Now that you've selected a topic and had a chance to do some background research, you should construct an outline for your project presentation. Your outline should include the following sections:
What's the question you're trying to answer, the assertion that you're trying to prove or to disprove? How do you arrive at this hypothesis; how is it motivated?
What work has been done on this topic up to the present time? Evaluate this work critically, both in terms of the methods used and in terms of the conclusions drawn. Have previous experiments used appropriate control conditions? In the case of measures that involve evaluations on the part of the investigator, have investigators been kept blind to the group classifications of the experimental subjects or samples? Have the procedures been described in adequate detail and precision?
How will your work build on these prior efforts? What will your proposal accomplish that hasn't been accomplished by any previous work?
Describe in detail the methods that you plan to use to test your hypothesis. Include specifics! Depending on the nature of your proposal, you may need to address some of the following topics: number of subjects; inclusionary and exclusionary criteria for subject selection; chemical or radiological methods of staining, labelling, or axonal tracing; locations of lesions, electrode penetrations, or planes of section, and landmarks or references used for establishing them; drug dosages and administration schedules; methods and schedules of behavioural observation; EEG recording sites; locations, durations, amplitudes, and other characteristics of stimuli; parameters for data acquisiton (for example, digitisation arte for EEG, or echo time and repetition time for MRI).
What are the the ways in which your experiment could turn out? How would you interpret each of these scenarios? For each possible outcome, would your hypothesis be confirmed, disproved, or left open? Justify your conclusions rigourously.