Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Ministry of Education
Qassim University
College of Languages and Human Sciences
Department of English and Translation

Chapter 12

Writing up your project

Research Methodology Course

1. Seham Samir Alharbi 421201354

2. Rahaf Meshal Alharbi 442214811
3. Raydaa Turki Alharbi 422216947
4. Salwa Freah Alanazi 412206537

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First tasks

• Project requirements: Check the count of words, content, the text structure,
and everything.
• Assessment criteria: Examine the assessment criteria which show how your
project will be marked and graded.
• Reading: Examine research written by others.
• Backing up: Back up what you write.

Project framework

Organize your written project in several separate sections and you must be clear about
what each of these is about (the sheets in the book could help you).

Title page

It is a front page in the research that showing the title, your name as the author, and
the name of the institution where you are a student. You may also need to confirm in
this page that the is your own and has not been previously submitted for assessment.

Abstract

An abstract is a short concise summary of the topic, methods, and the main findings
of your investigations. Check the accuracy of your abstract last when you finished the
whole project.

Acknowledgements

This section allows you to thank those who have helped with your project.

Content

It is a page you may need that includes section titles and first page number of each.

Research issue

Describe concisely what your research is about and include a short description of
explanation of key terminology.

Justification

Explain why the issue you investigated was considered worthy of research. You could
provide several reasons:

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1 .International, national, or local significance.

2 .Professional relevance.

3 .Personal interest.

Research questions

You must be very sure that your questions match what you have investigated in your
research.

Literature review

It should provide a clear analysis picture of what is (or is not) known already about
topic and about wider issue of which your topic is a part.

Methodology

This section requires about a quarter of your total word count. Describe the methods
you used to investigate your topic and give reasons for your choice, making reference
to advice in literature on doing research. You should provide exact details of what you
did, who you involved, and why you chose these participants.

Validity and reliability

You may need to consider validity and reliability within your methodology section, or
separately. Define the terms, drawing from literature on doing research, and identify
particular threats relating to your investigation.

Ethics

You may need to consider ethics in all sections, or in a section of its own. Either way,
you should examine the particular ethical issues relating to your investigation.

Presentation and analysis of data

Here you present and analyse the data you collected. Up to a quarter of your word
count will be needed, perhaps including the discussion which follows.

Discussion of findings

Your analysis of data will produce findings - what exactly you have dis-covered, in
answer to your research questions. What are their overall value, their strengths and

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weaknesses? How do they inform practice? What issues remain unclear or
unresearched? Integrate your discussion - how do findings from one question link to
findings from another? Refer also to your research questions, tracking how you have
addressed them and identifying elements where findings are incomplete.

Conclusions and recommendations

You sum up the main outcomes of your research and provide recommendations
emerging from these. Recommendations may relate to institutions or services, to
teachers or other professionals, to researchers and to yourself.

References

At the end of your main text, you must present a clear, complete and accurate list of
references you have cited in your text. We consider this process in a separate section
below.

Appendices

These may be required in your project. They provide extra information - too
substantial for the main text - about your research, how you carried it out and the data
you collected. They could include:

• your research brief.

• your signed ethical approval form.

• letters.

• your data-collection instruments.

• any detailed or complex quantitative data.

• examples of analyses qualitative data.

Academic writing

Your whole project will be composed in an 'academic writing style'. Academic writing
is formal (but not pompously so), and should also (surprisingly) be 'reader-friendly'.
This 'reader-friendliness' comes not from fancy styles and impenetrable vocabulary,
but from a coherent and logical structure and precise, analytical writing. Here are
three elements which are very important for this:

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• Understandability: Think who are your readers? You can presume that they have
reasonable general knowledge about the world, education and research.

• Consistency: The last thing your readers want is for you to keep changing your
mind. You must therefore make sure that every time you describe your research.

• Precision: Vagueness is another enemy of good academic writing. Your explanations

must be concise and clear; discussion must be balanced and objective; arguments
must arise from an evaluation of literature and analysis of data.

Plagiarism

We should add another quality of academic writing to these: responsibility. It must not
be 'plagiarized', that is, presented as your own work when in fact it is someone else's.

Referencing

Acknowledging clearly where the ideas which you describe, use and discuss have
originated. Good referencing is an essential part of your written project.

Referencing within the text

When citing a piece of literature within your text, the normal method is to give the
author's family name, followed by the year of publication. If the reference is used as
part of a sentence, then the date goes in brackets. Online material may have no date.
There are two ways you can handle this:

• Use 'n.d.' to denote 'no date'. For instance: 'Smith (n.d.) stated ...'.
• Estimate the date and follow it with a question mark, for example: 'Smith
(2012?) stated that ...'.

Providing a reference list

• Present all references in one alphabetical list, as in the reference list at the
end of this book. Do not list online material separately, for example.
• Your list must include all material you cited in the text. Do not miss
anything out.
• It should only include material cited in your text. Do not include material
you have read, but not cited in your text.

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 • The author and date provided in your text must match the author and date
you provide in your list.
• If two references have the same author and date, add 'a' and 'b' to the date.

Extra guidance

• Secondary referencing: Sometimes you wish to cite in your text a piece

of literature which you find described elsewhere.
• Multiple authors: When a publication has two authors, give both their
names when citing their literature in your text.
• Page numbers: Provide page numbers for direct quotations used in your
text.
• Bibliography: is a list of all the material you have looked at while
working on your project, or which you recommend for further reading.

Writing well

Patience, commitment and a strong desire for clarity could be added to this list.

Structure

• Headings and sub-headings: Use headings and sub-headings to organize

your text systematically and clearly.
• Forewarnings and summaries: Include in each section an introductory
paragraph, and a concluding paragraph. This helps your reader to 'stay
with you' as you progress through your project.
• Quotations: Use direct quotations to illustrate ideas and arguments
discussed in your text.
• Word count: Keep to your required word count, and make sure the length
of sections reflects their relative importance.

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Style

• Past tense: Write your research in the past tense.

• Restraint: Be cautious in judging. Avoid, for example: 'It is obvious that '.
Instead, write: 'It seems clear that.. '
• Confidence: Be confident in stating your project's aims and outcomes. For
example, write: 'This project examined ...' and 'Outcomes inform ...
• Personalization: Some writers (and tutors) dislike this kind of sentence: 'This
project investigates the teaching of reading'. They claim that it is not the
project which 'investigates', rather it is the researcher. However, others do not
see it as an issue.
• 'I' and 'my': It is a place of discussion. My view is sometimes reasonable but
in literature and the investigation and data produced, use less personal style.

Vocabulary

• Anonymity: Change or hide names.

• Restraint (again): Avoid utterances like 'fantastic', and 'terrible' - use more
detached vocabulary. Be careful, especially with verbs. Avoid these: 'show';
'demonstrate'; and, especially, 'prove'. 'Suggest' or 'indicate' are better choices.
• Gender: Avoid stereotyping. Use 'he or she', 's/he', or 'they' to indicate both
genders.
• 'Significant': This word has a technical meaning in quantitative data analysis.
Instead use 'considerable', 'meaningful', or 'important'.
• 'Includes': Sometimes, you want to use a long list from the literature, but
repeating everything takes more words and is boring. The word 'includes' can
help you here.
• Abbreviations: In the text, write the full term followed by the abbreviation in
brackets initially; later, use the abbreviation.

Grammar and punctuation

• Full sentences: Write in full sentences, that start with a capital letter, end with
a full stop, and include at least a subject and verb and often an object.

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 • Although/however: Avoid 'although' at the start of a short sentence. Rather,
Join the phrase to the prior sentence using a comma, or begin the sentence
with 'However'.
• Contractions: Avoid them.
• Quotations: Don’t italicize or bold them. Use single (’) or double (”) inverted
commas consistently.

Spelling

You must correct the spelling. Dissimilar usage in the UK and the USA makes the
process harder. The most common are associated with confusion of related or similar
terms, for example:

• Practice/practise: In UK English, 'practice' is the noun, 'practise' the verb. In

American English, 'practice' is used for both.
• Effect/affect: In almost every instance, 'effect' is the noun, and 'affect' is the
verb.
• Principal/principle: 'Principal' is usually an adjective, meaning main or most
important.
'Principle' is a noun, meaning a rule or theory.
• Its/it's: 'Its' is a possessive. 'It's' is short for 'it is'.

Apostrophes

Misuse of apostrophes is the most common mistake of all. Here are some basic rules:

• When there is one owner, the apostrophe goes before the 's'.
• When there is more than one owner, the apostrophe goes after the 's'.
• When the singular word ends in 's', the apostrophe goes after the 's'.
• When the plural word does not end in 's', the apostrophe goes after the word
followed by 's'.
Proofreading

You should create a totally accurate text. Proofread grammar, spelling, reference and
clarity. Do it yourself, but ask someone else to do it too. If you can afford it, you
could pay a professional proofreader to do it.

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Presentation

Your institution should guide you on project presentation and submission. Commonly
required elements include:

• Word-process your text, printing on one side of the paper only.

• Start a new page for each main section.
• Double-space or 1.5-space the text.
• Leave margins on the left and right of your text for your marker's comments.
• Insert page numbers and your name and student number as a footer to each
page.
• Bind your project.
• Submit your project by the required hand-in date.
• Keep a copy for you.
• You might need to submit your project electronically instead of or in addition
to printing it.

Reference
Lambert, M. (2012). A Beginner’s Guide to Doing Your Education Research Project.
London: Sage Publications.