A Guideline for Writing Proposal and Report Writing

July 2021
Introduction
This guideline provides the opportunity for students to develop their skills in research, writing
and presentation, and to focus a larger than usual share of their energies on a single topic of their
own choosing, subject to appropriate supervision.

Many everyday skills – such as reading, listening and watching – are important research skills.
Researchers use such skills for the collection, selection, analysis and presentation of data.
Researchers, however, make use of these taken-for-granted skills in a conscious, considered and
systematic fashion, and aim to be rigorous, critical and analytical. And they also keep records of
their activities.

This is a practical guideline, designed to help you through every stage of your Master’s Thesis
project, beginning with your earliest ideas about writing one. It helps you turn those tentative
ideas into a workable project, then a draft paper, and ultimately a polished final version.

Completing a Master’s Thesis is a substantial project, one that most students find both
challenging and rewarding. The most rewarding part, students say, is picking your own subject
and reaching your own conclusions. You reach them by doing independent research, writing
about it, and discussing your ideas with your adviser.

As you begin, though, the thought of actually finishing this project might seem like a distant
goal, perhaps even an unreachable one. In fact, you can reach it, and you can teach yourself a
great deal in the process.

This guideline consists of six major headings/sections. The first section delineates the meaning
of a Master’s Thesis. The second section presents examples of the Master’s Thesis’s thematic
areas. It also discusses about narrowing down the topic into researchable title and turning a topic
into a research questions. The third section deals with the preparation and contents of the
research proposal. The fourth heading, which is the core area of this guideline, is structuring the
Master’s Thesis.

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General comments and a Master’s thesis template are presented in the fifth and six sub-headings
respectively.

Students writing Master’s Thesis will be able to demonstrate a wide range of skills and abilities:
 ability to gather, organize and use evidence, data and information from a variety of
primary and secondary sources;
 ability to identify, investigate, formulate and advocate solutions to problems;
 ability to construct reasoned arguments, synthesize relevant information and exercise
critical judgment;
 ability to seek and make use of constructive feedback, and to communicate effectively in
writing;
 ability to use information technology for the retrieval and presentation of information;
 ability to work independently, demonstrating initiative, self-organization and time-
management.

1. The Meaning of a Thesis

A Thesis is a large, independent research project that students take on in the senior year of higher
academic institutions to fulfill a graduation requirement. Students typically work closely with an
advisor and choose a question or topic to explore before carrying out an extensive research plan.
A Thesis will be the culminating work of your studies at a particular institution and it will
represent your ability to conduct research and write effectively.

A Thesis is a sustained examination of a central idea or question, developed in a professional and

mature manner under the guidance of a supervisor and a second reader. A thesis is also a
potential source of great satisfaction, tempered by periods of frustration, revelation, and
discovery. No two theses are alike. Each is an individual reflection of an emerging scholar,
researcher, critic, artist, or thinker. A thesis should provide a culminating experience for your
work in one or more disciplines at the University. The thesis is not the place to explore a
discipline for the first time. You and your advisers may develop methods of inquiry that bridge
disciplines you have already studied. A thesis can provide a rigorous focus for your intellectual
curiosity and academic acumen.

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The question of originality plagues scholars of all levels. Anyone in the world of academics
would be disingenuous to say that an academic work is ever entirely original. We all build upon
libraries of information and resources that have come before us. An important part of academic
work is acknowledging our public debt to other scholars fully and clearly. Rather than asking if a
thesis is completely original, ask if you can deal with a subject in such a way as to add to the
conversation already begun on this topic. You will draw upon the research and ideas of many
other scholars, creators, and thinkers, citing their work as you go. Your contribution may come
out as a re-evaluation of the material, or as fresh perspective. You may not have that insight as
you begin the project, but as a critical and creative student, you can find that element during your
research. Remember, no two theses are alike, even if they deal with the same information and
topic.

2. Choosing a Thesis Topic

Hopefully, you have already thought about a research topic that interests you before deciding to
write a Master’s Thesis. A research topic can be very broad—you have not yet developed a
specific research question, but instead have an expansive area of interest. Here are some tips for
choosing a successful Master’s Thesis topic:
 Let your interests guide you. This project will consume much of your senior year, so
pick a topic that you are genuinely interested in and committed to exploring. Think about
interesting topics or readings from your coursework—what caught your attention?
 Pay attention to your social world. Look to the media, news outlets, your friends,
academic debates—what issues are people debating now? What questions need
answering?
 Think of your volunteer/civic engagements in a new way. Many students are active in
causes that matter to them. Is there a sociological question inspired by the volunteer work
you are doing? Maybe you volunteer in an education program for underprivileged
children and you hear conversations about school readiness at home. This experience
could turn into a senior thesis about differences in how parents from different
racial/ethnic backgrounds prepare their children for kindergarten. Combining your
personal and academic interests ensures you will stay engaged with your topic.

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  Revisit classical theoretical issues. Think back to the founding theorists you read about
the area of the study.
 Think of this as a chance to do something totally new. Is there a course you wish the
department offered about a certain topic? What research questions follow from that topic?
 Engage with current or past research—see what has been done. What topics have been
covered recently? What can you add to the debate?

Again, your research topic does not have to be specific yet. In the next section, we discuss
moving from topic to research question. Do some brainstorming—write down 5 to 10 topics that
interest you. Talk with friends, professors, and teaching fellows to see which topics are the most
interesting (and could provide the starting point for a strong thesis). Once you have decided on a
topic, you are ready for the next step.

Examples of Major thematic areas

No. Thematic areas
1 Employment
2 Good Governance
3 Small and Micro Enterprises
4 Project Management
5 Business and investment
6 Contemporary issues: poverty reduction, environmental issues, HIV/Aids
7 Other Cross-cutting issues
Narrowing Down the thematic area into specific researchable title with example

Suppose that you are interested on Small and Micro Enterprises-which is the thematic area
for your Master’s Thesis. Now you have to narrow down into specific and realistic title.
You have to develop researchable title by focusing on specific aspect of Small and Micro
Enterprises (SMEs). Are you interested on:
The nature and characteristics of SMES? or
The performance challenges in SMES? or

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 The role of entrepreneurship in the establishment of SME? or
The Role and Contribution of SMEs to Economic Development
Therefore, from the above alternatives, your Master’s Thesis topic could be: “The Role and
Contribution of Small and Micro Enterprises (SMEs) to Economic Development in
Ethiopia: With reference to SMEs in Addis Ababa”

Turning a Topic into a Research Questions

What is the difference between a research topic and a research question? A topic is a broad
subject area while a research question is much narrower. A research question is a specific
problem or puzzle that can be addressed with evidence in the typical length of a senior thesis. A
research question is anchored in a discipline, it deals with a narrow topic, and it is testable with
empirical data.

Your question must be testable with empirical data. If you are going to write a theoretical thesis
(which is rarely undertaken by concentrators), you may not be actually testing the question, but it
has to be something that could be tested by others, given the right data source.

With this in mind, how should you move from topic to research question?
 Brainstorm several narrower “slices” of your topic. Are you interested in a particular
group of people within a topic? What particular aspect of the topic are you considering?
Are you more interested in how people interpret or feel about something? Or are you
more interested in people’s outcomes?
 During the brainstorming process, talk with your adviser, graduate students, classmates,
and friends. Often their comments and questions will help you refine the topic further;
sometimes we do not realize things are not clear until we try to explain it to someone
else!
 During this time, you should also start to read broadly on your topic. You are not
undertaking a literature review quite yet, but often reading through what has been done
will lead you to questions that have not been satisfactorily answered, debates that
continue to occur, an implication or follow-up to an argument that has not been explored,
or a question that you think can be explored with different methodology.

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  After brainstorming several narrower topics, start developing questions. A research
question should be specific: What is the specific phenomenon you are interested in? For
whom? In what way? For example, if you are interested in the educational attainment of
immigrant students, what specific outcome are you interested in? For what group of
immigrants? What do you want to examine that relates to this outcome—language?
Culture? Social integration?

3. Preparing the Research Proposal

Writing a research proposal is a crucial part of the research process. If your proposal is going
before an academic research committee, then you will know that you will need to put a great deal
of time into the preparation of your proposal.

Acceptance implies that your proposal is satisfactory. While this is obviously no guarantee of
subsequent success, it is something of comfort to you to know that at least you started your
research journey with an appropriate destination and journey plan. It is for you to ensure that you
do not get lost!

3.1. The contents of the Research Proposal

Title
This may be your first attempt at the title. It may change as your work progresses. At this stage,
it should closely mirror the content of your proposal.

Background of the Study

This is an important part of the proposal. It should tell the reader why you feel the research that
you are planning is worth the effort. This may be expressed in the form of a problem that needs
solving or something that you find exciting and has aroused your curiosity. The reader will be
looking for evidence here that there is sufficient interest from you to sustain you over the long
months (or years) ahead.

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This is also the section where you will demonstrate your knowledge of the relevant literature.
Moreover, it will clarify where your proposal fits into the debate in the literature. You will be
expected to show a clear link between the previous work that has been done in your field of
research interest and the content of your proposal. In short, the literature should be your point of
departure. This is not the same as the critical literature review you will present in your final
project report. It will just provide an overview of the key literature sources from which you
intend to draw.

In this section, it is also important to briefly describe the study area (unit). Here you may express
in terms of location, the organization, in which the research will be conducted.

Statement of the Problem

This section explicitly states the problem in precise and unambiguous manner. Thus, it is
useful to define a problem as any situation where a gap exists between the actual and the
desired ideal states. The statement of the problem involves the demarcation and
formulation of the problem.

This attempt to focus on a stated goal gives direction to the research process. It must be
limited enough in scope to make a definite conclusion possible. A problem suggests a
specific answer or conclusion. The statement of the problem should be written in specific
clear-cut words.

Basic Research questions

Once the research problem has been clearly stated then there is a need to convert the research
problem into research questions. The research question establishes the main question, outlining
the research objective in a comprehensible way. This means, for instance, that the research
questions need to relate to an existing theoretical body of knowledge or an established
conceptual model. The research question is an important starting point for deriving (logical) sub
questions. Sub-questions provide the specification of the central research question in the sense
that they need to be answered in order to provide the answer to the main research question.

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Research objectives
The research objective states what is to be accomplished by the research and for whom (or with
whom), as well as what the probable result will be (knowledge, a model, suggestions for
improvement, a change) and why this is relevant (for those involved).

Research Objectives are more generally acceptable to research community as evidence of

the researcher’s clear sense of purpose and direction. Here, it is preferable to indicate the
objectives as general and specific. You may use research question as a base from which
you write a set of research objectives.
The Review of Related Literature

A brief summary of previous research should be given so that the researcher and reader
may be familiar with what is already known and with what is still unknown and untested.
The effective research is based upon past knowledge, this step helps to eliminate
replication of what has been done and provides useful basis for the formulation of
hypotheses and deciding the methodology of the study. A review of related literature
should conclude with a comment of area of agreement and disagreement in findings.

At proposal stage, you are expected to indicate the outlines for the related literature which would
be presented in details during the write-up of the Master’s Thesis.

Significance of the study

The importance of ‘doing the study now’ should be emphasized. This answers the question “why
do you undertake the research?”
 Does the proposed study have practical significance?
 Does it contribute to our general understanding of things, to the construction of social
theories?

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Scope of the study/Delimitation of the study
Points for delimiting study:
 Purpose of study
 Time coverage of investigation
 Geographical coverage of inquiry
 Variables to be studied
 Specific indicators of variables

Methodology of the study

This section gives an overall view of the method chosen and the reason for that choice. The data
collection section goes into much more detail about how specifically the data are to be collected.
For example, if you are using a survey strategy you should specify your population and sample
size. You should also clarify how the survey instrument such as a questionnaire will be
distributed and how the data will be analyzed. If you are using interviews, you should explain
how many interviews will be conducted, their intended duration, whether they will be audio-
recorded, and how they will be analyzed. In short, you should demonstrate to your reader that
you have thought carefully about all the issues regarding your method and their relationship to
your research objectives.

Structure of the Master’s Thesis

A tentative structure of the report is also written. It includes the list of chapters which will be
included in the report of the Master’s Thesis. These may be:
 Introductory
 Review of literature
 Methodology
 Data Presentation, Analysis and Interpretation, and
 Summary of Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations of the study
Resources
This is another facet of viability. It will allow you and the reader to assess whether what you are
proposing can be resourced. Resource considerations may be categorized as finance, data access
and equipment. Conducting research costs money. This may be for travel, subsistence, help with
data analysis, or postage for questionnaires. Think through the expenses involved and ensure that

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you can meet these expenses. Assessors of your proposal will need to be convinced that you have
access to the data you need to conduct your research. This may be unproblematic if you are
carrying out research in your own organization. Many academic committees wish to see written
approval from host organizations in which researchers are planning to conduct research. You will
also need to convince your reader of the likely response rate to any questionnaire that you send.

References
It is not necessary to try to impress your proposal reader with an enormous list of references. A
few key literature sources to which you have referred in the background section and which relate
to the previous work that is directly informing your own proposal should be all that is necessary.

4. Structuring the Master’s Thesis /Writing Up

This constitutes the last step. The final draft should be written in a concise and objective style
and in simple language, avoiding vague expressions such as “it seems”, “there may be”, and the
like ones. While writing the final draft, the researcher must avoid abstract terminology and
technical jargon. Illustrations and examples based on common experiences must be incorporated
in the final draft as they happen to be most effective in communicating the research findings to
others. A research report should not be dull, but must enthuse people and maintain interest and
must show originality. It must be remembered that every report should be an attempt to solve
some intellectual problem and must contribute to the solution of a problem and must add to the
knowledge of both the researcher and the reader.

There are many ways to organize your Master’s Thesis. However, the following section
identifies the basics that you should cover in some way in your Master’s Thesis, whether
organized as separate chapters for each part or organized in another way approved by your
adviser.
Your structure should have a logical flow. Your readers should know the journey on which they
are being taken, and should know at all times the point in the journey that has been reached.
Above all, the structure you adopt should enable your reader, having read the report, to identify
the storyline clearly.

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The abstract
The abstract is probably the most important part of your report because it may be the only part
that some will read. It is a short summary of the complete content of the project report. The
purpose is to convey the content of your report in as clear and brief a way as possible.

This enables those who are not sure whether they wish to read the complete report to make an
informed decision. For those who intend to read the whole report the abstract prepares them for
what is to come. It should contain four short paragraphs with the answers to the following
questions:
i. What were my research questions, and why were these important?
ii. How did I go about answering the research questions?
iii. What did I find out in response to my research questions?
iv. What conclusions do I draw regarding my research questions?

There are five principles for the writing of a good abstract.

 It should be short. Try to keep it to a maximum of a page, often 300–500 words.
 It must be self-contained. Since it may be the only part of your project report that some
people see, it follows that it must summarize the complete content of your report.
 It must satisfy your reader’s needs. Your reader must be told about the problem, or
central issue, that the research addressed and the method adopted to pursue the issue. It
must also contain a brief statement of the main results and conclusions.
 It must convey the same emphasis as the project report, with the consequence that the
reader should get an accurate impression of the report’s contents from the abstract.
 It should be objective, precise and easy to read. The project report contents page should
give you the outline structure for the abstract. Summarizing each section should give you
an accurate résumé of the content of the report. Do ensure that you stick to what you have
written in the report.

Writing a good abstract is difficult. The obvious thing to do is to write it after you have finished
the report. We suggest that you draft it at the start of your writing so that you have got your
storyline abundantly clear in your mind. You can then amend the draft when you have finished
the report so that it conforms to the five principles above.

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Chapter One: Introduction
The introduction should give the reader a clear idea about the central issue of concern in your
research and why you thought that this was worth studying. It should also include a full
statement of your research question(s) and research objectives.
If your research is based in an organization, we think that it is a good idea to include in this
chapter some details of the organization, such as its history, size, products and services. This
may be a general background to the more specific detail on the research setting you include in
the methodology chapter. It is also important to include in this chapter a ‘route map’ to guide the
reader through the rest of the report. This will give brief details of the content of each chapter
and present an overview of how your storyline unfolds. This will usually be a fairly brief chapter,
but it is vitally important.

Chapter Two: Review of Related Literature

The main purposes of your literature review are to set your study within its wider context and to
show the reader how your study supplements the work that has already been done on your topic.
The literature review, therefore, may inform directly your research questions and any specific
hypotheses that your research is designed to test. These hypotheses will also suggest a particular
research approach, strategy and data collection techniques. If, on the other hand, you are working
inductively (that is, from data to theory) your literature review may serve the purpose of
illuminating and enriching your conclusions.

A literature review needs to focus on the major findings of the studies that are reported on, when
they were carried out and who they were carried out by. Reports on studies directly related to the
student’s project should be discussed in more detail, including information about the
methodological approach used, data collected and analytical procedures used on the study.
The literature review also needs to include critical comment on these studies, telling the reader
which are the best studies, and why, rather than just presenting factual information about the
studies that are being reviewed.

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The title of your literature review chapter should reflect the content of the chapter. It may draw
on one of the main themes in the review. We recommend that you do not call it simply ‘literature
review’. It may be that your literature is reviewed in more than one chapter. This would be the
case, for example, where you were using more than one body of literature in your research.

Chapter Three: Methodology of the Study

The methodology adopted in conducting the study must be fully explained. The scientific reader
would like to know in detail about such thing: How was the study carried out? What was its basic
design? If the study was an experimental one, then what were the experimental manipulations? If
the data were collected by means of questionnaires or interviews, then exactly what types of
questions were asked (The questionnaire or interview schedule is usually given in an appendix)?
If measurements were based on observation, then what instructions were given to the observers?
Regarding the sample used in the study the reader should be told: Who were the subjects? How
many were there? How were they selected? All these questions are crucial for estimating the
probable limits of generalizability of the findings. The statistical analysis adopted must also be
clearly stated.

Chapter Four: Data Presentation, Analysis and Discussion

The results chapter is probably the most straightforward to write. It is your opportunity to report
the facts that your research discovered. This is where you will include such tables and graphs
that will illustrate your findings (do not put these in the appendices). The chapter may also
contain verbatim quotes from interviewees, or sections of narrative account that illustrate periods
of unstructured observation. This is a particularly powerful way in which you can convey the
richness of your data. It is the qualitative equivalent of tables and graphs. Often, a short verbatim
quote can convey with penetrating simplicity a particularly difficult concept that you are trying
to explain. Do not be afraid to capture precisely what the interviewee said. Slang and swear
words are often the most revealing, and provide amusement for the reader!

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There are two important points to bear in mind when writing your results. The first is to stress
that the purpose is to present facts. It is normally not appropriate in this chapter to begin to offer
opinions on the facts. This is for the following chapter. Many of us become confused about the
difference between findings and the conclusions drawn from these which form the basis of the
discussion and conclusions chapter. One way of overcoming the confusion is to draw up a table
with two columns. The first should be headed ‘What I found out’ and the second ‘What
judgments I have formed as a result of what I found out’. The first list is entirely factual (e.g. 66
per cent of respondents indicated they preferred to receive email messages rather than paper
memos) and therefore the content of your findings chapter. The second list will be your
judgments based on what you found out (e.g. it appears that electronic forms of communication
are preferred to traditional) and therefore the content of your conclusions section.

The second point links to the first. Drawing up a table will lead you to a consideration of the way
in which you present your findings. The purpose of your project report is to communicate the
answer to your research question to your audience in as clear a manner as possible. Therefore,
you should structure your findings in a clear, logical and easily understood manner. There are
many ways of doing this. One of the simplest is to return to the research objectives and let these
dictate the order in which you present your findings. Alternatively, you may prefer to report your
findings thematically. You could present the themes in descending order of importance.
Whichever method you choose should be obvious to the reader. As with the literature review, the
chapter devoted to research should be titled in an interesting way that reflects the content of
findings.

Findings presented without reflective thought run the risk of your reader asking ‘so what?’: What
meaning do these findings have for me?; for my organization?; for professional practice?; for the
development of theory? So the main focus of the discussion chapter is on the interpretation of the
results that you presented in the previous chapter. You should state the relation of the findings to
the goals, questions and hypotheses that you stated in the introductory chapter. In addition, the
discussion chapter will benefit from a consideration of the implications of your research for the
relevant theories which you detailed in your literature review. It is usual to discuss the strengths,
weaknesses and limitations of your study.

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However, it is not a good idea to be too modest here and draw attention to aspects of your
research which you may consider to be a limitation but that the reader has not noticed!

At the beginning of each results chapter/section, state what question you are trying to answer—
are you testing a hypothesis? Are you trying to identify patterns? Then state what you did. If you
are doing quantitative analyses, briefly describe the regression or statistical test you are using.
For example, you can say, “I regress educational attainment on religion, controlling for age, race,
sex, and mother’s education.” If you are doing qualitative analyses, briefly describe what topics
you are analyzing. Then you should present your findings. You should walk the readers through
both (1) what analyses you conducted; and (2) what you found. For quantitative data, you should
start by describing your simplest model. Often this includes control variables that will be present
in every subsequent model. This is a good chance to briefly describe the coefficients for control
variables once, and you should not return to them in subsequent models unless they change in a
way important to your research question.

Typically, students doing quantitative work run many more models than they include in their
tables. After a simple model with control variables, start adding your key independent variables
to the tables that you present. Sometimes it makes theoretical sense to include a separate column
in your table for each new independent variable, sometimes it makes sense to combine them into
groups of related variables. This decision is something your adviser can advise you on, and you
can also look through journal articles to see how others have presented their results.

If you present any tables or figures, you need to walk the reader through each part of the data
presentation by describing the key findings of that table or figure. You should focus on
answering the main question you are asking rather than trying to describe every single pattern or
significant coefficient you found. For example, you can say, “In column 1 of Table 2, the
positive and significant coefficients for the Catholic and Jewish dummy variables suggest
respondents from these groups have higher educational attainment than Protestants, the referent
group.” You don’t have to walk through the results for the control variables for every model, but
if the main relationship you care about changes when you enter in control variables, you should
identify this and hypothesize some explanations.

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As you discuss your tables, do not divorce this part of the thesis from the literature review and
framing that you have done—identify what potential theories are relevant to what you are testing
and note whose work your findings do or don’t support.

If you are doing qualitative analyses, your data will most likely be in the form of interview
quotations or ethnographic observations. You should organize these to tell a story, rather than
simply presenting interesting quotes. You might want to present a table or some other visual
representation of the themes that you uncovered. When selecting quotations, keep them brief and
pointed. You should set up the quotes by describing the respondent (age, gender, and/or other
key analytic variables you study). You can also set the context by paraphrasing what the
conversation was about and then insert the respondent’s direct quote. Summarize main themes as
you go along—often students organize one results chapter into several smaller sections by theme.
At the end of any given section or chapter, identify the major theme you identified in the data.

Presenting Tables and Figures

1. Start by presenting descriptive statistics about your sample
Both qualitative and quantitative researchers should present a table about their sample, but these
will look a bit different. For qualitative researchers, you should present a table showing the key
characteristics of your sample in terms of the number of respondents of each type and perhaps
mean values for key traits. However, your sample size is likely quite small, so presenting means,
standard deviations, or percentages might not mean much for a sample size of 30. Instead, you
might do something to tell your audience who is included in your sample on the key sampling
dimensions. You must describe your sample in some way and often a table is a clear and simple
way to do so.

For quantitative researchers, you should present descriptive statistics (means, standard
deviations, percentages, etc., depending on the variable type) for every variable that makes its
way into a later analysis. You do NOT need to present descriptive statistics on every variable in
your survey or every variable you explored, just those that made it into the later analyses that you
present.

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Both quantitative and qualitative researchers might want to include figures in their works.
Figures include charts, diagrams, and schemata. Charts generally present data in the form of a
bar chart, pie chart, or line chart (showing trends over time, for example, with the X-axis being
year and the Y-axis being the variable of interest). Maps are also becoming increasingly used in
the social sciences and presenting a map of your fieldwork site, for example, might be helpful to
your reader. As is the case for tables, include clear titles for each figure and clear labels telling
the reader what data are being presenting. Charts can be used to emphasize key findings rather
than reporting them in a table. The following demonstrations of how to generate tables and
graphs using Microsoft excel program are illustrated below.

Tabulation refers to the orderly arrangement of data in a table or other summary format. When
this tabulation process is done by hand, the term tallying is used. Counting the different ways
respondents answered a question and arranging them in a simple tabular form yields a frequency
table. The actual number of responses to each category is a variable’s frequency distribution
Simple tabulation tells the researcher how frequently each response occurs. This starting point
for analysis requires the researcher to count responses or observations for each category or code
assigned to a variable. A frequency table showing where consumers generally purchase, for
instance, beer can be computed easily. The tabular results that correspond to the chart would
appear as follows:

Response Frequency Percent

Drug store 50 10
Convenience store 225 45
Grocery store 175 35
Specialty store 35 7
Other 15 3

The frequency column shows the tally result or the number of respondents listing each store,
respectively. The percent column shows the total percentage in each category. From this chart,
we can see the most common outlet—the mode—is convenience store since more people
indicated this as their top response than any other. The cumulative percentage keeps a running
total, showing the percentage of respondents indicating this particular category and all preceding
categories as their preferred place to purchase beer.

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The cumulative percentage column is not so important for nominal or interval data, but is quite
useful for interval and ratio data, particularly when there are a large number of response
categories.

Bar charts
 A bar chart is a graph that shows the frequency distribution of a variable.
 they can be used with nominal and with discrete data
 Bars should be of equal width, with the height of the bars representing the frequency
(height of the bar is proportional to frequency) or the amount for each separate
category. For each category, a vertical bar is drawn and there is a gap between each
bar.

Pie chart:
• Presents data as segments of the whole pie where each category is represented by a
segment of a circle. The segments are presented in terms of percentages and the size of
each segment reflects the frequency of that category and can be represented as an angle.

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Line Chart:
• A line chart (time-series plot) is used to show the values of a variable over time. In line
graph, the variable of interest is measured on the vertical axis whereas time is measured
on the horizontal axis

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A histogram is a graphical way of showing a frequency distribution in which the height of a bar
corresponds to the frequency of a category. Histograms are useful for any type of data, but with
continuous variables (interval or ratio) the histogram is useful for providing a quick assessment
of the distribution of the data

2. For quantitative research works, you next present your multivariate analyses.
Your descriptive statistics were not about relationships between variables, but just summaries of
variables. You should next present any relationships between two variables—correlations, means
tests, Chi-squared tests, etc. These tables are fairly straightforward to present—you need to
include the statistics showing the relationship (the correlation, the mean, etc.) and perhaps an
indicator of statistical significance.

Presenting regressions might prove more puzzling. You will present a very small proportion of
the total number of regressions you run in SPSS. It is up to you as the analyst to decide what
models deserve presentation. Some general rules:
a. Start by presenting a simple model predicting your outcome variable with only your basic
control variables. Control variables are independent variables that you are not particularly
theoretically interested in. For example, you might suspect that race, age, and gender will

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 affect one’s income, but it is not part of your major research question—you are more
interested in (1) how one’s educational attainment, (2) one’s father’s educational attain-
ment, and (3) your own family characteristics affect income. So model 1 in your
regression table would just include dummies for race, your continuous age variable, and a
dummy for gender. You should present coefficients and standard errors for each variable
along with your constant (intercept), N (number of respondents in the model), and an R2
or some other “goodness of fit” variable.
b. Next, you should begin presenting your key independent variables. Typically, you would
enter these one at a time, or, in a theoretically driven way, you might present various
models with multiple key independent variables. See the table below for an example of
entering key independent variables one theoretically intuitive group at a time (numbers
are completely made up!).
c. The next steps depend on your research design. Perhaps you are testing these
relationships separately by racial/ethnic group. Then you would have a separate table for
each group. Perhaps you are using different ways to measure education, so you would
have another table showing these different measurement options. Perhaps you are testing
multiple independent variables, so you would have a different table for each. Work with
your adviser to figure out how to best present your data.

3. Interpret your main findings.

This differs from simply describing the findings because rather than just stating what the patterns
and trends were in your data, you are beginning to answer the “so what” question. Though you
are stating your key findings rather than going back into detail about everything you found, you
should consider all of your more nuanced findings holistically to determine: what have you
discovered about the social phenomenon you set out to study?
a. For example, in your results chapter you might have the finding: Being from the poorest
neighborhood compared to one’s schoolmates is negatively associated with high school
graduation. In your discussion section, think about what this means in the real world: If
two children from the same poor neighborhood went to two different schools, the one
attending school with children from similarly poor backgrounds would actually do better
in school because he does not face the relative deprivation of being poorer than his

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 schoolmates. You can then expand on this idea in terms of how it fits into the literature
you have studied (is it what you expected to find?) and begin to think about real world
implications.
b. Another example: Perhaps you have found: In an interview study about being a first
generation college student, the majority of students mention feeling like they “code-
switch” in terms of language and dress when they are on the college campus compared to
when they are at home with family. In the discussion section, you can think about how
this relates to literatures you have studied: What does this mean for identity? For social
mobility or social reproduction?
4. Discuss any methodological limitations that may bias or compromise your findings.
It is important to be honest with your reader rather than trying to hide something you wish you
had done differently. Identify any problems with your sampling, instrument, or analyses that
might possibly impact on your findings. Do not undercut what you’ve done; your findings are
probably true and well-studied! But if there is something you wish you had done differently
because it compromised your project or because you didn’t get as much information as you
wanted, mention it briefly.
5. Discuss implications of your findings and suggestions for future research.
You can think about this in several ways. What does your study suggest for policy? For the
social lives of the group you’ve studied? For the way we study the question you undertook?
Again, it is important to find a balance between underselling the importance of what you have
done and claiming that you have single-handedly solved debates that have been occurring for
generations.

The discussion aspect of this chapter is where you have the opportunity to shine. It will show the
degree of insight that you exhibit in reaching your conclusions. However, it is the part of the
report that most of us find difficult. It is the second major opportunity in the research process to
demonstrate real originality of thought (the first time being at the stage where you choose the
research topic). Because of that, we urge you to pay due attention to the discussion chapter. In
our view, it should normally be at least as long as your results chapter. Crucially, here you are
making judgments rather than reporting facts, so this is where your maturity of understanding
can shine through.

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Chapter Five: Summary of Findings, Conclusion and Recommendations

5.1. Summary of Findings

In the results chapters you should go into detail and describe each table you present. However,
this can result in your reader getting lost as to what the most important findings are. In this
chapter, you should return to your main research questions and state what you found with regard
to these main points. One organizational strategy is to state the key findings at the beginning of
the chapter.

5.2. Conclusions
Think back to the hourglass analogy—the conclusion section is your opportunity to connect your
work with broader issues. In the results chapter, you have spent considerable time going into the
details about your findings; now it is your opportunity to help the reader make sense of the most
important things you found, what they explain about the social phenomenon you set out to study,
and how the findings fit into the larger literature. Speculate on policy implications. If you would
expect to find your results across social groups or in different time periods, be creative about
what other questions should be explored. The conclusion is in some ways a summary, but it is
also a window into future research possibilities (not necessarily for you, but for others interested
in this topic). This should be a conclusion to the whole project (and not just the research
findings).

You may find that the clearest way to present your conclusions is to follow a similar structure to
the one used in your findings section. If that structure reflects the research objectives then it
should make certain that your conclusions would address them.

5.3. Recommendations
In this section, you have to present the possible recommendations on the basis of the main
findings and conclusions of the study

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References
A range of conventions are used to reference the material of other writers’ material that you have
cited in your text. Use American Psychological Association (APA) system. It is a good idea to
start your references section at the beginning of the writing process and add to it as you go along.
It will be a tedious and time-consuming task if left until you have completed the main body of
the text. If you do leave it until the end, the time spent on compiling the reference section is time
that would have been better spent on checking and amending your report.

You should ensure that you have cited in your reference section all those sources to which you
have referred in the text. In order to avoid charges of plagiarism you should ensure that all data
and material taken verbatim from another person’s published or unpublished written or electronic
work is explicitly identified and referenced to its author. This also extends to work which is
referred to in the written work of others. Even if this work is not quoted verbatim, the originator
should be cited in your references. If you are in any doubt about this it is important that you
consult your tutor. The proliferation of online material now is such that all academic institutions
are very mindful of plagiarism.

Appendices
In general, appendices should be kept to the minimum. If they are so important that your
reader’s understanding of the points you are making in the text makes their inclusion in the
report necessary, then they should be in the main body of the text. If, on the other hand, the
material is ‘interesting to know’ rather than ‘essential to know’ then it should be in the
appendices. Often students feel tempted to include appendices to ‘pad out’ a project report.
Resist this temptation. Your readers will not be reading your report for leisure reading. They will
be pressed for time and will probably not look at your appendices. Your project report will stand
or fall on the quality of the main text. However, your appendices should include a blank copy of
your questionnaire, interview or observation schedule. Where these have been conducted in a

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language different from that in which you write your submitted project report you will need to
submit both this version and the translation.

5. General Comments on your work

i. Writing styles and Formatting
o Use 12pt font size (except headings), 1.5 line spacing, Times New Roman font
style and standard margin space throughout the document
o Use justify style
o Use 1.5 spacing between paragraphs instead of indentation for a new paragraph
o Avoid unnecessary use of italicized, underlined, and bold faced words in the text
o Make sure to check and proofread your work at every step for grammar and
spelling errors
ii. The research paper must be 8,000 to 10,000 words excluding references abstract,
keywords, and table of contents.
iii. Literature Review part
o Make it brief and critical
o Make sure that the contents of the literature part are compatible with the issues
raised under basic research questions and/or research objectives----then the sub-
headings/titles for this part would be organized in this manner.
iv. Questionnaire Design
o Don’t forget to give brief introduction and clear instructions for the respondents
on how to fill in the data collection instruments (questionnaire & Interview
schedule)
o Begin with easy-to answer questions and take open-ended and complicated
questions later in the questionnaire
o Put your questions in a logical order
o For close-ended questions, provide exhaustive lists
v. Referencing
o Use one referencing style (Example APA or Harvard) consistently.

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 o Make sure that all in-text citations are mentioned under reference list
o A reference list is arranged alphabetically by author
o References should not be numbered but each reference should appear on a new
line
o If information about one reference exceeds one line, the next line (s) should be
indented as commonly said as ‘Hanging Indentation’
Example:
Söderlund, J. (2011). ‘Pluralism in Project Management: Navigating the Crossroads of
Specialization and Fragmentation’, International Journal of Management Reviews, 13:
153–176.

vi. The issue of plagiarism

o You have to give credit and document the sources for words, facts, or idea of any
kind taken from someone else’s work. Otherwise, you will be guilty of plagiarism.
Here you may use techniques of direct quotation or paraphrasing or summarizing.
Direct word-to-word quotations should be enclosed in “quotation marks.”

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