PROJECT PROPOSAL

PREPARATION AND PROJECT

WRITING
 Research Process

Research Experiment, Project/

Research
Title and data analysis
proposal Dissertation
scope etc.

Assessment

Given by
supervisor You are
Discuss
proposing on
the results
how you will
conduct the Lab work
research
 Purpose of research

• To learn the • To solve problem using • Using the methodology

methodology of doing the methodology that that you have learned
research you have learned and the experience of
solving problem to
produce something
novelty/new

BSc MSC PhD

 What is research proposal?

well planned
written ideas
Generally
A written workable well planned ideas within a
specific scope to achieve targeted objective

specific scope
targeted objective
 Why a must for a researcher?
• To tell people
– What you are going to do…..
– How you are going to do…
– Where you are going to do….
– What are the benefits….
 BSc Research proposal
• To learn the methodology
– Title
– Objective
– Scope
• Literature review
• Methodology
• Results and interpretation
• Conclusion
 Content/component in Research
Proposal
• Title page
• Content
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Literature Review
• Chapter 3: Research Methodology Design
• Chapter 4: Expected results
• References
 Introduction
• What is the topic and why is it important?
• The introduction should be interesting. If you
bore the reader here, then you are unlikely to
restore his/her interest in the materials and
methods section.
• Read several thesis introductions. Did any
make you want to read on? Which ones were
boring?
• Introduction is the first impression of the
reader.
 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
• Component:
1. Introduction/Research Background
2. Problem statement
3. Research Objectives
4. Scope of Research
5. Significance of Research
 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
• Introduction/Research Background
– Explain about title, what do you want reader to
understand about your title, what problem do you
want to solve.
– How to solve the problem, mention that your
research will solve the problem.
– What do you hope in this study.
 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
• Problem statement
– Must identify problems that are possible to be
solve when you do your research.
– After finish this research, you hope that it can
solve the problems that you stated here.
– Each paragraph: write about each problem,
reference and how it can be solved.
 Problem statement: In one
paragraph
Introduction/explanation
about the problem

References/literatures that
support this problem

How to solve the problem.

 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
• Objective of research
– What do you want to achieve at the end of research?
– Make in a point form.
1. Objective 1
2. Objective 2
3. Objective 3
– Refer to your research methodology design
– Starting with “to” and verb.
– At the end of research, conclusion will answer the
question from research objectives.
 Objectives of research

WHAT? (Things
Action
To Verb
that you want to
achieve)

Action Verb
Determine, Prepare,
Investigate,
find out, synthesize,
examine,
verify, produce,
explore,
perform, manufacture,
study,
carry out, screen,
identify etc.
compare etc. monitor etc.
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 How to make Good Objective of
Research
1. Understand Title
2. Understand scope of research that supervisor
gave to you.

3. Using SMART Criteria

 SMART criteria
• Significant
S: Specific • Stretching
• simple
• Meaningful
M: Measurable • Motivational
• Manageable
• Appropriate
• Achievable
A: Attainable • Action-oriented
• Aligned

• Realistic
• Result-oriented
R: Relevant • Resourced
• Rewarding

• Time-oriented
• Time framed
T: Time-bound
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• Timely
• Tangible
 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
• Scope of study
– Write in one paragraph what is the scope of your
research.
– Answering the question of what, when and how.
– What you will do, how you will do it and
sequence.
– Refer to research methodology design

– Example of scope
 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
• Significance of study
– The significance/importance of your research to the
world/community/environment etc.
– What do you hope from this research after you finish
this research → solve the problem that you stated in
problem statement.
– Each research has its own significance.
– We are not doing research if the outcome is not
importance.
 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
• What is literature review?
– You review from other literature.
– Write essay about what has been done previously
in the area of your research.

Write in
Find/Search Related Important
Read your own
literatures Literatures content words
 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
• A good writing literature review could be
achieved by:
– Read many related recent references.
– In each journal, literature review can be refer to
introduction section.
– Understand on writing styles and skills.
– If you want to make a good literature review, you
must read many journals.
Research: Literature Review

“ Research is about telling a story.. A changed story originating from the

same source. The existing literature, is the story so far. You have to know
where you are, before you can go forward”
Dr John Classen, Biological and Agricultural Engineering,

North Carolina State University, USA.

By the end of this course:

‘Start with
WHY?
WHY”
HOW?
Simon Sinek.
WHAT?

The Golden Circle.

WHAT: ISN’T Literature review?

 Not an essay/research paper (is part of the

body/standalone product )
 Does not state/prove your main points (do not
illustrate/cooperate/develop your findings, that’s in
the body of your essay)

Does not provide the body or the development of

your
essay/paper
WHAT: IS Literature review

Literature can be divided into the following key terms:

 Major works/ Key elements that

has been published in peer-reviewed sources about
your narrow topic

 Narrow topic (you are not reviewing every

publish thing on a broad topic e.g: Plant
senescence and oxidative stress in plants)

Next,….reviewing the narrow topic. So What is review?

WHAT: IS Review

 Snapshots Simply looking at something and taking a

snapshot out of it. Capturing Major concepts/key elements

 Major concepts
(outcomes/advancements/wahtever in that source). (Not a
detailed write up of that one source/summary of the article)

 Relationships between those snapshots. Putting the

relationships in a sort of Timeline situation, maybe not

Main key: extracting JUST the major elements and then

the identify
the relationships among the major elements, maybe in
a timeline
WHY: are you doing this??

Purpose:
 Improve your own understanding (build your
understanding/background/expertise in a particular subject). As a
researcher, you must always be curious and passionate about your
subject……
 Demonstrate your Knowledge. Once you develop
these expertise in this particular subject, you will need to demonstrate
the knowledge to your supervisor/readers
 REAL PURPOSE: Reader service. Favor for readers.
Bringing the readers up to date about a particular subject (by
bringing them up to date by going along what had happened in the
past, highlighting the key elements (what is going on, what is
important and what is not), establish the relationships, and then only,
you can bring them to the present again).

The Dividing line between the literature review (past

researchers/past
scholars) and the rest of the paper/thesis(your work).
 THE COMPLETE BODY
(Assignment/ research paper/thesis dissertation)

Major studies

Literature review Start with your findings:

(part of the body): Method
Update Reader! Results
Discussion
Conclusion

1980 1990 2000 2011 2020

Past Present Future

Establishing relationships between key
elements

Major studies (original paper)

Minor studies
(build up:
respond/extension)
Critical Gaps /new
ideas/disagreement

Selective review
(small/standalone)

Review article (large

Comprehensive and standalone) is an
Review (large) excellent way to start!

Continuous evolving network of scholarly work that interacts with each other
WHAT: are the sources?

Publications:
 Peer-reviewed journals
 Books
 Thesis/Dissertations
 Conference Proceedings
HOW: to best organize your
literature review?

Organizing those many sources, that you are going

to take snapshots of, and expressing the
relationships among the snapshots you got

 Chronological (Eg: in the 1950s, they thought that

autism is caused by parental disorder, psychological illness,
genetic susceptibility triggered by environmental
toxic/pollution)- Major studies/major authors along the
way)
 Advancements/Breakthrough . E.g : Gene
Expression studies. Northern blot, semi RT-PCR. Microarray,
RT-PCR,. Increase of sensitivity/ realibility of a technique
 Geographical . E.g : Cancer studies. In Europe.
Asia, euro asia. Tropical climate. Different challenges.
Strains
 Questions. Major question (research problems) that
has been addresed by research scholar through the years
in relationship to this topic (e.g: starting by four main
questions)
HOW: The writing process?

 Collect. Your sources. Academic peer-reviewed sources (if you’re are required
to collect 30 sources, u need to collect and review 30)

 Analyze. Not read them straight away. ( gradually narrow them out, by
scanning titles, chapter titles, subhead, abstract, methodology). Identify useful papers, put
away out of scope paper). Once you get closer, the you will extend your reading to word
by word, analytical and critical reading, identify really relevant papers, then start taking
notes, that’s when u start writing out citations, that’s when you have actually found the
material that you will be actually be using in your research study. (Gradual scanning, then
only u get to word to word reading- VIP step)

 Arrange. After collect/analyze/snapshots of relevant sources----- start seeing

patterns (chronological, breakthrough, questions). Identify the pattern, start drafting the
outline. List the MAJOR sources under each major elements, in the outline
(breakthrough/geographical). Group them in. Establish relationships.

 Summarize. Work your way throughout your outline. Summarizing your sources
and providing transitional connections between each source as you move through your
outline
 Break
Good Weak
through!
Paper! Discussion!

Disagreem
Out of
ent Your
scope!
between Review :)
authors!
 Tips!

Always think critically! Why!!

Organize!
Use Mindmaps!
Put into your own words!
Avoid Plagiarism! Minimize Procrastination!

Develop passion towards your research!

Always be ahead of your supervisor!

Seek important advise from supervisor/library team!

Include proper referencing /acknowledgement!

You’ll do FABS!! :)
 Sources of scientific literatures:h) CD-rom databases
a) Books i) DVDs
b) Journals
c) Periodicals
J) CD-books
Learning how to use this resource
d) Newspapers k) Microfilms
properly is equally as important
e) Patents l) Thesis
f) Non-confidential
as learning any laboratory
government documents
technique and other technical
g) Electronic resources
skill.- e-journal
- internet
- websites
- online materials
How to get recent and update
literature?
Do you ask
Uncle
Google?

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How to get recent and update
literature?

35
How to get recent and update
literature?Problem
Uncle
with

Google?

36
How to get recent and update
literature?
It is better to ask
Uncle Google
Scholar?

37
How to get recent and update
literature?
It is better to ask
Uncle Google
Scholar?

38
How to get recent and update
literature?

39
How to get recent and update
literature?

40
How to get recent and update
literature?

41
 How to get recent and update
literature?

42
 How to get recent and update
literature?

43
 How to get recent and update
literature?

44
45
Important tips to find related literatures..

Keywords

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 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY
1. Methodology: In general
2. Flow chart of research methodology
3. Explanation of the flow chart
4. List of materials, samples, bacteria,
parameter etc.
5. Gantt chart (Example of Gantt chart)
There are a number of important steps in
planning a successful investigation, whether this
is a laboratory experiment, clinical trial or
fieldwork.

Whatever the type of investigation, the

experiment should:
a) Establish the objectives of the investigation.
What is the question that you want
answered, are you hypotheses sound and are
you certain that you can achieve the results
that you are seeking?
b) Determine the size and characteristics of the
sample that you are going to take. Is this
realistic in the planned timeframe and how
will you select test subjects?
c) Choosing the methodology. Is the experiment
unbiased and will there be appropriate
precision in the methods used?
d) Select an appropriate design and plan any
statistical analysis. Will the experimental
design allow statistical analysis and if so,
what test do you plan to use? Are sufficient
subjects or replicates included to make this
viable? Is a pilot study necessary to pre-test
an aspect of the investigation?
b) Determine the size and characteristics of the
sample that you are going to take. Is this
realistic in the planned timeframe and how
will you select test subjects?
c) Choosing the methodology. Is the experiment
unbiased and will there be appropriate
precision in the methods used?
d) Select an appropriate design and plan any
statistical analysis. Will the experimental
design allow statistical analysis and if so,
what test do you plan to use? Are sufficient
subjects or replicates included to make this
viable? Is a pilot study necessary to pre-test
an aspect of the investigation?
Samples and Sampling Strategies:
From whom you gather your data
 Samples
A sample is a finite part of a population whose
properties are studied to gain information about
the whole.
In other words, the collection of data gathered
during an investigation is called a sample; the
sample is just a small part of a (much larger)
population.
 Population
The population can be any living organism, e.g. it
could be plants if we were studying the heights of
a particular species of tree within a given area; or
it might be the size of isolated cells measured
under the microscope.
Sometimes, we may look at more than one
population in an experiment, for example, we
might compare the sizes of cells from different
organs of the body.
In the biological setting, populations are in a state
of continuous change, for example organisms
develop, grow and reproduce and some may die
or become diseased.
It is clearly impracticable to collect information
from every member of a population. So we have
to limit ourselves to what may be practically and
realistically achieved and take what we expect to
be representative samples of the population.
The question then arises, how large a sample
needs to be obtained to be truly representative?
Logically large samples will be more representative
than small samples, but constraints of time and
money often limit the size of a sample that can be
made.
The purpose of the investigation must be carefully
considered when deciding how samples are going
to be taken.
It is usually helpful to look at previous
investigation similar to your own to see what size
sample was used and whether the investigators
demonstrated that sufficient numbers were taken
to represent the population.
 Sampling Strategy
The degree to which your sample mirrors
the population from which it comes will
depend to a large extent on your sampling
strategy.
Why is this important?
The sampling strategy is the way in which
you select units from the population for
inclusion into your study.
 Sampling Frame
A list of all the individuals (units) in the
population from which the sample is taken.

Random
Sampling
strategy
Proportional
In random sampling, every member of a
population has an equal chance of being selected
for the sample, so there are no special limits
applied to exclude certain members of the
population.
Alternatively, we may wish to use proportional
sampling where the sample needs to be
representative of an aspect of the wider
population and so we have to be selective to
include subjects into the samples.
Example: Breast cancer – mainly in women, very
rarely in men. If we wanted to examine the
genetic predisposition of individuals for the
disease, then it would be clearly inappropriate to
use a sample that contained a large proportion of
male subjects.
 Random / Probability Samples

Sampling
Strategies

Proportional / Random /
Non-Probability Probability

Simple Stratified Systemic Cluster

Random Random Random Sample
 Random / Probability Sampling
Types:
Simple Random: Units are randomly chosen from
the sampling frame
Stratified Random: Random sampling of units
within categories (strata) that are assumed to
exist within a population
Systemic Random: Number units within the
sampling frame and select every 5th, 10th, etc
Cluster Sample: Clusters (each with multiple
units) within a sampling frame are randomly
selected
Proportional / Non-Probability
Samples
Sampling
Strategies

Random / Proportional /
Probability Non-Probability

Convenience Purposive Quota

Sampling Sampling Sampling
 Proportional / Non-Probability
Sampling
Types:
Convenience sampling: selection based on
availability or ease of inclusion
Purposive sampling: selection of individuals from
whom you may be inclined to get more data
Quota sampling: selection on the basis of
categories that are assumed to exist within a
population
 Sample Size
Quantitative Research: Qualitative Research:
A function of the As big as possible
variability or variance No definite rules to be
one expects to find in followed
the population
(standard deviation),
and the statistical
level of confidence
(usually 95%) one
wishes to use.
In deciding how large a sample to obtain, we also
need to consider the magnitude of the difference
that we are looking for in our experiment.
If we are expecting to see a large difference when
comparing two samples, then a small number
should be sufficient to demonstrate an effect.
If we expect that there is likely to be a very
narrow margin in the differences between
samples, then a much larger sample needs to be
taken.
One rough measure of sample size can be
determined from using a running mean.
If we were conducting an experiment in which we
were measuring a particular variable, for
example, the height of conifer tree that have
been grown for 1 year, we might start by taking
sample of 10 conifers from which we could
calculate the mean height, e.g. 97.9 cm.
Each time we made a further measurement, we
could recalculate the mean; this known as the
moving or running average.
If we plot this data, then we can see that the
running average has settled on a value of about
98.2 cm, so we can be assured that there is no
need to take any further measurements as the
sample size is sufficient.
 CHAPTER 4: EXPECTED RESULTS
• What do you expect in your research.
• Your hypothesis

Expected
Theory Hypothesis
results

• “It is expected in this study that…….”

 TENSES
• Title page
• Content
• Chapter 1: Introduction
– Intro and problem statement: Present, future and
past tenses
– Objective: present tense
– Scope of research: future tense
– Significance of study: future tense
 TENSES
• Chapter 2: Literature Review → Present,
future and past tenses
• Chapter 3: Research Methodology Design
– Future tense
• Chapter 4: Expected results
– Future tense
• References
 Preparation of Thesis/Dissertation
• Before you can prepare your thesis, you must
understand what is thesis or dissertation.
• What is a thesis?
A written work resulting from original research,
especially one submitted for a higher degree
in a university. - Collins Concise dictionary & Thesaurus

A formal document whose sole purpose is to

prove that you have made an original
contribution to knowledge
 Thesis/Dissertation
• Must show two important things:
1. A worthwhile problem or question which has not
been previously answered has been identified.
2. The problem or the question has been solved or
answered.
• Your contribution to knowledge generally lies
in your solution or answer.
 Thesis/Dissertation
• The examiners read your thesis to find the
answer to the following questions:
– What is this student’s research question?
– Is it good question? (Has it been answered
before? Is it a useful question to work on?
– Did the student convince me that the question
was adequately answered?
– Has the student made an adequate contribution
to knowledge?
 Supervisor’s expectation

First draft by chapters

Revision

Final draft, the complete thesis

Proof read before submit

Assessment by Viva Voce

 Abstract
• It should be a distillation of the thesis: a
concise description of the problem(s)
addressed, your method of solving it/them,
your results and conclusions.
• An abstract must be self-contained.
• Does not have references.
• Check the word limit.
• Should include your conclusion in very brief
form.
 Chapters
• Different styles
– Typical style (Conventional):
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Literature Review
• Chapter 3: Materials and Methods
• Chapter 4: Results and Discussion
• Chapter 5: Conclusion and Suggestion
• References

Example
 Plagiarism
• Plagiarism
– “Use the ideas or words of another as one’s
own without crediting the source”.
– Ideas and writing obtained from a source
without mention the original/existing source
can be considered as plagiarize

76
 Plagiarism
• Issues/conditions that can be considered as
plagiarize:
– A passage is being copied directly from a text
and makes it as their own word.
• The passage should be write using their own words
and mention the source.
– Idea taken directly from a references without
mention the source.
• Student should put the idea in form of passage and
mention the source.

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 Plagiarism

Plagiarism is considered as
wrong in academic and
can be penalized under
Universities and University
Colleges Act (19710
(AUKU)

78
“TURN YOUR WORRY
INTO ACTION”

Worry Action Success

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 PERSEVERANCE

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