Preparing yourself for a high impact Research Proposal on your Graduate Studies

1. LIVE SESSION
PREP
This session takes you through the major components of
the PhD proposal in line with your study title

2.  When doing a PhD proposal, there are the major
components that we should master to please our
supervisors, readers…
 If you wear dirty clothes, having uncombed hair etc.,
your audience feels negatively about you, “Wow is
this person normal upstairs?” What do I mean? Just
kidding. You need to impress your audience to realize
the relevance of your work, the value in it.
Introduction

3.  It has three parts that are;
 Introduction and background
 Review of related literature
 Research methodology
 Knowing these major components will determine
your readiness on your PhD journey.
Major a components of a proposal

4.  In this part you start by tracing and analysing the
background about the study to outline and justify the
problem that influenced you to carry out the study. You
focus on literature (historical trends, stats, burden of
identified problem(s).
 You use funnel approach from ‘broad to narrow’
international trends, regional, and local, e.g. on the
management strategies in stock-feeds production. This
background analysis allows you to come up with the
problem statement and the research objectives and
questions. You use peer reviewed articles here.
1st part: Introduction & Background

5.  This part involves navigating through relevant literature to
your study concept. You review articles, published reports,
news articles, dissertations & other information to
establish a deeper understanding of what you are
studying.
 Lit review enables the gaining of a thorough and deeper
understanding of what is being studied, trends and the
establishment of knowledge gaps
 You also analyse relevant theories to the study and
develop a conceptual framework that unpacks key terms
and deleniates study variables
2nd Part: Literature review

6.  This study investigates the effectiveness of the
management strategies used in the manufacturing process
in stock-feeds Zimbabwean production companies. A case
of National Foods Holdings Limited.
 What exactly looking for?
 Problem(s) that triggered you to carry out an investigation;
quality of stock-feeds produced in Zim, contribution of
stock-feed companies in Zim to economic development,
situation on the ground (management strategies being
used in different companies across the world),
Unpacking study title

7.  What are these approaches?
 Plans and procedures for research, e.g. Quantitative,
qualitative, & mixed methods research (combines
both Quan & Qual)
 In your proposal, you adopt the qualitative research
because it allows the gaining of in-depth information
that gives new insights and answers to the study
phenomenon. It also ensures you to gather data in a
real life context
Research approaches

8.  This is a belief about the way which data about a phenomenon should be
gathered, analysed and used.
 Examples of main research philosophies as outlined by Creswell (2018);
 Positivist research (Quantitative; objective analysis), pragmatist philosophy
(deals with facts; practical results are considered), realistic philosophy
(based on principles of positivist and interpretivist philosophy,
interpetivist/constructivist philosophy (Qualitative).
 You are using interpretivist for your study because you can get data in a real
life context, interpret it and come up with detailed data that answers the
research question.
 Creswell (2018) states that it is based on the principle which states that the
researcher performs a specific role in observing the social world.
Research Philosophy/Paradigm

9. Research
Paradigm/Philosop
hy
Associated
terminology
Basic
approaches/metho
ds
Data collection
tools/measures
Positivistic Experimental,
correlating,
reductionism,
causal relative etc.
Quantitative
though can also be
used in qualitative
Experiments, half
experiments, tests,
scales
Interpretivistic/con
structivistic
Naturalistic,
phenomelogical,
ethnographic,
symbolic
interaction
Qualitative
methods
Interview,
observation,
document review,
image data
analysis
Pragmatist Action
consequences,
pluralist, focused
on the problems,
application in the
real world, mixed
methods
Qualitative and or
quantitative
Interpretivist and
positivist measures
can be used e.g.
interviews,
observations,
testing and
experimentation
Outline of research philosophies

10.  What’s the hell is this?
 Now, this is the framework of research methods and
techniques that you choose as a researcher. The key
research designs that we have include;
 (Suitable for quantitative research): Descriptive research,
correlational research, causal-comparative/quasi
experimental research, experimental research
 Qualitative research designs: Grounded theory, case study
research, ethnography, & phenomenology.
Research design

11.  You are taking on Case study research which is
defined by Yin (2014) as an empirical inquiry that
investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its
real-life context.
 You prefer this design because it is less expensive,
saves time, gathers detailed data, enables the making
of practical improvements,
Design conti…

12.  These are tools you use to gather data from the
respondents;
 For qualitative research, they include; interviews,
focus group discussion, observations, document
review, surveys/questionnaires.
 You will either employ interviews, observations,&
document review
Data collection tools/measures

13.  Qualitative data can be analysed through qualitative
content analysis, narrative analysis, discourse analysis,
thematic analysis, grounded theory, and interpretive
phenomenological analysis.
 Research ethics are applied in research to protect the
study participants and they include; confidentiality,
informed consent, deception etc. Read Discussion 6
Data analysis and research ethics

14.  Research Consultant & Academic (Scroggs Research
Consultancy)
 Email; scroggsresearch@gmail.com
 Contact; +263776005489
Prepared by Benevolence
Nyamugada