Essential Elements of a good research proposal document

DearMechanical Engineering Students, Working Professionals and all readers,

Final year Engineering Project reports, Technical Seminar Reports, Research prop
osals, Design Projects, White Paper Draft, Technical Papers for Conference Presen
tation, Patent Drafts, Technical Journals, Technical Essays and for that matter
any technical Paper reflects not only your sincerity but also act as a mirror of
all of your personality traits. As a matter of fact, many recruiters and HR tea
ms of corporate companies look for these documents and consider them the proof o
f your Technical Back Ground when recruiting for a middle or higher management p
ositions. As you all must be aware there is site for Technical professionals "Li
nk din.com" which is serving as a major platform for corporate recruitments. Tea
m hvacdesigning.com has conducted a two day brainstorming session on what should
be the theme, format, contents, main body, content details and all other minute
details which are essential for drafting an effective and worthy project report
file, Seminar Records, Patent Draft and all domains of technical paper writing
(apart from our regular team, many academicians involved in the Seminars and pro
ject evaluation of B.Tech students were also invited to the joint discussion). W
e are presenting the conclusions of this workshop which we hope should serve as
a guideline for presenting the Technical Projects and Reports which can really p
rove the core theme of their technical work involved in the said project. In our
Endeavour to help and promote students and professionals we are presenting a se
ries of nine posts as enumerated below on the different types of Technical repor
t writing with a focused approach to all variants of technical report writing.:-
1. Essential Elements of a worthy B.Tech / M.Tech 4th year Project
2. Essential Elements of a good Seminar Report
3. Essential Elements of a good Research Proposal Report
4. Essential Elements of a good Design Project Report
5. Essential Elements of a good White Paper Draft Report
6. Essential Elements of a good Conference Presentation Report
7. Essential Elements of a good Patent Application Draft
8. Essential Elements of a good Technical Journal write up
We have already posted the 1st two of the above mentioned technical write up. In
this work we are presenting the design ele,ents essential of a good research pr
oposal project report.
Essential Elements of a good Research Proposal Report
A good research paper format is as important as the content of the paper itself.
In some cases the research guide of the students may ask him to follow a partic
ular format. If the teacher instructs you in following a specific format then fo
llow them. Each research paper will have its own formatting rules. While the con
tent and length of each section depends basically on the topic selected but the
overall design of the paper should essentially resemble the standard format (if
not specifically stated otherwise from your guide due to some special requiremen
ts of a particular topic) as mentioned below:
General guidelines:
1. The preliminary sections (includes abstract, problem statement, Literature re
view and introduction) must essentially be rich, relevant and accurate in terms o
f content, organization, page layout, and page formatting.
2. We also recommend that the proposal should be written in future tense from th
e concept initiation to the final draft copy.
3. At the time of final draft only we should use past tense.
4. The length for the proposal should normally not exceed 20-25 pages.
5. A good and tempting research proposal will almost essentially exceed your time
estimation and also require your undivided attention and energy, so carefully p
lanned time frame for completion must be laid down with sufficient buffer time.
6. A good proposal may be defined as the written work which is conceptually clea
r and precisely expressed.
7. Literature survey of related work should very clearly identify gaps in the cu
rrent literature and then the justification for your work should be briefed prec
isely.
8. Theory / model equations and methodology involved to be described must be spe
cified but if it involves long derivations or complex calculations it should be
mentioned separately as appendices and only the focal point should come in the m
ain body of the paper.
9. Critique of some previous experimental work should generally be mentioned and
then going on to disclose our design of experiments, methods of analysis calcul
ation of output variables
10. Salient observations on the results you have obtained such as the relationsh
ips between different variables and parameters, unusual trends, interpretations
of the observed trends, comparison between theory and experiment, comparison wit
h previous literature, limitations and justification of our work will form the c
ore of your work.
11. Summary of salient observations and trends are essential to be mentioned.
12. Scope and desirability of further work on the problem should also be briefed
Essential components and their order in record document
1. Title page (Marked as page number 1 but should not be printed)
2. Abstract
3. Table of Contents
4. Introduction (Page numbers in Arabic numerals)
5. Statement of Problem [Setting the Stage]
6. Background of the Problem (Optional)
7. Purpose of the Project
8. Chapter Summary
9. Literature review [Problem/Purpose Restated]
10. Major topics and subtopics dictated by project topic and chosen by author
11. Summary
12. METHOD [Problem/Purpose Restated]
13. Target Audience
14. Organization of Project
15. Preliminary Assessment Plan
16. Summary
17. Appendix/Appendices
18. REFERENCES
Our Recommendations of Proposal hardware elements:
For the Abstract, use lower case Roman numerals and start with page
Title page is page i, which is counted but not printed.
After the heading, the paragraph starts one double space below.
Level 1:- Title of chapter 1
Level 2, Major topic
Level 3 - Subtopic to Major Topic
Level 4 - Subsection to a subtopic is considered.
Level 5 Paragraph heading (only the first letter of the first word is capitalize
d)
Tips to formatting the research paper:
1. The distance between the margins should be the same in all pages. The can be
preferably one inch.
2. Use double line spacing; this will give a neat look. Use the Tahoma font name a
nd 12 as font size to get a professional look.
3. If you need to take a print out, then print only on one side of the paper. Th
is will give a better reading accessibility.
4. Use an A-4 sheet whenever you print or write an essay.
Recommended draft tips and contents of "TITLE PAGE" of your proposal
1. The title should be a concise and precise reflection of your topic theme a an
d the reader should get a feel of the work by reading the title alone.
2. Should be fully explanatory yet in not more than 11 - 16 words
3. Abbreviations should not be used in the title statement
4. This is the first page of a research paper where the main title is given. It
contains the name of the subject under which the research paper comes, the title
for the topic discussed in the research paper and the students name class or dep
artment in which he or she is studying.
Table of contents:
This page is in the tabular form which contains serial number, contents and page
number. This is the second basic research paper format. The serial number denot
es the number of sub headings in the research paper, the content has the name of
each sub heading and the page number is the page on which each sub heading star
ts.
Recommended draft tips and contents of "ABSTRACT" of your proposal
Abstract is a brief, comprehensive summary of the contents of the Research Proje
ct you have prepared. It allows the reader to attain a quick overview of the con
tent and scope of your project. An appropriate length for the abstract is betwee
n 75-150 words, depending on the nature and complexity of the work.
A good abstract is:
1. Accurate
2. Self-contained
3. Concise and specific
4. Non evaluative
5. Coherent
6. Readable.
The Abstract is written and included only after completion of last Chapter of th
e Project.
Recommended draft tips and contents of "Acknowledgement" Section of the File
1. Should be drafted in your own words of gratitude to the people or institute c
oncerned
2. The words used must be polite but not the extremes of flowery prose
3. Section should be brief and straight worded
Recommended draft tips and contents of "INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER" of the File
This contains the different sub headings that are covered under the research pap
er topic. Each sub heading gives detailed information over the subject.
Research paper introduction is the beginning of the paper. This is the most impo
rtant part as they kindle the interest of the reader. It gives a sketch on what
the paper is going to be. A description of the problem under study is presented.
The intended research strategy is described. In this section of the Research Pr
oject, it is important to establish not only what problem you intend to study bu
t also why it is important or relevant and how you intend to resolve the problem
. Describe how your research is related to previous work in the area by briefly
referring to the central arguments and/or available data which make your researc
h important and timely. Conclusion should provide a sketch on the important poin
ts discussed in the research paper. It can also contain the probable solutions a
nd your own point of views over the topic under discussion in the research paper
.
Appendices -
1. Appendices are provided to give supplementary information, which is included
in the main text may serve as a distraction and cloud the central theme.
2. Appendices should be numbered using Arabic numerals, e.g. Appendix 1, Appendi
x 2, etc.
3. Appendices, Tables and References appearing in appendices should be numbered
and referred to at appropriate places just as in the case of chapters.
4. Appendices shall carry the title of the work reported and the same title shal
l be made in the contents page also.
References
The listing of references should be typed 2 spaces below the heading REFERENCES in
alphabetical order in single spacing left justified. Should be numbered consecut
ively (in square [] brackets, throughout the text and should be collected togeth
er in the reference list at the end of your report. The references should be num
bered in the order they are used in the text. The name of the author/authors sho
uld be immediately followed by the year and other details. A typical illustrativ
e list given below relates to the citation example quoted above.
REFERENCES
[1]. Ariponnammal, S. and Natarajan, S. (1994) Transport Phonomena of Sm Sel X As
x, Pramana Journal of Physics Vol.42, No.1, pp.421-425.
[2]. Barnard, R.W. and Kellogg, C. (1980) Applications of Convolution Operators t
o Problems in Univalent Function Theory, Michigan Mach, J., Vol.27, pp.8194.
[3]. Shin, K.G. and Mckay, N.D. (1984) Open Loop Minimum Time Control of Mechanic
al Manipulations and its Applications, Proc.Amer.Contr.Conf., San Diego, CA, pp.
1231-1236.