The anthropologists and historians determined that religion is a universal aspect of human culture. No known society has ever existed without religious belief systems or religious practices. The word “Religion” is derived from the word “Religio”.
- According to John Ayto: Dictionary of Word Origins, “Latin religio originally meant ‘obligation, bond.’ It was probably derived from the verb religare, ‘tie back, tie tight.’ … It developed the specialised sense of a relationship between religion and human beings.
- James G. Frazer defines Religion as “a propitiation or conciliation of powers superior to man which are believed to direct and control the course of Nature and of human life.”
The latest publication on Statista Research Department, Oct 13, 2023, represents the global population concerned with different religious groups as:
“There were 31.6% of the global population identified as Christian in 2022. Almost 25.8% were identified as Muslims and 15.1% of the whole world’s population as Hindus.”
What is a Religious Studies Research Proposal?
The research proposal is a document of 2500 to 3000 words that outlines the essential aspects of a research project or a study design. According to the “University of Birmingham,”
“A research proposal is a concise and brief summary of the proposed research. It sets out the central issues and research questions that you will address in your whole research and demonstrates the originality of your proposed research.”
Religious Studies research proposal writing is about picking a hot religious topic that needs to be discussed and proposing your study design to give the best possible solution to the research problem. Furthermore, you should discuss the role of religion in shaping different cultures. As it is about any religion, it is considered a sensitive matter that needs to be handled with great care.
Most of the students feel many difficulties while selecting a topic for their research on religious studies and proposing a research project. Here, they require a comprehensive guide while creating their religious studies research proposal.
But if you are struggling with balancing your research proposal with a tough schedule, you can get fruitful benefits from research proposal writing services and ensure your proposal acceptance.
How to Write a Religion Studies Research Proposal?
It is mandatory for students to submit proposals for approval before writing a research paper on Religious Studies. There are some essential steps that you have to consider while composing your research proposal.
1. Choosing a topic
Religious Studies research proposal topic selection is the first and most critical step while writing your proposal. It demands your full attention and dedication. You can select a topic by conducting preliminary research on a general topic to get more and more religious studies research proposal ideas to specify your area of interest.
For example, if you want to propose a study on “Choosing a Religion”, then you have to conduct research on this broad concept and then narrow down your study and research to a specified area of religion. Redeeming God gives a flowchart of how you can narrow down your preliminary research to select a topic, as shown below:
2. Create a Sole Representative Title
After selecting a topic of discussion, make a clear, eye-catching and sole representative title of your proposed study. It is a tentative title of your research project, and you can revise your title while maintaining the central theme after acceptance of your proposal.
Your title should be direct, appropriate, attractive, unique, descriptive, concise and should not mislead the reader. Al A Saah and Collins Osei represent a research project title process cycle in their article “A Guidelines for Choosing a Working Title for a Research Project at the Tertiary Education Level.”. The cycle is represented below:
3. Abstract
After writing a tentative title of your research project, write a short description of the whole study design in limited words, not more than 250 words. It is a brief summary of all your essential elements which describe your work from start to end.
It should be clear, relevant and engaging, forcing your reader to read your research proposal. Demonstrate why you chose this topic and how it will contribute to the existing research with future perspectives. Try to make this chapter in only one paragraph without dividing it into small chunks.
4. Introduction
Your introduction depicts the significance of your research problem with background motives. It also explains why you are interested in this subject matter to be highlighted in religious discussion. Make your introduction section as natural as possible, representing that you are writing it to get good grades and to give a feel that you are actually addressing a problem and proposing a methodology to fix it.
5. Literature Review
It is a crucial section in the Religious Studies research proposal. It is all about writing the background information about the selected topic. Writing a good literature review allows you to identify a research gap in the existing research and the current situation.
This will help you make your personal statements with the rising problem for research, and you can develop your strong thesis statement. You can also use existing research to prove your argument by giving relevant examples and quotes from famous authors. According to PressBook: Rebus Community, a general process of literature review is like this:
6. Study Objectives
Defining your study objective is crucial while representing your proposal in front of your audience. After writing the literature review, it will be easy for you to determine your objectives. To write your objectives impressively, you should:
- Start with defining your primary objective
- Then make your objective more than two, considering them as secondary objectives
Your objective should be specific, achievable, measurable, time-based and relevant to yout subject matter.
7. Methodology
Now, it’s time to demonstrate your methodology to address the research question. This section gives an overview of your only realistic goal, instruments, equipment, and resources through which you collect data to design your methodology.
Then, explain the research procedure and method through which you can implement your study design to give a clear answer to the research question.
8. Expected Outcomes
After implementing the study design on the core problem, this section describes what you will evaluate. Here, you can state what you expect to find through your whole research. The purpose of this section is to represent whether your research project meets your study goals or not.
9. Reference List
Your supervisor or instructor will check your Religious Studies research proposal against plagiarism. If your work is caught as plagiarised content, then it will result in proposal rejection, and you will not get research approval.
Therefore, students should avoid plagiarism in their work at any cost to prevent them from serious academic damages. Add citations within the text and list references at the end of your paper to make your work authentic, well-researched and trustworthy for your reader.
10. Time Frame
Set a time frame for conducting your research. In this way, divide your research proposal into multiple tasks and then prioritise these tasks with a dedicated timeline. You can make a Grannt Chart by skiing your tasks and time in rows and columns if your supervisor does not mention a fixed time, that leaves that section empty and writes as “it takes more than one month”.
Senyondo Vicent provides a Research time frame in his thesis, “ Assessing the Effectiveness of Planning Regulations on Housing Quality in Nakawa Division, Kampala. A Case Study of Mutungo Parish. Published in 2016. The chart is represented below:
11. Budget
Your budget section explains your research expenditures. Here, you will mention an approximate budget plan you need to research your selected topic. Rebel’s Guide to Project Management provides a procedure for making a Gantt Chart of the approximate budget for a research proposal, as you can see in the table below.
You can use the above table as an example while making your own budget plan for a religious study research proposal. In this table, you should:
- Attach the final cost.
- Write briefly about how you came up with such a cost.
- Provide a justification for the mentioned amount.
Conclusion
Historians determined that no culture and nation exist without religion. Writing on religion is a sensitive task that makes it tough for students to make a research proposal on religious studies. No doubt, they can choose many topics in their research proposal, but they do not know how to do it effectively. Students suffer from a lot of hurdles while composing a research proposal.
Over here, they require some deep secret to tackle all the writing problems. In the above discussion, we have mentioned the top 11 strategies and proposal essentials to help you write an impressive religious studies research proposal. But if you want to save time and effort, you can avail of dissertation writing services from professionals such as The Academic Papers UK and increase the chances of research proposal approval.
