As a third-year PhD candidate, I'm always struggling with the enormous task of writing my research proposal. I felt totally overwhelmed and alone for weeks as my thoughts were a jumbled mess of theories and methodological dead ends. Fortunately, I discovered the Google Scholar research proposal service. Although it wasn't a panacea, it gave me a useful framework and concise examples to help me organise my disorganised thoughts. Observing how seasoned academics developed their enquiries and approaches provided me with the direction and confidence I sorely needed.