8/3/2019 Guidelines for Writing Your Synopsis

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Guidelines for Writing your Synopsis

Two schools of thought exist for presenting proposals. Some people prefer a flexible, creative,

generalized approach without rigid demarcations or headings, others ask for an authorized system with

headings. This has the advantage of clarity and good access for the reader, although it might restrict the

proposal in some way. We recommend the second approach for MPhil students:

The title is important, because it provides the focal point of your study. The title is, in fact, a veryshort summary of what you intend to do.

If you can give a short abstract at this stage, do so. It helps the reader. If not, you should gostraight into your introduction

The introduction normally gives (a) some backgroundto your field of research, (b) the reasonsor interests that have prompted it, (c) justifications/significance (importantthe proposal

should be shown as worthy of high-level research), (d) objectives and (e) delimitations (do not

spread your netmodern research looks for relevance and in-depth treatment rather than

wide coverage). State your proposal as a research question or questions. One, two or three such questions

should be enough. The rest of your research will be an attempt to answer these questions. Do

not wander about. A hypothesis relevant to these questions might emerge. You should state it

as well. In some studies a null hypothesis is sometimes recommended, following Popovs

theory that a proposition should suggest its own falsification. You will probably not need

anything like that here. Keep your feet on the ground. Go for concrete, measurable things. Do

not chase after abstract or airy hypotheses that cannot be confirmed nor denied.

Show that you have some background in your field by the books you have read. Your literaturereview (important) should be something more than a list of books, magazines, articles,

documents, papers, etc. Show that you know what is in them by giving a summary of relevantportions. We repeat, this is an important part of your synopsis. You might be able to extract an

operational frameworkfrom it (or some of it), a model which can be used to test the validity of

your findings. Make sure that your model is workable from a Pakistani point of view.

Methodology is especially important. How do you intend to establish your hypothesis or answeryour own research questions? You will work with data, to be collected from relevant sources. A

common instrument is a questionnaire which should be tested for reliability and consistency

against your objectives and research questions. Cronbachs Alpha is one such test. Do not

wander about. You can also hold interviews (usually structured or semi-structured through a

question-listif you want unstructured opinions or answers you can include a few open-ended

questionsresponses should be transcribed or taped as evidence of these interviews). If you

have not been able to extract a workable operational framework from your literature review,

you might need to extract a theoretical frameworkgrounded in the responses of your subjects.

You will need to identify your target population, who, where, what level, how many (you canmake totally random selections, or you can randomize by selecting every fifth or tenth [or

whatever] respondent, or you can choose the total student or teacher [or whatever] population

of a given institution or institutionsgive reasons for whatever you do. If you want to

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generalize, you will need a large samplefifty is the lowest recommended figure. Decide which

variables you intend to test (gender, age, education, Urdu-medium, English-medium, etc). A

variable may be described as a factor that can be measured. Usually there are independent

variables and dependent variables and you will look for correlations between the two. Note: A

correlation is not necessarily the same as a cause-and-effect relationship

Other methods of data collection exist. For example, you can set up an experimentand observewhat happens. However, it is recommended that you follow the ideas given in the preceding

paragraph for this exercise. Of course, if you are working on the writings of others, your data will

emerge from those writings. We also have deskand libraryresearch. In any case you will have to

do a good bit of reading before you embark on your research

It is good to suggest a research plan or design at this stage. If you can give it visually as a flow-chart, so much the better.

Make a rough outline of your chapters. You will probably need only five, three as suggestedabove (Introduction, Literature Reviewand Methodology) and two more, namely, Data Analysis/

Findings, followed by Conclusion/Recommendations

Type out your proposal in 12 font New Times Roman with 1.5 spacing. For research in the SocialSciences we normally recommend the APA style sheet. The essentials of the latest version may

be found on the Internet.

Suggest a working bibliography. Of course, you will have to go well beyond this list as you moveforward, but at this stage you should give about 10 or 12 titlesif you cannot find much written

during the last ten years or so, you can suggest older titles, but try and keep yourself up-to-date

in these matters. Ideas change and new research sometimes negates, modifies or even reverses

old findings.

Best of Luck