TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING & RESEARCH METHODS LECTURE NOTE

Course Code: ARC 310

Course lecturer: Arc. Aisha .A. Panti

HOW TO WRITE A THESIS: A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE

Abstract
Chapter 1: Introduction
➢ Background to the Study (from what is known to what is unknown, need for the Study) problem
statement)
➢ Statement of the Problem (including existing literature about the problem, significance of the
study)
➢ Research Questions
➢ Aims & Objectives

➢ Justification to the Study

➢ Scope and Limitation

➢ Definitions of terms
Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Review of Related Literature
• Themes
• Subthemes
• Summary
Chapter 3: Research Design/Methodology
➢ Methodology
➢ Research Design

➢Participants
➢Instruments

➢ Data Collection
➢ Data Collection Techniques/Tools

➢ Summary

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Chapter 4: Data Analysis
➢ Results and Discussions
Chapter 5: Conclusion & Recommendation

Abstract
The Thesis must contain an abstract which is a concise summary of the whole study. Basically, the
abstract describes the research question under investigation, the location of the research in the
literature, methods used to address the research question, the outcomes and implications of the
research. An abstract should not include internal headings, citations listed in the reference section,
diagrams, or other illustrations. The abstract should follow the committee page and have the
heading ABSTRACT at the top. The length of the abstract should not be more than 350 words.

Chapter 1: Introduction (background to the study)

Give the background of the problem to be explored in your study and what led you to doing the
thesis. For example, you might discuss educational trends related to the problem, unresolved
issues, social concerns. You might also include some personal background. Outline the context of
the study (i.e., the major foci of your study) and give a statement of the problem situation (basic
difficulty – area of concern, felt need).

a. Statement of research problem

The problem statement aims to highlight the pressing issue the research intends to address. It
should be concise and to the point. Researchers can follow a two-step approach: first, think about
the content of the problem statement, and then organize the writing framework.

Before writing, clarify the following points:

• What is the reader’s level of understanding of the research topic?

• How can the significance of the research be effectively conveyed to the reader?

After addressing these two questions, you can organize the content according to the following
structure:

• Clarify what you aim to achieve with your research.

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• Explore why the problem exists and explain how solving it helps reach the goal.

• Outline the potential impact of the research, such as possible outcomes, challenges, and
benefits.

• Recommend a plan for your experiment that follows the rules of science.

• Explain the potential consequences if the problem is not resolved (if applicable).

b. Research Questions
A research question is a clear, concise, and open-ended question that centers your research
for a paper, project, or literature review. It forms the foundation of a research-based
assignment and helps guide the entire research process. A well-made research question is
essential to define the scope and direction of your paper, guiding you in collecting relevant
information for drawing conclusions later. As a researcher, you are not only summarizing
a topic; you are attempting to find a gap in the literature where you can answer a
researchable, narrow question.

c. Aims & Objectives

d. Research aims are broad statements that describe the overall purpose of your study. They
provide a general direction for your study and indicate the intended achievements of your
research. Aims are usually written in a general and abstract manner describing the ultimate
goal of the research.
Research objectives are specific, measurable, and achievable goals that you aim to
accomplish within a specified timeframe. They break down the research aims into smaller,
more manageable components and provide a clear picture of what you want to achieve and
how you plan to achieve it.

e. Justification for the study

The rationale or justification for doing any research must be gleaned from the existing
literature on the subject. You will need to conduct a thorough literature survey and
identify gaps in the current literature. The best way to write this is to introduce the current
literature in the background/Introduction section and then highlight the gaps in the literature
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 that have not been addressed or are yet to be understood. This will help set up the need for the
current study and thus justify the need for this research.

f. Scope and limitation

Scope and delimitations are two elements of a research paper or thesis. The scope of a

study explains the extent to which the research area will be explored in the work and specifies the

parameters within which the study will be operating. However, it is not possible for the researcher

to cover every aspect of the topic. Therefore, the scope will have to be narrowed down to a certain

section of the target population. In this case, the scope might be narrowed down to a group of 50

children in grades 3-5 of one specific school

Limitations are the characteristics that limit the scope and describe the boundaries of the study,

such as the sample size, geographical location or setting in which the study takes place, population

traits, etc. Additionally, the researcher might also choose to use some research tools and

methodologies to collect data but not others. These delimitations might be imposed for practical

reasons, such as lack of time or financial resources to carry out a more thorough investigation.
This explains why specific choices were made while others were excluded and how this might

affect the outcome of the research.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

The literature review chapter should demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the area and provide

arguments to support the study focus. It is important to extensively review the literature on your

topic before you design your proposal. Thus, you need to begin with a researchable topic and then

explore the literature using the steps advanced in this chapter. This calls for setting a priority for

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reviewing the literature, drawing a visual map of studies that relate to your topic, writing good

abstracts, employing skills learned about using style manuals, and defining key terms. The aim of

the literature review chapter is to delineate various theoretical positions and from these to develop

a conceptual framework for generation of hypotheses and setting up the research question. The

literature review chapter needs to:

i. Critically evaluate the literature rather than merely describe previous

literature (i.e., what is good/bad about the body of literature?)

ii. Show a synthesis and be integrated rather than being more like an
annotated bibliography.
iii. Identify key authors and the key works in the area, thus acquainting the reader with existing
studies relative to what has been found, who has done work, when and where latest research
studies were completed and what approaches to research methodology were followed
(literature review of methodology sometimes saved for chapter on methodology).
Constitute an argument.
iv. Clearly identify the gap in the literature that is being addressed by the
research question.

Suitable sources for the literature review include:

a) General integrative reviews cited that relate to the problem situation or research problem
such as those found in psychological and sociological reviews of research.
b) Specific books, journals, conference papers, monographs, bulletins, reports, and research
articles – preference shown in most instances for literature of the last 10 years. It is highly
advisable to use most recent references.
c) Unpublished materials (e.g., dissertations, theses, papers presented at recent professional
meetings not yet in published form, etc.).
The literature review chapter can be arranged in terms of the questions to be considered or
objectives/purposes set out in the Introduction chapter. Start with an overview of this chapter by
outlining the topics to be discussed.

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For example, (your thesis may have more than 3 topics and therefore more sections). This chapter
begins with a historical background [optional] (section 2.1) and reviews literature on the following
topics: [topic 1] (section 2.2) [briefly describe the topic]; [topic 2] (section 2.3) [briefly describe
the topic]; and [topic 3] (section 2.4) [briefly describe the topic]. Section 2.5 highlights the
implications from the literature and develops the conceptual framework for the study.

2.1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND [OPTIONAL]

2.2 TOPIC 1
Present and discuss your first topic.
2.3 TOPIC 2
Present and discuss your second topic.
2.4 TOPIC 3
Present and discuss your third topic.
2.5 SUMMARY AND IMPLICATIONS
Summarize the literature review and discuss the implications from the literature are derived from
existing theory and literature. Establish from the literature (or gap in the literature) the need for
this study and the likelihood of obtaining meaningful, relevant, and significant results

Chapter 3: Research Design/Methodology

a. Methodology
Discuss the methodology to be used in your study (interview, casual-comparative, survey, case
study, analysis, action research). If using stages, outline them here. The methods used must
link explicitly to the research question and must be suited to the nature of the question.

b. Research Design
Outline the research design (e.g., quantitative, qualitative). If quantitative, spell out the
independent, dependent and classificatory variables (and sometimes formulate an operational
statement of the research hypothesis in null form so as to set the stage for an appropriate research
design permitting statistical inferences). If qualitative, explain and support the approach taken and
briefly discuss the data gathering procedures that were [will be] used (observations, interviews,
etc.). The three main types of research design include:

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• Qualitative research is a means for exploring and understanding the meaning individuals or
groups ascribe to a social or human problem. The process of research involves emerging
questions and procedures, data typically collected in the participant’s setting, data analysis
inductively building from particulars to general themes, and the researcher making interpretations
of the meaning of the data. The final written report has a flexible structure. Those who engage in
this form of inquiry support a way of looking at research that honors an inductive style, a focus on
individual meaning, and the importance of rendering the complexity of a situation (adapted from
Creswell, 2007).

• Quantitative research is a means for testing objective theories by examining the relationship
among variables. These variables, in turn, can be measured, typically on instruments, so that
numbered data can be analyzed using statistical procedures. The final written report has a set
structure consisting of introduction, literature and theory, methods, results, and discussion
(Creswell, 2008). Like qualitative researchers, those who engage in this form of inquiry have
assumptions about testing theories deductively, building in protections against bias, controlling for
alternative explanations, and being able to generalize and replicate the findings.

• Mixed methods research is an approach to inquiry that combines or associates both qualitative
and quantitative forms. It involves philosophical assumptions, the use of qualitative and
quantitative approaches, and the mixing of both approaches in a study. Thus, it is more than simply
collecting and analyzing both kinds of data; it also involves the use of both approaches in tandem
so that the overall strength of a study is greater than either qualitative or quantitative research
(Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007). These definitions have considerable information in each one of
them.

PARTICIPANTS
Give details of who were (will be) the participants in your study (including, if applicable, sample
type and size, reasons for the number selected and the basis for selection).

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3.3 INSTRUMENTS
List and briefly describe all the instruments (e.g., tests, measures, surveys, observations,
interviews, questionnaires) [to be] used in your study for data collection and discuss their
theoretical underpinnings, that is, justify why you used (will be using these instruments). So that
the line of argument is not broken, it is useful to place copies of instruments in Appendices to
which this section can refer.
Chapter 4: Data Analysis

This entails the results of your study. You can put all analysis of the results here, full discussion,

interpretation and evaluation of the results with reference to the literature. Organize the chapter in

terms of the objectives of the study and/or the theoretical framework. For each objective, discuss

the results with reference to the literature, for example, the similarities/differences to the findings

in the literature review. The results should be linked inextricably to the design, describe what

happened factually and unemotively. However, in certain historical, case-study and

anthropological investigations, factual and interpretive material may be interwoven rather than

being presented as “findings”.

Chapter 5: Conclusion & Recommendation

The chapter should begin with a summary paragraph of the chapter structure. The opening section

of the chapter should be a brief summary of everything covered so far. Follow this with your

conclusions. This is the “so what” of the findings – often the hypothesis/research question(s)

restated as inferences with some degree of definitive commitment and generalizability, and the

raising of new and pertinent. The chapter should also include a discussion of any limitations of the

research, and should end with your final recommendations, practical suggestions for

implementation of the findings/outcomes or for additional research.

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References

Hazari, A. (2024). Introduction to research methodology. In Research Methodology for Allied Health
Professionals: A comprehensive guide to Thesis & Dissertation (pp. 1-6). Singapore: Springer
Nature Singapore.
Hirose, M., & Creswell, J. W. (2023). Applying core quality criteria of mixed methods research to an empirical
study. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 17(1), 12-28.
Susilawati, A., Al-Obaidi, A. S. M., Abduh, A., Irwansyah, F. S., & Nandiyanto, A. B. D. (2025). How to do
research methodology: From literature review, bibliometric, step-by-step research stages, to
practical examples in science and engineering education. Indonesian Journal of Science and
Technology, 10(1), 1-40.