Guide to Research Project Writing

Guide to Research Project Writing

In all tertiary institutions in Nigeria and beyond, research project writing is required of all undergraduate students. As an undergraduate, you are expected to carry out a research project.

Through research, you are able to identify a problem in your community and be able to proffer solution after considering some factors and effects. The first thing you need to do as a research student is to send a research proposal to your supervisor if demanded for.

In your proposal, you will state your research interest. Here, you let your supervisor know how you intend conducting the research, the research instruments you intend using.

The proposal for the topic should also include a brief description, justification for the work, aims and milestones, assumptions to be made, the methodologies involved and the references.

Developing the content of your report writing is very important, in doing this, there are certain guidelines that would be beneficial.
As a rule, the work is usually divided into five chapters excluding the preliminary pages.

SAMPLE OF RESEARCH PROJECT REPORT CONTENT

• Title page
• Approval page
• Dedication
• Acknowledgement
• Abstract
• Table Of Content
• List Of Tables
• List Of Figures
• List Of Symbols/ Nomenclature (Where Applicable)
• The Body/Content (Chapter One To Five)
• References
• Appendices (Where Applicable)

Research Project Writing Title page Sample:

Here, the name of the institution is put, the title of the report, the name of the Author, then the reason for the report (this is why it is required that students add that it is ‘in partial fulfilment of the course requirement required for the award of the B.Sc degree.’ Then the date is added. It is advised that you use same fonts type and size as used in the body of the work. Times New Roman, 14 font size and single line spacing will be fine and normal for most departments and schools. The month and year to be used should be the tentative/fixed date/month of your defence, not the month you finished the work as there’ll be different months and year of completion for different students in same department and school.
Below is a good example.

Research Project Writing Approval page Sample:

The name of the institution and department, then a statement signifying approval for the work by the supervisor, head of department and external supervisor. Space should be reserved for signatures of all listed parties as well. See example below.

Dedication page: This is where you dedicate your work to anyone you like, it could be dedicated to God, your parents, your brother or sister, it could also be to your friends, dead or alive. Note: This is different from the acknowledgement.

Acknowledgement: The researcher here writes to appreciate all that contributed, (technical, financial, moral and otherwise) to the success of the research.

Abstract: This is the synopsis of the research work. It is often written last with the tense in past. Usually less than 100 words summarizing the problem statement, the methodology employed, the findings, conclusion and recommendations. This should be in a single paragraph and the word limit not exceeded.

Table of content: The main heading s and sub-headings and page numbers are listed. This allows for easy page identification and reference. The table of content should be edited at the final stage as well, to correctly capture the reflections in the work.

List of tables/figures/symbols: The list is to aid the reader in locating tables/figures/symbols. It should contain the tag numbers, tag which reflects the content and the page numbers. It should be well-numbered and unambiguous. In the main content, the figure/table should be well-labelled.
(The body of the work)

Chapter One: This is usually the introduction.
This describes the background, scope and purpose of the research. The rest of the report should be tied to the information supplied. The researcher should strive to present sufficient details regarding why the study was carried out.

Chapter two: This is usually the literature review.
This presents basically, the work done by others. It is on the ground work done by others that the current research is to be based, hence the review.

Chapter three: This is usually the research methodology.
Here the language used should be in past tense. It is a sum-up of the research design, procedures, the area and population of study. The data sampling and data sources are detailed as well.

Chapter four: This is usually for data presentation and analysis (results and discussion).
The results obtained in the research are presented her, usually, tables are used or any other visual aid like graph or charts.

Chapter five: This is the conclusions and recommendations.
From the results of the research, conclusions are made, then suggestions for improvement for other researchers with similar interest. Based on the whole happenings, recommendations are proffered.

References: This is a list of all the relevant journals, books and all sources of information consulted in the research work, either online or print. The researcher can select any format to use, it could be MLA referencing format, APA, HARVAD etc

Appendices: This is for all extra materials that were not added to the body of the work.

Don’t forget the page number. The final submission should be very clear, error-free(to a large degree) and as required by standard.