UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA

2nd SEMESTER ACADEMIC SESSION 2020/2021 (A202/DC202)

GMUP 5014 LEGAL RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Assignment 2 (Individual) – 40 %
Instructor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Khadijah Mohamed
Presentation date: 6 March 2021 (Week 9)
Submission date: 13 March 2021 (Week 10)

RESEARCH PROPOSAL – ASSIGNMENT 2 (content 35%; communication skill 5% = 40%)

Students are required to prepare a research proposal on the topic of your own choice
and must adhere to the following requirements.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________

Instruction for this Assignment:

(a) Writing format
- Font type Times new roman
- Font size 12
- Line spacing 1.5 spacing
(b) Content format: The assignment must consist of the following sub-topics:
- Introduction: This introduction should be designed to interest your reader in your
topic and proposal and provide some historical/background context for your
project.
- Research Problem(s), Research Questions, Research Objectives: Students have
to identify research problem and formulate a set of 3 research questions and 3
research objectives. Explain why these questions are of interest, relevant to law,
regulation, policymaking or legal research.
- Literature Review: For this part, students have to conduct a brief but appropriate
literature review based on the three research questions above.
- Methodology: For this part, students have to briefly discuss how they intend to
carry out their research, what type of data they need to use in order to conduct
their study, how this data is to be collected and analysed, and critically evaluate
the methodological implications of their chosen approach.
- Timeline: Include a timeline for your project by setting up certain milestones (by
day or by week) that you will accomplish to keep yourself on track.
- Conclusion: In your conclusion, address the "So What?" question of the
research/project. That is, why does what you are investigating matter as more
than an academic exercise? Why should your audience want to read it? Why
does it matter?
- Reference/Bibliography: Chicago Citation Style for Legal Works (Turabian)
- Appendix: attach 5 main materials (articles/text books/report/statistic etc) used
in your proposal with full citation
• Clearly indicate sections of the paper by using headings that indicate where
particular kinds of information can be found. Subheading may also be used in
longer sections to facilitate organization.
(c) Words limit requirement
- The total words count for the assignment must be between 5000 – 8000 words.
Please state the total number of word count at the last page of your assignment.
(d) Sources for literature review
- In order to write this assignment, reference must be made to at least to 5 relevant
text books and 5 academic journals as well as other acceptable references for
academic writing.
(e) Instruction for completed assignment
The completed assignment must comply with the following requirements:
- The cover page must contain the title of the project and the details of the
student
- List of content page must be put after the cover page
- Do not use any colour paper or any plastic cover for the assignment.
- Do not bind the assignment, only staple or use plastic file with paper fasteners of
the written assignment.
- Submit the assignment in an envelope.
• Presentation for this assignment will be held on SATURDAY 6 March 2021 (week 9).

• This assignment shall be submitted on or before SATURDAY 13 March (Week 10).

• All assessments should be word processed and professionally produced.
• Kindly indicate this table in your cover page:
Subject / Code
Group / Instructor
Assignment
Name
Matric ID
Programme
School
Submission date
Marks

Avoid the following potential criticisms:

not an original idea
rationale is weak
uncertain outcomes
problem is not important
proposal is unfocused
proposed solution is too large

Policy:
All grading of deliverables will be based on standards indicated for each deliverable.
Deliverables may not be turned in late and no cheating! For the purposes of this class,
cheating will include: plagiarism (using the writings of another without proper citation),
copying of another (either current or past student's work), working with another on
individually assigned work, or in any other way presenting as one's own work that which
is not entirely one's own work. The occurrence of plagiarism will result in removal from the
course with a failing grade.

All the best!

Instructor:
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Khadijah Mohamed
School of Law, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok, Kedah.
Email: khadijah@uum.edu.my