Research Plan for Proposed Research Project - Essay Example

Research Plan for Proposed Research Project Having been assigned the task of writing a research plan for a proposed research project, we have to follow a well planned strategy with a clear idea and focus on the subject matter of research. The subject or topic of research needs to be fully understood as henceforth all the work related to this task will have to be directed towards a more better understanding in discovering ways and means to gather additional and new information in the matter. While researching on a subject matter the primary goal is to throw more light on the understanding of the subject by way of discovery of additional facts and figures in the matter. We need to have a plan very well defined and a quest strategy in place to determine all the places where we will find answers to all questions that arise while doing the research. We need to source information from libraries, experts, teachers, books and television programmes. We must search for information from all possible sources, take notes and use all the available information to write the final report. Indeed writing a research plan is tricky in the sense that it is difficult to find information that one can rely on. Research involves talking to lot of people, interviewing them and discreetly using the extract of the entire information in the right context. The ability to write a commendable research plan demonstrates a person’s creditable intellectual vision and aspirations and contributes towards one’s efforts to become an expert in a particular field. A research plan ought to be compelling and specific and focused on the relevant theme. The entire plan must be realistic and well considered and built on solid data. One must be resourceful and display compelling approaches, which should stand very good chances of success with the readers of the research plan. All ideas need to be fresh, original and new conveying the discovery of new material and knowledge. Mistakes and misrepresentations must be avoided to create a trustworthy impression with the reader of the paper. Like a business plan, a research plan gives us a sense of direction in pursuing our goal of research in a way that we come out with a planned agenda of actions to arrive at conclusions. This plan entails lot of resources which support the viewpoint and must include several arguments and data in support of our contention on the research in question. While making a research plan one must consider and think of all the people who can help us to get more information on the topic as also on the kind of questions that need to be asked to get more data in the matter. This helps in coming to a discreet conclusion about the issues being examined. The use of the right reference material and research strategy along with books helps a great deal in coming to a well meaning and authentic conclusion, which is the basic judgment criteria of a well researched plan. Although the quality and reliability of these resources is of crucial importance, one must be open about all the available data and evaluate the same with a critical mind to arrive at any conclusion. The topic has to be thoroughly researched by using several means to arrive at any realistic and meaningful account of acceptability amongst the teaching fraternity. Moreover the research must target and aim at the creation of something new or innovate on an existing theory or practice so as to enlighten the reader and make the picture more clear in its understanding. Once the topic of research is assigned, we must make a list of key words that will assist us in getting more information about the topic from indexes of books, and search engines and directories of online sources. If we have the right key words it is a lot easier to be very effective in our search. Keywords are the specific words which meaningfully relate to the subject matter of research and provide further choices to diversify one’s efforts in gathering additional information. They should describe the topic very well and should not be sentences. Next it is important to have an overview of the topic, which can be had from an encyclopedia and other online sources. It is essential to find the right source of information that explains in very simple and clear terms the subject matter of research without going too much in detail. It should address issues such as who, what, where and when about the matter being researched. The headings and sub headings of the given overview must be observed closely to get a thorough understanding of the issues. It is through the sub headings that we systematically build on the research plan and write the paper accordingly. While researching it’s a good idea to make source cards or index cards, which are used to record point wise, all the information needed about the sources used by us. They help a great deal in identifying the sources of various theories, quotations, and other reading material while citing references for the submitted work. While doing research there is so much of what is read, and it becomes an arduous task concentrating on the more relevant and specific issues in relation to the topic of research. Hence we need to narrow down on the more pertinent details to display perfect understanding of the subject matter. We need to be confident about the relevance and strength of what we wish to convey for which a compact and specific narration needs to be made. Focusing on a subject matter requires consistent practice and the ability to judge the relevancy of all reading material and data that is at our disposal. It is crucially important to focus on the topic with a thorough understanding of what is being researched with priorities very well defined and crystal clear in one’s mind. It is an excellent idea to make the entire research process simple and interesting by relating the subject matter to an area of your interest. This saves lot of time and makes the entire work a lot more interesting and prevents one from getting into panic mode and of course the results are much better. While focusing on the topic we must brainstorm ourselves on whatever questions that come to mind in relation to the topic of research and then creatively think of the sources that can provide answers to them and use them to make notes to further guide us in the task. Brainstorming is a process of the mind whereby a person thinks of several issues and several options as also of all possible answers to questions that come to the mind and finally narrows down to more specific issues using his own intellect and reasoning power. It prevents one from loosing track of the more important and relevant issues resulting from one’s own thinking process. We can then formulate a clear idea of the purpose of research, and how to go about it, which constantly guides us as we proceed with the research work. Committing one self to the statement of purpose further helps in focusing on the information and evidence we have. There is no need to be rigid about the statement of purpose as it can be changed at will as per convenience and prevailing circumstances while moving ahead with our research. To organize the paper in a better and more presentable format we should further make sub topic headings to identify the various sections of the paper and to make an outline of all the issues being researched. This way more key words will come to our mind and we can add them to our list and conduct search for more authentic information from several sources such as books, magazines newspapers, atlases, experts and intellectuals, visits to museums, electronic databases, and the web. There is an unlimited store of information waiting for us to be tapped, the only criteria being our ability to focus on the right keywords to identify and conduct search on. Once we find the right sources we must make appropriate source cards to organize the subject matter for presentation of our research paper. To avoid getting off the track it helps to make an outline of the important parts of the paper in the order that they will be written. . Outline is just for one’s own use to stay on course and to see if there is enough material to write for the thesis. Once the outline is ready ideas and evidence can be linked with sentences and paragraphs along with sub headings, and then one can proceed to write the main body of the paper. To make our research strong and supported with the right thrust to further the contention of the research and our conclusions, it is imperative that we formulate a meaningful thesis statement. The thesis statement is our viewpoint of the subject matter, which we can conclusively prove to substantiate all the issues raised and explained in the paper with proper evidence. The thesis statement is however written only after a statement of purpose is made, which requires thorough research into the topic that we are writing on. An example of statement of purpose could be “ I will find out what are the various treatments available for curing cancer”. We can see that it is a strong statement, which entails a long chain of learning and research activities and does lead towards our destination if pursued in right earnest. An example of thesis statement could be “there have been several researches done on the cure of cancer, but there is none so far to cure the advanced stage.” The thesis statement must be initially presented in the introduction of the research paper and all along the report should be kept in mind supported with evidence from authentic sources. It should also be emphasized and supported with conclusive evidence while making the conclusion of the paper. All of our research work, once thought over and well compiled as a systematic approach, studied and finalized, must be put together in a very presentable format with the help of the outline and note cards that we already have. Thereafter we must make a plan of the chronological order that all the material will appear in so as to give it a meaningful, impressive and effective format. All the material written in the paper should be very clear about how it supports and substantiates the thesis statement. Starting with the list of sub topics that we have prepared and in order of their importance and chronology, the information with proper citations should be written so that every paragraph is properly placed in the correct format and in the right place in relevance to the sub topics entered in the paper. Citing sources is an integral component of the paper, which is included to let people know about the sources of our study and about how we have arrived to our conclusions. Whenever material is used from other sources it is unfair to keep the reader in the dark by not divulging the source of information, as by doing so the reader is made clear about what are our ideas and what material has been used from outside sources to substantiate our study so as to arrive at our conclusions. By doing this we are making our study more credible by being honest about our intentions and having due justification in seeking the deserved appreciation for our work. Citing of sources can be done at the end of the report as footnotes or as a bibliography. . It must be made sure that all material that is used in the research must be properly cited so that there is no charge of plagiarism. Getting through with writing the main paper it is very important to proof read and check the entire paper carefully for spelling and grammar. We must be aware that the introduction and conclusion too are very important parts of the report. Introduction is the introduction to the topic we are researching on, which also includes a narration of the thesis statement. Conclusion is a summary of the main areas of the research along with our conclusion, and it must create a very good impact on the reader. It must be the concluding paragraph of the paper and must be an extract of what all the report includes, what is the conclusion and why so. Every research paper must have a title paper, which gives the reader of our paper the first impression about us, and about our capabilities, as also an indication of what is in store for him about the content and quality of the paper. To create the right impact on the reader, we must make the title page very impressive and meaningful. Essentially the title paper must include the following: Name Institution Date of submission of paper Title of the project Standard of class Name of Instructor The above information can be made more exhaustive depending on the requirement of institutions. Having done this we must evaluate our own work to judge it from our own point of view with a very critical view point, and make necessary changes wherever required to give it a more meaningful, conclusive and presentable look. Once all these steps are accomplished our paper is ready for final submission with the satisfaction that we have done a wonderful job. References http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_development http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/bedfordresearcher/activities/docs/ResearchPlan.pdf http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/rlc/researchplan.html http://library.humboldt.edu/owls/owl2-Make.htm http://library.duke.edu/services/instruction/libraryguide/evaluating.html www.kyvl.org/html/kids/homebase.html www.crlsresearchguide.org www.trinity.wa.edu.au/plduffyrc/library/study/ www.ri.net/schools/East_Greenwich/research.html www.virtualchase.com/articles.shtml www.dianahacker.com/resdoc owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/hypertext/ResearchW Read More