LESSON 52 - RESEARCH PROPOSAL: BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY & STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

A strong research proposal starts Chapter 1 by doing two jobs in sequence: first, building a credible historical and literature-based case for the topic (Background to the Study), and then narrowing to a clear, research-worthy issue that justifies fieldwork (Statement of the Problem). The key payoff is that readers can quickly see both why the topic matters to society and why existing knowledge is not enough—so the study earns its time, money, and attention.

Background to the Study (Section 1.1) functions as the foundation for introducing the problem. Its primary purpose is to capture the reader’s interest through a historical overview of the “phenomena under study”—a term the lesson ties directly to the study’s variables. That means the background must rely on a literature review that links the specific problem to a broader area of concern. As the literature is reviewed, the proposal should show that relationships exist between what the study will examine and the concerns people care about.

The lesson emphasizes how the literature review should be scoped and current. It should move from global to regional to local perspectives, and sources should generally be recent—especially in the social sciences, where materials should not be older than about 10 years unless the work is truly classical. This recency requirement helps ensure the proposal reflects the current state of knowledge rather than outdated assumptions.

After establishing that context, the proposal shifts to Section 1.2: the Statement of the Problem. This section clarifies the issue of concern and explains why it is critical enough to warrant investigation. The lesson frames this as a narrowing step: the background shows what has been written and why the topic is relevant; the statement of the problem explains why the researcher still needs to go into the field.

The statement of the problem must contain three critical pieces of information. First is the statement of social need, where the researcher demonstrates that real social conditions have created a problem that research can address. The lesson recommends grounding this need in government, institutional, or statistical data rather than hearsay—because social science research should be anchored in evidence.

Second is the statement of knowledge gap. This is not written as a simple complaint that “no one has studied this.” Instead, the gap is identified by analyzing what prior studies did and did not do in terms of methods, context, variables, and results. Examples include: prior work using only surveys while the current study uses mixed methods (with a clear justification for why mixed methods are better); prior findings based on first-world contexts while the current study targets a third-world setting; studies that omit relevant variables or add a new variable; conflicting findings where some studies report no difference while others report differences; and studies that focus on one group (e.g., women) while excluding other relevant groups such as men or vulnerable populations.

Third is the final paragraph that turns the problem into a direct research direction—using “therefore” language to present the main research question and the core problem the study will tackle. Length matters: the statement of the problem should be about three paragraphs—roughly half a page, and ideally not more than one page—because the background and literature review already carry much of the detailed groundwork.

Overall, the lesson positions Sections 1.1 and 1.2 as the proposal’s credibility engine: literature builds legitimacy, while the statement of the problem builds urgency and uniqueness through social need and a defensible knowledge gap.