Guidelines for construction of research dissertations

Boleslaw Rafal Kuc, Helena Chodkowska University in Warsaw Executive summary: This article is to point out several guidelines for students to acumulate diverse experiences in carrying

Guidelines for construction of research dissertations

Dr Nguyen H Tien,

Thu Dau Mot University

Prof Boleslaw Rafal Kuc,

Helena Chodkowska University in Warsaw

Executive summary: This article is to point out several guidelines for students to

acumulate diverse experiences in carrying out research proposals and making scientific reports to enhance their learning capacity This article highlights the advantages, the role and contribution of this learning method for the development of students in terms of skills and level of thinking compared to traditional learning methods of attending lecture and preparing for exams at the university

Tóm t ắt: Bài viết này đưa ra những chỉ dẫn giúp sinh viên, học viên và nghiên cứu

sinh có thêm được kinh nghiệm trong thực hiện các nghiên cứu và viết báo cáo khoa học nhằm nâng cao năng lực học tập và tự nâng cao trình độ của bản thân Bài báo

nhấn mạnh ưu thế, vai trò và đóng góp của phương pháp học tập kiểu này đối với sự phát triển tư duy và trí tuệ của người học với phương châm lấy người học làm tâm so với phương pháp học tập truyền thống là nghe giảng và thi cử tại các trường đại học trong nước

Keywords: research, work, dissertation, doctoral, methodology

Từ khóa: nghiên cứu, công trình, luận văn, tiến sĩ, phương pháp

PROBLEM POSING

The doctorate itself is a kind of intelectual achievement It does not matter which topic or research issue has been raised and in what university it was uphold In this present article we will analyze how a real research work should be submited in terms of the essence, applied methodology, objectives and structure, based on the requirements set for a typical doctoral dissertation This article proposes to replace all kinds of exams that university students must sit to pass their school subjects with the essays as a form of control of students’ progress, wherever it is appropriate and possible Of course, exams are important parts to verify the knowledge achieved by students But essays in the form of writing and presenting research proposals, field works and researches, case study analysis are much more important learning methods

to develop students’ skills, attitude and enhance their experiences which are desperately needed when they leave school and start to find their desired job For

example, Harvard Business School students devote 90% of their time spending in the class for case study analysis and discussion face to face with experienced lecturers, writing essays at home and presenting in front of others during the class, and more importantly they have a chance to encounter diverse businessmen visiting university classes who represent their industry from business world

THE ESSENCE OF DOCTORAL DISSERTATION

Joining the discussion over doctoral dissertation called also a doctorate, it should be noted that it is often a first individual and fully scientific work of the beginning researcher Doctoral dissertation, as a result of conducted studies/ researches applying appropriate method and workshop, is an individually prepared dissertation, written in scientific language, based on reliable and verifiable source of data, presenting in an original and exhaustive way the research issue/research problem The doctoral work, otherwise called PhD thesis, requires the author to possess many experiences and skills to clearly put out a research problem, selection

of research material and proper method of scientific description

The process of carrying out each research work/research dissertation should feature certain rational mode The first stage of each research work is goal setting (to point out several objectives to be achieved during the research), while the last stage embraces the assessment and control of the result of the work done so far The goal and objectives and their characteristics are contained in the introduction/first part of the dissertation The assessment of obtained results should be reflected in the summary/final part of the dissertation

The proceeding methodology applied upon writing research dissertation is shaped by experiment The basis of this proceeding methodology is Le Chatelier’s cycle of organized activity consisting of following stages:

 Selection of goal/objectives, desired state of affairs, subject of research,

 Examine the measures and conditions needed to carry out conceived plan,

 Prepare measures and conditions,

 Carry out the elaborated plan,

 Control the obtained results

The organization cycle is derived from logical activity It is applicable in practical activities as well as in scientific researches Observing the reasoning course

of the cycle of organized activity in the process of writing research work, we could differentiate three phases: phase of determining (diagnosis), phase of (re)searching and phase of taking decision (realization)

The main task of the researcher starting his or her work is to formulate a hypothesis and proposing the way to solve a concrete research problem, focusing on certain narrow issues Scientific hypothesis, seen from point of view of empirical science’s methodology, should embrace assumptions aiming at scientific explaining the empirical regularity In order for the hypothesis to be metodologically correct, it should:

a) Concern or be related to essential, for a given field of science, problems or issues necessary to resolve certain research problem,

b) Explain sufficiently and adequately the commonly known facts and do not show the contradictoriness towards proven theorems of a given field of science,

c) Be clearly, precisely pinpointed in detail and feasible in terms of logical and empirical verification

Hypotheses are subjects to logical and/or empirical verification Logical verification is to check whether a given hypothesis is capable to explain sufficiently all the known facts during its creation Logical verification is used when the nature

of formulated hypothesis precludes empirical confirmation its rightness in a given stage of scientific development Empirical verification, conducted mainly by experimental method, involves checking whether the predicted empirical fact based

on formulated hypothesis really exists Empirical or experimental verification may have direct or indirect nature In the first case, by means of properly planned experience, one should directly check the rightness of a given hypothesis In the second case, instead of hypothesis itself, one should check experimentally the consequences as results of it

The research work should not have the nature of manual, handbook or compendium of knowledge in a certain field, instead, it should be an in-depth

description of some narrow issue This way, it can be useful and contribute to the scientific development

RESEARCH PROBLEM – METODOLOGY AND OBJECTIVES

One of the most fascinating and emotionally involving events in the science is

to realize oneself that the research process is the only and unique scientific glance into the real world Research process is a holistic scheme of activities which scientists undertake in order to produce the knowledge Research process consists of seven elementary phases: problem, hypothesis, research plan, measurement, data collection, data analysis, generalization The course of this process has been illustrated below

Elementary stages

of research process (procedure)

Analyzing this scheme it is worth mentioning that research process includes reasearch problem Because the proper formulation of research problem has crucial meaning prejudging the success of further stages of the research process The most essential feature of the research process is its cyclical character Normally, it starts

THEORY

Problem

Hypothesis

Research plan

Measurement and Assessment

Data collection

Data

analysis

Generalization

with posing a research problem and ending with preliminary conclusions Conclusions formulated within one cycle are the beginning of next cycle

Again, scientific or research problem is an subjective reflection of objective shortage in the given science Problem, as a specific question specifying the size of certain ignorance, that is certain deficiency in knowledge so far, determines the goal and the limit of given scientific work So, there is no way to doubt that research problem is needed in each scientific work Scientific work without research problem would be principally the same like any creative work without creative idea, task and goal

In literature concerning methodology we often encounter understanding of research problem as a question or even a set of questions for which the answers are delivered by scientific research

Fixing the research problem is one of the most troublesome activities for young scientist, especially the freshly baked graduate one It is very difficult to fulfill the conditions in order that research problem coresponds to the interest and intelectual capacity of young researcher, often young doctoral student He or she learns to differentiate what questions themselves contain the cognitive interest Research problems may take different forms of questions, for example, at least two following kinds of questions are distinguished:

1) Conclusive questions – starting from particle “Whether” and one can give one of two exlusive answers to those questions: “Yes” or “No” For example: “Whether a three year old child is capable of abstract thinking?” 2) Complementing questions – do not reveal their alternatives, but they only give general scheme of answers which is propositional function After substituting corresponding values in place of variable or variables we obtain each time new statement which is “True” or “False” For example:

“From which age a child is capable of abstract thinking?”

Each scientific research proceeds in certain determined stages The research process always starts with determining research issue and formulating research problem Further step is to put out hypotheses and construction of research plan The result of carried out research are findings which are the subject of elaboration,

analysis and interpretation The structure of scientific research should generally embrace:

a Phase of determining conditions of research problem,

b Formulation of a research problem,

c Formulation of a working hypothesis,

d Phase of reasoning,

e Empirical verification of hypothesis,

f Final conclusions and description of research results

The essence of scientific problem implies that researcher has to elaborate his

or her own methodology or select among proven methods It can not be just any method, it should fulfill criteria of scientific method No one is obliged to trust the researcher and his or her achieved research results One might repeat other’s experiment and investigate whether someone’s findings are true or false If the experiment is carried out according to the rules and standards of a certain method, the findings will be true irrespective of the person who verifies them Specifying the exact methodology is an obligation of the person who publishes his or her research results

Amongst working scientific research methods, the first place belong to observation methods for several reasons Scientific observation is strict and oriented registration of perceptions concerning determined object, phenomenon or process occuring in natural conditions, without any interference from observator’s side It is more than usual perception, because it always contains two elements: sensual perception and mental perception (in terms of reasoning and conclusions) So, conducting scientific observation requires elaborating special technique and proper observator’s preparation In order to be an scientific method, one should determine:

 The goal of observation, that is what and why to observe,

 The type of observed phenomena and objects, their location and character,

 The way to conduct observation and registration of the results,

 Place, moment and sequence of observation,

 The needed number of observations and their locations in the observed phenomenon,

 Technique od conducting observation,

 Character and probability of appearance of confounders,

 Rules of control and interpretation of the results of observation

The observation method frequently uses interview and survey technique The observation always concerns certain behavior, action and symbolic interaction in simple or complex social situations regardless whether they are created purposely for the goals of experimentation or spontaneously arised in natural conditions

Another method of scientific research is the experimentation There are, no doubt, certain similarities between observation and experimental methods Many investigations over the same research issues are conducted using observation and experiment jointly The experiment consists in purposefully inducing a certain phenomenon or placing the researched object in conditions in which most fully and clearly the symptoms interested by the researcher are highlighted, in a place and moment convenient for observation and measurement So, experimenting, in contrast

to observations, is a kind of conscious steering the causes of phenomenon in order to attain desired results, upon which’s basis researchers may discover cause-effect relations that are taking place In terms of experimental methods, we might distinguish some forms of them: active experiments, passive experiments or hybryd form of them

STRUCTURE OF DOCTORAL DISSERTATION

Each of research work, whether it is a doctoral or master thesis or other commercial project done for industry, should have certain structure Thereby, it is easy for researchers to output the arguments The structure of dissetation should create, in some measure, a logical sequence of cause and effect thought This sequence should have its starting point, that is the introduction, the development parts containing individual chapters and the summary which includes inter alia conclusions

Structure

of research dissertation

1 TITLE PAGE

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS

3 INTRODUCTION

4 CHAPTERS

5 SUMMARY

6 REFERENCES

7 LIST OF TABLE

8 LIST OF ILLUSTRATION

9 LIST OF CHARTS

10 ATTACHMENTS

Introduction

It is commonly believed that the “Introduction” should be written at the end of research work, after completing the whole dissertation Nonetheless, experience shows that at least the working version of the “Introduction” part should be done before starting of any of the part/chapter of dissertation Because it is hard to imagine

a methodical action without clear defining basical issues such as: research problem, state of source of data and information, state of researches and research procedure A good “Introduction” concerns those issues Good perception and assessment for the whole dissertation, to a large degree, depend on the content and clarity of the

“Introduction”

The “Introduction” should inform the reader about the purpose of research, the way to achieve it “Introduction” usually embraces:

 The goal of research,

 The subject of research, the scope of research in terms of field, time and space of research and hypotheses to be verified,

 Characterization and evaluation of sources of data and information used,

 Construction of the final research dissertation

One should underscore that the “Introduction” part to doctoral research dissertation, asa methodical chapter, should be a subject of particular care of the author also because the reviewer always pay a special attention to it

The “Introduction” does not go deeply into detailed substansive issues which are presented in one or some of the consecutive chapters of the dissertation However one might indicate possible recipients of dissertation, that is the circle who are specially concerned and interested in the findings of research Regarding the volume

of the “Introduction”, it should not exceed 5-10% the volume of the whole dissertation

Chapters

The fundamental part of the research dissertation consists of chapters being arranged logically and orderly to present the essence of the research issue raised

For ordinary research dissertation it is adviced to apply from 3 to 4 levels of hierarchization as an optimal solution, such as the example followed:

Example of dissertation’s partition and hierarchization

Chapter I

1

1.1

2

2.1

2.1.1

…

Chapter II

…

Chapter III

…

As a starting point and the result of the hierarchization and partition, one should accept the holy assumption that the smallest unit should count from 5 to 7 pages of standardized typescript

However, finally, the number of chapters, their order and structure are decided

by the applied research method understood as a logical sequence of complex scientific and creative activities, properly selected to match the goal and subject of research, as well as the source material In not one single case, it is just the source of material, information and data that will directly point out the research method and the structure

of dissertation as well Those issues are the principle subject of discussion to be raised

in many circumstances

Analogically to the structure of the whole research dissertation, individual chapter should possess introduction, body parts and recapitulation At the end of each chapter a short summary should be located which on one hand relates to the introduction of a given chapter, on other hand shows the interrelation with the next chapter In other words, the introduction and recapitulation of chapters should unveil the course of the main thesis The valuable enrichment of dissertation, strictly related with certain moment of conducted reasoning, embraces all kinds of diagrams, graphs, tables, and even photographs

Summary

The essence of final part of dissertation, that is the “Summary”, is an attempt

to verify the posed research hypothesis in the “Introduction” part One of elements in the “Summary”, and also starting point to further final conclusions is a synthetic reminding of the main course of reasoning It may be needed especially in extensive dissertation The “Summary” should contain what has been proved in dissertation As many researches regarded, the starting point of “Summary” is the goal of the whole dissertation which after comparing with the research results achieved will determine what actually has been proven “Summary” can not be a list of detailed conclusions included in the dissertation nor more its abstract

The “Summary” is aimed to answer the following questions:

1) What are the research achievement of the author? What conclusions has the author come to as a result of carried out research? How far the output conclusions verify the main thesis posed in the “Introduction”?

2) What is the originality of the research findings achieved? What are the advantages of the dissertation? How the achieve research results depend

on other authors or conceptions?

3) What are the possibilities, the scopes and the ways to apply the achieved research results? What are other further research problems to suggest future potential researchers?