MINISTRY OF LIVESTOCK AND

FISHERIES FISHERIES EDUCATION AND

TRAINING AGENCY (FETA)

INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY

DR. M.E.
MACHUMU
Research Proposal
Writing
 Research Project
Title/Area
Where do research title/area comes
from?
 Comes from prevailing problem

 Previous studies

 Current situation

 Future needs

 Own forecast
 Factors to consider when making decision on topical
subject
 Beneficiaries of the research findings/outcomes – a potential project
title should lead into finding which will benefit the industry in general.

 Extent (time factor)

 Validity – a research project title must be valid in sense that it will end up
solving one of the key problem.

 Absolute equipment – equipment to be used are available.

 Budget – project work budget should correspond to the proposal developed.

 Factors to consider when making decision on topical
Cont’d…
 Develop a topic that has interested you throughout your studies career

 Start a file of topics that interest you.

 All title information should be kept in a file can and those ideas could not
work now, can be applied in future research projects write-ups.

 Look for what other scholars say needs more study and conduct preliminary
research.

 Replicate somebody else's study. Sometimes older, classic studies can be

reexamined in a new context or with a more current methodology
 Components of research proposal…(Title
page)
 Name of institution

 Name of Program you are pursuing

 Research Title

 Your Full Name and Registration

number

 Date/Year
 Components of Research Proposal…
(Introduction)
 Background information relating to project title should be presented

 Significance of the project should reflects title

 A brief problem statement should be correlated to the title under study

 Objectives should well be formulated and reflects aims for conducting such
project

 Prepare research questions based on specific objectives, research questions are

used to prepare data collection designs
 Components of Research Proposal
Cont’d…

 Adequate literatures should be presented in this section.

 Various previous work should be related to the current study.

 Citation of references should conform to the recommended format.

 Authors must be acknowledged in each citation

 Citatio
n
 Citation of the reference in text should be in the form:

 It has been shown (Hassan et al., 1991) that ..…

 ….. is given by Jongo and Charles (2002) …..

 Several workers (for example, Musa, 2015; Elias, 2011) have reported …..

 ….. as recommended by Josiah (2020) .…

 …………………………………(Ngonyani, 2016)
 Methodolog
y
 Study site should be well described (Map can be included where applicable) in
relation to the title.

 Study work design should well be presented

 For each specific object presented in chapter 1 should have a methods to be

used for data collection

 For each data to be collected pinpoint how is it going to be analyzed

 All materials and equipment required should be shown here

 Action Plan and
Budget

 Prepare action plan of events from title formulation to presentation of

completed report

 Prepare budget which correspond to the project activities and

requirements
 Action Plan and
Budget

 All references cited in the proposal should appears in

the references list with the recommended format.

 Name of author, year of publication, title of the book,

where published, publisher.
 Research
problem
 What is a research problem?
 A research problem is a problem that someone would like to research. A
problem can be anything that a person finds unsatisfactory or unsettling, a
difficulty of some sorts, a state of affairs that need to be changed, anything
that is not working as well as it might.

 Problems involve areas of concern to researcher, condition they want to improve,

difficulties they want to eliminate, questions for which they seek to answer.
 Research problem
cont’d…
 A problem statement in a summary:

 Is a problem that someone would like to research;

 A problem can be anything that a person finds unsatisfactory or unsettling, a difficulty of

some sorts, a state of affairs that need to be changed, anything that is not working as well as
it might;

 Problems involve areas of concern to researcher, condition they want to improve;

 Difficulties they want to eliminate;

 Questions for which they seek to answer, a troubling question that exists in scholarly
literature, in theory; or

 In practice that points to the need for meaningful understanding and

deliberate investigation.
 Identification of
issues/threats
 Identification of issues/threats

 There is a wide variety of threats and issues, some are very broad (e.g.
climate change, pollution), some are very specific (e.g. bombing reefs).

 Due to presence of a mixture of causes and effects of the identified issues, “a

problem tree” is being used as a tool to separate out their causes and effects, and
identifies core problems as concrete issues.

 One tool that helps separate out causes and effects is called a Problem Tree
(Fig .1)
Identification issues/threats
cont’d…

FIG .1: PROBLEM

TREE
 Identification issues/threats
cont’d…
 Terms used in a problem tree are as highlighted below:

– Driver: large-scale events that have a flow-on effect on many

issues e.g. climate change or growth in population and wealth.

– Effect: the effect to issue is having e.g. loss of income.

– Core problem: the actual problem.

– Causes: the cause of the problem. Can be further broken down

into main causes and underlying causes.
 Identification issues/threats
cont’d…

 EFFECTS – Goals

CORE ISSUES – Objectives

 CAUSES – Management
Actions
 Identification issues/threats
cont’d…
 Example 1:

 Driver: Market pressure

 Effect: Decline catches and profits

 Core problem: By-catch; catching juvenile

 Main causes: Lack of control

Underlying causes: Non-selective gear and fishing in spawning

area
Thanks for your
Attention !