By AssignmentHelpKit Editorial Team, reviewed by subject experts · · 6 min read
A research proposal convinces your supervisor that your dissertation is worth doing and can be done. It's usually 1,000–3,000 words, and a good one saves you weeks later.
Standard structure
- Title: specific and descriptive.
- Introduction and background: the context and why the topic matters now.
- Research problem, aim and questions: what exactly you'll find out.
- Literature review: what's already known and the gap you'll address.
- Methodology: how you'll collect and analyse data.
- Ethics: consent, anonymity and data storage.
- Timeline: what you'll do and when.
- References.
Always check your department's template first. Some ask for expected outcomes or limitations as separate sections.
Writing a strong research question
Good questions are focused, researchable and answerable within your word count and time.
- Too broad: How does social media affect business?
- Better: How do Instagram influencer campaigns affect purchase intention among UK university students aged 18–24?
Aim for one main question and two or three sub-questions.
The literature review section
Keep it short in a proposal. Summarise the key themes, show where studies disagree, and end with the gap your research fills. Our guide on how to write a literature review explains how to organise sources by theme.
The methodology section
Explain and justify:
- Your approach: quantitative, qualitative or mixed. See quantitative vs qualitative research.
- Your data: surveys, interviews, secondary data or experiments.
- Your sample: who, how many, and how you'll reach them.
- Your analysis: statistical tests, thematic analysis or another method.
Building a realistic timeline
Work backwards from your submission date. Leave at least a third of your time for analysis and writing, and add buffer time for ethics approval. Our free assignment planner turns your deadline into a week-by-week plan.
Mistakes supervisors see most
- A topic too big for the word count.
- No clear gap in the literature.
- Methods that don't match the question.
- Ignoring ethics or data access.
- An unrealistic timeline.
Need support?
Our dissertation support covers proposals, literature reviews, methodology and analysis, chapter by chapter.