Project work

Research in university.

It is the centre of the activities of intellectuals as such, most of the researches are carried out in universities and teaching. Of course, there is the specific organisation that are devoted to research activities only. The basis difference in nature of the researches carried out in universities and in the research organisations are that in former, the aim is to establish theories and laws which may or ,may not have immediate practice utility, in later, much emphasis is given to those studies which have immediate utility. Therefore, the research carried out in universities can be considered as academic in nature.

The studies carried out in universities can be classified into various categories.

1. Departmental Research/ Consultancy works.
2. Individual teacher’s Research works.
3. Students research works.

Project work.

The research work carried out by students are often known as project works. These works are done as parts of curriculum for academic degrees write-ups and known by different names such as Dissertations, Thesis, Field reports, special studies and extended essays etc.

The main difference between the various types of project works ie in their as follows.

1. Presentations of the work done.
2. Originality.
3. Length.
4. scope.

Originality.

The degree of originality expected is related to the level of the academic course. The more advanced the course, the more originality is expected. The written documents of research work at this level is known as Thesis and it should be worthy of publication.

At present gradual level, only some originality is expected. At the undergraduate level, it may be a presentation of a thesis of material drawn from the secondary source. At PhD and post graduated level, the students are expected to rely heavily on primary sour for their data.

Length.

There is no hard and fast rule for the length of the thesis. Quality is that matters in thesis writing. However, it should be noted that thesis in physical science is much shorter than those written in social science.

Presentation of data.

The more advanced the course the greater attention the researcher will have to pay special in Documentation. Quotations, references and bibliography will have to be presented in a prescribed form and must be accurate.

Scope.

The more advanced the course the narrower and hence more specialised will be the field of research and the greater will be a depth of review and investigation required.

Features of a thesis.

Thesis differs from other documents composition in as much as in.

1. Research component.
2. Style.
3. Documentation.

Research component.

The thesis has to describe methods for employed for investigation and the result obtained from the investigation. The method employed should be the scientific one. This will help to justify the reliability of the result.

Documentation

In thesis writing the source of information have to be described fully as prescribed by rules and regulation of the investigation.

Steps in project work.

1. Choosing a subject.
2. Preliminary reading.
3. Defining the topic.
4. Research and note taking (Date/Information and notes collection).
5. Organization of notes/ data/ Analysis/ Conclusion.
6. Writing the draft.
7. Submitting the draft to tutor/ Guide for revision.
8. Modifying and edition of the thesis.
9. Preparing the final version.
10. Geeting revised a draft of the thesis.
11. Binding and submission.
12. Oral/ Via-va examination.

Choosing of the topic.

There are two ways in which one arrives at a topic. Either the guide/ tutor/ Departures suggest it or one arrives at the choice. But one should be careful about the pitfalls of the topic chosen.

Some pitfalls.

Some of the pitfalls are as below points.

1. Choosing the topic that is too large.
2. To choosing the topic, the material for which are not easily accessible.
3. Choosing a topic which is too complex for research at the level at which the students is studying.
4. To choose the topic , which is not researchable because the source of material is already destroyed or the methodology of investigation is not yet developed.
5. Not giving due consideration to the time factor. This factor is important because the research work is to be completed within the prescribed time period.

Note taking.

Research materials are collected from different sources, some of them from written sources and some from non- written source.

Records cards.

The most popular method of taking notes from written documents source is to use record cards because they are easy to arrange and rearrange, to a group and classify . Only one note is written on each card. There are two sets of such cards. One set is used for recording source while another set is used for recording notes. Usually, cards of 5” x3” are used for source recording notes. Usually, cards of size 6”x4” are used for recording notes.

Information collected in source cards.

The following information can be written in source cards.

For Books.

1. Name of the Author or Issuing body.
2. The title of the Publication.
3. Editor/Translator.
4. The edition.
5. Place of publication.
6. Date of Publication.
7. Volume No. in Roman letter.
8. Page number.

For Serial Publications ( Journals, Newspaper, Magazine etc).

1. The author of Issuing body.
2. The title of the Article.
3. Date of Publication.
4. Page number (which the article occupy).

For Manuscripts.

1. Title (in inverted commas).
2. The collection (underlined).
3. Manuscript number.

For Thesis.

1. Full Title of the thesis (in quotation marks).
2. The course or Degree.
3. The name of the university.

Illustration.

Book

58. Moster; Survey Method in social Investigation, Heinemann, London, 58.

Articles.

771. Sudman; Probability Sampling with quotas, Journals of American Statistical Association, 61, 1966PP749-771.

Issuing Body.

Us Bureau of Census: Index to survey Methodology Literature, Technical Paper No. 34 Government printing Offices, Washington, 1974.

Thesis.

M.L. “Population Dynamics of Nepal”- An Analytic Study, T.U. Kathmandu, 1979.

Remarks.

However, a recent trend is to write: Name of the author starting from last name (Surname), Year of Publication in a bracket, Title of the Article or work, Name of the journals or Publication, Place of Publication and page.

Illustration;

Surken, M.G.(1970): Household Survey with Multiplicity, J. Amer., Stat. Ass 65,275-266.

Multiple Names.

When a work has three of more authors, the abbreviation ‘et al’ meaning and other is used for the second and subsequent names.

Edited or Translated Works.

When some one’s work has been edited or translated, the names of those responsible are recorded by using the abbreviations ‘ed’ or ‘tras’ respectively.

Recording in Note Cards.

In the top right corner of a card the surname of the author or the name of the issuing body or if the source was published anonymously, a short title or when notes from several works of a single author are to be taken, surname along with a short title of the work have to be mentioned. Then the citation is written in the node cards as.

Reference.

Kerlinger, F.N. Foundation of Behavioural Research. New Delhi: Surjeet Publication, 2000.

Kothari, C.R. Research Methodology. India: Vishwa Prakashan, 1990.

Singh, M.L. and J.M Singh. Understanding Research Methodology. 1998.

Singh, Mrigendra Lal. Understanding Research Methodology. Nepal: National Book centre, 2013.