Project Writing Made Simple

Incoming brief on our new book BASIC RESEARCH TECHNIQUES

FUNDAMENTALS OF RESEARCH INTRODUCTION

Importance

This leads into the rationale behind the research, revealing whether it is building upon previous research, looking at something that everybody else has overlooked, or improving upon a previous research project that delivered unclear results.

This section can then flow into how you are going to fill the gap, laying out your objectives and methodology. You are trying to predict what impact your research will have if everything works as it should, and you ultimately reject the null hypothesis.

Limitations

The introduction is the place to highlight any weaknesses in the experiment from the start.

For example, an ideal experiment should have perfectly randomized samples, but there are many good reasons why this is not always possible. As long as you warn the reader about this, so that they are aware of the shortcomings, then they can easily judge the validity of the research.

This is much better than making them wait until you point it out in the discussion.

Assumptions

You should also point out any assumptions that you make about conditions during the research. You should set out your basic principles before embarking upon the experiment: any research will be built around some assumptions.

For example, if you were performing educational research, you may assume that all students at the same school are from a very similar socio-economic background, with randomization smoothing out any variables.

Tips

There are a few tips that can help you write a strong introduction, arousing interest and encouraging the reader to read the rest of your work.

Keep it Short
A long and rambling introduction will soon put people off and lose you marks. Stick closely to your outline for the paper, and structure your introduction in a similar way.
Define the Problem
The entire introduction should logically end at the research question and thesis statement or hypothesis. The reader, by the end of the introduction, should know exactly what you are trying to achieve with the paper. In addition, your conclusion and discussion will refer back to the introduction, and this is easier if you have a clearly defined problem.

Organization

As you write the paper, you may find that it goes in a slightly different direction than planned. In this case, go with the flow, but make sure that you adjust the introduction accordingly. Some people work entirely from an outline and then write the introduction as the last part of the process. This is fine if it works for you.
Once your introduction is complete, you can now think about attacking the rest of the paper.

WRITING DECLARATION OF A RESEARCH WORK

Every research work must be deemed original and void of
plagiarism. To this effect the declaration is more of an
affidavit stating in clear terms that the work is an original work
and was not copied from any source. In declaring that your
work as a researcher is original, it has to be done with your
full name and the full name of the researcher observer or
project supervisor who guided you through the research work
and the date the research was concluded.
Below is an example of a declaration of a research work:

DECLARATION

I declare that this project on “appraising the roles of an
accountant in loans and credit controls and management” is
an original work done by me under the supervision of Prof. O.M BOLAJI, faculty of business administration, university of ABUJA

ABSTRACT

The Abstract should not extend beyond a single A4 side, and to facilitate this, single spaced typing is permitted for the summary only. The purpose of the summary according to Hussey and Hussey (1997 p. 286) is:

“to introduce the topic
to describe how you did the research
to discuss the results of what was done
to explain the implications of the results.”