Writing the Formal Research Proposal
In the pre-proposal you decided on a topic of interest, completed some
preliminary research, and wrote about the impact this study could have on the scientific
community. You will receive feedback from the STAR coordinator within a couple of
days of submitting your pre-proposal, at which time you will also schedule an equipment
training session. Now is the time to turn your pre-proposal into a full, formal research
proposal that will be read by STAR staff and SERC scientists. The formal proposal is in
a different format from the pre-proposal and the following steps will help you create it.
A. Preparing for the Formal Research Proposal:
1. Revisit and Revise your title question.
Your title should reflect the specific question your study tries to answer.
Because you are limited by time and schedules of the staff and equipment,
it is therefore important to determine the focus of your project. While you
are collecting data, you may find the opportunity to collect more data and
wonder if you want to or not. Your title will help you focus on your
research questions as you are working in the field or performing your
analysis.
2. Find 2-5 reliable sources to provide background information in your
topic of interest.
You need to become familiar with your research topic. You need to do a
literature search to see what the scientific community already knows or
doesn’t know about a topic. One of the goals of the STAR program is to
give you the opportunity to do primary research in science. Primary
research means you are going to examine a new area or support new
research so you need to know what’s already been published.
Please note: the Internet should be the last resource you use. It can be
used as a starting point to learn key terms or author’s names, but your
primary source of information should be journals and books.
Each level of STAR has a limit on the number of internet sources
allowed. Please check your requirements page to be sure you are in
compliance. Read your sources carefully and write down new ideas or
facts that you find. Remember to write down the information for the
citation of the source (see reference section in Blank Draft Pre-Proposal
form). The information you find should also be used to develop a
hypothesis for your question. What do you think the answer to your
question might be?
3. Write a 2-3 paragraph summary of your background information.
Organize the information you have found from your literature review and
write 2-3 paragraphs that summarize the background information. Also
include your hypothesis and your background information. All of your
information should be cited using parenthetical citation. This means after
Student Training in Aquatic Research (STAR) Page 1 of 3
Last Updated: 2/16/2016
a paraphrased statement or quote you place the author’s last name and date
of publication in parentheses at the end of the statement.
4. Submit this work to the STAR coordinator for feedback.
B. Writing the Formal Proposal
After the equipment training and receiving feedback on your 2-3 paragraphs, you
are ready to put your information into the proper format. The subtitles used in the preproposal and your work thus far are no longer relevant. The five sections in the formal
proposal include: Title, Author’s Name, Introduction, Methods and Materials, and
Literature Cited. The largest sections of your proposal will be Introduction and
Methods and Materials. These subtitles should be above each section with your text
underneath.
Title
The title needs to be self-explanatory. It should be in the form of a question and explain
what you are researching.
Author’s Name
Please list your full name, grade, and school in this section.
Introduction
The introduction contains the statement of the problem, hypothesis, relevance of the
project, and research objective from your pre-proposal. It also contains the background
information that you wrote before. This section should be in paragraph form and contain
smooth transitions connecting all of the information. The more information you put into
this section now, the less you will need to add for your final paper. If you have questions
or would like feedback on this section alone, before final submission, please email it to
the STAR coordinator. It is also recommended that you have another adult who is not
familiar with your project read through this section and provide comments.
You will need to cite information that you gathered from your literature research. After
stating information that needs referencing, put the name(s) of the author(s) of that
information in parentheses at the end of the statement. The name(s) should be followed
by the date of the publication in which the information appeared. For example: Over a 13
year study of tethered juvenile blue crabs in a subestuary of the Chesapeake Bay,
92% of the mortality was attributed to cannibalism from larger blue crabs (Hines
2003).
Methods and Materials
This section is meant to describe the methodology you will be using for your project.
You need to write out in paragraph form what you hope to do during the experiment.
You should describe in detail the location(s) you will visit, the tests that you plan to run,
the equipment you will use, and any prior set up work you will need to do. The STAR
coordinator will read this section and use this to gather the materials needed before your
first data collection so it is very important you think your research project through. If a
test or a material item is not written, it may not be obtained for your study. If you need
Student Training in Aquatic Research (STAR) Page 2 of 3
Last Updated: 2/16/2016
time in a special laboratory, would like to build an object, or would like to sample in a
location different from SERC, make sure you explain that clearly in the methods and
materials section. It should be written so that anyone who reads this section knows
exactly what you plan to do and where you plan to do it. Maps and diagrams can be very
useful in this section.
Literature Cited
Please list in proper citation form your references in alphabetical order by author’s last
name. The number of references required for this section varies for each level. All
STAR students are required to have a minimum of three sources in their formal proposal.
Hines, A.H. 2003. Ecology of Juvenile and Adult Blue Crabs: Summary of
Discussion of Research Themes and Directions. Bulletin of Marine Science:
72(2): 423-433.
Student Training in Aquatic Research (STAR) Page 3 of 3
Last Updated: 2/16/2016