PROJECT GUIDELINES

I. IMPROVE YOUR ACADEMIC WRITING SKILLS:

Please visit the following websites and find there useful advice for improving your academic
writing:

://www.washingtonpost.com/…/gIQAjGC….0b5addb1ffe5

://www.sci.sdsu.edu/…/scientific-wr….pdf

://www.csic.cornell.edu/…/paperguideline….html

II. SELECTING A TOPIC:

Topic should be clear and specific, be feasible to study, be meaningful and enhance understanding
of the phenomenon

III. SURVEY AND QUESTIONNAIRES DESIGN:

Keep the questions CLEAR, SIMPLE and EASY TO UNDERSTAND . Avoid leading questions.
Avoid questions that have vague meaning or can be misunderstood. In general, you should keep
confidentiality for the respondents; however, for the purpose of this project, you should ask for
contact details of the respondents, so the teachers can use them to verify that you have
actually carried out the survey.

Go to this website to learn how to design a questionnaire:

https://www.statpac.com/surveys/

IV. USING A SOFTWARE: R, EXCEL OR OTHER SOFTWARE

If you plan to use R, you need to review the labs and read the reference book on R . Also search
the web for more materials for learning R.

Excel is very easy to learn. A search on Google will give you many useful websites to learn this
tool if you plan to use it for your project.

Useful Excel Functions: Average (to calculate mean), Stdev (to calculate sample standard
deviation), Var (to calculate sample variance), Median, Mode, Min, Max, VarP ...

V. WRITING

Main part (6 sections)

1. Introduction: (i) describe the research question and its importance (ii) describe the statistic
methods used to answer that question (iii) very briefly mention the conclusion of the project
2. Research methodology:

2.1. Population and sample: Identify the population of interest (eg. all HANU students or FMT
students) and a sample

2.2. Questionnaire design: how many questions, the purpose of each question (eg.: to know what
students think about the Canteen). Think about how you would analyze the data, and the possible
conclusions that could be drawn out of your study.

2.3. Sample size: how n is determined. Take into account the following factors when you decide on
a sample size: population size (e.g. if the population has several thousand members, you may need
to choose a sample of several hundred, but if the population has only a few hundred members, then
the sample size could be several tens), the accuracy of results that you want to achieve (i.e. in a
very crucial project, the sample size should be very large so that it can well represent the
population), the resources that you have (i.e. human resource, time...), what test you are going to
use and its assumptions (some tests may have constraint on the sample size).

2.4. Sampling method and data collection:

Sampling Method (for selecting a sample): Describe strategies/ process of sample

selection. Choose from the methods that have been introduced in lectures: simple random
sampling, systematic random sampling or stratified random sampling. Give reasons to justify your
method. NOTE: if the sample is not RANDOM, the results may not be accurate, so make sure that
you choose a sample RANDOMLY.

To choose a sample randomly, you need to have a LIST OF ALL POPULATION MEMBERS. For
the Simple Random Sampling Method: you should assign each member in the population a
number. As an example, suppose that the population has 200 members, the numbers you assign to
the population members may be 1, 2, 3,... 200. After that, use your calculator or Excel or R to
generate a random number. E.g. if you obtain a number 0.050 then multiply this number by
1000, which becomes 50, in this case the population member numbered 50 should be selected. If
the number 0.450 is generated, you multiply this number by 1000, and receive the number 450.
But in your list, you have only numbers from 1 to 200, in this case you have to generate another
random number. Repeat the process until you have selected all sample members.

Data collection: describe how you distribute the questionnaires, record and organize the data.
Provide a table of the data that have been organized in the Appendix of the report.

Describe your strategies/plan in case something unexpected occurs e.g. the person you plan to
interview is not available or refuses to cooperate.

2.5. Data processing:

 Use R, Excel or other software? How data is input and processed in the software you have
chosen. For the purpose of this project, if you don't know how to use Excel and R, then you have
to calculate the necessary statistics and measures by hand.

2.6 Significance level of test:

As the main purpose of the project is to carry out a hypothesis test, you should specify an
appropriate level of significance. Use only 1 value for significance level.

3. Descriptive Results and Findings:

In this section, you provide a descriptive analysis of the data. Draw graphs, charts... Remember
to describe and analyze the graphs... Provide summary measures (i.e. mean, median, standard
deviation...) as appropriate and interpret these values.

The emphasis of this section should be on the analysis and discussion of results, not just listing
out the facts.

4. Results and Findings of the Hypothesis Test

In this section, you describe the testing process, beginning with restating the question of
research.

After that you specify the test you are going to use, and the test assumptions, if any, and
demonstrate that these assumptions are met. If the assumption is population is normal, and you
have no idea about the shape of the population distribution, then try the following methods:

If the sample size is sufficiently large (n at least 30), draw histogram of the sample data (after
organizing data into groups if we do it by hand). If the histogram resembles a bell-curved
distribution then, you can conclude (with some degree of confidence) that the population is
approximately normal. You can learn to draw a Q-Q plot to check this assumption but this is
optional.

After the assumptions are shown to be met, you continue with formulating Ho, and Ha. Ho, and
Ha, will follow from the question you want to answer. Let's discuss the following example: the
question we want to answer is "Is the proportion of population greater than 20%" will be translated
to: p greater than 0.2. We will test this belief with its opposite: p no more than 0.2. Now you
already have two hypotheses, but you should be able to specify which one is Ho, and Ha. First, you
need to decide which hypothesis is Ha. Ha is what we want to show statistically, in this case, p >
0.2. This also satisfies the condition that Ha can't contain the equality sign. Ho would be the
opposite of Ha: p no more than 0.2 (this satisfies the condition that Ho must contain the
equality sign).

The reason Ho must contain the equality sign, is that you have to be able to calculate the test
𝑋̅−𝜇
statistic, for example 𝑍 = 𝜎 . If the value of 𝜇 (mean of population) is not assumed to
√𝑛
be something, you wouldn't be able to convert 𝑋̅into Z to compare with the Z critical value to
make rejection decision. It can be proved that if Ho is p no more than 0.2, we can write it as Ho: p
= 0.2 and this does not affect the result. That means for Ho is p = 0.2, and Ha: p > 0.2, with the
same sample, if you reject Ho, then for the hypotheses Ho: p no more than 0.2, and Ha: p greater
than 0.2, you will also reject Ho. The same for not rejecting Ho. It is therefore possible to specify
Ho as p = 0.2 and the result of test doesn't change.

Now Ho becomes: p = 0.2; Ha become p > 0.2

After that, you continue with the other steps in the testing process...

Remember to make conclusion according to Ha: i.e. there is enough evidence or not enough
evidence that Ha is true, at the level of significance of... This is because, if you are not able to
reject Ho, that doesn't necessarily mean Ho is true. Ho could be true, or false, but we don't know.
As you can notice that in the conclusion, we have specified the level of significance, because if
you change the level of significance, then the decision may change. E.g. You may reject Ho at
level of significance of 0.05 but if you choose a smaller level of significance, say, = 0.01, the
decision may become: not rejecting Ho.

It is unfortunate that if we reject Ho, we cannot be absolutely sure that Ha is true. Rejecting Ho,
doesn't mean that we are 100% confident that Ho is false and Ha is true, but it means that because
there exists an evidence so strong against Ho, and in favor of Ha, that we lose confidence in Ho,
and are inclined to believe that Ha is true. They have proved that if Ho is true, there is some
probability that the hypothesis test will lead to a conclusion of rejecting Ho (this error is called
Type I error). And this probability is equal to the level of significance. That is why we need to
keep the level of significance small enough.

You should also provide a discussion and analysis of the results of the hypothesis test.

5. Project Evaluation:

Implications: how the project benefits some people (eg: implications for HANU Refectory to
improve its food and service)

Limitations: eg.: small sample, limitation of sampling method used, biases in selecting sample,
some survey questions might be confusing or complex, non-responding rate (people refuse to do
questionnaire), or any factors that could affect the precision of the answers to the questionnaire.
Consider the limitations of the hypothesis test as well (for example if we reject Ho, we can't be
100% sure that Ha is true; also if the test has assumptions, the test for assumptions may not be
100% correct).

6. Conclusion and Recommendations:

(i) Summarize the findings and interpret them. (ii) Any further predictions or implications. (iii)
Recommendations.(iv) Suggestions for further future research.