What Do I Put in My Proposal?

• The first proposal. For the first proposal, tell me enough about what you want to study to allow me to judge the appropriateness of your project and its likelihood of success. You should tell me:
  • What question(s) you are trying to answer with this project.
  • In a general way, how you will go about answering these questions.

• The pilot study proposal. The pilot study proposal should be more detailed. It should tell what you are trying to accomplish with the pilot study. It should also be detailed: Based on this proposal, I should be able to conduct the pilot study.
• The main study proposal. The main study proposal should be as detailed as the pilot study proposal. Based on this proposal, I should be able to conduct the main study. In addition, it should indicate where the results of the pilot study have been incorporated into the main study (e.g. a questionnaire may have been changed, or the sample size for the main study may have been calculated using a variance estimate obtained from the pilot study.)