Creating a research plan
Resources > writing guides > research writing > research process > making a research plan: how to develop a research a research plan: how to develop a research strategyview your topic narrowed down and focused and your research questions developed, you are ready to dive into the bulk of your research; first, create a research plan, and develop a research strategy. Your strategy should involve answering three questions to shape your research, creating a plan timetable, preliminary outline and research ch strategy question #1: what amount of research do you need? Answer this research strategy question, you must take the following into consideration:The required length of the research number of sources likely, there are a minimum number of sources you are required to use, but if not, you can determine that based off other particulars of the ch strategy question #2: what types of sources are appropriate for your topic? Instructor may specifically require certain types of research materials or may restrict your use of others. Make sure you understand what is and is not ish a timetable for your research you have asked the three research strategy questions, establish a timeline. This sets the pace for how quickly you conduct research to continue working through the research writing process. Use these guidelines when creating a timeline:Allow adequate time to conduct thorough as soon as possible to eliminate stress that is likely to build at the last er that researching well and finding the right sources of information takes a preliminary you have established a timeline, create a preliminary outline. Think about and decide on the main points you intend to cover and which answer your research question(s). In fact, your preliminary outline is likely to change many times, but at the beginning it helps you keep your research structured and a log of your research in a a preliminary outline in hand, you are ready to start researching. If you follow the research plan you put in place, you are more likely to conduct thorough, structured research that only strengthens your more become an g resources > writing guides > research writing > research process > making a research plan: how to develop a research a research plan: how to develop a research strategyview your topic narrowed down and focused and your research questions developed, you are ready to dive into the bulk of your research; first, create a research plan, and develop a research strategy. If you follow the research plan you put in place, you are more likely to conduct thorough, structured research that only strengthens your more become an every applicant for a tenure-track faculty job is expected to include a research plan. Just as rare are programs designed to help doctoral students and postdocs learn how to create a research plan. We interviewed and corresponded with faculty and research scientists who have served on hiring committees. From your immediate point of view, the purpose of a research plan is to help get you research plan, however, serves another, very important function: it contributes to your development as a scientist. As will become apparent later in this document, one of the functions of a research plan is to demonstrate your intellectual vision and aspirations.
Writing a research plan casts your gaze forward and prompts you to begin planning for when you have your own laboratory. And if you've already started to think about your own lab, it will help you to refine your plans. So take a stab at writing a research plan, even if you don't expect to be on the job market for a while. The aim of your research plan, then, as of the rest of your application, is to assure the hiring committee that life with you will be do you do this? Provide the committee a compelling, reassuring, believable image of what their life will be like when you are working down the them a story--a believable, credible story--about what your lab will be like 5 years from now: well-funded, vibrant, productive, pursuing a valuable, ambitious but realistic research agenda that meshes well with the department's mission and with the other research going on in the don't misunderstand: you shouldn't tell them this ("in 5 years my lab will be vibrant, productive, and well-funded ... Rather, you need to lead them to believe it by describing a research agenda that persuades them that you will succeed. If the research you plan is not compelling, no rhetorical skill will make it compelling to a committee of smart scientists. If the research you propose is not manifestly, obviously important, if you don't know why it's important, or if you can't convey its importance effectively, convincing the committee to hire you won't be easy. It isn't easy to change gears midcourse, but getting yourself into an important area of research will be well worth the effort in the long term--to your hirability, to your fundability, to your tenurability, and also to your career satisfaction. Curing cancer is not a suitable goal for one individual's research plan--exciting, yes, but much too big to be believable. That kind of research] can travel down several different mechanistic routes," this respondent says, "i. Angiogenesis, breakdown of extracellular matrix, gene activation, induction of molecules involved--it can use different models--implanting tumors, using different tumor models, in vivo, in vitro, etc. The combination of a manifestly important goal with manifestly interesting, feasible approaches is the foundation of the research specific is not the same thing as including loads of detail. Superfluous details are not just unnecessary, they are often the hallmark of a poor plan. Constructing a research plan along these lines strengthens your application in three ways: you avoid alienating the committee by boring them; you tell the committee precisely what you intend to do; and you show that you have a subtle mind and a deep knowledge of your 't do this yet?
And by all means have several people--preferably senior colleagues who have served on hiring committees--critique your research there were two parts to this, remember? You not only have to tell a good story--you also have to make it seem real, to make them expect it to come do i make my research plan seem real? If you want to get a job at an institution that takes its research seriously, you'll have to convince your future colleagues that you've gotten past the young, impressionable phase, where every idea glitters with promise despite the fact that it isn't feasible and isn't likely to work. In the words of one scholar, "you can tell a 'building castles in the sky' research plan. One of my sources was unequivocal on this point: "does the research question build on the preliminary data the person has generated? No matter how knowledgeable you are, no matter how well considered your research plan, you can't predict the future. Think of it as a continuum: at one end sit well-established researchers with strong research records, many first-author (or last-author) publications, and their own research funding. Most candidates for entry-level tenure-track faculty jobs at institutions that require research (that is, most of the people who write research plans for job applications) are somewhere in the middle. You probably won't get hired anywhere if you aren't well prepared to start a productive research program at a scale appropriate for the these days some institutions and departments are looking for more than that. Increasingly, especially in the biomedical field, universities are hiring established researchers, even at the "entry" (assistant professor) level. Increasingly, senior postdocs are being promoted to research associate or research faculty positions during what the grantdoctor calls the "postpostdoc" phase of their research career. In that position, they write research grants in their own names and their host institutions sponsor them. Very often these folks have an r01 before they begin applying for a tenure-track key objective if you’re applying to one of these institutions is securing research grants: if you have a grant in your own name, you'll be a strong candidate; if you don't have your own grant, you are less competitive. It's a cynical cop out on the institution’s part, really, taking a pass on the difficult job of evaluating talent and capitulating to the reality of big-time biomedical research: it's all about the cash. Indeed, second-tier research institutions tend to expect the most experience; harvard and johns hopkins do not expect you to have your own research grant.
Few people applying for tenure-track jobs have had the opportunity to start their own research programs. As not, all your data were collected in someone else's lab, as a part of someone else's research agenda. One respondent said it beautifully: "the best plans usually build on the prior experience of the applicant but are not direct extensions of their postdoctoral work. M going to type that phrase again, it's so important: the best plans usually build on the prior experience of the applicant but are not direct extensions of their postdoctoral you're one of the select few applicants with lots of experience leading your own lab, that's the key to your rhetorical strategy. It's different enough to be original, but similar enough that your years of training aren't r respondent wrote, "most candidates (95%) stick to extensions of what they are most familiar with, but the key is, have they figured out some rather creative new directions for the research and have they done a good job convincing us that they can do it based on what is already known? Once we have a short list of candidates," writes yet another source, "the research proposals are looked at more carefully for imaginative ideas that differ from the candidates’ ph. Decide what turf is his or hers, what turf is yours, and what story you intend to tell in your research plan and his or her letter of recommendation. Talk to your adviser about carving out your own research niche within the larger research effort, where you do work motivated by your own original ideas, something related but oblique to what your adviser is doing in the rest of the the research plan more important in the screening phase or late in the game? General, research plans are weighed more heavily later in the game, with more readily comprehensible evidence (especially pedigree, letters of recommendation, impact factor of journals, etc. Being weighed more heavily in the early r, your research plan must be designed to serve more than one purpose. One person i spoke to said that a research plan should be "about three pages of 1. Some will think it's a bit too long, others a bit too short, but no one will throw it out because of its er that we said that a research plan needs to help you through initial screening and withstand careful scrutiny in the later do you make a good first impression? The idea is to present, up front, in half a page or so, the information that the committee is most likely to be looking for in the early, screening phase of the search: clearly stated research goals, the most compelling motivation, and the general approach you intend to attention to the layout. A research plan should tell how great the science is, not how great you are. Focus on contributions to scientific knowledge, not research experience and expertise," writes one obvious mistakes.
In her list of fatal errors, one respondent wrote: "poorly covering or misstating the literature, grammatical or spelling errors, and, near the top of the list, writing research plans that ask for too much effort on the part of the reader--they should be clear and concise. You want the value of your research to speak for itself--avoid exaggerated claims of its importance. Is it big enough, but with answerable individual questions so that the question generates a research path that could be followed for some time? Your research plan should be coherent, with a theme common to all your work, but not so close that they seem to be shades of the same ize your research plan to the institution you're applying for. It's pretty obvious, but you wouldn't send the same research plan to johns hopkins university and to swarthmore college. And speaking of swarthmore: research plans sent to predominantly undergraduate institutions should be carefully designed to coexist with substantial teaching loads and to benefit from the participation of undergraduate ts, suggestions? Research behemoth is born in n may explain morning sickness, and n hawking, betting g's bid to save quantum theory from black ting rules hobble spanish institutes. 2 steps in developing a research fy the steps in developing a research a topic and formulate a research question and working p a research g a good research paper takes time, thought, and effort. Focusing on one step at a time will help you develop a thoughtful, informative, well-supported research first step is to choose a topic and then to develop research questions, a working thesis, and a written research proposal. Fully exploring ideas will help you build a solid foundation for your you choose a topic for a research paper, you are making a major commitment. Your choice will help determine whether you enjoy the lengthy process of research and writing—and whether your final paper fulfills the assignment requirements. You will ask these questions during this preliminary phase of the research fying potential mes, your instructor may provide a list of suggested topics. Discussing your ideas with your instructor will help ensure that you choose a manageable topic that fits the requirements of the this chapter, you will follow a writer named jorge, who is studying health care administration, as he prepares a research paper. You will also plan, research, and draft your own research was assigned to write a research paper on health and the media for an introductory course in health care. He brainstormed a list of you are writing a research paper for a specialized course, look back through your notes and course activities.
Use brainstorming or idea mapping to create a list of topics you would be interested in researching for a paper about the influence of the internet on social networking. Each topic has so many facets that it would be impossible to cover them all in a college research paper. However, more specific choices, such as the pros and cons of sexual education in kids’ television programs or the physical effects of the south beach diet, are specific enough to write about without being too narrow to sustain an entire research paper. If your topic is too broad, you will find it difficult to do more than skim the surface when you research it and write about it. To narrow your focus, explore your topic in writing, conduct preliminary research, and discuss both the topic and the research with ing your topic in writing. How am i supposed to narrow my topic when i haven’t even begun researching yet? I bet even doctors, nurses, and dietcians have trouble figuring out what information is reliable and what is just the latest ting preliminary r way writers may focus a topic is to conduct preliminary research. Preliminary online research and discussions with his classmates strengthened his impression that many people are confused or misled by media coverage of these decided to focus his paper on a topic that had garnered a great deal of media attention—low-carbohydrate diets. He wanted to find out whether low-carbohydrate diets were as effective as their proponents work, you may need to research a topic quickly to find general information. For example, a company may research a competitor’s prices and use the information when pricing their own product. In this exploratory phase of your research, you do not need to evaluate sources as closely as you will later. Then review your writing to identify possible areas of aside time to conduct preliminary research about your potential topics. Then choose a topic to pursue for your research share your topic list with a classmate. Discuss why you found the topics interesting, and learn which of your topics your classmate selected and freewriting and preliminary research have helped you choose a focused, manageable topic for your research paper. Before you begin conducting in-depth research, you will further define your focus by developing a research question, a working thesis, and a research ating a research forming a research question, you are setting a goal for your research.
Your main research question should be substantial enough to form the guiding principle of your paper—but focused enough to guide your research. A strong research question requires you not only to find information but also to put together different pieces of information, interpret and analyze them, and figure out what you think. As you consider potential research questions, ask yourself whether they would be too hard or too easy to determine your research question, review the freewriting you completed earlier. Determine your main question—the primary focus of your paper—and several subquestions that you will need to research to answer your main are the research questions jorge will use to focus his research. Jorge will need to research his subquestions, which address narrower topics, to answer his main :main question: are low-carbohydrate diets as effective as they have been portrayed to be by media sources? Check that your main research question is appropriately complex for your ucting a working thesis. Instead, it expresses a debatable idea or claim that you hope to prove through additional research. As you learn more about your topic, you may change your thinking in light of your research findings. Let your working thesis serve as a guide to your research, but do not be afraid to modify it based on what you began his research with a strong point of view based on his preliminary writing and research. Notice how it states jorge’s tentative answer to his research research question: are low-carb diets as effective as they have sometimes been portrayed to be by the mass media? These statements are useful starting points, but formal research papers use an objective a working thesis statement that presents your preliminary answer to the research question you wrote in note 11. Check that your working thesis statement presents an idea or claim that could be supported or refuted by evidence from ng a research proposal. Research proposal is a brief document—no more than one typed page—that summarizes the preliminary work you have completed. Your purpose in writing it is to formalize your plan for research and present it to your instructor for feedback. In your research proposal, you will present your main research question, related subquestions, and working thesis.
You will also briefly discuss the value of researching this topic and indicate how you plan to gather jorge began drafting his research proposal, he realized that he had already created most of the pieces he needed. However, he knew he also had to explain how his research would be relevant to other future health care professionals. In addition, he wanted to form a general plan for doing the research and identifying potentially useful sources. Read jorge’s research you begin a new project at work, you may have to develop a project summary document that states the purpose of the project, explains why it would be a wise use of company resources, and briefly outlines the steps involved in completing the project. Both documents define and limit a project, explain its value, discuss how to proceed, and identify what resources you will g your own research you may write your own research proposal, if you have not done so already. Follow the guidelines provided in this ping a research proposal involves the following preliminary steps: identifying potential ideas, choosing ideas to explore further, choosing and narrowing a topic, formulating a research question, and developing a working thesis. Good topic for a research paper interests the writer and fulfills the requirements of the ng and narrowing a topic helps writers conduct focused, in-depth s conduct preliminary research to identify possible topics and research questions and to develop a working thesis. Good research question interests readers, is neither too broad nor too narrow, and has no obvious answer. Good working thesis expresses a debatable idea or claim that can be supported with evidence from s create a research proposal to present their topic, main research question, subquestions, and working thesis to an instructor for approval or is a derivative of writing for success by a publisher who has requested that they and the original author not receive attribution, originally released and is used under cc by-nc-sa. Related slideshares at ping research bharati, student at sndt hed on oct 28, ping research ship & you sure you want message goes the first to ant professor at bncet t at maharaja surajmal institute of ping research ping research ted by: anvita conducting any research, researcher should research plan should include the overall purpose of ch and how the outputs will be used ale for developing research plan. It helps researcher to organize his ideas in a y it will be possible for him to look for inadequacies, if any. Research objective should be clearly stated in or two which tells exactly what it is researcher expects to do. The problem to be studied by researcher explicitly stated so that one may know ation is to be obtained for solving the. Each major concept which researcher wants e should be defined in in context of the research project. If the study happens to be sample based, ch plan should state the sampling method of identifying the sample should that generalization from the sample to al population is feasible.
Results of pilot test, if any, should be and cost budgets for the research also be prepared and laid down in ns of research purpose of this section clearly and be what the ch is intended include be able within aims should fit an overall should be than broad and ic ound&significance. Highlight why gs are the confines of ic research projectbackground & preliminary results bes prior work by igators relevant to progress report e a summary of us application's and importance of s how previous to the current ize how the demonstrates feasibility tation are important s, tables and ch design & e details related to specific methodology; explain why ed methods are the best to accomplish study be any novel concepts, approaches, tools or e details of how data will be collected and results er required statistical e proposed work plan and timeline. Plan should cover a period of of action should be to top levels of hierarchy should ed in the planning l purpose of are specific aim,• c. 1 – 3, writing for course - linkedin strategies for teaching in higher course - linkedin ts from a college career course - linkedin ng a research .