Your textbook authors recommend explicitly defining any term that might be misunderstood by someone reading the research proposal. If the research proposal is being written chiefly for use and review by researchers, why is such a step necessary?
While publishing a research proposal, it is necessary for the following reasons to explicitly define all the terms that might be misunderstood by someone reading the research proposal:
In order to avoid investors or potential partners from refraining to become a part of the proposed research due to a mere misunderstanding of terms.
To prevent fetching false interest from people possessing expertise in subjects not associated with the research.
To make the subject matter clear enough to be understood by both, amateurs and the ones who are well versed with the subject.
To avert the possibilities of the research proposal seeming to be a copy of some other research proposal already published.
To forestall the lack of clarity that might possibly make the research appear unreasonable or unnecessary.
The terms that might be misunderstood can happen to be the key terms of the research, hence leading to a complete misunderstanding of the reader, and thus making it utterly necessary to define them explicitly.
