This document summarizes a workshop on writing research project reports. The workshop aimed to explain the nature and purpose of research projects and reports, and help students develop the ability to manage research projects and apply appropriate research techniques. It covered topics like what constitutes research, choosing a research problem and topic, developing research objectives, different types of research, data analysis techniques, and writing conclusions. The workshop provided examples and activities to help students understand these concepts and choose their own research topics and objectives. It emphasized writing research objectives in a SMART format and choosing topics that are novel, relevant, interesting and feasible. It also gave a basic overview of quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques.

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Workshop
on
Research Project
Writing good Research Reports
Resource Person:
Prof. K.S.Suryanarayana M. Com, MBA, Senior Fellow (HEA, UK)
Director – Academic Excellence,
IAGI

2. What is Research Project ? What am I supposed to do
Hmmmmmmmmmmnnnn……!

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Purpose & Learning Outcomes
Purpose:
 To explain the nature and purpose of the Project Report
 To develop the students’ ability to manage the research project
 To develop the student’s ability to apply appropriate research techniques for their project report
Learning Outcomes:
After this workshop, you should be able to:
• Understand the project report process and apply a range of research methods in your project work.
• Critically evaluate pertinent academic literature and develop an appropriate research plan.
• Demonstrate how reliable knowledge and theory of various research methods and tools to inform independent
research practices.

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What is Research?
• ‘Is a systematized effort to gain new knowledge’
-Redman and Mory
• An original contribution to the existing stock of knowledge
making for its advancement

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Structure of your Project Report
The "hourglass" notion of research
begin with broad questions
narrow down, focus in
operationalize
OBSERVE
analyze data
reach conclusions
generalize back to questions

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Research Problem
• A research problem tells you what you intend to research.
Examples could be….
• Rising share prices (why ?)
• Declining sales of a company (why ?)
• Are advertising budget and sales related? (relation)

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Source of research problems
• Students are sometimes puzzled about the origins of research problems
• Where do ideas for research problems come from ?
• At the most basic level, research topics originate researchers interests

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Source of research problems
 Personal interests and observations
 Pressing problem needing a solution
 Other investigator’s theories and research
 Literature in one’s field of specialization
 Completed theses and dissertations
 Suggestions from colleagues and teachers

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Factors to Consider in the Choice of a Research Problem
 Novel
 Relevant
 Interesting
 Feasible
 Researchable
 Ethical

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Classification of Research
Research can be classified from the objectives point of view in four
ways
• Descriptive
• Correlational
• Explanatory
• Exploratory

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From the point of view of Application
Pure and applied research
• Pure research
-involves developing and testing theories and hypotheses
• Applied Research
- has practical problem-solving emphasis.

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From the point of view of the type of information
Quantitative- If information is gathered using quantitative variables.
Examples of Quantitative aspects of a research study are:
• How many people have a particular problem? How many people hold a
particular attitude?
Qualitative- The study is classified as qualitative if the purpose of the study is
primarily to describe a situation,
Example
• An account of the different opinions people have about an issue,
• A description of the working conditions of an organisation

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Choosing a topic for your study
Choosing the right topic is the first step in succeeding in your project.
It is also difficult…..
So, what should you do? Plan, investigate the availability of relevant materials/information, and
get feedback from your project supervisor.
Here are some tips:
• Choose a topic that you are interested in! The research process is more relevant if
you care about your topic.
• Narrow your topic to something manageable.
• Ask your professor/supervisor/guide for suggestions.
• Talk about research ideas with a friend. S/he may be able to help focus your topic
by discussing issues that didn’t occur to you at first.

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Choosing a topic for your study
Think of the who, what, when, where, and why questions:
• WHY did you choose the topic? What interests you about it? Do you have an opinion
about the issues involved?
• WHO are the information providers on this topic? Who might publish information about
it? Who is affected by the topic? Do you know organizations or institutions affiliated with the
topic?
• WHAT are the major questions for this topic? Is there a debate about the topic? Are there
a range of issues and viewpoints to consider?
• WHERE is your topic important: at the local, national or international level? Are there
specific places affected by the topic?
• WHEN is/was your topic important? Is it a current event or an historical issue? Do you
want to compare your topic by time periods?

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A list of Topics……
• A Comparative Study on the non-performing assets (with reference to any two banks)
• Application of CAMEL Model to any chosen Bank in India.
• A comparative study of Home loans offered by various banks in India.
• A study on mergers and acquisitions with reference to (Banking sector, Airline sector, retail sector,
etc.)
• An analysis of Financial performance and predicting probable bankruptcy through application of Z
–Score model with reference to any industry/sector.

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A list of Topics……
• A study on the effect of dividend declaration on the share price with reference to a particular
sector.
• A study on the effect of financial leverage on the profitability with reference to a company (for a
chosen period say.. 5 years)
• A study on the impact of IPOs on the economy/capital market etc. with respect to few companies.
• A study on corporate governance with respect to a particular company/industry.
• A study on the CSR/ISR on the financial performance of the company.
• A study on the impact of training and development on organisational productivity with reference
to a company/sector.
• Impact of Social Media Marketing/Digital Market on the Sales with respect to any company

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ACTIVITY ON CHOOSING A TOPIC
• Please follow the work sheet provided to you for this activity.

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Framing Research Objectives
A key step to defining strong research objectives is writing them in the SMART
format.
• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-based

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Framing Research Objectives
The following phrases can be used…
i) The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of
...on...
ii) The objective of this study is to determine...
iii)This study is an attempt to examine the influence of ...on...
iv)The objectives of this study are to...
v) This study has two major demonstrate: (1) to demonstrate
whether or not...
vi)The major objective of this study is.....
• Refer to the Activity Sheet 2

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DATA ANALYSIS
• The purpose of this part of the session is to give you a very basic
introduction to the ways in which data is analyzed in both
quantitative and qualitative research.

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DATA ANALYSIS
• Data Analysis is the process of systematically applying statistical and/or logical techniques to describe,
illustrate, condense, recap, and evaluate data.
• Statistics and Data Analysis Statistics is a science assisting the researcher to take decisions based on some
numerical and measurable scales.
• The level of calculation required will vary, from a simple description of the frequency to a more complex
analysis in which the frequency is compared with other sources of data.

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DATA ANALYSIS
An important thing to look out for in research reports is
“What do the numbers in the data actually represent”
For Example, the data represents the number of units sold during the part of a year

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DATA ANALYSIS
• Simple quantitative analysis
• Averages
• Mean: add up values and divide by the number of data points
• Median: the middle value of data when ranked
• Mode: a figure that appears most often in the data
• Percentages
• Graphical representations give overview of data
• Measure of Dispersion- This measure tells us how
far a set of scores varies from the mean score.
• The five factors Range, Mean, Median, Mode and Std.Dev. are all
form of Descriptive Statistics.
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Watch the 4 dots you see in the middle of the pic

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DATA ANALYSIS
• Another type of statistical analysis is known as “Inferential Statistics”.
• The simple reason why we need inferential statistics is that they help
us to discover whether our findings in any research study are due
simple to chance or whether they are in fact lively to be correct.

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DATA ANALYIS
• Correlation
• Regression
• Student T-Test
• ANNOVA
• Rank TEST

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DATA Analysis
Which statistical tool should I Apply ??
Points to consider
• Type of Distribution
• Type of Data
• Identifying Relationships
• Cause and effect followed by prediction

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Identifying appropriate statistical tool
Application of approporiate Statistical Test for Data Analysis
Comparison
Type of Distribution 2 Data Sets >2 Data Sets
Association
Relationship
between 2
variables
Regresssion
(Predicting
one from
another)
Paried UnPaired Paried UnPaired
Normal Distribution (Mean) Paired 'T' Test Unpaired 'T'Test
Repeated
Measures
ANOVA
One Way
ANOVA
Pearsons
Correlation
Linear
Regresson
Non Normal Distribution
(Median)
Wilcoxon
signed Rank
Test
Wilcoxon Rank
Sum Test,
MannWhitney
"U" Test
Friedman
Test
Kruskal
Wallis Test
Spearman's Rank
Correlation
Non Parametric
Regression
Dichotomous Data McNemars Test
Chi Square Test
Fishers Extract
Test
Codon's Q Test Chi Square
Test
Contengincy
Coeffecients
Logistic
Regression

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Writing Conclusions
• Writing appropriate conclusions are very important stage in research
projects.
• Conclusions should be precise, and reflective and should address the
stated objectives.
• Conclusions should include the summary the overall results obtained
and what it really means to the researcher.
• summarize the key supporting ideas you discussed throughout
the work.
• You are expected to offer your final impression on the central
idea of your research.

30. SOURCE:
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