This is an example of how a research can be written.

It is NOT your present assignment:

Assume that you are being hired by the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of a private hospital in Shah
Alam. Lately, the hospital has received an increasing number of complaints from its patients; mainly
with regards to the quality of services rendered by the hospital. The COO is worried and he wants
to find out the reasons for these complaints and want to come with the best solution to overcome
this problem as quickly as possible. He want you to conduct a research to overcome the problem
the hospital is facing.

You are required to prepare a research plan for him, focusing on the following:

1. Problem statement, research objectives and research questions = this is your

assignment 1
2. Literature review,
3. Theoretical framework,
4. Methodology – sampling design, instrument for data collection, survey method and
data analysis
5. Project schedule, and
6. Estimated research cost

No. 2-6 is for your assignment 2 and you will need all the facts in assignment 1 be put at
the beginning for assignment 2.

Assignment 1

Rubric 1: Introduction to the research process [4m]

Explain briefly what is research and what are the process / steps involved in research.
Explain eaxh step clearly. Give a citation of what is the meaning of research

State the purpose of doing this assignment clearly.

Then state the steps in a research process. So state all the steps below. Then state that for this assignment, the
steps to be discussed will only be till data collection. Explain very briefly every step.
 For assignment 1, it is until di part.

Rubric 2: Identification and definition of the problem [8]

You need to introduce the topic of health care and the meaning of private hospital vs
public hospital. Why is private hospital in more urgent need of listening to the
complaints? Of course this doesn't mean public hospital do not need to listen to
complaints. I said more urgent need.

Rubric 3: Facts and figures supporting that the identified problem really exist [8]

Show some statistics (figures/data) that states the private hospital complaints has
increased etc if you can get. Of course as this assignment is fictitious, you will not be
able to quote, but you can use a private hospital data (if you can find it) but do not
mention the actual name of the hospital.

Then read up on lots of articles that shows factors causing poor quality of services. If you
can find articles of poor quality of services in hospital, that would be even better, as it
would be much more relevant. Here is the section where a lot of citations are needed –
info that proved the identified problem is a big problem that needs to be looked into.

After a few citation, then state your research problem statement. This problem statement
is very important as all the other steps are based on this problem statement.

The market for sauces is big but there are only a few producers of sauces. There is an opportunity to enter the
market for sauces.

Research Problem: Tesco market share in local sauces is nil. This study is to conduct a feasibility test of
introducing its own branded chilli sauce.

Rubric 4: List of research questions and objectives of the study [4]

From the research problem statement, you will need to start thinking what research
philosophy to follow.

You can introduce the philosophy that you want to use to conduct this research. What
angle are you going to look at the research from? Remember, different angle used will
give different result.

Then whether you want to think which method to use - deductive and inductive method.

If your RQs lean towards qualitative research, then there is no need to have hypothesis;
but if they lean towards quantitative, then you will need hypothesis. To know whether it is
qualitative, it tends to be inductive method. If quantitative, it tends to be deductive
method.

Just state one or two ROs are enough. RQs must have a few. You have to explain why
you fix the ROs and RQs.

Rubric 5: Justification for doing the research [4]

Here you have to explain why there is a need to carry out a research – maybe no data,
no up to date data, need more specific data, etc.

You have to give justification why you have these ROs and RQs.

Here is also a place where you can cite other people’s study on the same topic but at
other place and time. You can also use them as justification for you to do your research
too.