Writing of project/ research is not as difficult or complicated as it sometimes appears to students.
Every student and teacher/ instructor of any higher institution of learning at one point in their academic career will be required to write a project or research suitable for publication.
Students are usually required to produce undergraduate research usually called a project, graduate research usually called a thesis or dissertation as the case may be.
Instructors on their parts are required to produce research publications periodically. These publications are in most cases used as one of the criteria promotion and other responsibilities.
Either of the cases, each exercise requires a rigorous empirical investigation about certain phenomena about a defined population.
Just like every other human endeavor, project or research writing is not done haphazardly. It entails following certain steps and procedures to arrive at a rational conclusion.
The steps in this write up are not by any way a stereotyped way of producing any given research exercise.

Be Mentally Prepared
Mental preparation of any exercise is crucial to success. You may have all the time and money available to you, however, if you are not prepared mentally to go the whole length of the exercise, you won’t succeed.
This is necessary as at one point in the exercise; you will suffer rejection. Your supervisor or the publishing journal will turn down your work for some reason.
Hi buddy! It has happened to the best of us. It happens every now and then. So be prepared mentally to continue until you scale through with the huddle.

Formulate a Researchable Topic in an Area of Interest

After your mental preparation. The next step is to formulate a researchable topic in an area of interest.
Not every topic qualifies as a researchable topic.
In order for a topic to qualify as a researchable topic, it must:
a. Have a population
b. Have a body of literature to draw from
c. Independent and dependent variables among other things.
There is no general procedure for formulating a research topic.
However, one needs to consider some factors such as:
i. Available literature
ii. Financial capability
iii. A gap in the literature to fill
iv. The population of the study
v. Time.
vi. Methodology to be used.
vii. Researcher’s interest
viii. The intended problem begging for a solution
A research topic is a phrase that can be investigated empirically about the phenomena of a given population to arrive at a verifiable conclusion about such a population.
What this means is that, if anyone follows the same process, have the same sample size drawn from the same population with the same sampling method he/she will arrive at a similar conclusion.
Examples of research topics:
Human Capital Development Practices and Corporate Sustainability In Lagos Based Commercial Banks.
The Effect of Corporate Support on Employees Job Satisfaction In Port Harcourt Based Private Radio Stations.

Sourcing for Literature

I write under the assumption that your research topic has been approved or selected.
Congratulations!!!
The next step is to source material relating to the formulated topic.
It is a waste of time and resources to source for material that bears no relationship with your intending topic.
Useful and relevant materials can be sourced from textbooks, journal publications, libraries, etc.
In this era of the internet accessibility, more materials can be found; both free and premium.
You can source materials at www.reserachgate.net www.academie.edu etc.
In order to source for useful and relevant material,
Open your Google browser or visit www.google.com and type “Your research topic + PDF.”
For example, if you are writing on human capital development practices and corporate sustainability
When you are on Google, type “human capital development practices and corporate sustainability pdf” and hit the send button.
Please take note of those articles in PDF format. Sometimes, some will be free and other times, it will be premium articles. What it means is that you will need to purchase the premium articles with a credit card.
At other times, you will need to become a member of some websites for you to have access to their database. All you need to do is to follow the instructions and get registered.
In most cases what you will download journal publications.
Please take note of the journals, textbooks, websites, etc. you gathered your materials from.
Open a folder in your PC or any other storage location and store the details therein. This will be necessary for ease of reference.
Another thing is to know those materials that contain a previous empirical finding of your topic, even if they are about another population.
You will need that in your discussion of findings.
All you need to target the latest research publications and observe their research methodology.
Getting Familiar with the Required Publication Style

Every institution, be it publishing journal or university has a publication style to be used for their academic/ research exercises.
Most institutions around the world, prefer APA (America Psychological Association) and Chicago Style.
You will need to know the requirements of each style especially for citation and referencing purposes.
Structuring Your Project / Research

I am writing under the assumption that you have formulated your research topic and it has been accepted, you have sourced for relevant and current material especially research journals and also familiarized yourself with the stipulated writing style.
Structuring your project is very crucial as it makes the entire exercise very logical and coherent.
The structure here refers to the framework (pattern or format) which is used in the project or research exercise.
Let state it emphatically, that there is generally agreed pattern of structuring a research exercise, however, every institution usually has a minor variant of the general structure.
Even within the same school or faculty, each department usually has its stipulated framework of writing a research exercise.
Your primary task is to find out the stipulated structure which could also vary within among supervisors.
Generally, research structure takes this pattern:
A. Abstract
B. Chapter one (Introduction)
1. Background of the study/ context of the study
2. Statement of the study
3. Purpose of the study
4. Research questions
5. Stating of hypothesis
6. Significance of the study
7. Limitations of the study
8. Scope of the study
9. Conceptual clarification or definition of terms
10. Summary or organization of the study

C. Chapter two (Review of literature)
1. Introduction
2. Review of research variables
3. Establishing the relationship between variables.

D. Chapter three (Research Methodology)
1. Research design
2. The population of the study
3. Sampling procedure and sample size determination
4. Data collection
5. Measures of variable
6. Validity and reliability test
7. Data analysis technique
E. Chapter four (Data Analysis and Presentation)
1. Demographic analysis
2. Analysis of research questions
3. Testing of research hypotheses
4. Discussion of findings

F. Chapter five (Findings, Conclusion, and Recommendation)
1. Conclusion
2. Recommendation
3. Suggestion for future study

Like I earlier mentioned, every institution has its own stated structure.
However, the content of every sub-structure remains the same. What that means is that, if Institution A wants the conclusion of the study to be in chapter four. For instance, irrespective of having a conclusion in chapter four, the content for that subject must remain the same. Even if institution B wants a conclusion to be in chapter Five.
It is important to get prior information about the preferred structure and style from your supervisor on time. You can also visit your departmental library to know the framework and style your supervisor wants.


Writing the Research/ Project Proper

This is basically the easiest part of the entire exercise. I kid you not. I understand that some people cannot write coherently or go through the rigorous demands of writing research.
Either way, writing the project is the easiest thing in the entire process if you understand what is expected of you in every stage.
There are two ways to do this: the easy way and the hard way.
The easy way is to hire someone to write for you.
The hard way is to write it yourself.
The consideration of the easy way or the hard way here is purely subjective.
If you can write coherently, familiar with the required writing style (the APA, Chicago, etc.), have time and a large database of relevant materials. This could be an easy way.
Otherwise outsourcing the writing job completely to someone else who can write a quality job for you is the easy way.
If you cannot write or you do not have the luxury of time to write, there are various platforms to hire project or research writers at a small price.
Again the phrase here “small price” is purely subjective.
Here in Nigeria, www.nairaland.com is a good option.
On global platforms, www.freelancer.com, www.fivver.com www.upwork.com are some suitable places to hire quality research writers.
You need to be careful of plagiarizing when you received written work from writers.
Some can just copy verbatim with proper paraphrasing and citation. This can hinder your work if not properly checked for approval.
Like I said in the structuring section of this document, every sub-heading in research exercise has what is expected of, irrespective of what chapter it falls it into.

This is a premium knowledge and it is exclusively available to our PREMIUM STUDENTS / CLIENTS.
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Data Collection and Sampling Method
Basically, there are two types of data frequently used in a research exercise.
The primary and secondary data.
The data are usually collected from samples of a given population which can be drawn randomly by employing probability method or without probability method.
Data are also collected through instruments such as questionnaires, interviews, etc.
Once data has been collected, it will be subjected to analysis and testing of the hypothesis.

Data Analysis and Hypothesis Testing
Basically, all most every research exercise in pure sciences, behavioral sciences as well as education involves the testing of hypothesis.
In fact, hypothesis testing is the central theme in most research exercises and very core to inferential statistics.
I would like to define the hypothesis here operationally, as a tentative statement about the possibility and extent of the relationship between two or more variables (independent and dependent).
There are two types of hypotheses: Null hypothesis (H0) and alternative (research) hypothesis (H1).
Hull hypothesis in its simplest definition I would say is a hypothesis of no effect.
Take, for instance, you hypothesized that: there is no significant relationship between training and profitability.
After you have defined your population, collected your data, chosen the best statistical method and finally conducted the data analysis; either manually or the use of data applications such as Excel or SPSS.
And In the end, the null hypothesis is retained while the alternative hypothesis is rejected.
It will be concluded that no significant relationship exists between training and profitability.
But before such a conclusion is arrived at, you need to know the decision-making rule in hypothesis testing.
Decision rule states that: reject the null hypothesis and accept research hypothesis (alternative) if probability value (PV) is less than 0.05 i.e PV <.05
Otherwise, accept the null hypothesis and refute the alternative hypothesis if the result proves otherwise. e.i. accept null hypothesis if PV > 0.05 or 0.01 as the case may be.
Research or alternative hypothesis in its simplest definition I would say is a hypothesis of effect.
Most conclusions are drawn from the outcome of the hypothesis result.
There are some concepts that need to be explained first in order to grasp the idea behind the hypothesis in research. They include but not limited to:
Level of significance
Type 1 error
Type 11 error
They are fundamental to hypothesis testing.
Data for any research exercise are basically collected by two methods from a defined sample of a given population: probability and non-probability.
Whichever method you employed in data collection, there is every tendency that sample means differ from the population with respect to any specific variable that is normally distributed. The inevitability of the variation is what is called sampling error.
I strongly know that it will sound so complicated to non-statistics students. You may need to consult a quality textbook in statistics to understand the idea I am trying to pass across.
The level of significance is simply a predetermined probability level which shows that the difference or relationship observed in the sample about a variable of interest is exceedingly great and cannot be attributed to sampling error, measurement errors and other factors.
Opposite of the level of significance is confidence level. The confidence level is the probability level that the research can say the sample means are a good representation of the population.
Let say that the confidence level was stated at 95%. That means if the test was replicated 100 times, using the same samples from the same population and same sampling procedure, 95 times out of the 100, the result will be the same.
Theoretically, the level of significance plus confidence level gives 1.
That is level of significance .05 + .95 level of confidence = 1
Stated in another way;
Significance level = 5% 0r 1%
Level of confidence = 95% or 99%
I am certain that some will still find it difficult to grasps the central of this section. Please consult a statistic text for further information.
Now let me explain the idea behind type 1 error and type 11 error.
Type 1 error occurs when a null hypothesis is rejected when it should have been accepted. That is a false rejection of the null hypothesis.
Type 11 error occurs when a null hypothesis is accepted when it should have been rejected. That is false acceptance of the null hypothesis.
I strongly believe that you have gotten at least an elementary knowledge of what I have been trying to say in this hypothesis section.
Statistical testing of a hypothesis is usually conducted by parametric or non-parametric methods.
The decision to use a given method for hypothesis testing is determined by the scale for which data were collected.
If data were collected at a nominal or ordinal scale, then non-parametric tests such as chi-square (X2), Mann-Whitney test, etc.
However, when data are collected at the ratio or interval scale, parametric tests are usually conducted.

Interpretation & Discussion and Conclusion
Congratulations!!!!
I write under the assumption that you have chosen the appropriate statistical test and conducted your hypothesis.
This is the section where basically you interpret & discuss and write what you have done so far.
Do not get scared about the interpretation side. You do not need to become Prophet Joseph to carry out this section. Lol.
This is basically how this section is usually written. A will take an illustrative example to portray this point.
Let us assume that the null hypothesis was stated as: there is no significant relationship between training and profitability.
We have retrieved our administered questionnaire from our respondents. Let us assume further that hypothesis testing has been conducted on our collected data and the outcome shows that the null hypothesis will be rejected and we have accepted the alternative hypothesis: There is a significant relationship between training and profitability.
Now the interpretation & discussion of the findings will be:

The 1st hypothesis (depending on the position of such a hypothesis in chapter one) sought to examine the relationship between training and profitability.
Hence it was hypothesized that there is no significant relationship between training and profitability.
This hypothesis was tested using chi-square (X2) (depending on the statistics test you employed). As can be seen from the table above, a positive and significant relationship exists between training and profitability. Based on this outcome, it can be concluded that training enhances profitability within the surveyed organizations.
At this juncture, the importance of quality literature review in chapter two will come into play as the finding will either support or refute previous research.
Thereafter, you give a possible reason for your findings.

Writing the Abstract
This is the last section of the entire exercise. An abstract is the last thing you write but appears first in research work as it is a brief summary of the entire research exercise.
An abstract is usually short and concise.
An abstract is a concise summary of your research exercise which usually shows the PURPOSE of the study, the METHODOLOGY employed during the study, FINDINGS of the study and CONCLUSION of the study.
Referencing
This section contains the list of every author, institution or website and year of publication mentioned within the body of research in alphabetical order.
The citation style employed while writing the literature of the research exercise is also the style used when compiling references.
For example, if you used the sixth edition of APA in your paraphrasing and citation, it also the same sixth edition style that you will use in compiling your references.



I strongly believe that you have found this write-up valuable for the time invested in reading this.
If you want your research work to be given a professional touch, you need an academic, content or blog writer or you have further information, please get in touch with me.
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I don't expect this to be on frontpage. But I am going to read through it.


Nice article.