Turn an interest into a research plan

“I want to study artificial intelligence” names an area. It does not tell a reader what you intend to investigate. Begin with a bounded question: what is uncertain, in which setting, and what evidence could help answer it?

Build a short research brief before polishing the official form. Give it six parts: context, question, relevant prior work, method, feasibility and intended contribution. Keep the links between those parts visible. If you promise to compare two approaches, explain what stays constant and what you will measure. If you propose interviews or archival work, explain how material will be selected and what access is required.

Use a small evidence table while reading. Record each source’s actual finding, its limitation and its connection to your proposed question. This helps you avoid announcing that “no one has studied this” without a defensible review.

Be realistic about dependencies. A proposal that assumes access to restricted records, expensive equipment or a large participant group needs an access plan. Add a fallback that still produces a useful result. Do not write an expected result as though you have already demonstrated it.

Finally, ask a reader to point to the question, method and contribution. If those are hard to locate, rewrite the structure before changing the typography. The goal is not to sound impressive; it is to make a feasible project understandable.

Next action: Draft a one-sentence question and a three-sentence explanation of how you would investigate it.

Use the official research-plan form for its current structure and limits. Broader graduate-admission guidance is available from Study in Japan.

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