One of the things we ask for when you apply
to the University of Birmingham is a research
proposal. And, to understand what a research
proposal is – think, plain and simple, what
is the area of research and what is the thing
that really matters? It is definitely a proposal,
you don’t need to have the answers yet,
but it’s setting out – for us – that
you have got your own ideas, that you have
a research area that you want to shape, and
that it’s part of your passion as to why
you really want to address the questions that
are big in that area.
The best piece of advice I can give you for
writing a research proposal is to bear in
mind what we call ‘the four Ps’. That
means the person, your preparedness, the project
and the place. To think about those a little
bit more… We need to know a bit about you
as a person, where you’ve come from and
your academic background, your area of interest.
Your preparedness: we need to know about what
kind of study you’ve done before, what kind
of skills you’ve developed on those study
programmes; you might have related skills
from outside of study that shows how prepared
you are for that particular research programme.
But crucially, the project – does it add
up? Does it make sense? And finally, does
that project need to take place here? Think
about the place; think about the University
of Birmingham, what’s important.
To write a good research proposal, you need
to include enough information. That means
not just setting out the general area but
crucially, what are the one or two really
significant questions for your area of research.
That can be quite a challenge to decide how
big or how small you go, work with a potential
supervisor on that. But always have one or
two striking research questions.
In your research proposal you should also
include some of the context – what is going
on in the field? And, it’s really really
useful to think about what’s going on now
and what’s missing. So, for some areas that
will mean that nothing has been done since
the 1950s and now is the time where we need
to update it. In other areas, there’s a
lot going on but there’s still a gap, or
an angle of approach, or a particular way
of researching it that has been missed. So
think about what’s going on there already.
So there’s the question, and the context.
There are two other useful elements that should
go into the research proposal. The element
of how you’re going to actually answer your
question, what people call ‘the methodology’.
What is it? What actually are you going to
do? And don’t be afraid to think of that
as just the nuts and bolts bit – it’s
okay to say that you’re just going to sit
down and read and write with a pencil. But
often, there’ll be types of research that
involve interviewing, or types of research
that might involve some fieldwork, or trips
to an archive. Think about what the method
is – not just that you’re going to sit
in the archive and look at pretty books, or
pretty images, but what you’re actually
going to do to interrogate that information.
And finally, you need to think in your research
proposal about what your research and what
your analysis will uncover. You don’t need
to have the answers yet, but you need to have
a good idea as to where it might lead, and
what the kind of conclusions might be. Think
of it really as what original contribution
might you make to that research area.
Before you start writing a research proposal,
the most important thing you can do is make
contact with a potential supervisor. Typically
to do that you might want a draft of an idea,
and to give a flavour as to what your academic
experience is up ‘til that point. Crucial
is if you make contact with us we can help
advise you on your research proposal, and
that’s a really important step with a research
degree programme.
