How to draft an excellent research project for students.

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For a research to be termed acceptable to your research coordinator or project supervisor, the preliminary pages of the work must be all encompassing and concise enough to make great meaning. Preliminary pages are those write ups that come before the chapter one of every project or research work.
Standard preliminary pages has the following features in these chronological order

Cover page
Declaration
Certification
Dedication
Acknowledgement
Table of contents
Abstract

Cover page of the research work
This is the first page of the work which comrises the following:

The full topic of the project work.
The case study of the project/research work.
The researchers/student’s name, starting with the surname and registration number.
The institution of study.
The year and month the project work was completed.

The above must be written in block styles.
See below a Sample of a cover page of a project work:

APPRAISAL OF THE IMPACTS OF COST ANALYSIS AND PRICING DECISION IN THE GROWTH OF COMPANIES
(A CASE STUDY OF PZ PLC, ABA)

A RESEARCH PROJECT
BY

NWAEJIE, CHRISTOPHER ONYEKACHI
ABP/ND/1325/2007

SUBMITTED TO
THE DEPARTMENT OF ACCOUNTANCY,
ABIA STATE POLYTECHNIC, ABA

IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF ORDINARY NATIONAL DIPLOMA IN ACCOUNTING

NOVEMBER, 2007.

Declaration of the 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 “appraisal on the impact of cost analysis and pricing decision in the growth of companies” is an original work done by me under the supervision of Dr. J.u.b.Azubuike, Department of accountancy, Abia state polytechnic, ABA.

Nwaejie, Christopher onyekachi.

Certification of the research work
As the name depicts, certification of a research work is just a confirmation that the work or research was actually embarked upon by you. In drafting your certification of the research work, it has to come with your full name beginning with your surname followed by your other names, your registration number, space for the name date and signature of your project supervisor and finally a space for the name, signature and date of the external supervisor.
Below is an example of a certification of a project work:

*Please note that any name or project topics can be used depending on your specifications. For the purpose of this learning process, different topics and names can be used as examples like below:

CERTIFICATION
This is to certify that this research work on “appraising the roles of accountants in loan and credit controls and management was carried out OKORO, MOHAMMED BOLA; with the registration Number: 10/PG/CE/BSC/DBA/100.
We examined and found it acceptable for the award of postgraduate diploma in Business Administration, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Dr. A.A. Akai: ……………………………………………………………….
Signature ……………………… Date……………………………………
Supervisor/head of accounting department

Dr. W.S. Ugwu: ……………………………………………………………….
Signature ……………………… Date……………………………………
Coordinator, post graduate diploma
Business administration

Dedication of the research work
Dedication is one of the preliminary pages of a research work. It has to do with dedicating the complete work to loved ones or people your hold in high regard. Below is an example of a dedication of a research work:

DEDICATION
This research project is dedicated first to “THE ALMIGHTY GOD” forhis enabling strength he bestowed on me in completing this work.Secondly to my wonderful wife Mrs.Okoro Mohammed Bola

Acknowledgement of the research work
This is where the researcher appreciates people who contributed directly or indirectly in the actualization of the project work. Acknowledgement in a research work takes into cognizance, your project or research supervisor for availing his time to making your work a success, your parents or loved ones for morally and financially supporting you through this work and other people you may have in mind for what they did towards their direct or indirect contribution to the success of your work.Below is an example

ACKNOWLEDEGEMNT
I am most grateful to God Almighty, the sole provider of knowledge, wisdom, love, mercy and grace for his protections throughout the period of the programme. I sincerely appreciate my supervisor, Dr. A.A. Akai who offered timely criticism and corrections that led me through the various stages of this project. I appreciate my parents, Mr. and Mrs. AfikaAkara, my siblings and friends for their unquantifiable love and financial assistance during this period. May God bless you all in Jesus name, Amen.

For help and so on, send email to kumasi@yahoo.com

How to Write a Good Abstract

Due to numerous emails students keep sending to me concerning difficulties they face when trying to write a good and standard abstract, I have decided to pick up my pen once again, do some research and tackle this issue once and for all.
Writing an abstract is an important phase in the research process; hence in-order to make good grades with your research project and impress your readers, one must be familiar with the techniques of writing a good, concise and standard abstract.
Before I discourse on how to write a good abstract, let’s talk a bit about an abstract. Is it a bird or an insect? Absolutely not a bird or an insect, an abstract in simple terms is a summary of a research project, thesis. Dissertation, research journal etc. abstracts are usually seen at the beginning of research paper.
In-order to write good and standard abstract, students must first know how abstracts should be structured and things to avoid when writing one. This article torches on all of these. So enjoy!

STRUCTURE OF A STANDARD ABSTRACT
Most well written abstracts by outstanding researchers all over the world are structured as follows:

Overview of the study/Background
Methods
Results or Findings
Recommendations and Conclusion

Now let us discourse these sections one after the other.

OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
This is usually the first part of an abstract. It depicts the central focus of the study. When writing an abstract, students should know the central idea behind their study. This section is very important as it tells readers whether to continue reading or not. In essence when giving an overview of your study, you should make it concise and interesting enough to encourage readers to read your whole work. Students must ensure readers easily get a clue of what the research objectives are as well as problems motivating the researcher to pick up interest in the study.

METHODOLOGY
Methodology employed by the researcher constitutes the second part of an abstract. With a semi-paragraph or a sentence, state your research methods. This is where you briefly let readers know your data collection methods, research instruments employed, sample size and so on. To some extent depending on your institution’s research project format, you can state how the research instruments were validated and distributed (i.e. was it face-to-face distribution? or through email?).

RESULTS
The third section of an abstract is a brief summary of your key findings or results. Findings or important results recorded in the study must be briefly stated in the abstract.

RECOMMENDATIONS/CONCLUSION
The last section of most abstracts tells readers recommendations or suggestions made by the researcher. This section is the most important section in an abstract as it brings out the essence of research which is solving identified problems, developing better ways of doing things and adding to the body of knowledge.

THINGS TO AVOID WHEN WRITING AN ABSTRACT
In-order to present a good abstract for academic award(s), the following should be observed by the researcher:

Avoid Ambiguous Words and Complex Grammar

Remember an abstract is like a tip of the iceberg. Complex and ambiguous words/sentences may discourage readers from reading the full content of your research. Using keywords at the end of an abstract may help in letting your readers know the central theme or idea of the study.

Do not Loose Focus

When writing an abstract, just go straight to the point. Do not beat around the bush. Definition of terms, long stories that are not interesting may make your abstract too lengthy and boring…..leave all definitions and stories for your introduction.

Avoid Lengthy Abstracts

Abstracts are meant to be brief and concise. Avoid writing numerous pages and calling it ‘Abstract’. An ideal abstract should be on a single page. However, if you wish to write more, seek the advice of your supervisor first.

Avoid Writing Abstracts When you have not completed your Study

This particular point one is of great interest to me. I see students writing abstracts before completing their research studies, and it gets me wondering a lot. How did they get findings and recommendations before data analysis and interpretation? Or is there any such thing as pre and post abstracts? If there is any, please feel free to share your ideas by commenting below because, this one is killing me. An abstract is meant to be a summary of your entire work; hence it should be after you have conducted your study.
Below is a perfect example of an abstract:

ABSTRACT
This study was intended to evaluate the extent to which strategic planning affects organizational performance. The study was guided by the following objectives; to identify the various components and phases of strategic planning used in company ABC, to find out other factors affecting organizational performance other than strategic planning and to find out the relationship between strategic planning and organizational performance.
The study employed descriptive and explanatory design, questionnaires in addition to library research were applied in order to collect data. Primary and secondary data sources were used and data was analyzed using statistical package which was presented in frequency tables and percentage. The respondents under the study were 30 employees of ABC, DEF branch. The study majorly focused on phases and components of strategic planning and how they affect the organizational performance.
The study findings revealed that there is lack of information gathering, where strategic planning does not begin with collection of the necessary information, there is strong review of the past performance where by past performance is considered to make the strategic plans. Pearson correlation coefficient is 0.692 significant at 0.01 level (2-tailed), 0.00 indicates the significance of interaction between two variables an indication that the significant is under the range of 0.0 and 0.05.
Using the above findings, it implied that there is a strong relationship between strategic planning and organization performance. According to the study, strategic planning contributes 69.2% towards performance in banking services and this implied that other factors contribute 30.8%. Improvements should be made in the information altering systems and information should be gathered first before making the strategic plans. Company ABC should involve all the employees in decision making so as to improve on the performance.

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