What makes a good prospectus

Get Writing Help. By clicking "Log In", you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy. We'll occasionally send you account related and promo emails. Diana from A Research Guide Don't know how to start your paper? Worry no more! Get professional writing assistance from our partner. Click to learn more. What is a prospectus How to write a prospectus Writing Tips Prospectus writing format.

Place order 7 minutes. Premium Partner. Calculate the amount of money your project or study will cost. Particularly for larger research projects, you'll need to describe all of the costs of performing your study, and how you arrived at any estimations. Typically you'll need to include expenses such as fees for access to archives or for copying, any costs for data collecting, and rentals of lab or other equipment.

You also should include a list of any resources you plan to use for which you anticipate there being no cost, such as use of the university library or computers and employment of student volunteers. Part 3. Review any assignment information. If you're writing your prospectus for a university project, your professor or department likely will have specific guidelines you must follow to format and submit your prospectus. The guidelines also typically will include details on which citation method you should use, and may include details on using a particular style guide that will govern word usage, grammar, and punctuation rules.

Your assignment information also may specifically state how long each section is supposed to be, and which sections must be included. Use standard formatting. Unless you're told otherwise, you typically want to format your prospectus the same way you'd format any other research paper or assignment you are turning in for a class in the same department. Type your prospectus in a standard, legible font such as Times New Roman or Helvetica. Typically you'll have one-inch margins on all sides of the paper, and your text will be double-spaced.

Include page numbers if your prospectus is more than one page. Follow the guidelines from your professor or department in regard to creating a cover sheet or using special formatting or headers on the first page.

If footnotes or end notes are required, set these up in your word processing app before you start working on your prospectus. Provide a table of contents. If you're writing a prospectus for a research project that will generate a book-length report or manuscript, you typically must include a table of contents with your prospectus. Include a bibliography. Your bibliography lists the books, articles, and other resources you plan to use in your research. You aren't necessarily committing yourself to using these resources specifically and only these resources, but at this stage you should at least know what your primary source material is going to be.

Some professors or departments require an annotated bibliography, in which you not only cite the sources you plan to use but provide a detailed description of what the source is and how it fits into your research. Check the guidelines from your professor or department to make sure you're using the correct citation method for your bibliography. Proofread your work carefully. The people who review your prospectus will be evaluating it on the basis of whether it seems like a valuable, important research project.

If your prospectus is sloppy and poorly written, they'll be less likely to look upon it favorably. Reading your prospectus backwards is a good way to proofread and catch errors you might have missed otherwise. In addition to editing for grammar and punctuation, you also should check your language carefully.

Make sure everything is written in a formal, professional tone. Keep your audience in mind as you edit. While you may be writing your prospectus for professors or a department committee that has full understanding of your project's topic, you shouldn't assume any particular level of understanding. Rather, your prospectus should be written so that it can be understood by a generally intelligent person without any special knowledge in your field.

Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Be realistic about what you can accomplish through your research. Writing a prospectus that seems narrow in scope, but feasible, is better than writing a prospectus that seems overly ambitious and impractical.

Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0. Don't worry if your final paper or study ends up deviating from your prospectus. This often happens when you get further into your research, and is to be expected. Related wikiHows How to. How to. More References 2.

About This Article. Co-authored by:. Co-authors: Hence, it is important for every individual out there to know the basics of writing a prospectus for their own. Businesses write prospectus to impress their investors, scientists and writers write prospectus to obtain funding for their work; likewise, students, especially the ones pursuing their doctoral degree are told to write prospectus to garner financial support for their planned projects in official manner.

Academic prospectus majorly requires the following elements, i. In order to develop a successful profession in near future, students are required to draft an explicit copy of their prospectus that can help them attain a good grade with better future.

The process of writing prospectus for their academics helps students in getting an introspective realization of whether their intended project is actually feasible or not.

Drafting the prospectus in a simple manner would do no good to your studies and research if it is not designed well as per the fulfilment of your purpose. It needs to be accepted among the selected audiences or else the project would fail to gather the required amount of financial support. Therefore, the prospectus that you make for your audience should be acceptable enough as per their needs and requirements.

Take a look at the tips mentioned below for better understanding-. Conducting extensive research and then establishing a better hold over the subject, is the only basic and imperative need for a valuable prospectus.