We approach now one of the most difficult parts of writing a research proposal： the methodology。

　　In short， what actions are you going to take in order to answer the question？ When will you knowwhether the hypothesis has been proven wrong， or has survived enough tests to be considered， fornow， valid？ Those tests and the way you are supposed to handle them to give rigor to yourresearch is what is understood under methods。 Methods divide in qualitative （interviews， questionnaires） and quantitative （statistics， stuff that deals intensively with numbers）。 For some projects qualitative methods are more appropriate， for some quantitative， while for most a mixtureof the two is adequate。 You should pick your methods and justify your choice。 Researchmethodology， however， is too a complicated thing to be explained here。 And this is why it's so tough： not much attention is given to teaching it in Eastern Europe。 Try， before writing your RP， toread a bit more about methodology - on the Internet you will find for sure some articles - anddecide which methods suit your project best。 Don't forget： reading theoretical pieces of your workand providing a critical analysis of those is also a kind of research。 It's fine to provide a rough schedule of your research； some grant programs will also require a detailed budget， even though for scholarships this is unlikely。

　　Conclusions： After working your way through the difficult methodological part， you only have to write your conclusions。 Shortly recap why your hypothesis is new， why it advances knowledge， why is it worth researching and how， from a practical point of view， are you going to do that。

　　Overall， the capacity of your project to answer the research question should come out crystal clear from the body of the paper， and especially from the conclusions。 If this happens， it means you have a well-written RP， and you have just increased you chances for having a successfulapplication。

　　One last word： how big should your RP be？ In most cases， this is specified in the application form。

　　If it is not， we suggest that you keep it at about 1500 words （that's 3 pages， single-spaced， with 12 size Times New Roman）。 In fewer words it can be really tough to write a good RP。 With more you     might bore your readers。 Which we hope will not happen。  Good luck！

　　其他的一些关于如何写研究计划的指导材料，可以在网上搜索。比如，在www。google。com上搜索关键字“research proposal”，你可以找到很多关于如何写研究计划的指导性资料，其中也包括上面列出的这篇文章，可见其引用率之高。希望大家能好好利用各种资源。

　　3。5。3 研究计划例文

　　这里列出来自于 bbs。zixia。net 中，Hong Kong 版精华区的一篇文章。感谢这位网友给大家提供了一篇例文。提醒大家注意的是，研究计划每个人都要有自己的特点，请不要照搬别人的套路，我们列出这篇例文也只是给大家参考格式之用，并不意味着这篇文章就一定很好。

　　请注意“例文”和“范文”的区别。该文全文如下：

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