RESEARCH PROJECT GUIDELINES

RESEARCH PROJECT GUIDELINES

The following is a guide to some of the areas that students face difficulties when writing research papers.

Title

Ø  A concise statement of the main topic and should identify the variables.

Ø  Should be a reflection of the contents of the document.

Ø  Fully explanatory when standing alone.

Ø  Should not contain redundancies such as ‘a study of …… Or ‘an investigation of……

Ø  Abbreviations should not appear in title.

Ø  Scientific names should be in italics.

Ø  Should contain maximum of 15 to 21 words.

From the title, one should be able to identify the variables, both Independent and dependent

What are Independent and Dependent Variables?

Question: What's a variable?

Answer: A variable is an object, event, idea, feeling, time period, or any other type of category you are trying to measure. Variables used research can be divided into two types: "dependent variable” or "independent variable", or other.

Question: What's an independent variable?       

Answer: It is a variable that stands alone and isn't changed by the other variables you are trying to measure. For example, someone's age might be an independent variable. Other factors (such as what they eat, how much they go to school, how much television they watch) aren't going to change a person's age. In fact, when you are looking for some kind of relationship between variables you are trying to see if the independent variable causes some kind of change in the other variables, or dependent variables.

Question: What's a dependent variable?

Answer: It is something that depends on other factors. A dependent variable is what you measure in the experiment and what is affected during the experiment. The dependent variable responds to the independent variable. It is called dependent because it "depends" on the independent variable.  In a scientific experiment, you cannot have a dependent variable without an independent variable.

For example, a test score could be a dependent variable because it could change depending on several factors such as how much you studied, how much sleep you got the night before you took the test, or even how hungry you were when you took it. Usually when you are looking for a relationship between two things you are trying to find out what makes the dependent variable change the way it does.

Many students have trouble remembering which is the independent variable and which is the dependent variable. An easy way to remember is to insert the names of the two variables you are using in this sentence in the way that makes the most sense. Then you can figure out which is the independent variable and which is the dependent variable:

(Independent variable) causes a change in (Dependent Variable) and it isn't possible that (Dependent Variable) could cause a change in (Independent Variable).

For example:

(Time Spent Studying) causes a change in (Test Score) and it isn't possible that (Test Score) could cause a change in (Time Spent Studying).

We see that "Time Spent Studying" must be the independent variable and "Test Score" must be the dependent variable because the sentence doesn't make sense the other way around.

Objectives of the study

Your study, should have both general objective and specific objectives

General objective

In this section the major research objective is addressed. The purpose statement should emphasize practical outcomes or products of the study. For instance if the topic is “The effect of intensive growth strategies on the performance of commercial banks in Kenya”.

The general objective could be “The purpose of this study was to determine (measure, examine, or evaluate) the effect of intensive growth strategies on the performance of commercial banks in Kenya” Note that study should have one general objective which should be in line with the title.

The Specific objectives – have to be in line with the variables the candidate hypothesizes to influence the phenomenon being investigated. Should be a breakdown of the general objective.

In our illustration’

The specific objectives could be:

        i.            To determine the influence of market penetration strategy on the performance of commercial banks in Kenya.

      ii.            To evaluate the effect of market development strategy on the performance of commercial banks in Kenya.

    iii.            To determine the effect of product development strategy on the performance of commercial banks in Kenya.

Research Questions; should be in line with the specific objectives and equal in number. Should be stated in the form of questions and not statements. The research questions need to be broad enough to allow further breakdown into questionnaire or interview guide items for the data collection. On the average 3-5 research questions are sufficient.

i. What is the influence of market penetration strategy on the performance of commercial banks in Kenya?

ii. What is the effect of market development strategy on the performance of commercial banks in Kenya?

iii. What is the effect of product development strategy on the performance of commercial banks in Kenya?