Hello,
I am essentially a historian. When I did my proposal, it highlighted the following things:

1)Introduction - what is it about - in general terms.

2) Concepts - what theoretical model are you using: community, class identity and so on

2) Jusitification - start with your literature review. Where do you fit in, where is the gap that you are filling?

3) Method - Explain and justify your research methods.

4) Sources - your secondary sources will be covered in the literature review. However, a full list of primary sources, and how you will use them needs to be used.
5) Remember the primary goal is to justify your research - where does it fit? Why you? What can you offer?

Hope this helps - good luck

Stephen

Hi,

Sorry to ask this stupid question about writing a draft proposal. I'd like to apply for PhD for this summer and have contacted a few professors whose research areas fit my interest. They seemed to be all interested in the research direction Iprovided in my emails to them and therefore asked to see a draft proposal and then they can help me to develop it to a formal application. However, I am sill doing literature review at the moment and not yet having anything written down (at most I can give an outline).

I know I'm quite late in application for this year but would still like to try. Could anybody kindly give an idea how formal the writing should be and how detailed I have to out on a draft proposal? I'm worried that if it's too much like a "draft writing" which is too simple it'll leave a bad impression on my potential supervisor anyway.

Any advice is welcome. Thanks in advance!

Sabrina