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LECTURE 3

WRITING CHAPTER ONE

 Getting started with writing
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 Practical hints;
 Create time for your writing
 Write when your mind is fresh
 Find a regular writing place
 Set goals and achieve them
 Use word processing
 Generate a plan for the report
 Finish each writing session on a high point
 Get friends to read and comment on your work
 1.1 Background information
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 First part of the chapter, also named as “Introduction”

 Contains the description of the status quo of the NEED
at hand. (Need indicated in the title
 Includes status quo of other needs that are also more
closely linked to the one found in the title
 Reader must know why the NEED found in the title is
most pressing in the current study
 The status quo should be confined to the community
and location where the community is found
 Provides justification for Participatory Needs
Assessment not other forms of Needs Assessments
 1.2 Community Needs Assessment
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 Describes the research process of conducting

Community Needs Assessment (CNA)
 Community Profile is describe in here should be
about the community at hand, indicated in the title
 Community profile should be a description of the
smallest group of people indicated in the title NOT
only of the area where the community is living
 Community profile is a profile of people not of a
place ie demographic features, socioeconomic status,
their livelihood, their number (population size of the
community in the location as shown in the title)
 1.2 CNA continues…
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 Main subsections of CNA section:

 Community Profile

 CNA objectives

 CNA Research Questions/Hypotheses

 CNA Methodology
 Research Design and sampling design
 Data collection methods
 Data Analysis methods
 CNA findings
 Needs Prioritisation
 Conclusion
 CNA objectives
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 Appropriate action verbs for research objectives

 Assess, examine, analyse, identify, describe etc
 NOT used: understand, know, appreciate, recommend etc
 Four generic areas to draft CNA objectives
 Community’s demographics and socioeconomics
 Community’s livelihood system-sources of income,
employment, survival means etc
 Identifying/categorising, describing/ranking important
Community Needs (including one in the title)
 Identifying/ranking most important intervention/project to
meet the most important community (including one in the
title)
 Reporting CNA Findings
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 Findings to be presented for each research objective ie

 First subsection for first objective and fourth for the
fourth objectives
 A mixture of text boxes, tables, graphs and charts for
each objective
 Present data analysed from each data collection must
be presented in the findings for each objective
(unless the data were meant only for specific
objective)
 Findings without evidence of analysed data collected
from the field are invalid.
 Reporting CNA Findings
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 Findings to be presented for each research objective ie

 First subsection for first objective and fourth for the
fourth objectives
 A mixture of text boxes, tables, graphs and charts for
each objective
 Present data analysed from each data collection must
be presented in the findings for each objective
(unless the data were meant only for specific
objective)
 Findings without evidence of analysed data collected
from the field are invalid.