Research Processes: Research Proposal Samples

Background:

Having withdrawn from the research project in semester one, I shall be working alone in semester two. However, if I stay focused and work within my intended timetable, I should be able to complete my research project by the end of the semester.
I have decided to base my research project on natural home remedies, and narrowed down my topic to researching how to use natural home remedies to treat common hair, skin and nail complaints.
My specific topic came from a friend asking me how I kept my skin clear of blemishes. I showed him my aloe vera gel. He tried it and reported that it worked for him, too. That gave me the idea for the focus of my research project. I reflected on how important appearance is to me and to many of my teenage friends, so decided to conduct research and to perform a number of experiments to determine whether natural home remedies can effect improvements in common skin complaints prevalent in teenagers such as pimples, acne, freckles, moles and scars, focusing specifically on aloe vera.

Thinking about how I was going to achieve my objective, I decided I should begin by first making sure that my research would be relevant to the majority of teenagers. I propose to formulate a series of questions and conduct a series of surveys of friends and other students attending not just Rostrevor College, but also the high schools within a 10km radius.
Assuming relevancy is confirmed by the surveys, I will then use a variety of secondary sources such as books and internet websites to gather information for analysis and discussion. This will be followed by interviews and observations of primary sources of information and will include several experiments to assess whether aloe vera causes changes to occur in common skin complaints of teenagers such as pimples, acne, freckles, moles and scars and if so, what precise effect(s) does it have?
I plan to use applications and software available to me on electronic devices such as my Smartphone, iPad, laptop and any other means available to me, to keep track of my progress and to document how my research project evolves into its final format, ready to submit at the end of semester one in December of this year.
Although my research project is unique to my focus question, I will ensure my approach is ethical and exclusively a result of the research I have personally conducted. I will document my findings in such a way that they do not breach any copyrights. I will endeavor to act with sensitivity and comply with confidentiality requirements where primary sources of information agree to participate in any part of my research project, including any experiments conducted. Furthermore, I will obtain appropriate permissions and seek professional advice/supervision prior to and throughout the conducting of my experiments.

Capabilities:

The capabilities I am choosing to focus on are my personal and social capabilities. The processes involved in my research project will assist me in what I intend will be my future career as a project manager working within the construction industry. As well as helping me to develop effective time management and organizational skills, I believe the knowledge I will gain over the duration of my research project, from the beginning through to its completion, will also help me develop effective communication skills and to gain insight into home remedies and aloe vera gel in particular.