The introduction to the proposal should include a brief rationale explaining where the idea for the research began and some evidence from the literature that there is a need for this particular investigating . This is a brief preamble that literature that scene for the rest of the proposal and gets the message across that this would be a useful and productive research activity . It is not necessary here to provide a lot of detail – that will follow in the other sections . The introduction highlights the contribution this proposed research will make to the body of knowledge that already exists . This sounds like rather a taunting claim but remember that there are rarely large leaps in knowledge ; knowledge grows incrementally with each new contribution , however small or localized that contribution might be