This book is designed to be as helpful as possible for anyone who needs to write a doctoral research proposal in the area of higher education research. It is concise, while still being comprehensive and useful. Its audience is prospective doctoral students who have to write a project proposal which will be assessed for admission and perhaps for a scholarship to do their doctoral research, as well as those who have already been admitted to university but now need to have a full proposal approved. For readability, terms which may need a fuller explanation are linked from the text to a glossary at the end of the book. Terms in the text that are described in the glossary are printed in bold.This second edition adds new material and offers examples of proposals for doctoral research projects together with a commentary on them suggesting improvements. The aim is to help the reader develop an ‘eye’ for a persuasive argument and a good feel for a well-integrated proposal.Readers of the first edition commented:"I'm new to doctoral study and needed a bit of a boost to my confidence and this has helped a lot. Paul Trowler writes in a very easy style for which I am grateful. He writes very clearly, in plain English and I look forward to referencing his text in my up-coming assignment!""Fabulous! An absolute must if you are starting a PhD journey. Concise and easily understood. Lots of excellent, practical tips that I, for one, have every intention of using in practice. I'm really glad I've read 3 in this series .... all three were read and my notes done in about a day or so .... so I have a good grounding for starting my work once ethical approval has been granted. If you read no other 'how to' books on PhD theses ..... read these. In my view, total 'must haves'!"