Chapter 1 is the introduction to your entire study. In this chapter you will have four heading – Introduction, Research Question, Problem Statement, and Research Hypothesis. This chapter should be approximately 3-4 pages in length and include ample research to support the points made in your introduction and problem statement sections. he second chapter should not be confused with the Introduction in Chapter I. The introduction provides a review of the topic; the Literature Review summarizes what has been said about the topic. The Literature Review is not a series of book (or journal article) reports. A good literature review tells a story about the topic, using published works to support what is written. The chapter should be organized in such a way as to (a) bring together the most important writings about the research question in general, followed by (b) a closer examination of the writings related to the component parts detailed in the Problem Statement subsection of Chapter I. It is very helpful to the reader if the ideas are presented in the same order throughout the project.
This chapter will contain the greatest number of citations, so it is important that they be done correctly. Each citation must have a corresponding listing in the Reference section.
The Literature Review should not include data that will be used to answer the research question or test your research hypotheses. If the project is utilizing an analysis of published research to answer the research question, the Literature Review should provide the background and take the reader up to the point where those studies begin.
Theoretical Framework (This section is required in Chapter II): the last section of your literature review will be a sub-heading of “Theoretical Framework” in which you will briefly introduce the reader to two sociological theories that relate to your topic. This discussion should include scholarly articles or books covering the scope of the theory and examples of its use.
In general, this chapter describes how the data were collected that answer the research question and its component parts. It is important to utilize appropriate methods of data collection in order to be able to support or reject the research hypotheses. This chapter should begin with a description of the research design used in the project. Chapter III will most likely include the following subsections:
Setting: if important to the research, describe the time and place of data collection.
Description of the Subjects: depending on the type of data used in the project, this subsection can include either subjects involved in primary data collection, or those described in published research studies.
his chapter includes a presentation and analysis of the data. The tone of the chapter is purely objective, devoid of assumptions and interpretations.
Following a summary of the research data (include whether your data are qualitative or quantitative), Chapter IV should be organized in a manner consistent with the research hypotheses. First, present data related to the first hypothesis. It is usually a good idea to restate your hypothesis. If you use tables, which are an effective way to present quantitative data, your description and analysis of the data should precede the table, not come afterwards. Be sure to state whether the data support, partially support, or reject your hypothesis. This will probably take one paragraph Follow this sequence for each hypothesis.
Qualitative data should be summarized, as opposed to verbatim transcriptions.
Remember, you must be objective in describing and analyzing your data.
Only use data to test your hypothesis/es that you described in Chapter III. That is, if you described three studies in Chapter III, you should present data from those same three studies in this chapter. Conversely, every source of data you use in Chapter IV needs to be described in Chapter III.
Discussion
This chapter includes three sections. The first section is a discussion of the research project, including the findings, interpretation of the results, and problems and/or limitations. This latter item is one of the most important parts of your chapter. You need to discuss how the limitations of your research may have affected your results. Remember, there are two types of limitations: those that are imposed by the researcher (usually the time period and the geographic location, though there may also be limitations involving your subjects; and those that are the result of your research method. Every research method has some inherent limitations; it is important to address those that may affect the validity and reliability of your findings. Limitations may also be associated with your sample. Be systematic in your discussion of limitations: take them one at a time. You should also discuss any problems that might have occurred during your research, especially those that might affect your findings.
In the Discussion section, you should also discuss how your result reflect your theoretical or conceptual framework. Are the findings consistent with what you expected.
You can also be a little creative in this section. It is appropriate to speculate why you think you got the results you did. You still need to use third person, but you can make your views known.
Do not repeat other parts of your research project in this section, except perhaps your research hypotheses or research question.
Conclusions
The second section is the Conclusions. What did we find out? What did we learn? Focus on your original objectives. Were there unintended consequences or surprises? What is the value of this research?
Recommendations
The final section, Recommendations, usually include three areas: 1) Is there a need for any changes to current practices? Should we be doing things differently? 2) Is there a need for any changes to current policies? Do we need new rules, new laws? 3) Is there a need for future research? This could be a replication of one or more studies, a different sample, different methodology, different variables.
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