Telling a cohesive story line in Final Year Project Paper

Story line for thesis cannot be determined until data is analyzed. Literature review leads us to a tentative story line, but data may tell a different story. When that happens, we will then need to decide which story is more interesting to highlight in thesis.

Creating a cohesive story is not a task that can be done within short period of time. It requires constant revision on the thesis draft. Students therefore are advised to prepare full chapter draft as early as possible (at least 4 weeks before submission day), so that at least three rounds of revision can be done by student and supervisor. The more rounds of revision, the more interesting the story line become.

Students, looking forward to listening great stories from you at FYP seminar on May 20, 2013.

Happy writing, you are more capable then you think you are!

To have hypothesis or not?

As a result of research proposal presentation assignment in class, students are beginning to structure their research ideas into consistent and logical manners, following a few standard subtitles taught in class.  In the process of doing so, students are triggered to think through very carefully the links between ideas and how they help to solve research problem they identified or achieve research objectives they set to achieve. Thus, tutor and I are beginning to receive a lot of questions from students. I must say this is a positive development, at least we know students are learning.

Similarly, supervisors also are very involved in students’ proposal at this stage, now that proposal report is almost due for submission. There are debates among supervisors whether "hypothesis development" is a compulsory section in a research proposal. I have to agree with some supervisors that "hypothesis" is not always possible to develop, especially in "Exploratory" type of research where the topic has not been explored in the literature before.

A compulsory section in a research proposal which is quite similar to Hypothesis, is "research objectives" section. Research objective guides or directs the research process. Hypothesis is derived from research objective, hypothesis is an educated guess stated in testable form, to help achieve a research objective. Since all research types (regardless of quantitative, qualitative, primary data, secondary data, exploratory, empirical validation) are guided by “research objectives”, thus hypothesis development criteria in presentation assessment form is considered fulfilled if research objectives are clearly explained.

Thanks for the feedback from students and supervisors, intellectual debate such as this, helps in creating high quality research!

Research Proposal Submission Date is June 4

Time flies, it is now week 11!

There is some confusions over submission dates of Research Proposal and Final Year Project Paper. They are clarified as below:

1. Final Year Project Paper of 5 chapters due next week, as student will need to present.
2. FYP Research Proposal of 3 chapters due on June 4, 2012.

For majority of you who are submitting Research Proposal this semester, you have 3 more weeks to complete the 3 chapters! Make full use of the time and make full use of your supervisors' expertise!

Have fun!

Mental Blocks in Writing

Researchers and writers often experience mental blocks in writing. Mental blocks are occasions when one runs out of new ideas, one fails to link one idea to another in a convincing way, or one's brain simply refuses to function in usual productive way.  This leads to feeling of FAILURE, INCAPABILITY, DOUBTFUL of one's ABILITY, LOUSY, END OF THE WORLD........

Have I experienced that before? MANY many times, especially when WRITING LITERATURE REVIEW... So, you are NOT ALONE! How do I overcome that? To a certain extent, mental blocks are caused by tiredness or lethargic.  Thus, I usually allow myself to take half day off;  go watch a movie, sing a few songs, listen to audio books, read my favorite "chicken soup for the soul" book etc. Then, the next day, I will go back to search and read journal articles that gives me new ideas or justifications to link the concepts.

I know "WRITING" is not an easy task! But if you continue writing (KEEP TRYING, NEVER GIVE UP)  you will be surprise to see what you get in the end! The final version of the write-up will make you feel SO PROUD of yourself; discovering you can write so interestingly!

REMEMBER, writing is a skill! Not a born ability!  If you try HARD enough, you will get to the level you want!

Have you been seeing your supervisor?

Through a casual talk with a few lecturers over tea time, I got to know that some students who are supposed to submit their individual project proposal by end of this semester have not met the supervisors at all! HELLO, your supervisors are looking for you.....

This is not right! Students should see their supervisors at least once every 2 weeks! Supervisor needs to know your progress and see your effort, otherwise they are not able to even give you marks for EFFORT! Do not follow your way, get advice from supervisor and do it their way, they know the shortest route to PROPOSAL COMPLETION.

Now is week 8, not too late for you to change your strategy, your supervisors are there to help you, they are waiting for you, do not let them WAIT TOO LONG :)

The slide relating to "Writing Literature Review" is now uploaded in Putra LMS.

If you have compiled in a table format, a list of  independent variables reported to influence the dependent variable (the phenomenon you are trying to understand) you selected, bring them to class tomorrow. We will try to find themes among those independent variables and help structure your Literature Review chapter.

Literature Review Slide is Uploaded!

Putra LMS is kind enough to allow me upload Literature Review slide for week 6 lecture (tomorrow). Those who are interested, please download from Putra LMS.

Although several attempts were made to upload Research Objective and Problem Statement slide since last week until today, no signs of success is observed. Although my side appeared uploaded, the file doesn't show in main page, therefore not possible for anyone to download.

Frustration over technology stuff is especially painful when one is doing research. Make sure you keep a back up copy of all your soft copy journals, chapter write-ups and references. You wouldn't know when the computer disaster will hit you!