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ADIGRAT UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
Research Proposal writing guideline
Adigrat University
Febrary-18

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What is a research proposal?
 It is a detailed plan of your study.
 It is a document which sets out your ideas in an easily accessibleway.
 Objective of writing a proposal:
 To present a focused and scholarly presentation of a research problem and
plan.
 To describe to research advisory committee or to funding agents what you
will do, why it should be done, how you will do it, and what you expect will
result.
What questions your proposal should answer?
• What do you want to do? – research question
• Why do you want to do it? – Any information gap
• Why is it important? – any practical importance or knowledge advancement
• Who has done similar work? - background
• How are you going to do it? -methodology
• How long will it take? – plan of work
• How much it costs? - Budget
Components of a Research proposal
• The most logical order of a research proposal development is:
• Title/Research topic
• Abstract or executive summary

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• Acknowledgements
• Table of contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction/background
• Statement of the problem
• Objectives
• Literature review
• Materials and Methods/ Methodology
• Benefit and beneficiary
• Expected output
• Work plan
• Budget and funding
• References
1. Summary/Abstract – a one page brief summary of the thesis proposal.
 It shows that your work fits with the topic
 It shows what a contribution your work will make.
 Do not put any information not stated in the main text.
 Never contain references, figures and tables.
 It comes first but written last.
 Should be written in future tense.
The abstract should be a short summary (in general less than full page) that describes the
background of your project, the work you have done and the conclusions. Since the abstract should
summarize the report, you cannot write the abstract until the remainder of the report is ready

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(except for maybe some minor editing). Although this means that the abstract is based on texts that
you already have at hand, writing a good abstract is surprisingly difficult, because you need to keep it
short and focus on the most important results. This is also a section of the report that must be
understandable to all categories of readers, which means that you should avoid abbreviations and
special expressions that are not known to the general reader. Moreover, the abstract should be
independent of the main report, i.e., you cannot assume that the reader of abstract has read any
other parts of the report.
A hint to structure a good abstract is to try to write one short paragraph (2 to 3 lines size) for each
of the following headings:
 Why is it necessary to study this field? Briefly explain the background of the problem, and
define the problem that you have studied.
 What have you done in your project? Explain which theoretical development that was
necessary, mention the main methods and models that have been used, and describe the
practical testing (for example case studies) that you have done.
 Which results did you get? Here you will either have to provide a general over‐ view (for
example, “The case studies show that the X method can significantly decrease the costs of
the system.”) or you can select a few key numbers to be reported.
 What are your conclusions of the project? Discuss how the findings from your project can
be used in practice. Mention if further studies are needed in the field.
2. Introduction/Background – background information of the research proposal.
Discuss the historical development of events regarding the specific topic you are
interested to study. Describe basic assumptions/concerns that led you to study this
topic. Also include information on the likely contribution to knowledge or practice that
the research will make and its place in current debate/theory. Describe the gaps that the
proposed research is intended to fill. Generally
 Introduce the problem, moving from the broader issues to your specific
problem, finishing the section with the precise aims of the paper.
 It establishes a framework for the research; show what a contribution your work
will make.
 Should site the most recent and relevant works, and should explain why work is
required.

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 It should motivate the reader to read the whole paper.
3. Statement of the problem – the general issue that leads to a need for the study.
 It answers the question ‘Why does this research be conducted?’
 The foundation for everything to follow in the proposal.
4. Objective of the study-aim which the researcher seeks to achieve as a result of
completing the research. Objectives should be simple, stated in advance, stated using
action verbs.
Objectives can be classified into:
4.1. General objective – showing what exactly to be studied, and states the desired outcomes
from the study.
4.2. Specific objectives – shows in greater detail the specific aims of the research project.
5. Literature review – a description of the literature very relevant to your study.
 Gives an overview of what has been said, who the key authors in the area are, what
the prevailing theories and hypothesis are, etc.
 Relevant materials could be from books, journal articles, theses and dissertations,
government reports, etc.
Note:
Be very careful to check your sources when doing your literature review.
Many trade magazines are not peer reviewed.
How do you collect a Literature Review?
• Identify key terms from your research problem
• Locate literature
• Critically evaluate and select the literature
• Organize the literature
• Write a review
Effect of web-site technology on
distance education class attendance
Web-site technology,
Distance education

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6. Materials and Methods/Methodology - a detail description of the materials, activities
and the methodological steps you will take to achieve your objectives. Depending upon
the type of study, it includes:
 Description of study area, study design and study participants
 Sampling technique and sample size used
 Methods of data collection
 Method (s) of data analysis, etc.
Study design: Depending upon the type of study, it could be:
Survey: Observational studies – the researchers stand apart from events taking place in the study
Experimental/intervention studies – the investigator tests the effect of an intervention on the
events taking place in the study.
7. Work plan – a schedule that summarizes the different components of a research
proposal and how they will be implemented. Here,
 Different phase/components of the study should be stated
 Describe the activitiesin each phase.
 Indicate time frame to accomplish the various aspects of the study.
 Could be presented in table, chart (Gantt chart) or graph.
8. Budget and funding – the cost of conducting research.
 Budget items need to be explicitly stated with justification
 Costs are typically:
o Direct costs – personnel, consumable supplies, equipment’s, travel,
publication, etc.
o Indirect costs – overhead and administrative costs.
9. References – citation of all the information that you obtain as a support for conducting
your research. Be careful, the style of writing list of references varies from one discipline
to another.
WRITING FORMATS

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1. HEADINGS
A Thesis Proposal usually contains the following headings
1. Primary Heading – Chapter heading
 Each chapter shall start on new page.
 Each primary heading shall be written with font size of 14 and all letters capitalized and
bold. Each primary heading shall be justified to the center and separated by one line
from the next text.
2. Secondary heading –
 This is the subtopics of a chapter heading. It starts with chapter number and counter, for
example: 1.1, 2.1etc.
 Each secondary heading shall be written with font size of 12 and all letters are capitalized
and bolded.
 Each secondary heading shall be justified to the left and separated by one line from the
previous text.
3. Tertiary heading‐
 This is the subtopics of the secondary heading. It starts with secondary heading number
and counter, for example: 1.1.1, 2.1.1 etc.
 Each tertiary heading shall be written with font size of 12 and it should start with capital
letter, bolded.
 Each tertiary heading shall be started directly after the previous text (the only separation
is space after paragraph) and justified to the left.
4. Fourth level heading –
 This is subtopics of the tertiary heading.
 If a fourth heading is required it shall start with letters (A, B …). All fourth level heading
shall be written with font size of 12 and start with capital letter, bold and italicized. Each
fourth heading shall be started directly after the previous text (the only separation is
space after paragraph but not line spacing) and justified to the left.
2. Page Layout
The page layout should fulfill the following requirements:

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 The master thesis report should be in A4 format, with a single column and single line, 1.5
line spacing and all texts written in “Times New Roman format”.
 Set a margin of 1.5” at the left and top side and 1” margin at bottom and right side.
 Headings should be aligned to the left; whereas body paragraphs should normally be
justified (exceptions should be for tables and figures).
 The font must be easy to read, i.e., not too small and not too large. Due to that, the font
size is 12 points for normal text, 1.5 lines spacing, with space before and after paragraph”.
 Chapters should be numbered using Arabic numbers. Subsections should also be numbered
using Arabic numbers. For example, 1.1 is the first subsection of chapter 1, and 1.1.2 is the
second subsection of section 1.1. Avoid using more than three levels in the section
numbering. If a fourth heading is required it shall start with letters (A, B, …).
 There should be page numbers on every page (except for the title page if you include one).
Pages should be numbered at the bottom in the right corner, using Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3)
starting with the first page of the thesis report (i.e. the first page of the introduction). Pages
prior to this should be numbered with lowercase Roman numerals (i, ii, iii.) i.e. use roman
numbers (i, ii …) for the preamble and Arabic numbers (1, 2 …) for the main text and any
appendices.
3. EQUATIONS
The following requirements should be fulfilled:
 All mathematical symbols must be italicised both in the text and in equations. Units should
be used according to SI and may not be italics.
 All equations should be numbered, so that they can be easily referred to. Preferably, the
number should include the chapter number and a counter. The equation number should
appear near the right margin after the equations, as in the example below: Equation (1.1)
 Refer to equations by their number, for example “Eq. (1.1)” not as “equation (1.1)” or
(1.1)”, except at the beginning of a sentence, which should be indicated as “Equation (1.1)
shows…”.
4. Tables and Figures

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Tables and figures should assist the reader in understanding the thesis; hence, you should always ask
yourself what the main message of the table and figure is. Do not add tables and figures unless you
refer to them and discuss them in the main text. Moreover, you should fulfil the following
requirements:
 The font must be easy to read, i.e., not too small and not too large. The recommended font
size is 11 points for figure captions and tables and it should be italicised.
 Do not forget that text inside figures should also be readable—if possible, use a 11 points
font here as well.
 Tables and figures should be located as closely as possible to the paragraphs where they are
first mentioned. If you discuss a table or a figure in several sections of the thesis, it is better
to repeat the table or figure, instead of forcing the reader to flip back and forth.
 Tables and figures must be written using the “insert caption” format. See the word insert
option for this.
 Table and figures should also be numbered using the chapter number and a counter, for
example as follows:
Table 1.1 Table caption.
Figure 1.1 Figure caption.
 Text of the “Table” should be placed at the top of the table and aligned to the left; the same
as the table. The text of the figure should be placed below the figure and justified; the same
as the figure. Tables and figures should also be numbered using the chapter number and a
counter.
 Refer to tables and figures as “Table 1.1” and “Figure 1.1”,. i.e., insert them as captions, so
that the reference will automatically update itself when there is a change in the numbering.
 You may use colour in figures, but remember that the thesis should also be readable when
printed in black‐and‐white.
5. References
The references should fulfill the following requirements:

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 Avoid references to web pages, because you never know if a web site is going to be changed
or disappear; thus, your reference might no longer be valid. If an electronic version of a
publication is available on the internet, you may indicate that by adding the address within
brackets after the reference.
Example: [1] “Nordel Annual Report 2008”, Nordel, 2008. [Available at https://www.entsoe.eu/]
 The format of different types of references are shown in table:
Table 1: format for references
Refer to literature references by their number in square brackets, for example [1]. The
sentence punctuation follows the brackets. If there are multiple references then each reference is put
in a square bracket, for example [1], [3]. Multiple references which are numbered in a sequence can
be referred to as an interval, for example [1]‐[3]. Do not use “Ref. [3]” or “reference [3]” except at
the beginning of a sentence as “Reference [3] shows…”.
TIPS

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1. Table of Contents
The Table of Contents is automaticallygenerated. When you first open the template, the Table of
Contents reflects the content of sample pages. As you add your content however, you can update
the Table of Contents to show your new content. Follow these steps to update the Table of
Contents:
I. Right click anywhere in the Table of Contents.
II. Click Update Field.
III. Click the radio button for Update Entire Table.
IV. Click OK.
The Table of Contents should now show the current contents of your document.
2. Insert figure and table captions
It is important that you have a caption for each table and figure in your report. Follow these steps to
insert captions:
I. Click on the figure or table where you want the caption to appear.
II. On the Insert menu, point to Reference and then click Caption.
III. In the Label list, select Figure or Table, as appropriate.
IV. In the Position menu, select where you want the caption to appear.
V. Click the Numbering button.
VI. In the Format menu, select 1, 2, 3…
VII. If you want to include the chapter number in the table/figure caption number, check the
Include chapter number box. If you select this option, two more options will appear:
A. In the Heading starts with style: box, select Heading 1.
B. In the Use separator box, select the punctuation you want to appear between the chapter
number and the figure/table number.
C. Click OK.
VIII. At this point you can type the text of your caption in the Caption: box, or you can add it to
the caption label later.

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IX. Click OK. The caption label will appear above/below the table or figure. To add the text of
your caption, click behind the table/figure number and enter your text.
Notice that the figure/table number appears with a gray background. This background is called
“field shading” and indicates that a script or code has generated the number.
It’s important NOT to edit these numbers! The figure/table number will automatically update as
you insert additional captions.
3. List of Figures and List of Tables
Like the Table of Contents, the List of Figures and List of Tables are automaticallygenerated as you
add figures and tables to your document. To update the List of Figures (LOF) or List of Tables
(LOT), follow these steps:
1. Right click anywhere in the Table of Contents and click Update Field.
2. Click the button for Update Entire Table and click OK.
The LOF and LOT should now display a current list of your figures or tables complete with
captions.
4. Footnotes/Endnotes
Use Arabic numerals to indicate a note in the text. Notes shall be numbered consecutively
throughout the entire manuscript. All notes (footnotes/endnotes) shall be placed at the bottom of
the page. All notes (footnotes/endnotes) shall be written with font size of 10.
5. Page breaks
In cases where you need to have text begin on a new page, such as the beginning of a new chapter,
place a Page Break at the point where you want the new page to begin. Don’t press the Enter key
repeatedly until a new page begins.
To insert a page break, follow these steps:
1. Click where you want to insert the page break.
2. On the Insert menu, click Break.

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3. Click the button to select Page Break.
4. Click OK.