Template For Clinical Sciences Permission to Write (Nutrition and Pharmacy)
PERMISSION TO WRITE MEETING
Title of Research Proposal
Student Name
(Supervisor)
Date
Table of Contents
Table of Contents .................................................................................................................. ii
List of Figures ........................................................................................................................iii
List of Tables ........................................................................................................................ iv
List of Abbreviations .............................................................................................................. v
Introduction ............................................................................................................................ #
Literature Review ................................................................................................................... #
Heading 1 ........................................................................................................................ #
Subheading 1 .............................................................................................................. #
Heading 2 ........................................................................................................................ #
Subheading 2 .............................................................................................................. #
Hypothesis ............................................................................................................................. #
Objectives .............................................................................................................................. #
Methods and Procedures ....................................................................................................... #
Method 1 ......................................................................................................................... #
Experiment 1 ................................................................................................................... #
Statistical Analysis ........................................................................................................... #
Results ................................................................................................................................... #
Experiment 1 ................................................................................................................... #
Experiment 2 ................................................................................................................... #
References ............................................................................................................................ #
ii
List of Figures
Figure 1. Title 1 ...................................................................................................................... #
Figure 2. Title 2 ...................................................................................................................... #
Figure 3. Title 3 ...................................................................................................................... #
Figure 4. Title 4 ...................................................................................................................... #
iii
List of Tables
Table 1. Title 1 ....................................................................................................................... #
Table 2. Title 2 ....................................................................................................................... #
Table 3. Title 3 ....................................................................................................................... #
Table 4. Title 4 ....................................................................................................................... #
iv
List of Abbreviations
COPN
FDA
HPB
College of Pharmacy and Nutrition
Food and Drug Administration
Health Protection Branch
v
Introduction
 Provide a concise overview (2-3 pages) of the major premise of your research (i.e.
what you intend to discover and why this is important).
Literature Review
 The literature review needs to be fairly complete. The student should include all the
relevant literature in the research area. The literature review is not meant to be
exhaustive. The student must distill the important information from the literature and
clearly interconnect this information to build the “story” or “argument” for the student’s
research.
 Use headings and subheadings as necessary. Avoid using one continuous text.
 Length is at the discretion of the supervisor and student.
Heading 1
Subheading 1
Heading 2
Subheading 2
Hypothesis
 You may have more than one hypothesis statement or one global hypothesis
statement. The statement(s) should be worded in a manner that results in a testable
statement.
Objectives
 The objective statements should clearly identify what you need to do to test your
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hypothesis statement.
 After stating a specific objective you have the option to add additional statements to
indicate how you will meet the objective (i.e. these could be specific aims that fall
under an objective).
1. To determine …
2. To establish …
3. To identify …
Methods and Procedures
 Identify the methods and protocols that have been used in accomplishing the goals
identified in the objectives. Be sure to clearly outline the method of sampling (random
sample (explain method), sequential subjects, volunteers, etc) and allocation if a
comparative study is undertaken.
 Be very detailed (i.e. provide sufficient detail to allow duplication of your experiments).
 Always include a statement indicating that your protocols have been approved by the
appropriate ethics board and be sure to explain the steps taken to ensure privacy and
confidentiality if it is not easily conveyed in the methods / procedures section.
Method 1
Procedure 1
Statistical Analysis
 Always include this section even if you will only use descriptive statistics (i.e. mean ±
SD).
 Statistical methods should be clearly explained. For example, all statistical tests
should be stated along with their intended use for the data. If regression is used, the
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steps used to build the final model must be outlined, especially if the dependent
variable is a major / primary outcome of interest.
Results
 Include all results. Permission to write is granted only when the committee is satisfied
that the student has completed a sufficient amount of research and has answered the
major research questions well enough to defend the research.
 Use appropriate and well-formatted tables and figures (format tables and figures
according to Graduate Studies guidelines). Table and Figure titles and legends should
have sufficient information to completely describe the experiment and the results
expressed in the table or figure. Each table and figure should be able to stand alone
without the need to refer to the text of the results section.
 Insert tables and figures when they appear in the text of the results section. Do not
place at the end of the document. Do not leave large gaps in the text of the results
section.
 Use appropriate statistics and indicate significance with the actual P value. The type of
statistical analysis should appear in the legend of the tables and figures. Be
quantitative, indicating the magnitude of the effect as well as the statistical significance.
Experiment 1
Experiment 2
For students whose body of work cannot easily be formatted under the same headings,
it is acceptable to state objectives separately and repeat the headings (introduction,
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methods and procedures, results)
Timeline
 Identify a timeline for completion of the discussion section if Permission-to-Write is
granted.
References

You have a choice of either using numbers within the text with the number
corresponding to the order of appearance of the reference or using text Author/Year
citation in the text with the reference list in alphabetical order.
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