How to Write a Scholarship Research Proposal

Although it sounds very beautiful now, I have applied for research scholarships from the Canadian federal government at the master and doctoral levels, but in the first half of my life, when I first pursued a doctorate, all attempts at scholarships were unsuccessful, and I failed in DAAD in total. One time, five failures of the scholarship for studying abroad, and four failures of the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation. I used to think it was the relationship between the graduating schools (Chinese-style universities, private schools), but the more I studied English academic writing in the past few years, the more I felt that there might be so many failures. The second is that I didn't know how to write a research plan for applying for a scholarship at the beginning (of course, according to Taiwan's myth about school rankings, it may ultimately be related to the graduate school) .

During the master's stage, I often participated in the external scholarship application workshop of Howard University, not just to apply for scholarships, but to like the English teacher in charge of this project, although a successful research project always requires attention and improvement. , but the teacher pays great attention to the fluency of the article, saying: In the end, the research plan is more than the persuasiveness revealed by the article itself . The hard work I put into the two application processes also made me realize that I have never taken Chinese research projects so seriously. Although there are consulting opinions, proofreading, and even revisions for others, neither I nor the revisionists have ever been like me. This is how I think about every word when preparing the SSHRC research project.

Of course, this may have something to do with the word limit. Generally speaking, the research plan of the Taiwan scholarship is relatively long (for example, the text of the scholarship can be written in 5000-6000 words), and the various scholarship applications at the Canadian research stage are basically strictly stipulated that one page for the master class (about 700 words) , The two-page (about 1400 words) of the doctoral class, the research topic should be clearly stated in the limited number of words, and the first priority is to remove the rubbish and save the essence, and this process is usually completed with unwillingness and tears.

 What is shared here is the writing method of the research plan for applying for the Canadian master and doctoral external scholarships SSHRC and OGS. There is a gap between the format and the general research plan writing in the Chinese world, so we cannot believe it all - but from another point of view, a good research plan Painting still has something in common.

set topic

1. The most important thing is to choose a research that is related to your background and expertise and that you are highly interested in, rather than writing a novel topic that you don't actually know yet.
2. The emphasis is on presenting a "doable research project" . The topic you write for the scholarship may change as you read more in the future, but you can’t hesitate to write for the moment, you need to convince the judges that this is what you want/want to do now, and you know how to do it .
3. Understand the tiers of scholarships and their funding purposes, and it is best if the research topic can be narrowed down to the funding purpose. For example, the SSHRC provided by the federal government, you can refer to Imagining Canada's Future: 16 Global Challenges to see if your questions can be linked to any of the goals.
4. It would be better if the research topic could be linked to any well-known current event that could easily resonate with the reviewers. Use this as a hook when writing to explain why your topic is so important.

Write a research proposal

How to write a first draft?

1. Freelance writing : First, put whatever you know about the project topic, including the comparable literature you have read, the research question you have raised (founded or unreasonable), the research method and tools envisaged, and even the capabilities of your current department. What kind of help is given, etc., all are written without thinking, and try to list them in points.
2. First Literature Review : Looking at the messy first draft, thinking about which research question is most important to your research project? What's the part you want to work on the most? Set the literature review argument accordingly (why do you think this topic is worth exploring? Why does your research provide new knowledge for the academic community? etc.), and then write a literature review of up to six lines.
   
   When writing a literature review, don't waste space on the obvious, such as the definition of Nationalism, such as what is Islamophobia? Although these concepts are important in your research topic, most reviewers know what's going on. In addition, space is limited, and there should not be more than three authors in a single in-text citation. If you can find famous Canadian scholars, try to list them.
3. According to the format required by the scholarship, fill in the above and write the first draft.
   
   Regarding the format, the Canadian scholarship does not require a specific format except how to set the page. If you look at the requirements on the SSHRC doctoral scholarship page , some applicants will divide the research plan into several blocks according to the requirements: Research Questions, Context , Objectives, Research Methods, Contribution to Knowledge, Current Level of Study and Relevant Experience.
   
   However, since the tradition of U of T is to write a whole essay, considering U of T is the school with the most awards, I still followed this tradition and combined the above elements into an essay of about 1400 words (the first draft may be 2000 words).

 Before applying, I searched for successful cases on the Internet, and there were people who won awards in both forms, so I did not avoid being too rigid about the form. However, I still strongly recommend writing it as an article: not to mention sub-items, subtitles are a waste of space and not as smooth as the whole article.

Gathering Opinions, Doubts, and Second Drafts

1. Collect opinions from all walks of life: After writing the first draft of the research proposal, don't rush to give it to anyone to revise, but read it to as many professors, classmates, and passers-by as possible, and collect their opinions, especially them questions, where they think it is not feasible.
   
   When you hear some unpleasant opinions, don't be in a hurry to say that they don't understand, because when the project reaches the reviewers, there may be no one in your field at all, and they are likely to have the same questions, so you should What we do is to sort out these doubts, decide on one or two of the most relevant and important ones, and justify them.
2. The second literature review : This is the most often overlooked part, and I think is the key to the success of the research project (such as the key to jumping from a $20,000 grant to $35,000), if the first literature review is to find Out of the research gap, that second literature review is to reinforce your own assumptions.
   
   The specific approach is to answer the most questioned part of the first draft. You can put forward a premise to eliminate the doubt, and then use a short literature review to prove this premise; or you can use a literature review to prove that these doubts do not affect your research; or you can use a literature review to explain that these doubts can be addressed in the course of future research. Either way, you can prove to the reviewers that you've thought through the research, and that you've already addressed any questions they might have.
3. Optimizing the rhetoric of research methods: If the research methods in the first draft were relatively straightforward, it is time to simplify.
   
   In addition, it is necessary to distinguish the difference between data collection and analysis methods. For example, in my doctoral research project, I mentioned that I would do Python-based social media data scraping, and detailed how I would do it. However, data scraping is only A technique for collecting data, so in the second edition I also added how I would analyze the data, such as using natural language processing techniques (topic modelling, semantic network analysis, etc.).
4. Rewrite the draft: Yes, it is normal for the second draft to be completely different from the first.
   
   This time, from the first line to the last sentence, keep asking yourself "so what?" as you write, no matter how interesting the topic is, how does it contribute to academia and the real world? Why is this topic relevant? Why is your proposal so urgent and important? and many more.

before the last version

1. After the second draft, it is normal to rewrite it twice.
2. Make revisions to at least two professors or classmates who are familiar with the field, listen to their feedback, revise, and show it to the next person.
3. flow, flow, flow! Writing a smooth essay is half the battle. (For flow, please refer to this Writing Sample Writing Guide 2. Flow )
4. Confirm that everything on the research proposal (including the bibliography) is related; confirm that the research proposal and other application materials are also related.

In this article, I did not mention what Research Questions, Context, Objectives, Research Methods, Contribution to Knowledge, etc. are actually going to write. After all, when it comes to applying for scholarships, this part should be basic common sense.

Before the final submission, of course, there are people with good writing skills to revise the sentences, make sure there are no typos, and the annotation format is correct.

Further reading : Canadian Institute Scholarship Sharing

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