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Guidelines in Selecting Research Topics

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Kristina Cassandra Gabales
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20 views

Guidelines in Selecting Research Topics

Uploaded by

Kristina Cassandra Gabales
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Guidelines in Selecting Research Topics

Selecting a topic may be quite confusing. However, the following guidelines


may help you concentrate and produce an excellent research paper.
1. Listen to your teacher for proper directions.
2. Select a topic within your field of interest
3. You elaborate on the topic by doing initial exploratory research and use reputable
sources that support your problem
4. You must be precise and clear with your problem statement
5. Gather data and information to answer all posed question
6. Organize the data, analyze the findings and formulate the conclusions and
recommendations
7. Prepare the draft of the research report, revise as needed and present the final paper.

Sample Research Proposal Format


The research proposal may include the following parts:
1. Title
2. Introduction
A good introduction presents a brief overview of the proposed research project.
It should provide background information about the research problem and a statement
justifying the research problems.
3. Objectives of the Study
The overall objectives of the study states exactly how you intend to address
your problem. The objectives will help you identify the type of study you will
conduct. The hierarchy of learning objectives and the key to assessment of knowledge
content can be found for example in Bloom's taxonomy.
4. Significance of the Study
This portion includes the importance of the study by citing the work's
contribution to society in general, then to organizations towards its contribution to
individual persons, to the researcher and other researchers.
5. Research Questions
The main problem and the specific questions to be investigated are placed here.
6. Respondents of the Study
The respondents of the study specifying both population, sample, sampling
technique to be used and the research setting should be described here. The method
for getting the informed consent from the respondents of the study, as well as
confidentiality of respondents and response made should be guaranteed.
7. Research Methodology
The choice and reasons for choosing the particular research design and research
methods and procedures should be outlined and examples should be given.

The Written Research Report


The research report contains the most important parts of the research. You are
required to follow a format. The format, language and style is based on the standard
policies of your institution.
A research report usually includes the following parts:

 Preliminaries

o Title Page
This page bears the statement of the topic, your complete name and date
of completion of your research project.

o Abstract
This is a brief summary of the research study. It include the problem, the
methodology used, respondents and the findings and conclusions.
o Table of Contents

The table of contents lists the preliminary parts, the chapter titles and the
subtitles, the body of the report and the supplementary documents in the
Appendix.

 Chapter 1 - The Problem


Chapter 1 includes the introduction, problem statement, research objectives
and background. The introduction may be taken from the discussion on the
research proposal
o Introduction
o Background
The background may be placed before the problem statement if it
contains information pertinent to the problem which led to the
conceptualization of the research study. This provides data or information
from the related literature or secondary data gathered relevant to your
study.
o Research Objectives
The research objectives explains the purpose of the research project.
o Problem Statement
The problem statement justifies the need for the research study. This
is followed by the main problem and the specific questions.

 Chapter 2-Methodology
The methodology section provides the discussion of the research design,
the sampling design, and data collection procedure, limitations of the study and
data analysis.
o Research Design
This section describes the research design and methods used in the
research study. You may also include the discussion of instrumentation and
materials used in the study.

o Sampling Design
The sampling design defines the target population and the sampling
methods used or how the samples were selected. The sample size
determination is also included in the discussion.

o Data Collection
This part of the research report describes the techniques, instruments
and procedures in gathering data. It also includes the locale of the study,
the time fame it was collected.

o Data Analysis
This section presents the summary of the methods you used to
analyze the data. The appropriateness of the statistical methods should be
presented.
o Limitations of the Study
This part indicates the coverage and limits of the study in terms of
area, subject, time and variables used. You may also include the
weaknesses of the study beyond the control of the researcher.

• Chapter 3 - Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations


This is a presentation of findings of the study. This should be organized clearly
with simple tables, graphs and discussions. It is suggested that you present the
findings in the order of how you present the specific questions or problems. Each
finding should be supported by quantitative data and discussion of the numerical data
presented.

o Summary and Conclusions


The summary is a brief statement of the major findings. In simple
descriptive research, a summary of findings may be enough to complete the
research report. Conclusions are inferences drawn from the findings which
may not always be necessary.
o Recommendations
Recommendations are usually the researcher's opinions on possible
future actions or further study to broaden understanding in the topic of
interest. For applied research, recommendations are usually for making
decisions about findings and conclusions on certain issues or problems.
o Appendices
An appendix contains supplementary materials or documents which
may be helpful in providing a more comprehensive understanding of the
research study. Usually the documents or items that you should place in an
appendix are letters, memorandums, emails, interview transcripts,
questionnaires or surveys and other research instruments.
o Bibliography
The use of secondary data requires a bibliography. However, "APA
Style" calls for a list of references instead of bibliography. All references
cited in your research paper must be listed alphabetically.

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