The chapter one is one of the most important chapters of a research project and writing a good one is indeed a good start in a research project. Just as they would say, "first impression matters". Your chapter gives that first impression that obviously matters. This is in light of the fact that it is the first chapter anyone, who indeed wants to understand and consume your work sees. It also provides a basis for judging every other chapter of your research. That is why, it is known as the introductory chapter.
Having understood this, this article shall therefore be guiding you on how to write an impressive "chapter one" for your final year research project or any other research endeavor. This will involve discussing on the contents of the chapter and what is expected of every of such content.
Basically, the chapter one is divided into various parts. These are the background to the study, statement of the problem, aim and objectives of the study, research questions, research hypotheses, significance of the study, scope of the study, limitations of the study, definition of terms, as well as organisation of the study. These parts are discussed one after the other below,
1. Background to the Study
Under this section of the chapter one, it is expected of you to skillfully make known the background from which your study or the research topic emanated. In other words, how did you come about the topic? what texts and obvious claims and observations made you decide this is a topic worthy and you are definitely interested in researching on? Normally, answering these questions should be simple and swift but then, you need to answer them in such a way that proves that you have widely read.
On the length, the background of the study shouldn't be too short nor too long but should be enough and well organized that it arouses and keeps the reader wanting to read more of your work.
A research project topic must have at least two variables; the independent variable (also known as the predictor variable) and the dependent variable (also known as criterion variable). consider the topic "Work Environment and Employee performance". the predictor variable is "work environment" while the criterion variable is "employee performance". The problem you want to solve is always in the criterion variable.
The first paragraph of the background of the study must be dedicated to the importance of the criterion variable. A paragraph must be at least half a page of your A4 paper.
The 2nd to 4th paragraph must contain the trend of research on the criterion variable and must be stated in these paragraphs.
In research, the statement "I say" must not be used instead "we say" should be used because your knowledge depends on the knowledge of others.
In the 5th paragraph, the point of departure should be stated. The point of departure is the approach through which you want to solve a problem.
2. Statement of the Problem
The Statement of the Problem allows you to in three or more paragraphs reveal the problem the research desires to proffer solutions to. In fact, it is often believed that the statement of the problem is basically a summary of the background of the study. This is in the sense that if your background of the study talked on where the zeal to undertake your topic stemmed from, then, it means it also contains the problem you came across and are zealous in solving.
The problem must be stated in clear forms and it must be stated so that our audience can have a proper view of it.
The critical nature of the problem is stated in the 1st paragraph.
The 2nd and 3rd paragraph will include the manifestation and identification of the problem.
The 4th paragraph should contain how you intend solving the problem. You can know the existence of a problem by it's manifestation and indications. It is in the 2nd and 3rd paragraph that you can conduct or quote newspapers.
Therefore, under your statement of the problem, you are revealing the problem obviously and specifically so that the reader takes note of it and at the end of the study concludes whether the findings are sensible enough in solving the problem. For example, the background of a study on customers preference for foreign brands may talk about how the researcher became zealous as a result of government and private businesses concern for customers' preference for foreign brands, the problem statement can then discus on how this preference for foreign brands have become a problem both to businesses, government and all in general that therefore warrants a study on it so as to propose solutions that can solve these problems.
3. Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim and objectives are the general statement of an intent. The aim and objectives should have limits.
While writing this part, note that the question it must answer is, what do you seek to achieve at the end of the research?
This is divided into the aim of the study and the specific objectives of the research. The aim is the one and overall achievement you want to make at the conclusion of the study. To simplify framing one, it is usually the re - wording of your project topic. For example, if your project topic is "Work Environment and Employees' Performance", the aim can then be framed as "to determine the relationship between work environment and employee performance of employees".
On the other hand, the specific objectives are those that are part and were drawn from the aim. It is expected that when the specific objectives have been achieved, the aim would have been achieved as well. Hence, the specific objectives are needed to help achieve the objectives. An example of a specific objective for the aim above could be “to establish the relationship between clean office space and employees' performance”.
Normally, students studying at the undergraduate level of studies are expected to have up to 3 specific and meaningful objectives that are relevant to achieving the aim of the study. In framing such objectives, the following should be taken cognizance of,
I. It should be meaningful and relevant to achieving the aim of the research.
II. It should be such that can be measured whether it has been achieved or not.
III. It should be something you can achieve given your study and available constraints.
IV. It should be specific and focuses on a particular aspect of your research aim.
V. Should start with the word “to”. That is, “to determine”, “to establish”, “to evaluate”, “to assess”, “to examine” and etcetera.
4. Research Questions
A research question is an answerable inquiry into a specific concern or issue. in Formulating a research we avoid questions that yields answer of YES or NO. The reason is that if the answer is either YES or NO, the research ends there.
The research questions are the specific questions you want to provide answers to in carrying out the research. It therefore goes that after answering these questions by undertaking the research, you would have been able to achieve your various specific objectives and then, the research aim in general. Therefore, the research questions are usually derived or framed from the specific objectives and for each objective, there is expected a research question and vice versa. For example, if a research objective is "to determine the relationship between work environment and employee performance", its question would be like "what is the relationship between office space and employee performance?"
5. Research Hypotheses
A hypothesis refers the statement of expected relationship between two variables (the predictor and criterion variables). The plural form of "hypothesis" is "hypotheses". Every research question must be provided with a tentative answer. The hypothesis is a tentative answer to the research question. It is said to be "tentative" because the answer is subjected to further testing.
The research hypotheses are your own informed opinions or claims about the research, from the beginning of the research, whose trueness or falseness, you want to establish at the end of the study. For example, if your study is on why tertiary students' academic performance is usually worst in their first year, from your own opinion, you can assert that the reason is usually because in their first year, they aren’t conversant with the new system of learning and grading. Now, that is a claim which can serve as an hypothesis so that at the end of the study, your findings will reveal whether the claim is true or not.
Furthermore, there are two major kinds of hypotheses namely NULL (usually represented as H0) hypotheses and ALTERNATE hypotheses (H1). The NULL is one that doesn’t agree a relationship exist between two variables while an ALTERNATE agrees to the existence of a relationship. For example, using our earlier specific objective,
H0: There is no relationship between clean offices and employees’ performance.
H1: There is a relationship between clean offices and employees' performance.
In research project, the null hypotheses are the hypotheses to be tested.
6. Significance of the Study
This is actually straight forward. That is, here, you summarize how you believe your undertaking of the study and the hoped for results will be useful, helpful or significant to a specific set of people or the world. We must prove to our audience how important the study is.
Every study must have two significance, viz.; practical and theoretical significance.
Practical Significance: This is the importance of the study to practitioners, managers, administrators, industry, and so on. It must be logically stated.
Practical Significance: In terms of theoretical significance, we are concern with the importance of the study to scholars. It must be written descriptively and must not be ambiguous.
7. Scope of the Study
Here, you specifically state the specific areas your study wants to focus on in terms of geography, content and unit of analysis. The scope of the study involves the coverage of the study. That is, it involves what the study covers. There are three content of coverage in terms of scope, They are:
I. Theoretical or Content Scope.
II. Geography or Survey Scope.
III. Unit of Analysis.
Theoretical or Content Scope
No study can be conducted in an intellectual vacuum. It must be conducted in an intellectual domain. You must state the coverage of the content and discuss it briefly.
Geographical or Survey Scope
No study can be conducted in a geographical vacuum. It must be conducted in a geographical area, e.g., Port Harcourt. You must state that the study covers Port Harcourt. That is, you must state that the study covers the particular geographical area.
Unit of Analysis
in the unit scope, we are interested in your unit of analysis. It's either you are analysing individual, group, or organisation. It is important you state your unit of analysis.
The choice of the study unit of analysis is determined by the theoretical mechanism of the criterion variable.
8. Limitations of the Study
There are no human endeavour that is free of limitations. limitations can be unmeasurability of your data. It is ethical in your research for you to declare your limitations.
9. Definition of Terms
Here, you define some of the professional and technical terms used in your research work with the aim of contributing to the easy understanding of the work by readers.
The definitions of compound words must be avoided.
10. Organisation of the Study
Organisation of the study talks about the summary of the work being conducted. It summarises Chapters 1 - 5.
In conclusion, you should put in good efforts in writing the chapter one of your research work because a good chapter communicates a good research. It contents are actually simple though may look confusing to a novice but they were explained above that they may help you in writing an impressive chapter one. Source: https://www.myresearchprof.com/post.php?id=2&type=0 
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