Question

In your own words, NO PLAGIARIZE, what is a research proposal and how is it different from a research paper?

200-300 wording please!

Answer 1

Ans.

Research proposal- A research proposal can be called as a formal request drafted on paper to carry out a specific research. It is the initial communication link between researcher and the authorities concerned for carrying out a research. It is usually drafted to ask for sponsorship to carry out the research.

Research proposal can be of many types, like -

1. Solicited proposal- They are submitted in response of the request by sponsor.
2. Unsolicited proposal- It is submitted by own will of the researcher, not in response of someone else.
3. Preproposal- It is the initial letter of intent submitted even before the research proposal. It contains initial information about the research.
4. Continuation proposal- It is submitted in case of multiyear research where sponsor has already approved the project. Here the developments of the research are notified to the sponsor time to time in form of continuation proposal.
5. Renewal proposal- It is submitted in the case when the sponsor is not satisfied with the previous researcher. Here, the proposals are asked for continuation of existing research.

Research proposal usually consists of-

• Topic on which researcher wants to carry out research.
• Methodology of the research
• Time and money estimate for the research
• Problems which could be addressed
• What is the motivation behind carrying out the research

Research paper- It is a document containing the own thoughts, evaluation and research result of the research topic. The content of the research paper is the self interpretation of the facts which researcher observes while carrying out the research. The ideas and information of the research can be inspired from some other theory but the result should be very own interpretation of the researcher.

Research papers can also be of different types like-

1. Analytical research paper- Here, the researcher draws multiple dimensions of the research and analyse them all. Finally a conclusion is drawn from the result of analysis.
2. Cause and effect- Both cause and effect of the research problem are drawn and a final conclusion is drawn based on them
3. Experimental research paper- An experiment is carried out its result is drawn on paper
4. Survey- A survey is carried out by the observer and formulate the observations in the form of research paper.

Thus, we can say that a research proposal is merely a framework of the research which has not been carried out yet. While research paper is the document containing the conclusion of the research already carried out by researcher.