The Mass Communication Department at the College of Social Sciences, Umm Al-Qura University, held a lecture entitled, "Basics of Writing a Research Proposal", which was offered by Prof. Wadi` Al-Az`azi on Monday, 15 Safar 1441 A.H., at the events hall in the College of Social Sciences. This activity was attended by the academic staff members, postgraduate studies and bachelor students at the Department.

Prof. Wadi` Al-Az`azi started his lecture by giving an introduction on the basics of writing a research proposal, in which he shed light on the concept of a research plan to make it easy for the researchers to include it in their proposals. He added that the research that the student intends to perform should satisfy a practical or a theoretical need in the field of their specializations. Moreover, the elements of the research plan should follow logical successive steps, and the title of the research should be clear, indicating the content of the research without having to ask the student for any clarification. Moreover, the title should be concise and precise but not include the details, which can be mentioned in the research.

He indicated that the rule states that the research title should not exceed 15 words. Moreover, the research proposal should contain the title, method, research community, and an introduction of the research, which should be concise. The researcher should also talk about what motivated him to choose this topic.

He indicated that through the literature review, the researcher learns about previous researchers' mistakes, in order to avoid them. The researcher should mention previous studies, starting with the most recent one. Previous studies are stated within the research using titles, not names, followed by the year the research was carried out. Afterwards, the researcher mentions them directly.

His Excellency indicated that a student should present a particular intellectual or educational issue, concentrating on the defined factors that will be tackled in the research.

His Excellency summarized the most important questions that a researcher poses in the research, in three points:

1. Importance: What will the research add to your field of specialization?
2. What will the research offer to the community?
3. What will it offer to the research community, information institutions and decision makers? Moreover, many researchers do not differentiate between the importance of the research and its goals.

Al-Az`azi added that data can be collected through questionnaires, content analyses, measurements, and interviews. Researchers can rely on more than one method in their research.

He also tackled the boundaries of the research, which should be explained. The student should define the objective, transitory, spatial and human variables that their research will be confined to. It is important for the researcher to define these matters to avoid distraction.

He also referred to the theoretical framework of the research mentioned in the theoretical introduction written in the study, and the definition and background of the most important themes of the study.