A proposal is your supervisor’s first look at your project. It has to show three things: there is a real problem worth studying, you know what has already been done, and your method will actually answer your questions. This guide walks through each part using a real example: “Customer Satisfaction with Mobile Banking Services among Small Business Owners in Benin City”, a Banking and Finance survey proposal.

What a proposal is for

Most Nigerian departments want the first three chapters of the project, written in the future tense:

Chapter One, Introduction: background, problem, aim and objectives, research questions or hypotheses, significance, scope.
Chapter Two, Literature review: the key concepts, the theory, and what earlier studies found.
Chapter Three, Methodology: how you will collect and analyse data, or how you will design and build.

Many also want a work plan, a budget and a draft questionnaire. Check your department’s format first; a proposal in the wrong format is often sent back unread.

Start a proposal

In InkScribe, start a new report and choose Project proposal. The title page changes to “A project proposal submitted to…”, and the outline is planned for Chapters One to Three, with a work plan and budget.

The first step of a new report with Project proposal selected and the working title typed, with the proposal title page on the right — Choose “Project proposal” on the first step.

Use the brief to describe your population, location, sample and method, and anything your supervisor has already said. For this proposal the brief named the markets, the sample size, the SERVQUAL questionnaire, SPSS regression, and the supervisor’s request to use the Technology Acceptance Model.

The proposal in the editor: a Proposal label beside the title, Chapter One with research questions and hypotheses, and a card saying Proposal approved? Start the full project from it — The proposal outline, planned for this topic, with the questions and hypotheses a survey needs.

Chapter One: make the case

Background: move from the general (mobile banking in Nigeria) to your exact setting (small business owners in Benin City). Two to four paragraphs, with sources.
Statement of the problem: the most important page. State what is wrong or unknown, who it affects, and the gap your study fills. Use evidence, not opinion.
Aim and objectives: one aim, then three to five objectives that start with a measurable verb: determine, assess, examine, compare.
Research questions or hypotheses: one for each objective. Surveys that test relationships usually need null hypotheses.
Significance and scope: who benefits, and the limits of place, time and population.

Chapter Two: the literature

Organise by idea, not by author. For this proposal: customer satisfaction, mobile banking channels, service quality dimensions, small business owners as users, the Technology Acceptance Model, then an empirical review and the gap. Each section should compare studies and say what they mean for your study, not summarise one paper per paragraph.

Every paper InkScribe cites is checked against publication records, so your supervisor won’t find a reference that doesn’t exist.

Chapter Three: the method

Your method must be specific enough that someone else could repeat it. Name the population, how you will choose the sample and how many, the instrument, how you will test its validity and reliability, and exactly how you will analyse each research question.

Section 3.3 Population of the Study written in the future tense for small business owners in Oredo LGA, with InkScribe on the right showing verified papers it searched — Population of the Study, written for this exact setting.

Write it in the future tense: “The population will comprise…”. Where your sample size depends on a formula such as Taro Yamane or Cochran, show the working.

Make it all agree

Supervisors read a proposal as one argument. Before you submit, check that these line up:

The problem names the gap that the literature review ends with.
Each objective has a matching research question or hypothesis.
Each research question has an analysis method in Chapter Three.
The theory in Chapter Two explains the variables you will measure.
The title names the population, place and variables the proposal studies.

You can ask InkScribe to check this for you: “Do my objectives, research questions and methods of analysis match? List any that don’t.”

Common reasons for rejection

A topic too broad to finish in time: narrow the place, population or variables.
A problem statement that is really background, with no gap.
Objectives that can’t be measured (“to know more about…”).
Old or missing references, or references that can’t be found.
A method that doesn’t say how each question will be answered.

After approval

When your proposal is approved, you don’t start again. Click Proposal approved? Start the full project from it, or choose it from the File menu.

The Start the full project dialog: your 3 chapters carried over with every citation, figure and table; the remaining chapters and front matter added; InkScribe ready to move the text from future to past tense — Your chapters, citations, figures and tables carry over into a new full report. The proposal stays as it is.

The remaining chapters and front matter are added. When your data is in, ask InkScribe to move Chapter Three from the future to the past tense, and to update anything that changed during fieldwork.

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