Proposal First Draft Template

Eventually your proposal will be written formally with background on your topic, clearly stated questions and hypotheses, and a detailed description of your proposed experimental procedure. Initially, the goal is to get ideas onto paper. Use this template to start gathering your ideas for your research proposal.

• What are some general biodiversity-related topics you would be interested in learning more about? List them here.
• What are some questions that come to mind when you think about these topics? Draft them here.
• Now that you have identified some topics you might be interested in, find some sources that provide background information that will help you learn more. Write the citations for these sources here using the format below. Include at least three sources.

Last name, Initials. Year. Title. Journal Name. Volume(issue number): page numbers.

• Identify some content from these papers that may seem useful. Put direct quotes here that seem useful:
• Paraphrase the information in those quotes here (put it in your own words). Being able to properly paraphrase shows that you understand the information you are reading and not just regurgitating it.
• What are some of the methodologies used in these papers? Describe them to the best of your ability. If you have further questions about how they work, put those questions here for future follow up.
• Would you like to do something different or use a similar method? Why or why not?
• What are some hypotheses you would like to test? What are your predictions for those hypotheses? How would you test those hypotheses?
• Put any other thoughts or notes that don’t fit into the categories above here: