2. OUTLINE
• Introduction to Research
• Stages of Academic Research
• Classification of Research Reports
• How to Select a Research Topic
• Research Writing Formats
• Publishable Research Report
• Thesis/Dissertation Format
4. WHAT IS RESEARCH?
• Research is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the
stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of
information to increase understanding of a topic or issue. (Wikipedia)
5. WHAT IS BUSINESS RESEARCH?
• The term ‘business research’ refers to the academic study of topics
related to questions relevant to business, including management and
organizations.
6. IMPORTANCE OF BUSINESS RESEARCH
• It is done when there is an aspect of business and management that is
believed to be inadequately understood.
7. ADVANTAGE AND DISADVANTAGE OF RESEARCH
ADVANTAGE
• Identify opportunities and threats
• Help wise decision to tackle the
issue
• Understand customers better
• Minimize risk and uncertainties
• Help track competition
DISADVANTAGE
• Based on assumptions
• Time-consuming
• Inaccurate information
• Obsolete
9. STAGES OF ACADEMIC RESEARCH
1. Literature Review
• Critical examination of existing research relating to the phenomena of interest and
relevant theoretical ideas.
2. Concepts and Theories
• Ideas that drive the research process and shed light on the interpretation of
resulting findings.
3. Research Questions
• Question that provides an explicit statement of what the researcher wants to know
about.
4. Sampling
• Selection of sample relevant to the research question(s).
10. STAGES OF ACADEMIC RESEARCH
5. Data Collection
• Gathering data from sample so that research question(s) can be answered.
6. Data Analysis
• Management, analysis, and interpretation of data.
7. Writing Up
• Dissemination of research and findings.
13. CLASSIFICATIONS OF RESEARCH
(BASED ON PURPOSE)
• Basic Research/ Pure or Fundamental Research
• Applied Research
• Evaluation Research
• Research & Development
• Action Research
14. CLASSIFICATIONS OF RESEARCH
(BASED ON METHOD)
• Historical Research
• Descriptive Research
• Co-relational Research
• Causal-Comparative & Experimental Research
17. HOW TO SELECT A RESEARCH TOPIC
• Choose a topic that you are interested in.
• Narrow your topic to something manageable.
• Review the guidelines on topic selection outlined in your assignment.
• Refer to lecture notes and required texts to refresh your knowledge of
the course and assignment.
18. HOW TO SELECT A RESEARCH TOPIC
• Talk about research ideas with a friend.
• Think of the 5W questions:
WHO
WHAT
WHEN
WHERE
WHY
20. FORMATTING AN APA PAPER
• The main guidelines for formatting a paper in APA Style are as follows:
• Use a standard font like 12 pt Times New Roman or 11 pt Arial.
• Set 1 inch page margins.
• Apply double line spacing.
• If submitting for publication, insert a running head on every page.
• Indent every new paragraph ½ inch.
21. TITLE PAGE
The image below shows how to format an APA Style title page for a student paper
Page Number
Paper title
Author
Course
Due date
Instructor
Affiliation
22. RUNNING HEAD
• If you are submitting a paper for publication,APA requires you to include
a running head on each page.The image below shows you how this should
be formatted.
23. HEADINGS
• APA provides guidelines for formatting up to five levels of heading within
your paper. Level 1 headings are the most general, level 5 the most
specific.
24. REFERENCE PAGE
• APA Style citation requires (author-date) APA in-text citations throughout the
text and a reference page at the end.The image below shows how the reference
page should be formatted.
25. FORMATTING AN MLA PAPER
• The main guidelines for writing an MLA style paper are as follows:
• Use an easily readable font like 12 ptTimes New Roman.
• Set 1 inch page margins.
• Apply double line spacing.
• Indent every new paragraph ½ inch.
• Use title case capitalization for headings.
26. FIRST PAGE
• On the first page of an MLA paper, a heading appears above your title,
featuring some key information:
• Your full name
• Your instructor’s or supervisor’s name
• The course name or number
• The due date of the assignment
27.
28. PAGE HEADER
• A header appears at the top of each page in your paper, including your
surname and the page number.
29. WORKS CITED PAGE
• MLA in-text citations appear wherever you refer to a source in your text.
The Works Cited page appears at the end of your text, listing all the
sources used. It is formatted as shown below.
30. FORMATTING A CHICAGO PAPER
• The main guidelines for writing a paper in Chicago style (also known as
Turabian style) are:
• Use a standard font like 12 pt Times New Roman.
• Use 1 inch margins or larger.
• Apply double line spacing.
• Indent every new paragraph ½ inch.
• Place page numbers in the top right or bottom center.
32. TITLE PAGE
• Chicago doesn’t require a title page, but if you want to include one,Turabian (based on
Chicago) presents some guidelines. Lay out the title page as shown below.
Page number
Student number
Course number
Subtitle
Paper title
Author
Course
Due date
33. TITLE PAGE
• Chicago offers two citation styles: author-date citations plus a reference
list, or footnote citations plus a bibliography. Choose one style or the
other and use it consistently.
• The reference list or bibliography appears at the end of the paper. Both
styles present this page similarly in terms of formatting, as shown below.
36. PUBLISHABLE RESEARCH REPORT
• A publishable journal article is a piece of writing organized around one
important new idea that is demonstrably related to the scholarship
previously published.
• Research articles get published because they say something new about
something old.
38. MYTH ON PUBLISHABLE REPORT
• Myth No. 1: Only articles that are profoundly theoretical and/or
have groundbreaking findings get published. Novice authors have an
exaggerated idea of what publishable quality is, because they rarely read
the average journal article. Graduate seminar readings tend to
concentrate on leading thinkers, plus a few articles the professor
considers groundbreaking. As a result, the characteristics of the great
majority of scholarship are something with which graduate students
seldom acquaint themselves. Most articles are neither earth-shattering nor
published by famous scholars. Instead, they’re narrow in claims and
context and published by people like you and me.
39. FACT ON PUBLISHABLE REPORT
• Publishable article type No. 1: approaches new evidence in an old
way. An article that provides new evidence in support of an accepted idea
represents the best bet for novice authors. In such an article, you don’t
create a new approach; rather, you present new evidence to support an
existing approach. (By “existing approach,” I mean accepted theories,
common methods, dominant arguments and so on. As long as someone
else has proposed a theory, it’s an existing approach for you.) This new
evidence can result from your laboratory experiments, field observations,
primary source study or archival research. It can also be evidence that
someone else recently produced, such as government data or a new film.
40. MYTH ON PUBLISHABLE REPORT
• Myth No. 2: Only articles with lots of interesting ideas get
published. Novice authors think that many interesting ideas make an
article publishable. Although it is to be hoped that any article has
interesting ideas, their sheer accumulation isn’t what gets an article
published. As a senior scholar told me, “A graduate student came to talk
to me about the article he wanted to publish. Three continents, 50 authors
and a dozen theoretical paradigms later, I’m wondering where exactly it is
that 30 pages can hold 100,000 words?” Articles get published not for
spraying ideas but for articulating one important idea.
41. FACT ON PUBLISHABLE REPORT
• Publishable article type No. 2: approaches old evidence in a new
way. An article taking a new approach to old evidence is typically not by a
novice author. Only an author with a strong grasp of existing theories and
methodologies, something the novice is often still trying to attain, can
invent a new approach. In such an article, the author develops a new way
of approaching old data, such as a new method, research design or theory.
42. MYTH ON PUBLISHABLE REPORT
• Myth No. 3: Only articles that are entirely original get
published. Novice authors often don't grasp what makes something
original, thinking that only unique work gets published.When they find,
upon doing a literature search, that “someone has written my article,” they
feel discouraged.Yet almost all published scholarship is not the first on the
subject and is openly derivative or imitative.
43. FACT ON PUBLISHABLE REPORT
• Publishable article type No. 3: pairs old evidence with old
approaches in a new way. An article that presents a new pairing of old
evidence with an old approach represents another good choice for novice
authors. It gives neither new evidence nor a new approach; instead, it
merely links evidence and an approach that haven’t been linked previously.
As Disraeli said,“The originality of a subject is in its treatment.” Those
with strengths in several disciplines are most able to make these kinds of
links.
45. GENERAL INSTRUCTION
• Spacing
Double space throughout
Except for the following
1. Title
2. Caption
3. Table or Figure
4. Extensive quotations footnotes or endnotes;
5. Entries in the References section
6. Entries in theTable of Contents
7. Appendices.
46. GENERAL INSTRUCTION
• Font
Any standard font is acceptable
One font only
Font size of approximately 12
Exceptions for Font Size
1. Caption (not smaller than 9)
2. Headings (not larger than 20)
48. PRELIMINARY PAGES
Page Numbering
All preliminary pages are numbered with lower case Roman
numerals, centered at the bottom of the page, with the bottom of the
number at least 1/2 inch from the edge of the page.The exception to this is
the title page, which is counted but not numbered.
49. PRELIMINARY PAGES
• Title page – required page
- All items are centered and title in ALL CAPS
- The date format is (m-dd-yyyy)
50. PRELIMINARY PAGES
• Abstract page – required (ii)
- A short summary of your research paper
• Copyright page – optional page
- A copyright notice
51. PRELIMINARY PAGES
• Dedication – optional
- This page may combine in acknowledgement page.
• Table of Content - required
- lists all sections that follow it (with the exception of an epigraph or frontispiece).
- Type TABLE OF CONTENTS centered and uppercase at the top of the page, double space
and begin the entries. Single space within entries and double space in-between entries.
52.
53. PRELIMINARY PAGES
• List of Figures – required
- figures includes various non-text items
- Includes the number, caption and page number of each figure
- Figures should be numbered throughout the thesis
• List of Tables – required
- Includes the number, caption and page number of each tables
- Tables should be numbered throughout the thesis
54.
55. PRELIMINARY PAGES
• List of Abbreviations – optional
• Acknowledgements – required
- this section is your opportunity to thank those who have helped and supported
you personally and professionally during your thesis or dissertation process.
56. MAIN BODY
• Page Numbering
- Beginning with the text of the thesis, the page numbering changes to Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3,
4, etc), centered at the bottom of the page, with at least 1/2" clearance from each edge.The
first page of the main text is page 1, and should be displayed on the page. All subsequent
pages are numbered throughout the text
57. REFERENCES AND CITATIONS
• Any of the standard style manuals may be used as a guide in formatting references to
works cited in the thesis. References may be placed at the end of the main text, or at the
end of each chapter.
58. APPENDICES
• An appendix contains supplementary material that is not an essential part of
the text itself but which may be helpful in providing a more comprehensive
understanding of the research problem or it is information that is too cumbersome to be
included in the body of the paper.
