3.4 Formulating the Research Proposal

The proposal = the research's contract — the document that commits the design before the work; the university's and funder's approval instrument. The proposal's ten elements (the exam's sequence): The title — precise, bounded, the variables or relationships visible; The introduction/background — the context and the law's area; The statement of the problem — the gap and the questions (the interrogative form), with the objectives' numbered list; The literature review (compact) — what is known, what is missing (the gap the study fills); The research questions/hypotheses — the interrogative questions; the testable, falsifiable, relational hypotheses (the null-and-alternative discipline) where the design is empirical; The methodology — the approach (Unit 2's doctrinal/non-doctrinal choice), the design (Unit 4), the tools (Unit 5), the sampling plan, the data-analysis plan; The scope and limitations — the boundaries honestly declared; The time-and-work schedule — the phases' calendar (the Gantt-style plan); The resources and budget — the materials, the travel, the software; The ( indicative ) bibliography — the first sources' list (the proposal's own reading proof). The hypothesis craft (the proposal's empirical heart): a hypothesis = the tentative answer put to test — testable (evidence can refute it), relational (the variables linked: "the delay correlates with the parties' poverty", not a value claim), clear and specific (the variables defined); the null hypothesis (no relationship —…