GUIDELINES ON PROPOSAL AND REPORT/DISSERTATION WRITING

Preliminary Pages for the Proposal

The Cover Page
The cover page should have the following: Title/topic of the study, student’s names and
registration number centred below the names, names and tittles of supervisors, statement
about the proposal as “ being in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the
Bachelors’/masters’ degree (specialisation), and month and year the proposal is submitted.
Title/Topic
The title/topic should accurately reflect the scope and content of the study. It should be
between 15-20 words. It should be descriptive yet discrete. The key word in the topic should be
the key variables. It has two main parts: main title and sub-title.
Table of Contents page
The words TABLE OF CONTENTS are in capital letters and bold print and centred on top of the
page. The word page is justified to the right. The content page(s) lists all headings and sub-
headings and the pages where they appear.

CHAPTER ONE: GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction (summary of what to be included in this chapter)

1.2 Background to the study (should give historical, theoretical, conceptual, and contextual
background (Amin, 2005).
1.3 Statement of the problem
1.4 Objectives of the study
1.4.1 General/major objective of the study
1.4.2 Specific objectives of the study (use phrases such as; To find out, To investigate, To
determine, To evaluate etc.)
1.5 Research hypotheses/ Questions (The number of research hypotheses/questions should
correspond with that of specific objectives in all cases)
1.6 Conceptual framework .The conceptual framework is a diagrammatic representation of the
relationship between variables and how they are operationalized for the purpose of research. It
should indicate the independent and dependent variables (cause/ effect relationship) or vice versa,
moderating (intervening) variables (where applicable).
1.7 Significance/Justification of the study (i.e. relevance of the study in terms of academic and
policy contribution. who will benefit from the findings and how)
1.8 Justification of the study (i.e. rationale of the study whether methodological or problem
justification)
1.9 Scope (coverage) of the study (i.e. content, geographical, and time scope )
1.10 Limitations of the study (i.e. anticipated constraints and potential sources of bias in the
proposed study and how you plan to overcome them)
1.11 Operational definitions of key terms/concepts. The definition should be operational and not
a dictionary definition.

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1.12 Organization of the study (i.e. summary of all the chapters in the study. The
introduction, literature review, methodology, presentation and discussion of findings,
conclusions and recommendations)

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction (i.e. summary of the themes on which literature is reviewed and organized)
2.2 Theoretical literature review (any theories about the study)
2.3 Empirical literature review i.e. actual literature about the study. This should be done
objective by objective. Objectives should form themes on which literature is reviewed.
Citations and quotations should be based on the Harvard style. The review should be critical
and use of current journal articles rather than textbooks is recommended
2.4 Summary of literature review (i.e. key lessons learnt and highlights of gap(s) that have been
identified in the literature review)

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction (summary of what is contained in this chapter and how it is arranged)
3.2 Research design. This is a structural arrangement within which research will be undertaken e.g.
whether it is longitudinal or cross-sectional, descriptive, explanatory or experimental, case based or
representative. The choice of a particular design needs to be justified and the candidate must state
in precise terms which approach will be used among qualitative and quantitative or whether both
will be used.
3.3 Study/ targeted population (i.e. the researcher must state the exact population from which the
sample will be selected).
3.4 Sample size and sampling procedure
3.4.1 Sample size (I.e. description of the actual sample and how it will be selected /calculated.
3.4.2. Sampling techniques and procedure (i.e. the procedure of the sampling techniques that
will be used in selecting the sample to be studied e.g. probability or non-probability
based sampling. Probability based sampling include simple random, systematic random,
stratified, cluster etc. Non-probability sampling includes purposive, maximum variation,
homogenous, quota, convenient or accidental etc). It describes in detail the procedure
and design of the sampling frame.
3.5 Data types and Collection methods
3.5.1 Data types (i.e. whether the research will use primary or secondary data)
3.5.2 Data collection methods. Methods of collecting primary data could include face-to-face
interviews, key informants interviews, focus group discussions, questionnaire, observation, etc.
while secondary data sources include background to the budget, ministerial reports, central
bank reports, UBOS, Local government reports etc.
3.6 Validity and Reliability of data collection instruments (i.e. through the use of pilot studies).
The researcher should briefly describe and explain how the pre-test/pilot study will be carried out,
the findings of the pilot study and s/he will use them to re-design and improve the data collection
instruments.
3.7 Ethical considerations (The student should show how the issues of trustworthiness, credibility
and confidentiality will be addressed/adhered to.

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3.8 Data analysis (i.e. how data will be captured, processed and summarized. It should indicate
the statistical package to be used in capturing and analyzing data e.g. EXCEL, SPSS, STATA, E-
VIEWS, MATLAB etc.). Where both qualitative and quantitative data is expected, the
student should describe in a detailed way in which the data will be analysed
3.8.1 Univariate/ Descriptive analysis (i.e. analyzing the individual characteristics of each
variable/ factor using descriptive statistics, frequency tables, graphs, measures of central
tendency and dispersion)
3.8.2 Bivariate analysis (analyzing the relationship between two variables using plots,
correlations, Chi-square tests, ANOVA tests depending on whether the variables are
categorical or continuous)

CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

4.1 Introduction (i.e. summary of what the discussions are all about)
4.2 Univariate (descriptive) analysis (i.e. considering the attributes of each variable in relation
to the study including the background information using frequencies, pie charts, graphs
etc.)
4.3 Bivariate analysis (i.e. performing various tests for example correlations, chi-square tests
and ANOVA tests to determine the significance of the relationship between each of the
independent variables and the dependent variable. This depends on whether the variables
are continuous or categorical)
NOTE: Interpretation and discussion of results should be in relation to other researched work)

CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Introduction. (i.e. summary of the chapter)

5.2 Conclusions (This should be in relation to the objectives of the study basing on the findings)
5.3 Recommendations (This should be in relation to the objectives of the study basing on the
findings)
5.4 Areas of future research

REFERENCES (i.e. List of all works cited in the proposal and should be written according to the Harvard
format)

APPENDICES (i.e. research instruments used, work plan and time frame, letters of introduction,
photographs if any, maps etc)

NOTE:

 The research proposal covers the first THREE chapters and it is written in future tense. It
should not exceed 20 double spaced pages of the main text body (excluding title page, table
of contents, list of tables and figures, list of abbreviations, list of references and appendices)
 The research report/dissertation covers all the FIVE chapters and it is written in past tense.
 Use font size 12 and one and half spacing when writing a research proposal/report

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