Introduction Section
This is where you introduce the reader (me) to your topic. You’ll identify the topic
you’re studying, what the main problem is, and why it’s important. You wrap up the
section by quickly stating what your proposal is doing.This section should be 1-2 pages long.
Literature Review Section
This is where you summarize what prior research studies have found on your topic.
That is, there will have been other researchers who have already studied and
published research on your topic. You will be summarizing the major findings of the
prior research on your topic, and highlighting the ‘takeaway’ points of the existing
body of research (‘the literature’). This lets the reader know where your proposed
study, done in the future, could fit into what we already know about your topic. That
is, what ‘knowledge gap’ is your proposed experiment going to fill?
This section should be 3-6 pages long.
Research Design (Methods) Section
This is where you explain, in detail, exactly how you would conduct your own
experiment on this topic. What population are your studying? How are you taking a
sample? How are you assigning a ‘treatment’ and a ‘control’ group? What are you
measuring? For how long? Basically, this should be like a recipe from a cookbook.
Instead of explaining how you would bake a cake, you’re explaining how you would
conduct your own experiment. This section should be 2-4 pages long.
[Note: You don’t actually conduct the experiment. It’s just a proposal for the future.]