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The fundamentals of academic research: A guide for undergraduate students

Method · July 2021

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Nabil Morchid
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The fundamentals of academic research: A guide for undergraduate students
Laboratory of Language and Society, Ibn Tofail University, Morocco
Dr. Nabil MORCHID

Dear Researchers,

First, I would like to congratulate you for all the efforts you have been making to foster
your knowledge of the English language and widen your educational horizons. At this stage,
given all the academic and professional experiences you have had, I assume you are well
practiced in the careful use and manipulation of the English language. This is probably your
first experience with academic research. Allow me to remind you that the provisions of
linguistic proficiency lay the basis for research methodology and design. Your mastery of the
English language is the precondition for performing astonishing feats of creativity within the
scope of the enabling protocols that organize the practice of research. Your knowledge of the
imperatives of academic research does not only offer conceptual frameworks for recognizing
the different components of scientific research, but it also serves as a window on different
cultures and epistemologies. Your ability to develop a taste for academic research will guide
you through the process of academic and professional growth.
You are required to conduct research in unusual circumstances and over a limited period
of time. In a fourteen-week period, you should be able to produce a university-level research
paper. Your research will be defined by its quality instead of quantity. You should be able to
write a 7000 word research paper, making sure you abide by the imperatives of academic
research in terms of methodology and design. This paper is set up to guide you through the
execution of your research paper by exposing the fundamentals of academic research. I must
make it clear that this paper does not exhaust the entire range of possibilities within the research
tradition, but it remains sufficiently sensitive to all that you need to know about academic
research for the time being.
I know that many of you will still have difficulties executing the research outline
exposed in this paper. For this reason, the contents in this paper will be the prelude to an
interactive course in research methodology and design. We will be meeting at regular intervals
as a working group. In our meetings, I will make sure you get the right coverage for your needs.

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Abstract: An abstract is a short summary of your research paper (Creswell,
2009). It must include the following:
 One or two sentences that provide context for your
research
 One sentence that states the intent of your research
 A few sentences that expose your methodology of research
in terms of sampling, data collection and data analysis
 One or two sentences that briefly highlight the findings.
Abstracts are very important as they help forge the credibility of
the researcher. A well-constructed abstract adds to the legitimacy
of your research. Linguistic problems in your abstract may cause
the quality of your research a lot of harm.
(words limit -150 -200 )
Introduction
Research Problem: The research problem section must state your insights into the
research area you are conducting research on (ibid). You can
pinpoint literature gaps or address pressing issues that have not
been dealt with before. Finding gaps in the literature should not be
a difficult thing to do since almost all research enquiries sum up
with limitations and recommendations that are themselves
literature gaps. Now, you know where to find literature gaps. (
Read research articles.) The difficulty lays in working out a
convincing research problem that would grab the attention of the
readers and add to the legitimacy of your enquiry.
(words limit -100 -150 )
The rationale section in your research must show your motivation
Rationale: for conducting your research (ibid). The rationale for your
research must be a sequel to the literature gap you already
mentioned in your introduction. You may explain how you intend
to eliminate or address a persisting gap in the literature. For
example, you have already highlighted in the research problem
section the pressing need for a technology acceptance model with
the capacity to predict university students’ acceptance of distance
learning. In the rationale section, you may choose to numerate all
the advantages from having an empirically valid technology
acceptance model with the capacity to orient implementers of
distance learning towards more efficient practices.
(words limit -100 -150 )
Your research needs to accommodate both theoretical and
Aim of the Study: practical research objectives. The theoretical objectives in
research relate to the applicability of findings to other contexts.
The practical objectives, on the other hand, are concerned with the
perceptible advantages from conducting research. You should be
able to precise that the outputs form your research will have the
capacity to stir positive change.
(words limit -80 -100 )

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Hypotheses “Is it mandatory for all research enquiries to have a hypothesis? "
(research questions or The answer is "no". There are various established traditions in
both): research that call for distinct methodologies, strategies and
practices. The formulation of one or more hypotheses is a practice
that is inherent to the quantitative tradition in research (ibid). Why
is that so? When you formulate a hypothesis, you clearly pinpoint
your constructs under investigation, which is a necessary
condition for the logic that applies to quantitative research. When
you opt for a qualitative approach, you afford to have research
questions. You legitimize your influence on the object of research
by means of interpretive ( subjective) modes of enquiry. By way
of analogy, in a mixed methods approach, you can use both:
hypotheses and research questions. Again, knowing that this might
be your first research experience, you may not have the necessary
provisions to switch between different traditions in research
methodology and design. I suggest you stick to the quantitative
approach in research and you formulate hypotheses that precise
the agency between the independent variables and the dependent
variables in your thesis.
“Effort expectancy positively impacts use of technology.”
“Effort expectancy” is the independent variable and it is
researched for the influence it exerts on ‘use of technology” which
is the dependent variable. When phrasing your hypothesis, use
straightforward language and avoid ambiguous words. The
relationship between your variables must be clear and without
redundancies.
(words limit -100 -150 )
Research background: As noted earlier, this paper is meant to ease students’ first
encounter with academic research. You are expected to plan and
execute a research outline in a relatively short period. A review of
literature chapter worthy of that name may not be a realistic
option. You may not have time to do a lot of reading and produce
critical reviews of all that you have read. Instead, you can provide
quality accounts about your research background. For example,
when doing research about motivation in the EFL context, you
may afford to be explicit about the existing theories’ of
motivation, language teaching methods and pedagogical
approaches. The contents in your research background will be
your provisions in the research discussion section.
(words limit -800 -900 )

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Methodology

Research methodology is the function of what you want to achieve from your research (ibid;
Rubin & Babbie, 2010; Neuman, 2014). Quantitative design, qualitative design and mixed
methods design are distinct theoretical orientations that emphasize different methodologies
of research. They are equally credible and legitimate trajectories for conducting research.
Before you select a research design, you need to consider:
 Your primary research objectives
 The epistemological stands for your research ( positivist vs nonpositivist)
 Your research questions or hypotheses (Hypotheses are typical of quantitative designs
while research questions are more suited to qualitative designs.)
 Your instrument for data collection (questionnaire, interview, etc.)

Population and Neuman (2014, p. 247) defines a population as “the abstract idea
sampling: of a large group of many cases from which a researcher draws a
sample and to which results from a sample are generalised”. Given
the impossibility of research where the entire cases within a
population are studied, you are confronted with the need to
generate a sample that is representative of the population intended
for your research. The logic by which a study population is
narrowed down to a representative sample varies in accordance to
the adopted research approach and design. There exist two distinct
traditions in sampling: probability sampling and non-probability
sampling. Non-probability sampling further subdivides into
convenience sampling, purposive sampling and quota sampling.
Probability sampling converts into simple random sampling,
systematic sampling, stratified sampling and cluster sampling.
What you should retain from this taxonomy in sampling is that the
logic of random sampling might be applied in different manners
and it is up to you to justify the use of the sampling strategy you
want for your research. The literature on sampling procedures is
abundant and you may not be able to fully crack it out in a short
lapse of time. Still, you need to know that non-probabilistic
sampling strategies require lesser time and energy on the part of
the researcher than is the case with probabilistic sampling
strategies. If you can put a name on the sampling procedure you
are using, that is good enough as it shows you capabilities to make
informed and conscious choices in terms of research methodology.
(words limit -100 -150 )
Instrument of data An instrument of data collection is a tool used for gathering data
collection: (Kothari, 2004). The concept in data collection is the same for all
instruments but the means of collection differ from one instrument
to the other. Questionnaires, observations checklists and
interviews are all instruments of data collection that reciprocate
with distinct methodologies of research. The intent from this paper
is to ease the practice of academic research for students who have
little experience with the issues surrounding scientific research.
For this same reason, the focus in this paper is going to be on the
questionnaire method for data collection. A rule of thumb is that
structured questionnaires are typical of quantitative research while

4
 unstructured questionnaires synchronize with the qualitative
tradition in research. The data obtained from a structured
questionnaire does not necessarily conflict with the intent from a
qualitative enquiry. You may want to obtain long narratives on
your respondents' perceptions and attitudes, but you still need
dichotomous values for the gender variable in your research. I
suggest you consider your options for both structured and
unstructured questionnaires bearing in mind that there exist many
subcategories for the two traditions.
(words limit -100 -150 )

findings:
Before exposing the results obtained from your research, you need
to remind your audience of your theoretical and methodological
references. You should start the research findings part in your
research with an introduction. In so doing, you place your results
in their due context and you ease the reader’s understanding of
your motives for planning your research the ways you did.
(words limit -300 -350 )

Discussion:

The discussion part is a logical sequel to the findings part. In the

discussion part, you afford to be explicit about the legitimacy of
your hypotheses. You estimate your results against the broader
research literature dealing with your topic. You identify the areas
of convergence and divergence between your findings and
findings from previous studies.
(words limit -500 -550 )

Conclusion:

Research summary: You briefly restate your research objectives, research hypotheses,
methodology references and research findings.
(words limit -100 -150 )

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 Research Limitations: It is almost impossible to produce a research paper without
limitations. Epistemological stands, philosophical paradigms and
schools of thought are preconditions for research methodologies
and designs. The idea of consensus defeats the purpose from
philosophy and by way of analogy the practice of research cannot
exist without limitations resulting from competing interpretations
of reality. The common objectives for all researchers is to produce
a piece of research with strong arguments, but this does not mean
that the arguments are irrefutable. It is a plus for all researchers to
be able to determine the limitations of their own research. Since
this is your first experience with academic research, you need to
know the areas in research that are usually susceptible to come
with limitations. The representativeness of the research sample
and the reliability and validity of the data are the most common
instigators of limitations in a research paper.
(words limit -100 -150 )

Research Your research limitations must be the preconditions for your

recommendations: recommendations. You need to be explicit about the areas in your
research that you could not fully examine. Then, you encourage
researchers to start from where you stopped.
(words limit -100 -150 )

REFERENCES

Creswel, J. W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods

approaches. Los Angeles: University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Kothari, C. R. (2004). Research methodology: Methods and techniques. New Age

International.
Neuman, W. L. (2014). Basics of social research. Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.

Rubin, A., & Babbie, E. (2010). Research methods for social work. Belmont, CA:
Cengage/Brooks & Cole.

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