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human
Academics of AskPhil: what constitutes a great research proposal for a PhD?

I'm graduating my second masters soon, so it's time for me to start looking for a PhD position. Mind you, I am in Europe, I think stuff may work a bit different here in terms of graduate schools etc.

For nearly every position you have to write a research proposal that covers the what/how/why of your research. I have written some short ones, but a proposal for research that'll last 3 to 4 years is a different story.

How can I go about this in the best way? What should I focus on? How did you do it?
gpt
I've just had mine accepted.

Our Research Methods taught module had a research proposal as one of its components.

The structure we were given to follow was the following:

Title/Question - The question you intend to answer in the thesis

Context - A survey of the literature and surrounding area to your question. Why is the question important. What contribution will it make to the overall scholarship.

Method - How you intend to go about answering your question. A rough division of the sections you intend to have in your thesis.

Bibiliography - The texts you intend to use.

Most of the proposal is in the context, then the method.

The expected length (including bibiliography) was about 1500 words.