Formulating aims and objectives from research questions

Relation to research areas/topics/ideas/problems/questions:

1. These should reflect the sources from which your interest is derived e.g.: a. an area or topic in which you have an interest i. e.g. - appraisal systems b. ideas or issues which you wish to explore in detail i. e.g. - women's experience of appraisal

c. problems detected and needing a solution in practical or theoretical terms i. e.g. - the 'glass ceiling' effect in promotion/advancement

d. questions arising from experience, reading the literature, etc. i. e.g. - do women feel that the glass ceiling effect is embedded in appraisal systems? e. you should clearly state the nature of the problem etc. and its known or estimated extent f. if possible you should locate your questions within the context within which it is to be studied i. e.g. - do women at (company/institution/etc) feel that the glass ceiling effect is embedded in the internal appraisal systems of their (company/institution/etc) Having selected your research topic and questions, the next stage is to begin designing and planning your research project, the focus of which is usually expressed in terms of aims and objectives.

Aims:
1. are broad statements of desired outcomes, or the general intentions of the research, which 'paint the picture' of your research proposal 2. emphasize what is to be accomplished, not how it is to be accomplished

3. address the long-term project outcomes, i.e. they should reflect the aspirations and expectations of the research topic 4. do not need to be numbered

Once aims have been established, the next task is to formulate the objectives. Generally, a project should have no more than two or three aims statements, while it may include a number of objectives consistent with them.

Objectives:
1. are the steps you are going to take to answer your research questions or a specific list of tasks needed to accomplish the goals of the project 2. emphasize how aims are to be accomplished 3. must be highly focused and feasible 4. address the more immediate project outcomes 5. make accurate use of concepts and be sensible and precisely described 6. are usually numbered so that each objective reads as an 'individual' statement to convey your intentions For each specific objective you must have a method to attempt to achieve it. The development of a realistic time schedule may help to prioritize your objectives and help to minimize wasted time and effort.

Aims and Objectives should:

1. be presented concisely and briefly 2. be interrelated. The aim is what you want to achieve, and the objective describes how you are going to achieve that aim i.e.: a. make sure that each aim is matched with specific objectives 3. be realistic about what you can accomplish in the duration of the project and the other commitments you have i.e.: a. the scope of your project must be consistent with the time frame and level of effort available to you 4. provide you and your assessors with indicators of how you:

a. intend to approach the literature and theoretical issues related to you project b. intend to access your chosen subjects, respondents, units, goods or services and develop a sampling frame and strategy or a rationale for their selection c. will develop a strategy and design for data collection and analysis d. you will deal with ethical and practical problems in your research

Aims and Objectives should not:

1. be too vague, ambitious or broad in scope: a. though aims are more general in nature than objectives it is the viability and feasibility of your study that you have to demonstrate and aims often present an over-optimistic picture of what the project can achieve 2. just repeat each other in different terms 3. just be a list of things related to your research topic 4. spend time discussing details of your job or research site i.e.: a. it is your research study your assessors are interested in and you should keep this in mind at all times. 5. contradict methods, that is, they should not imply methodological goals or standards of measurement, proof or generalizability of findings that the methods cannot sustain Research methodology is a collective term for the structured process of conducting research. There are many different methodologies used in various types of research and the term is usually considered to include research design, data gathering and data analysis. Research methodologies can be quantitative (for example, measuring the number of times someone does something under certain conditions) or qualitative (for example, asking people how they feel about a certain situation). Ideally, comprehensive research should try to incorporate both qualitative and quantitative methodologies but this is not always possible, usually due to time and financial constraints. Research methodologies are generally used in academic research to test hypotheses or theories. A good design should ensure the research is valid, i.e. It clearly tests the hypothesis and not extraneous variables, and that the research is reliable, i.e. It yields consistent results every time. Part of the research methodology is concerned with the how the research is conducted. This is called the study design and typically involves research conducted using questionnaires, interviews, observation and/or experiments. The term research methodology, also referred to as research methods, usually encompasses the procedures followed to analyze and interpret the data gathered. These often use a range of sophisticated statistical analyses of the data to identify correlations or statistical significance in the results. Objective, representative research can be difficult to conduct because tests can normally only be

conducted on a small sample (e.g. You cannot test a drug on every person in the world so a sample needs to be used in research). This means that researchers need to have a very detailed understanding of the types and limitations of research methodologies which they are using.