How to Plan and Conduct a Research Project: 12 Simple Steps

7. Supervisor role: Supervisors assist in shaping our ideas and gives us proper idea on how to conduct our research properly. It is not the function of the supervisor to chase in every stage and help us in managing but we should take the responsibility for the bond.

8. Undertaking of literature survey: No matter whether we have been given a topic or we have created our own idea we are required to keep the ability to describe the significance of the research and how well it fits with the broad research context of the particular field. For this we have undertaken literature review. We can take help of internet search engines, electronic journals, bibliographies etc.

9. Data collection:
It is an important part while conducting a research. We should not make a jump to this stage before properly defining the research problem; otherwise we will fall in problem. We should make proper consideration on how we are going to store or retrieve data. Better to build a system that will properly record data, retrieve data efficiently and fast, make proper analysis of data, etc.

There are many systems that support effective data collection and retrieval. These range from card indexes and cross-referenced exercise books, through electronic tools like spreadsheets, databases and bibliographic software, to discipline-specific tools. We should talk about how we plan to store our data with our supervisor, an information librarian, or a study adviser in the Learning Development. As we undertake our research we are likely to come up with lots of ideas. It can be valuable to keep a record of these ideas on index cards, in a dedicated notebook, or in an electronic file. We can refer back to this ‘ideas store’ when we start to write. They may be useful as ideas in themselves, and may be useful as a record of how our thinking developed through the research process.

10. How to deal with problem during conductance of research:
While doing research we may encounter with so many problems. Well! For that we should not worry because research by nature is unpredictable. Therefore, whenever we face a problem we should,

• Try to analyze the situation.
• Think how the problem arised, and how we can solve it whether by going few steps backward or it needs some modification.
• When it becomes intractable we can meet our supervisor and report him or her about the detail problem and listen their recommendations.

The problem that we encounter and is solved successfully is an important piece of information that should be written in the project report. It should be shown to the final examiner about how we have overcome the problem that we encountered.

11. Reporting:
Writing report can be very intimidating initially, but you should be ensured that you have kept enough time for writing. After writing you should review it very critically, edit it and make some improvement if required.

We have to take care of some things while writing reports.

Read: Common mistakes we do while writing reports.

12. References

At the end of the study we have to provide the references properly. While collecting the sources to write the project thesis we have to collect those references and should add while writing the thesis or project.

The format of the thesis or project should be written as per the guidelines. First, we have to collect all the necessary documents or information. We have to read the instructions or guidelines carefully before writing the project so that we can complete the whole writing part in time.

Thus, we can see how important it is to plan and conduct a research project in a very organized manner. A little distraction can put us in big problem and wastage of time.

Good luck!