The Research Proposal

Chapter 5 of Leedy and Ormrod (2013) was familiar to me in many ways.  It reminded me of the process of writing my Master's thesis; the give-and-take with my adviser; the constant revisions; sending what I thought was a perfect draft for review and receiving it back with red ink dripping from the pages.

For a moment, it made me question why I've embarked on this journey again.  But the interest of the material, the desire to know more, the drive to improve, both personally and professionally; all these are the forces that drive us to go through this process.

I have a tendency towards robust, complex prose.  This is something I will have to fight as I compose research proposals.  As it was illustrated in the chapter, an unclear or unfocused first sentence can predispose a reviewer against your proposal; I know this is true, since it has happened to me before.  When reading a student's paper, I often would see a cliche, or waste of print, as an introduction.  My initial thoughts in such a situation were exactly as the chapter described: "Why are they wasting my time?", "Couldn't they have done without this?" and so on.

The emphasis on clear, flowing organization, and formatting detail was good to see.  Reading a confusing or unattractive paper can make a reviewer balk as well.  Ideally, we would strive to produce a research proposal that the reviewer reads easily, without distractions of form, grammar, or spelling, with all ideas supported and logically-presented, so that the reader understands our message exactly as we indented it.

Of course, such perfect communication is unobtainable, but the closer we can get to this ideal position, the more honest and clear the research proposal process can be.  Though I may desire for my research to be accepted for publication or support simply out of ego, the "better angels of my nature" truly wish that the best proposals get grants, that the most important research is complete, and that the poorly thought-out or inconsequential be filtered.  It is encumbent upon us, as researchers, to strive to be in that first group: so that we can write our research proposals without guile; truly attempting to represent our proposal accurately, acting with the confidence that we are backing an admirable process.

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Works Cited
Leedy, P. D., & Ormrod, J. E. (2013). Practical Research: Planning and Design (10th ed.). Pearson: Boston.