Undergraduate Student Research:A Shortened Guide to Research Proposals

General research proposal guidelines:

• Should not be lengthy. You are providing a “roadmap” to your project – not writing a term paper.
• Although an exhaustive review of the literature should occur before any project is undertaken, the student should only provide a brief review of the relevant literature in their proposal. This summary of the literature should clearly lead the reader to the proposed project.
• Methodology should be as detailed as possible.
• Proposals should be written so that “non-experts” can understand them.
  • 3-5 pages of content, not including a bibliography and/or appendix
  • Introduction
  • Literature review
  • Methodology / explanation of project
  • Projected results (if applicable)
  • Bibliography

Your research advisor can provide you with more detailed information regarding how a research proposal looks for your discipline or field.