APPENDIX A

A STUDENT GUIDE TO MAKING A CONCEPT PAPER

FORMAT
 A well-written thesis concept paper does not exceed two pages (from the Bibliographic Information up to the end of the
Methodology section).
 It must be printed in 8.5 inches x 11 inches paper (letter-size) using 1 inch of margin on all sides, written in Times New Roman
font size 11 with single-spacing.

CONTENT
The student preparing the thesis concept paper should be able to satisfy the guide questions indicated under each section.

1. Bibliographic Information
 Surname, First Name Middle Name of author (Month, Year submitted). Proposed title of thesis (10-15 words).
Example:
Crisologo, Benito Abante. (June, 2017). The impact of financial management practices on financial performance of SMEs in
Daet, Camarines Norte. BSBA major in Financial Management. Camarines Norte State College.

2. Rationale of the Study (250 words; 2-3 paragraphs; not more than one page in length)
 What do previous studies say about the topic? (at least 5 related studies published in last 10 years)
 What specific gap in our understanding of this topic (i.e., absence, uncertainty, insufficiency, controversy or contradiction
in available explanation) do you want to pursue?
 In what context does it become necessary and important to fill this gap? (i.e., in relation to your field of discipline, research
agenda of the region, university, and/or planning needs of your agency)

3. Research Questions/Hypothesis (100 words; 3-5 hypotheses/questions; not more than half a page in length)
 What specific questions/ hypotheses do you need to answer/test convincingly in order to fill the gap?
(i.e., presumed relationships between key concepts and/or variables included in the study)

4. Framework of the Study (250 words; 2-3 paragraphs; not more than one page in length)
 What specific theory in your field of discipline would help explain your research hypotheses/questions?
Or are you proposing to construct a new theory?
 What does this theory say about the relationship between the different concepts and/or variables included in your study?
(i.e., direction and strength of the relationship between the independent and dependent variables)

5. Methodology (250 words; 2-3 paragraphs; not more than one page in length)
 What research design will be used? (e.g., exploratory, causal, qualitative, quantitative, or mixed design)
 What data will be obtained? (i.e., what dataset will be used and what will they help explain)
 Where will the data be obtained? (i.e., target respondents and location)
 How will the data be collected? (e.g., through survey, FGD, key informant interview, etc.)
 How will the data be analyzed? (e.g., through content analysis, descriptive and/or inferential statistics)

6. References
Use American Psychological Association (APA) style of referencing. Its guidelines are readily available on the World Wide Web
(e.g., https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/10/)