I have been out of uni for quite some time now, but I would like to apply for UK (!) PhDs (so not the MA including US-PhDs). I am in the Humanities and I know the general topic within my field which I would like to focus on.   However, I am not sure what would make a good research question and even less sure how to find one. Any advice? How will I know? I am worried I will propose something ridiculous that will make me look immature, but I don't want to squander my chances with potential supervisors by looking so clueless.
In many countries an application for a PhD position includes a written research proposal, so my questions is what are some advises/strategies to come up with a good topic/idea for a PhD research proposal and how can one assess the quality/fruitfulness of an idea? As an undergraduate student one just doesn't have the experience to foresee which ideas might have promising research results and which probably won't have. (And I doubt that potential supervisors have the time to comment on every idea of every potential applicant in cases where it is possible to establish some kind of contact before the actual application.)
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