Recently, I’ve been reading lots of books about proposal and thesis writing. This is courtesy of containment or lock-down brought about by Covid-19 pandemic. I thought you may also be interested in this type of content.
Before you start engaging in your academic research towards getting your postgraduate degree or diploma, there are a number of steps that you must pass through.
Research proposal
The first step is writing a research proposal. This is like an expression of interest that you are going to conduct research on a certain topic and then you provide the reasons why that area is important.
According to Kombo and Tromp (2006), a research proposal refers to suggestions, intentions, plans or schemes and a research proposal can also be referred to as a research plan.
There are three main chapters in a research proposal: the introduction, review of relevant literature and research methodology. Finally, a research proposal includes references and appendices.
Research Thesis
A research Thesis on the other hand is a “written scientific report that deals with concerns related to a problem or series of problems in research.” That is according to Kombo and Tromp.
A research thesis has all the chapters of a research proposals plus research findings (Chapter 4), conclusions and recommendations (Chapter 5).
We will talk more about each of the above areas.