What are

the different
components of a
research project?
What are the different components of a research project?
A dissertation or thesis will typically contain the following sections:

KEY FEATURES
 Title Page
 Abstract
 Acknowledgement
 List of contents
 List of tables, figures and illustrations
 Introduction
 Literature Review
 Methodology
 Results (If the research is empirically-based)
 Discussion
 Conclusion
 References
 Appendices
TITLE PAGE
The title is designed to stimulate the reader’s interest. It needs to indicate the nature and purpose of your
research. It should be brief and to the point, and contain the key words or concepts underlying the work.

The title page shall give the following information in the order listed:

1. The full title of the project and the subtitle, if any;

2. The full name of the author, followed, if desirable, by any qualifications and distinctions;
3. The qualification for which the dissertation is submitted (i.e In partial fulfilment for the Degree of________
in______”;
4. The name of the institution to which the dissertation is submitted
5. The month and year of submission

The title number of a research project should not be numbered. The pages of all the preliminary sections,
however, should be numbered using Roman numerals with the page immediately following the title page
number as ii. The pages of the main body of the text are normally numbered with Arabic numerals
(1,2,3…).
ABSTRACT
The abstract, although it heads the article is often written last. This is partly because
writers know what they have achieved, and partly because it is not easy to write an
abstract. Abstracts have to summarise what has been done, sometimes in as few as 150
words. They act as a kind of summary to enable researchers to decide if it is worth
reading the full articles.

It is easier to write an abstract if you remember that all abstracts have a basic structure.
Structured abstracts are typically written using five sub-headings:

 Background
 Aim
 Method
 Results
 Conclusions
TASK 1
Underline the main components of the following abstract.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Most academic articles contain acknowledgements to various sources of help
received during their preparation. It is always appropriate to check with the people
named in acknowledgement that they are happy with what is said and, if
necessary, to reword it in the light of their comments.
LIST OF CONTENTS
It reflects accurately the structure of the research report. It should be arranged
according to chapter/section numbers incorporating all headings and sub-
headings as they appear in the text, along with the page numbers on which they
start.

Tables, figures, and illustrations are normally numbered consecutively throughout

the research report, and completely independently of the decimal numbering
system used elsewhere. They will therefore follow a simple “Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure
3…” pattern, regardless of where they appear in the report. In the list of contests,
however, it is important to indicate the page number on which each table, figure
or illustration appears.
LIST OF ACCRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
It is quite common to find a list of acronyms and abbreviations at the start of a research report,
usually following the list of contents.
For the sake of convenience, rather than repeatedly writing out in full the names of source
materials it is quicker and easier to refer to those materials using shortened forms – acronyms and
abbreviations.

EXAMPLES
AGM Annual General Meeting
BA Bachelor of Arts
BSc Bachelor of Sciences
B. Hist Business History
Ec HR Economic History Review
F.O. Foreign Office
J.E.H Journal of Economic History
TRI The Technology Readiness Index
Abbreviations in writing

Certain abbreviations are found in all types of academic writing. They include:

anon. anonymous (no author)

Ed. editor/edition
e.g. for example
et al. and others (used for giving names and multiple authors)
etc. and so forth
Fig. figure (for labelling charts and graphs)
ibid. in the same place (to refer to source mentioned immediately before)
i.e. that is
p.a. yearly (per annum)
re. with reference to
INTRODUCTION
 The motivation for your research: explain why you decided to embark on your research project
 Identification of a research “gap”

 Research aim: refers to the main goal of a research project. Sentences stating the aim of the project are
usually quite brief and to the point.
Aim: To investigate factors associated with partner violence.
• Research objectives: a research aim is usually followed by a series of statements describing a project’s
research objectives. Research objectives indicate in more detail the specific research topics or issues the
project plans to investigate, building on the main theme stated in the research aim. Normally at least two or
three research objectives are stated. It is good practice to put these in a numbered list so they can be
clearly identified.
Objective 1: To examine whether alcohol consumption is associated with increased partner violence.
Objective 2: To examine whether unemployment is associated with variations in the incidence of
partner violence.
Objective 3: To explore differences between couples with an extended history of partner violence and
couples with only a brief, recent history of partner violence.
 Formulating your hypotheses: in light of your objectives, you will need to
formulate a set of hypotheses. These are simply statements - expressed as
assertions-about the anticipated outcomes of your study, and as such they
indicate different ways that you, the researcher, expect the study to turn out.

They are typically phrased as follows:

To meet these objectives, the following hypotheses will be tested:
Hypothesis 1: Higher consumption of alcohol will be associated with more
incidents of partner violence
Hypothesis 2:
Hypothesis 3:
 A brief description of how you approached your research questions: give
some idea of the Methodology Research Discussion (MRD) approach that
will be used
LITERATURE REVIEW
It is where you present, in summary form, other work (books, articles, documents etc.) the
content of which relates in some way to your own research. The aim of the literature
review is:
• To show the history of a field
• To show where your study fits into the broader scheme of things; how it connects with
the existing body of knowledge on the subject or on other related issued. In doing so,
it also shows how your own research is original and promises to contribute to that pool
of knowledge
• To plot the development of a line of reasoning
• To integrate and synthesis work from different research areas
• To reveal inadequacies in the literature and point to where further research needs to
be done
• To familiarize yourself with different and/or opposing views and to demonstrate your
ability to critique and evaluate the work of other scholars
Your literature review should not be merely a list of relevant research works in the
field, in chronological order, with a brief description of it. It should include an
overview of significant research related to your topic area, which you then evaluate
in order to show the contribution of each and to point out any shortcomings.

TASK 2
What does the author show here?

This article focuses on information production, not information accessibility. That

is the difference between this research and previous studies…

The political competition literature comprises two main strands – voter

monitoring and political survival.
Structuring the literature review:

 Grouping texts (articles, chapters, books etc)

 Grouping studies
 Commenting on the main ideas that feature in each group of texts or studies
 Comparing and contrasting the different studies, viewpoints, methodologies
 Indicating which articles, ideas, methodologies and so on will form the basis
of your investigations
A note on the active and passive form

TASK 3
Look at the following two examples.
Although they share the same information content, their structures and the effects they
have on the reader are different.
Peters (1992) discovered that…..

It was discovered by Peters (1992) that ….

Comments
METHODOLOGY
It describes how you conducted your study and the methods you used to collect
and analyze data.
Aim: to provide the reader with an overview of the methods employed so that a
judgement can be made as to how appropriate they are given the objectives of
the research, and how valid the data is that they have generated.

Choosing an approach
 Purely theoretical research or library-based research
 Empirical research
Purely theoretical research
Less common, does not involve the collection of data through
experimentation or fieldwork
E.g. it may identify a problem in the existing literature, discuss it and
possibly provide some kind of resolution

Empirical research
Collection of data via experimentation or fieldwork, and its
subsequent analysis
In the case of empirical research, approaches normally fall into one of two categories:
quantitative and qualitative

Quantitative Study/Approach: one of which the data you collect and analyze involves the
accurate measurement of phenomena, and, often the application of statistical analysis. It is
essentially concerned with numbers and anything that is quantifiable (or measurable) and
as such uses methods such as psychometrics, statistical modelling techniques, datasets and
services and so on.

Qualitative Study/Approach: involves the collection of information and its analysis rather
than the application of quantitative methods. As such it is less concerned with numbers and
accurate measurement and more concerned with the depth of data. It will typically involve
the collection of data via interviews, focus groups, participant observation, oral history and
so on.
TASK 4
Fill in the gaps. Use the following words.
questioned, random, questionnaire

Method
The research was done by asking students selected at (a) ______________ on the campus to complete a
(b) ______________(see Appendix 1). 50 students were (c) ______________on Saturday 23 April, with
approximately equal numbers of male and female students.

Table 1 Do you have or have you had a part-time job?

MEN WOMEN TOTAL %

Have job now 8 7 15 30

Had job before 4 6 10 20

Never had job 14 11 25 50

TASK 5
Questionnaire Design

1. Which is the best question?

(i) How old are you?
(ii) Are you (a) under 20 (b) between 21-30 (c) over 30?

2. What is the main difference between the two questions below?

(i) What do you think of university students?
(ii) Do you think university students are (a) lazy (b) hardworking (c) average

3. How many questions should your questionnaire contain?

RESULTS

 Occasionally, the presentation of research results is incorporated into the

“Discussion” chapter which is then headed “Results and Discussion”.

 In general, however, the Results section presents the findings of your research
together with brief comments, particularly where statistical analysis is involved.
More extensive comments appear later in the Discussion.

 A “moves” analysis of the results sections either looks like this:

- Move 1: State the main findings in order – relating them in turn to the
hypotheses and methods used
- Move 2: State the subsidiary findings – relating them in turn to the hypotheses
and methods used
or it is an interweaving of the two.
Styles of presentation

It is typical in results section to present the main data that support (or reject) the hypotheses in the form
of tables, charts and graphs. Indeed, it is quite common to find that the first sentence of a results section
begins, “Table 1 shows that….”.

Example of a table
Example of a pie chart
Example of a bar chart
Example of a multiple bar chart
Example of a line graph
TASK 6
The pie chart, below, shows in general the percentages of US species that are:
 Presumed/possibly extinct
 Critically imperiled (in very serious danger)
 Imperiled (in serious danger)
 Vulnerable (could be soon in danger)

1. If we wanted to write an article showing that US species are in danger, which statistics would we highlight?
2. Complete the following summary:
The pie chart (a) __________ the relative condition of species in the US. (b) __________ are not in any danger of extinction, or
not seen to be, while another (c) __________are currently in no immediate danger but are thought to be facing some (d)
__________. It is thought only (e) __________ per cent of the total population may be extinct.
DISCUSSION
This is probably the single most important part of the research project, since it is
here that you demonstrate that you understand and can interpret what you
have done.

 Comment on the results you have obtained from your investigations and
assess their significance in light of your objectives and stated hypotheses

 Evaluate how the results fit in with the previous findings (as discussed in your
literature review) – do they contradict, agree or go beyond them?

 List potential limitations to the study

CONCLUSION
It typically contains the following three closely connected elements:
• A discussion of those interferences that can be drawn from your research
• A statement of the contribution your research has made to the field of inquiry
• Suggestions for further research (based on your own research)

REFERENCES

APPENDICES
Inclusion of an appendix will help your instructor/reviewers evaluate your paper.

- Some examples that may be included in the appendix are:

o Raw data and computations used in statistical analyses
o Questionnaires, consent form, information sheet
- Anything you include as an appendix does not count toward the word count
of the final paper