How to Write a How to Write a Research Proposal?Research Proposal?

How to Write a How to Write a Research Proposal?Research Proposal?

I. I. Why Research ProposalWhy Research Proposal??I. I. Why Research ProposalWhy Research Proposal??

To be certain of your direction To be certain of your direction in researchin research

II. II. What is a Research What is a Research ProposalProposal??

II. II. What is a Research What is a Research ProposalProposal??

Simply, your research proposal should reflect:Simply, your research proposal should reflect:

• • whatwhat you are going to research you are going to research

• • whywhy you are going to research this particular you are going to research this particular areaarea

• • what is the what is the significancesignificance of researching this of researching this areaarea

• • howhow you are going to conduct the research you are going to conduct the research

11111111

33331111

(15-20 pages)

• Title page• 1.0 Project Background/Introduction

*Objectives• 2.0 Literature Review• 3.0 Methodology • 4.0 Expected Outcomes• References• Work Schedule/Attachments

III. Research Proposal Outline

Title Page

Title

A Proposal by……..

NameMatric number

Department of Biological SciencesFaculty of Science and Technology

Universiti Malaysia Terengganu2010

1.0 Project Background/ Introduction

– Statement of the problem or gap in the current research in your field of study.

- Introductory paragraphs

- Statement of the Problem

- Significance of the Study

Focal point of a research proposal:

Introductory paragraphs

• The primary goal:to catch the attention of the readers and to get them "turned on" about the subject.

• When writing the introduction, put yourself in your reader's position - would you continue reading?

Statement of the Problem

• It is just one sentence (with several paragraphs of elaboration).• You are looking for

something wrong.     ....or something that needs close attention     ....or existing methods that no longer seem to be working.

Significance of the Study

• It points out how your study relates to the larger issues

• The significance of the study answers the questions:

     - Why is your study important?     - To whom is it important?     - What benefit(s) will occur if

your study is done?

1.1 Objectives• A few typical statements are:

The goal of this study is to...     ... overcome the difficulty with ...     ... discover what ...      ... understand the causes or effects of ...     ... refine our current understanding of ...     ... provide a new interpretation of ...     ... understand what makes ___ successful or unsuccessful

2.0 Literature Review– Context in which the

problem arises; historical and current researches in the field

• Important - shows what previous researchers have discovered (and have not discovered).

• *One of the key elements that proposal readers look at, when deciding whether or not to approve a proposal.

Never say that your area is so new that no research exists.

!!!

• Detection and identification of antimicrobial compounds in fungi isolated from Avicennia alba

Contoh:

Contoh:

• Antioxidative activities of Melastoma malabathricum, L (senduduk) callus cultures

• Determination of nutritive value of several marine microalgae (Chlorella, Pavlova and Nano).

Contoh:

• Isolation and Characterization of Insecticide ( Carbofuran ) degrading bacteria from Malaysian Soil.

Contoh:

• Isolation and identification of free-living amoebae in water at Setiu Wetland Terengganu

Contoh:

• Recovery of bioactive compounds from bacteria associated with sponges

Contoh:

• Characterization and purification of polysaccharide from aquatic plants

Contoh:

Trace mineral profiles of the bivalve species Chamelea gallina and Donax

trunculus

Antioxidant activities of aqueous extracts of selected plants

Antioxidant activities of aqueous extracts of selected plants

Toxicity and bioaccumulation of copper and lead in five marine microalgae

BRACKISH-WATER MOLLUSKS OF SURAT THANI PROVINCE, SOUTHERN THAILAND

Butterflies and diurnal moths along road verges: Does road type affect diversity and abundance?

fragmentation of semi-natural grasslands (Rassi et al.,2001). Butterflies, in particular, have suffered from the decline of meadow area resulting from the rationalisation of farming methods (Pitka¨nen et al., 2001; Saarinen, 2002). This development has increased the importance of road verges and other linear elements in the landscape, such as field verges, power line cuttings and railroad embankments, in the conservation of biodiversity.The Finnish road network, totalling approximately 384,000 km in 2003, consists of public roads (20%), urban streets (7%) and private roads (73%) (Heinio¨ and Oras, 2003). Although private roads predominate, the public roads, which carry 66% of all road traffic in Finland, have the widest verges under the regular management organised by the Finnish Road Administration.In the absence of precise data we have estimated the area of mown verges along the public roads as 85,000 ha (Jantunen et al., 2004). Including the private roads, urban streets and other inherent structures such as intersections, lay-bys and road-cuttings, the area of managed roadside habitats in Finland comes to approximately 140,000 ha, which is sevenfold in comparison to the remaining area of semi-natural grasslands (Vainio et al., 2001).For butterflies, road verges provide large quantities of open habitats, but their quality is reduced by many physical and chemical features, such as extreme microclimatic conditions (Kontiokari, 1992), traffic-induced dust and pollutants (Koeleman et al., 1999; Askling et al., 2001), de-icing salts in the soil (Liem et al.,1985) and road kills (Mckenna et al., 2001; Ries et al.,2001). The structure and nutrient composition of the soil, together with mowing once or twice a year, however, are features that meadows and road verges have in common. In Finland, the roadside vegetation is mown between mid-June and September, the cut material is rarely removed and bushes and other woody plants are also cut at regular intervals of 3–5 years (Finnish Road administration, 2000). Although mowing is considered to increase plant diversity (Parr and Way, 1988; Persson, 1995), no thorough investigations of the road verge flora have been conducted in Finland. A diverse flora creates the foundation for a rich fauna of butterflies in the form of nectar resources for adults and food plants for larvae. These relationships have been well researched in agricultural environments, but few studies on butterfly communities along roads have as yet been made (Munguira and Thomas, 1992; Gerell, 1997; Bak et al., 1998). We studied communities of butterflies and day-active moths along the verges of public roads differing in respect to the management regime, the size of the road and the width of the verge. Based on the importance of habitat patch area in butterfly metapopulations (e.g., Hill et al., 1996; Thomas and Hanski, 1997; Wahlberg et al., 2002), the main hypothesis was that the wider the road and its verge, the higher the species richness and abundance of the verge fauna. The most important environmental factors related to high species richness and population densities of Lepidoptera, meadow species in particular, were also determined.

3.0 Methodology – Methodology you will use to

address the problem / key research questions

• Instrumentation• Procedure and time frame

• Analysis plan• Validity and reliability

• Discuss with your supervisor

MethodologyState clearly how you plan to conduct

your research:– What methodology are you using? Why?– What information needs to be gathered?– Will this data be applicable to the

research questions?– Who or what will you use as the data

source?– How will you collect data or construct

experiments?– What controls are in place?– How will the data be analysed?– Do you need ethics approval?

4.0 Expected Outcomes– Predicted results– Expected contribution to knowledge

References (*Panduan PITA)– how to cite in text

- how to list them

Work Schedule– Time-frame and (special) resources

References

• Kuyucak, N. & Volesky, B. 1989. Biosorption of heavy metals. Biorecovery 1:189-204.

Kumar, S.M. 2008. Biosorption. http://www.cheresources.com/biosorption.shtml [27 February 2010].

Ramachandra, T.V., Ahalya, N. & Kanamadi, R.D. 2006. Biosorption: techniques and mechanisms. ……….

Final research schedule

Month/Activities

JUNE JULY AUG SEPT OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR

Field Survey and Sampling

Germination Trial

Data Input

Data Analysis

Final Report Writing

Final presentation

Work Schedule

*** Insert other compulsory items – written proposal submission and preparation, proposal presentation and preparation, final presentation and preparation etc.

• Mind your English– Proofread your

proposal

Thank you