Adama Science and Technology University
School of Civil Engineering and Architecture
MSc. In Urban planning and design
Advanced Research Methodology &
Techniques(UPD 6103)
Chapter Five:
4.1 Proposal writing
4.2 Research report writing
4.1 Proposal writing
A research proposal is intended to convince others that
have a worthwhile research project and that you have
the competence and work-plan to complete it.
A research proposal should contain all the key elements
involved in the research process and include sufficient
information for the reader to evaluate the proposed
study
All the research proposal must address the following
questions:
what you plan to accomplish
Why you want to do it
How you are going to do it.
Proposal writing ……
• The quality of your research proposal depends not only on the quality of your
proposed project but also on the quality of your proposal writing
Identifying a research
• Defining the problem is the first step : before deciding on a topic, each proposed
topic must be compared with all other options
Before start writing a research proposal
Do I have the clear research questions?
Have I read broadly and deeply in that area?
Have I discussed the topic with peers?
Do I get support from faculty?
What should it contain?
What do you what to do?
Why do you want to do it?
Why is it important?
Who has done similar work?
How are you going to do it?
How long will it take?
How much it cost to implement the project?
Proposal writing ……
Evaluation of proposals (proposal review):
How important is the proposed activity to advancing the knowledge
and understanding within its own field or across different fields
How well qualified is the proposer (individual or team) to conduct
the project? ( if appropriate, the reviewer will comment on the
quality of prior work)
The broader impact of the proposed research
The research design must be sound enough to yield the expected
knowledge
The aim/objectives are likely to be achievable in the given time
period
The scientific deign is described and adequately justified
Proposal writing ……
Elements of a research proposal
• Title page
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Problem statement
• Objectives
• Scope
• Methodology
• Time schedule
• Budget
• References
• Appendix
Proposal writing ……
Title page
-State your topic exactly in the smallest possible number
of words
-Should almost never contain abbreviations
-has no page number
- Make your topic attention grabber
- Put your name, the name of your
department/faculty/college, the name of your
advisor(s) and date
Abstract
-Background, problem statement, objective,
methodology, time, budge and conclusion
Proposal writing ……
Introduction
• State the research problem
• Provide the context and set the stage for your research
question in such away as to show its necessity and
importance
• Clearly indicate why it is worth doing
• Briefly describe the major issues and sub-problems to be
addressed
• State your hypothesis or theory
Objectives
Summarize what is to be achieved by the study
Should closely related to the statement of the problem
General objective states what is expected to be achieved by the
study in general terms
Proposal writing ……
Scope of the study
The scope identifies the boundaries of the study in term of
subjects, objectives, facilities, area, time frame, and the
issues to which the research is focused.
• Methodology
Methods, materials and procedures
Methods : heart of the research proposal. You must decide
exactly how you are going to achieve your stated objectives
It is essential
to discuss procedures clearly and completely with
considerable amount of details
Proposal writing ……
Time frame and work schedule
- Important planning tool
-Proposal should include sequences of tasks to be
performed, the anticipated lengths of time required
for its completion and the personnel required
- Can be presented in tabular or graphic form
Budget
Budget translates project activities into monetary terms
How much money will be required to accomplish various
tasks
Proposal writing ……
References
• Each reference must include the names of all
authors, the article and journal title, book
title, volume number, page numbers, year of
publication
• Format for depicting references within the
body of the text varies from discipline to
another
Proposal writing ……
There are several different styles of referencing:
• American Psychological Association (APA )
• Modern Language Association (MLA)
• Oxford.
• Harvard.
• Chicago
MLA (Modern Language Association) format is used
for humanities and literature works.
APA (American Psychological Association) is used for
technical and scientific works.
Proposal writing ……
Proposal writing ……
Proposal writing ……
In-text citations - Author and date
Proposal writing ……
Features of Reference Management Software
examples: Mendeley
Citavi
• Reference management software provides the following features:
Support for a wide range of citation styles (e.g. APA, MLA, etc.)
• Automated creation of bibliographical entries, or whole bibliography
• In-line citation creation
• Add annotations, notes, to documents
• Document or reference import from outside sources
• Extraction of citation data (e.g. author, publication name, etc) from
imported documents
• Synchronize data across shared or stored documents
• Create a research profile, add publications to a scientific database via the
software
• Style & accidental plagiarism check
4.2 Report writing
• Report is a clearly structured document in which a
researcher identifies and examine issues, events
or findings of a research.
• It is the last step in your research study
• May seek the assistance and guidance of experts
for the purpose
• Written reports give scope for future reverences.
• It is essential to share the result of our findings.
• It is through research that the totality of the
human body knowledge increases.
Report writing …..
• We must share our experiences with our colleagues to
assist them in their quests
• We must expose our work to critique by those who
can evaluate our work in terms of value, interest and
accuracy
• We must publish so that we can give credit to those
who has been instrumental in us arriving at our
findings
Types of research Articles
a. A journal article
b. A conference paper
c. An article in a trade or scholarly periodical
d. A thesis
e. A research report
Report writing….
Elements of a research report
• Title
• Abstract
• Introduction
– Problem statement
– Objectives
– Scope
• Review of related literature
• Research Methodology
• Result
• Discussion
• Conclusion and recommendation
• References
• Appendix
Report writing….
Lay out for articles
• Abstract (background, problem statement, objectives, methods,
result and conclusion)
• Keywords
1. Introduction (broad theme or topic of the study, narrowing the
topic, make it specific, literature review, point out the gap,
reveal the research question, significance of solving the problem,
objectives)
2. Materials and methods
3. Result and discussion (model validation, main findings)
4. Conclusion (context of the study, stating the main finding,
compare your result/ validate, limitation, future words
5. References
Report writing
• IMRAD is an acronym stand for the common
scientific research or lab report: Introduction,
method ,result and discussion
• Introduction : what was the question?
• Methods: how did you try to answer it ?
• Result: what did you find
• Discussion: what does it mean
Report writing
IMRAD format
• Title
• Abstract : comprehensive by itself, introduction, methods,
result and discussion
• Introduction: explain state of knowledge, with reference,
identify the gap in knowledge that you wish to fill with your
study outline objectives (primary and secondary)
• Methods : describe in detail what you did and how. Detail
selection criteria for the study population. Describe all tests,
interventions, analysis, techniques….Ethical considerations
must be outlined. Statistical methods to be described in
dedicated paragraph
Report writing…..
• Result : Describe study result. Avoid commentary and interpretation.
Describe all tests, interventions, analyses, techniques… Detail endpoints
(primary and secondary).Ethical considerations must be outlined.
Statistical consideration must be outlined. Statistical methods to be
described in dedicated paragraph
• Discussion: start with recap of your main finding. Put your results in
perspective with the other reports in the literature. Explain significance of
the results, how they contribute to the overall knowledge, or how they
advance knowledge. Outline strengths and limitation
• Conclusion: a one line conclusion summarize your main finding is
sufficient, with perhaps a short sentence with the implications for future
research. The conclusion should be directly related to the main objective
and end points
• References: list all sources as a basis for your work. Check accuracy of all
references, even if copied from other paper
Report writing ..
Presentation
1. Analyze your audience
• learn more about the audience to whom you'll be speaking. It's a good idea to
obtain some information on the backgrounds, values, and interests of your audience
so that you understand what the audience members might expect from your
presentation.
2. Prepare the body of the presentation
Present data and facts
Read quotes from experts
Relate personal experiences
Provide vivid descriptions
3. Prepare the introduction and conclusion
decide how you will begin and end the talk. Make sure the introduction captures the
attention of your audience and the conclusion summarizes and reiterates your
important points.
4. Practice delivering the presentation
• Most people spend hours preparing a presentation but very little time practicing it.
When you practice your presentation, you can reduce the number of times you utter
words and phrases like, "um," "well," and "you know."
Report writing …
In general your presentation should have the following
components
Introduction (institution, college/department, title, your name
and advisor name, date )
• Outline (introduction, statement of the problem, objectives,
scope, significance, materials and methods, result and
discussion,…… acknowledgement)
The slide:
• One slide per minute of presentation time.
• Try to limit your total number of slides based on the
time(minutes given for presentation)
• Try to focus on the main findings
• If your findings are more extensive than this, don't try to
present all of them (focus on main findings).
How to use SPSS
Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for data
analysis.
• SPSS is a Windows based program that can be used to
perform data entry and analysis and t o create tables
and graphs.
• SPSS is capable of handling large amounts of data and
can perform all of the analyses covered in the text and
much more.
• SPSS is commonly used in the Social Sciences and in
the business world, so familiarity with this program
should serve you well in the future.
• SPSS is updated often.(read the attached materials if
you are interested to use it for your research)
