The biggest mistake that most students make in their development of research paper is in retelling facts that have already been assembled by others instead of putting those facts under deeper scrutiny in order to derive their own conclusions about whether the actions/outcomes were right or wrong.
Milestones
A milestone is a time table which purpose is for outlining and planning the research activities. Students will need to construct a milestone chart that conform to the academic calendar set by the university or college. The milestone chart should be prepared in advance and inserted in the proposal as a reference and also to inform supervisor.
Significance of research
A research paper involves a preliminary outline as well as periodic status reviews. The preliminary outline is turned in before any of the actual research commences. This is to ensure that the student grasps the objectives of the research paper and has selected a focus for his study that is neither too broad nor too narrow.
Working Title
A good working title for a research paper should contain scope, limitations, location and measurement of the subject understudy.
Example
"The Psychological Effect of Anti-Smoking Campaign Poster : Case Study of Secondary Schools in Alor Gajah, Melaka"
Abstract
A good abstract explains in one line why the paper is important. It then goes on to give a summary of your major results, preferably couched in numbers with error limits. The final sentences explain the major implications of your work. A good abstract is concise, readable, and quantitative. Length should be ~ 1-2 paragraphs, approximately 200 to 400 words. Abstracts generally do not have citations. Information in title should not be repeated. INTRODUCTION/ BACKGROUND OF STUDY
A statement of the goal of the paper: why the study was undertaken, or why the paper was written. Do not repeat the abstract.
Sufficient background information to allow the reader to understand the context and significance of the question you are trying to address.
Proper acknowledgement of the previous work on which you are building. Sufficient references such that a reader could, by going to the library, achieve a sophisticated understanding of the context and significance of the question. The introduction should be focused on the thesis question(s). All cited work should be directly relevant to the goals of the thesis. This is not a place to summarize everything you have ever read on a subject. Explain the scope of your work, what will and will not be included.
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. The main purpose of literature review is to convey to the reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. The literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (e.g., your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your argumentative thesis). It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries. - Literature reviews are written occasionally in the humanities, but mostly in the sciences and social sciences; in experiment and lab reports, they constitute a section of the paper. Sometimes a literature review is written as a paper in itself.
- Find models, printed materials namely books, articles, newspaper, etc.
- Use search engines (Google scholar) or online library and online journals to retrieve scholarly papers.
- Narrow your topic. The narrower your topic, the easier it will be to limit the number of sources you need to read in order to get a good survey of the material.
- Consider whether your sources are current Make sure that your sources are current (preferably not more than 5 years back). However, depending on the topic, you can still use sources from old manuscripts, books, magazine if your research involves historical facts.
3. Citing your sources.
- Citations give credit to others for their work and ideas and allow readers to track down the original work if they choose.There are various kind of citation styles such as APA, MLA, IEEE, CHICAGO style, etc. Note: Regardless whatever choice you make, be sure to check with your supervisor and the faculty’s guideline.
CHAPTER 3
METHOD
Methodology can be defined as a scientific process essentially for research purpose which include collecting and storing data, managing data, organizing data and analyzing data. Methodology therefore provides a clear cut idea on what the researcher is carrying out his or her research. - Qualitative: This method is designed to reveal a target audience’s range of behavior and the perceptions that drive it with reference to specific topics or issues. It uses in-depth studies of small groups of people to guide and support the construction of hypotheses. The results of qualitative research are descriptive rather than predictive.
- Quantitative: This method is conclusive in its purpose as it tries to quantify the problem and understand how prevalent it is by looking for projectable results to a larger population. Here we collect data through surveys (online, phone, paper), audits, points of purchase (purchase transactions), and click-streams.
- Mix Method (Qualitative + Quantitative)
CHAPTER 4
FINDINGS & DISCUSSIONS The findings are actual statements of observations, including statistics, tables and graphs. Indicate information on range of variation.
Mention negative results as well as positive. Do not interpret results - save that for the discussion.
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS What is the strongest and most important statement that you can make from your observations? If you met the reader at a meeting six months from now, what do you want them to remember about your paper? Refer back to problem posed, and describe the conclusions that you reached from carrying out this investigation, summarize new observations, new interpretations, and new insights that have resulted from the present work. Include the broader implications of your results. Do not repeat word for word the abstract, introduction or discussion.
