Complete Guide on research project writing and graduation thesis

Complete Guide on research project writing and graduation thesis

Research Project, Independent study Or Graduation Thesis, as its nomenclature maybe, is an Integral element In Tertiary Institution in the sense that in order to be conferred a degree every student has to carry out a research.

A research is a quest into the unknown. It is the act of finding a rational explanation or clarification on facts, events and phenomenon which surrounds human existence.

Research takes place in every day of our lives, be it in the formal or informal settings. Literary meaning of the word research refers to an inquiry, which invariably implies that whenever one engages in the process of an inquiry such a person is already making a research, we often embark on research in order to gain clarification on facts and phenomenal which are unknown or not vivid.

Scientific research which is the emphasis of this article differs from mere inquiries in the sense that it deals with the identification of a problem, statement of a problem, formulation of hypothesis, collection, interpreting/analyzing of data and formulation or drawing of necessary inference or conclusion(s).

This aspect of the university is very crucial in molding a graduate who will be grounded both in theory and practice. It exposes students to research approaches and practical application of theories in solving real life situations.

However these particular aspect of the university requirement tend to pose a lot of constraints and bottleneck to most tertiary institution students partly, as a result of lack of understanding and in depth knowledge of what research really entails and negligence on the part of the students.

This article will do justice to what research stands for, and things to look out for in writing a good research project.

Complete Guide on research project writing and graduation thesis -CHOOSING A RESEARCH TOPIC

The first stage is choosing a topic, it is worth noting that the success of a good research is partly dependent on the topic.

This is so because if the topic is not balanced or well phrased, it becomes difficult for the young researcher to grasp the meaning or the message his/her topic is trying to pass.

Secondly, if the topic is not in line with the young researcher’s area of interest, for instant project topic imposed on the researcher by his/her supervisor, it could be a constraint because passion and interest is a driving force in research.

On the other hand if the topic is not in line with the young researchers supervisor’s interest it also presents a myriad of problem.  Hence care should be taking in order not to start off your research on a wrong foot with your supervisor.

1. Choose a research topic which aligns with your research interest
2. Choose a research topic which aligns with your supervisor’s interest so as to facilitate a good supervisor-supervisee relationship. Note that if your research interest are not in line with that of your supervisor.

Look for a way to blend into that of your supervisor because your supervisor have a big role to play in the whole process of the research

3. Ensure that your topic is researchable: not every research topic is researchable. To know if your topic is researchable look up the keywords in your topic on the internet, this enables you to ascertain the available literatures and the extent other researchers have done in your area of research or alternatively other offline documents cum documentaries that will be of help in the course of the study.
4. Choose a research topic which would be relevant to the society: identify a problem in your locality and then to try fill it. If for instance in your locality they is a high prevalence of unwanted pregnancy, your research topic should be geared towards ascertaining the causes and remedies to the problem.
5. Critically look at your topic and plan the end from the beginning. What this entail is that you should know the possible structure of your research work, the methodology to be adopted (if it is one you can handle) and then plan a way of getting it done. For instance, not every research work need survey research design that needs interview, questionnaire et cetera.

5b. Also, you should determine the kind of data your research work need. Most project topics in Economics need secondary data while most project/research topics in Education need primary data. All these can be ascertained from your topic.

6. Try to know the dependent and the independent variables in your topic as this will help you in developing your research objectives.

Complete Guide on research project writing and graduation thesis -Ways of formulating a project topic

1. Identifying a problem within your vicinity. E.g
2. Effect of economic recession on household food affordability: A study of Abakaliki Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.
3. Effect of poor water supply on cholera outbreak in Ebonyi State.

• Nutritional education: A panacea towards reducing maternal-infant mortality rate in Kotangora, Kaduna state.

2. Creating a topic from trending economic, social or political events of the country. E.g
3. Effect of bad leadership on youth unemployment 1999-2017
4. Effect of Ponzi scheme on youth’s lack of interest in their job

• Effect of Ponzi schemes on banks liquidity ratio in Nigeria.

1. Emergence of crypto currency and the future of fiat currency.
2. Effect of crypto currency on money laundering in Nigeria.
3. Making up research topics from class activities or course contents. E.g.
4. Effect of teaching method on student’s academic performance: A study of Ebonyi state University, Abakaliki
5. Impact of sorting on quality of graduates in institutions of higher learning in Nigeria.

Starting your research

Having selected a suitable topic, don’t be in a hurry to start writing your research project:

1. Source, download articles, journals and literatures which are relevant and closely related to your study.
2. Read them very well
3. Get an already completed research work from your department, you can borrow it from your departmental library and study it, the essence of this is for you to know and understand the format your department is using, as some departments tends to adopt various format.
4. Use the borrowed already completed work as a guide, and please do not copy from it, because when you do so, you are no longer conducting a research rather you are just coping words from one book to another.
5. When you have read a lot of literatures then you can start your research work.

Complete Guide on research project writing and graduation thesis – How to use the search engine in research project writing

For quite long now, Google has been on top of the list when it comes to search engine ranking, this is as a result of differences in search engine algorithm.

our interest here is on making sure that you have desired results when you make use of the search engine. The question you enter in the search engine box is made up of words, letters, alpha-numerics, symbols etc., but the search engine sees them as ‘keywords’.

Research have shown that most people make use of group keywords than separate keywords. Group keywords are said to be your query in its entirety e.g. problem of indiscipline in Ebonyi state;
While separate keywords like- indiscipline, indiscipline among students etc.

The difference is that when it comes to rating, you will have better results with the latter than the former. Reason being that the separate items tends to attract more targetting articles than the group question(query).

Hope this is getting clearer? Well, in time you will get to understand more about these terms. Just like the spider and it’s web, the spider crawls on it’s web to have food that its web had attracted. The search engine on the web is not exempted from this spider action.

The search engine crawls on the web, looks for keywords on the titles of articles, its contents, relevance to the entire internet practice etc.

If you have question on this, I’ll be glad to answer you. Use the comment box.

WHAT TO DO

Ask your question the right way- you must not key in your question exactly the way it is asked or your exact project topic. Even if you do and get your results, you might be a victim of YOU COPIED because many other students have access to the same material.

*From your question, select the keyword(s) for your search. E.g
1.Events that took place during Ebonyi state university 3rd convocation
2. Events, Ebsu, 3rd convocation. Key in the first, then the second; you have different results. Is it not? Good! Which is more relevant to your search? (that is the way it works-after all, the search engine did not study English Language but only obeys command).

Don’ts of Research Project Writing

Plagiarism refers to an academic theft, it is the process of coping, and stealing of   another author’s idea, language and its presentation as one’s own idea. The issue of plagiarism is particularly troublesome among young researchers who often indulge in these act. It is a crime in the world of research punishable by law. In order not to fall prey, when writing your research

1. Do not copy and paste
2. When you quote an author ensure to use a quotation mark, as it shows that the idea is not yours
3. Do not forget to reference the author. For instance, assuming you are conducting a research on the factors that influence the prevalence of teenage pregnancy in Ezza local government Area of Ebonyi State, and you want to borrow another authors idea word to word Robinson, 2014 noted that “ poor upbringing, lack of good moral foundation and the social economic status of parents are among the factors which contribute to the prevalence of teenage pregnancy  among adolescents, and this has a negative implication for the place of women in the political, social and economic spheres of the society”
4. Paraphrase instead of copying: paraphrasing entails the restatement of a piece of writing, passage or text without losing its original meaning rather giving the meaning in another form. Young researchers often erroneously think that when you just change few words in a passage it becomes you own idea. In paraphrasing one is to read the passage or text carefully, then understand the message it tried to pass, then rewrite it in your own idea, ensuring that the original meaning was not altered rather presenting same meaning in different form. For instance if you want to paraphrase the quotation below

 Original

Robinson, 2014 noted that “poor upbringing, lack of good moral foundation and the social economic status of parents are among the factors which contribute to the prevalence of teenage pregnancy among adolescents, and this has a negative implication for the place of women in the political, social and economic spheres of the society”

Paraphrased

Robinson, 2014 noted that the factors which purport the prevalence of teenage pregnancy among adolescent are morally and socio-economic inclined, in the sense that the kind of ethical and moral value that   families patronize imparts positively or negatively on the young adolescent. He further noted that the socio economic relevance of parents to a great extent impart  positively or negatively on the young adolescent life choices and these status quo has a far reaching consequences for the relevance of women in the society with regards to the social, political and economic spheres of the society.

1. Do not rely heavily on secondary data, try to gather data from the primary source
2. Be original and,
3. Consult current and up to date literatures published in reputable journals as these will add more academic prowess to your work.

GOODLUCK

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