not acceptable in conservative academic writing.
References
Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2000). Handbook of qualitative research Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Silverman, D. (2011). Qualitative research: Issues of theory, method and practice. Third Edition. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi, Sage Publications
