**14. Limitations of the study**

The study relied solely on analysis of fourth year social work students' research proposals. As such, students' personal experiences on writing research proposals could not be explored such as reasons for choosing uniform research approaches, topics and so on. Moreover, the study was only carried out at University of Limpopo, Department of Social Work, hence its findings may not generalize social work students from other institutions (but may shed some light). Lastly, there was a shred of literature to consult that focused specifically on the subject investigated.
