No two research proposals ever seem to be organized and written in the same way, so you have latitude in how you present yours. However, you might begin by writing a statement of the problem and the goals of the research. What has reconnaissance work shown? How does what is observed differ from what you think about your project? What are possible explanations (hypotheses) for the differences that exist? What questions will the research propose to answer?

The next sections of the proposal should describe the geologic setting of the problem and the kind of information in this section will be greatly influenced by the nature of the problem. For your proposal, brief information on the geology of your study area would be important.

Certainly a very major part of the proposal should be a thorough and detailed discussion of what you expect to do. What kind of data will you collect? Where will you collect it? Over what time frame do you expect to collect it? In other words, this should be a comprehensive discussion of what you plan of research will be. A reasonable option might be to include in this section an explanation of why you are proposing to do each form of data collection. For example, try to link a particular type of data collection or mapping to a specific hypothesis you are intending to test.

Finally, remember that a good proposal must be based on work that has potential significance to a broad spectrum of geologists. What is the significance of you proposed work? If someone asks "so what" or "who cares" about the proposed work, how would you respond? In this section you might want to include or refer to published studies that are directly related to your study. Remember, you will have to convince whoever evaluates your proposal that you what you expect to do is indeed different or will improve on what has been done before.

Lastly, you are designing a study to examine a problem of geologic significance. Therefore, think creatively and in a big and unrestricted way. For example, all future work you intend to do to check your hypotheses need not be precisely at the sites you initially intended to visit. And the kinds of data you collect and observations you make need not be the only kind of data and observations you will end up making in the future. If you think, for example, that you could convince the reader of your proposal to help you do some sophisticated form of analysis, include it in your proposal. But remember, the more it will cost (in money or time) to do, the better the justification will have to be to do it.