The purpose of this article is to provide an account of empirical research among postgraduate first-time researchers regarding what skills are required to develop sound quality research proposals. The authors identify challenges that novice researchers encounter when designing their research proposals. The first of these challenges is to design a problem statement. The second challenge is how the researcher identifies an appropriate theoretical framework that is compatible with the problem set under investigation. This contribution also explains how the matrix method of literature review could be used ensure a review only references that relate to the problems under investigation
