how to write one and not die trying!! a guide by me.
1. find something you're willing to work on for months/years at ungodly hours. this project will take up a LOT of your time, so make sure you're getting into something you won't end up hating with every bit of your soul, m'kay?
1.1. if you're out of ideas, read a bunch of papers about a general topic you're interested in and find a niche. this can be anything from "this is neat and hasn't been properly explored yet" to "professor dumbfuck phd argues this but they're wrong and i'm gonna drag them to the depths of hell to prove it"
2. do a, and i cannot stress this enough, THOROUGH reading of the previous literature. i don't care if it's 5 or 70 papers, but make sure you understand them, because you WILL need them to make your case.
2.1. personally though, i recommend skimming through google scholar, reading a bunch of abstracts and picking what will/won't be useful. keep if brief but precise. you do NOT wanna read fifty papers on the same topic before you write your proposal (let alone your actual paper) because by the end of it, your brain will be burnt. out.
3. do you have a hypothesis? fantastic! write that down.
4. do you not have a hypothesis? okay, no problem! what do you want to get from this research? what do you want to learn?
4.1. come up with one broad-ish question
4.1.1. got the question? fantastic! now come up with two or three more specific questions based on the broad-ish question
4.2. come up with another broad question
4.2.1. come up with three more specific questions
4.3. repeat process a couple more times
4.4. try to come up with objectives that align with the questions you just wrote down.
Que.: how are neologisms formed in this context?
Obj.: -to identify the linguistic processes taking place in the formation of these neologisms, and
-to identify patterns that may explain the prevalence of certain processes over others.
5.1. ask yourself, how do you plan to conduct your study?
5.1.1. please, PLEASE, think of a REALISTIC, PLAUSIBLE way that fits your budget, your time availability, your resources and your will to live
5.1.2. got an idea for how to carry it out? great! break it down into little steps and write it down
5.1.3. don't have an idea? no problem! ASK. YOUR. RESEARCH SUPERVISOR. FOR HELP.
5.1.4. no, you're not bothering them, they're your supervisor for a reason. talk. to. them.
6. i assume you're writing this proposal for a) a job, b) funding, or c) to pass a class. you need someone's approval. that means you need to CONVINCE THEM that what you're proposing is IMPORTANT. that it has a PURPOSE. now, i don't give a goddamn shit if your study is about the colour of unicorn faeces; you need to figure out a way to convince the Important Superior That Makes Decisions™ that the unicorn faeces you want to study are of the UTMOST importance to the scientific community. just write something like "though equine faeces have been studied in the past, little research has been carried out into unicorn faeces specifically. this study seeks to fill that gap. we believe that this introductory taxonomy of unicorn faeces will provide much-needed knowledge about fantastic creatures' gastrointestinal functionings and illnesses thereto related. we hope, thus, to shed some light on this so-far unexplored yet puzzling area." that'll do. you just gotta make it SOUND nice and convincing.
7. once you have all of this info, GO TO YOUR SUPERVISOR. ask them for a second opinion. ask for ideas on how to organize it. don't be afraid to ask them for constructive criticism, because that criticism might just get you the Important People in Charge™'s approval for your study.
8. remember all the bibliography you've consulted so far? yeah, start writing down that shit BEFORE you write your proposal, because the deadline WILL come sooner than you expect it to, and trust me, you do not want to be typing a reference list on six cans of redbull at 11:40 pm. speaking from experience.
9. if you're struggling to get down the first few words, look at other papers in the same field. see how those authors do it. figure out the structure they use. do NOT copy, but use it as a model if needed.
10. fuck around and find out
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