Research Methodology Handbook PDF

Research

Guideline

Handbook

Compiled by
RIZWANA SUBHANI

Research Guideline Handbook

PROPOSAL WRITING
Some tips when writing a proposal
Most proposals include the following components:
1. Cover or Title Page
Many sponsors/donors provide preprinted Cover Pages for you to fill out. The title
page contains the following information:
o Principal Investigator’s name, address, phone number
o Title of proposal
o Sponsor name and address
o Duration of the proposed project with start and end dates
o Amount requested
o Submission date
o Signature of Principal Investigator
o Signature of Institutional Representative (AIT President or his authorized
representative)
2. Abstract
The abstract outlines the proposed research, including objectives, methodology, and
significance of the research. It is usually limited to 200 ‐ 400 words and should be
written in lay terms.
3. Budget & Justification
The budget includes a reasonable estimate of the financial support required to
conduct the project, including justification of budget expenses.
4. Statement of Work
The Statement of Work provides a full and detailed explanation of the proposed
research, typically including a project timetable. It should include general
background information regarding how the project relates to previous and current
research.
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5. Curriculum Vitae
Include for all key project personnel. Some sponsors impose page limits or CV
templates.
6. Bibliography
List all references cited in proposal.
7. Current and Pending Support
Sponsor may require a listing of the PI’s (and sometimes Key Personnel) current
projects and pending proposals.
Typical budget categories include:
• Direct Costs
• Indirect Costs
• In‐kind Contribution/ Cost Sharing
Direct Costs/ Expenses

Direct costs on sponsored and contracted research projects are those that can be directly
associated with the project with a high degree of accuracy. Direct costs are essential to the
project's fulfillment.
Some examples of direct costs:

• Salaries: For the Institute's professional and research staff and student assistants,
salary figures should be based on the percentage of effort by each individual on the
project applied to his/her annual salary (man‐months). For internal AIT budget this
is part of the Faculty/staff time recovery costs

• Tuition: Scholarships for Masters and PhD students can also be included.

• Equipment (can be indirect too): Any item of equipment having a unit cost of 15,000
THB or more and a useful life of one year or more. Includes cost of shipping,
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installation, and fabrication. General purpose equipment, such as office furniture,
PCs, fax machines etc., are generally not deemed allowable by most sponsors, unless
it is used primarily or exclusively for the research project.

• Materials and Supplies: Expendable/ consumable items with a useful life of less
than one years or a cost under 15,000 THB. Description of category (e.g. glassware,
chemical, office supplies, etc) and best estimate of cost should be included

• Travel: Domestic and foreign travel should be shown separately. List the name,
destination, and purpose of trip. Include transportation costs (coach airfare),
registration fees, accommodation fees, and other related expenses

• Publication Costs: Estimate the number of pages, page charges, and names of
journals if possible.

• Consultants/ External Resource Person: List each consultant, their specialty or
service to the project, and their daily, weekly or monthly rate of reimbursement, and
show the consultant’s total projected cost on the project. Include in the proposal an
Agreement with the consultant and the consultant’s curriculum vitae.

• Subcontracts: A sub‐contract is a contract to other organization(s) of some

scientific or programmatic aspect of the grant or contract made originally to AIT.

• Other: Other costs typically include items such as, research publications, fees,
contingency for currency fluctuation

Indirect Costs

Costs related to expenses incurred in conducting or supporting research or other externally
funded activities but not directly attributable to a specific project. For internal AIT
budget, this is Overhead charge.

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Some examples of indirect costs:
• Utilities (Electricity, water, etc)
• Buildings & grounds
• Equipment (can be direct too)
• Library Expenses
• General Administration
• Sponsored Projects Administration
• School Administration

RESEACH PAPER WRITING
The Abstract
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This page is designed to be interactive, so in places you can jump forward for more
information,or will be asked questions that you find answers to by using the
links. This page covers:
• Purpose
• Common Problems
• What is the difference between an abstract and an introduction?
• Examples
PURPOSE
For conference papers, research papers, theses and dissertations, you will almost
always be asked to write an abstract. The main point to remember is that it must be
short, because it should give a summary of your research. In fact, not only are
abstracts short, they must almost always be a certain, specified length. Many
abstracts are, so, before you begin writing, you must find out how long your
abstract should be (for example, 200 words for AIT master's theses) and you
should come close to ‐ but not go over ‐ this limit. Abstracts that exceed the
maximum word limit are often rejected because they cannot be used for databases,
summaries of conferences, etc.
An abstract should briefly:
• Re‐establish the topic of the research.
• Give the research problem and/or main objective of the research (this usually
comes first).
• Indicate the methodology used.
• Present the main findings.
• Present the main conclusions
It is essential that your abstract includes all the keywords of your research, as it
will enabled on databases which other researchers will search. Obviously if you
only have two hundred words, you can only cover each of these areas briefly. The
emphasis is generally on the main findings and main conclusions since these areas
are of most interest to readers.
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COMMON PROBLEMS
• Too long. If your abstract is too long, it may be rejected ‐
abstracts are entered on databases, and those is usually a
specified maximum number of words. Abstracts are often
too long because people forget to count their words
(remember that you can use your word processing program
to do this) and make their abstracts too detailed (see below).
• Too much detail. Abstracts that are too long often have
unnecessary details. The abstract is not the place for
detailed explanations of methodology or for details about
the context of your research problem because you simply do
not have the space to present anything but the main points
of your research.
• Too short. Shorter is not necessarily better. If your word
limit is 200 but you only write 95 words, you probably have
not written in sufficient detail. You should review your
abstract and see where you could usefully give more
explanation ‐ remember that in many cases readers decide
whether to read the rest of your research from looking at the
abstract. Many writers do not give sufficient information
about their findings
• Failure to include important information. You need to

be careful to cover the points listed above. Often people do
not cover all of them because they spend too long explaining,
for example, the methodology and then do not have enough
space to present their conclusion.
ABSTRACT AND INTRODUCTION COMPARED
At first glance, it might seem that the introduction and the abstract are very similar
because they both present the research problem and objectives as well as briefly
reviewing methodology, main findings and main conclusions. However, there are
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important differences between the two:
Introduction
• Should be short, but does not have a word

limit;
• Main purpose is to introduce the research

by presenting its context or background.
Introductions usually go from general to
specific, introducing the research problem and
how it will be investigated). For more detail
see Introductions.
Abstract
• Has a maximum word limit;

• Is a summary of the whole research;
• Main purpose is to summarize the research (particularly the

objective and the main finding/conclusion), NOT to introduce the
research area.
Examples
Example 1
Here is an abstract from a published paper. It is 220 words long. Read it through
looking for the main purpose of each sentence (for example, presenting research
problem, objective, methodology, main findings, or conclusion). You can find
suggested answers by clicking on the sentences.
Abstract
Major problems of the arid region are transportation of agricultural products and
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losses due to spoilage of the products, especially in summer.This work presents the
performance of a solar drying system consisting of an air heater and a dryer
chamber connected to a greenhouse. The drying system is designed to dry a variety
of agricultural products.The effect of air mass flow rate on the drying process is
studied.Composite pebbles, which are constructed from cement and sand, are used
to store energy for night operation. The pebbles are placed at the bottom of the
drying chamber and are charged during the drying process itself. A separate test is
done using a simulator, a packed bed storage unit, to find the thermal
characteristics of the pebbles during charging and discharging modes with time.
Accordingly, the packed bed is analyzed using a heat transfer model with finite
difference technique described before and during the charging and discharging
processes.Graphs are presented that depict the thermal characteristics and
performance of the pebble beds and the drying patterns of different agricultural
products. The results show that the amount of energy stored in the pebbles
depends on the air mass flow rate, the inlet air temperature, and the properties of
the storage materials.The composite pebbles can be used efficiently as storing
media.
Helwa, N. H. and Abdel Rehim, Z. S. (1997). Experimental Study of the Performance
of Solar Dryers with Pebble Beds. Energy Sources, 19, 579‐591.
Example 2
Here is a second abstract from a published paper. It is 162 words long. Again, read
it through looking for the main purpose of each sentence (for example, presenting
the research problem, objective, methodology, main finding, or conclusion). You
can find suggested answers by clicking on the sentences.
Abstract
The long‐term performance of various systems was determined and the economic
aspects of solar hot water production were investigated in this work.The effect of
the collector inclination angle, collector area and storage volume was examined for
all systems, and various climatic conditions and their payback period was
calculated.It was found that the collector inclination angle does not have a
significant effect on system performance. Large collector areas have a diminishing
effect on the systems overall efficiency. The increase in storage volume has a
detrimental effect for small daily load volumes, but a beneficial one when there is a
large daily consumption.Solar energy was found to be truly competitive when the
conventional fuel being substituted is electricity, and it should not replace diesel oil
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on pure economic grounds. Large daily load volumes and large collector areas are
in general associated with shorter payback periods. Overall, the systems are
oversized and are economically suitable for large daily hot water load volumes.
Haralambopoulos, D., Paparsenost, G. F., and Kovras, H. (1997) Assessing the
Economic Aspects of Solar Hot Water Production in Greece. Renewable Energy, 11,
153‐167.

The Abstract Text Analysis
This page provides answers to the text analysis of the Abstract page.
Example 1 Abstract Text Analysis
Example 1
"Major problems of the arid region are transportation of agricultural products
and losses due to spoilage of the products, especially in summer."
This sentence gives the general problem the research is attempting to help solve
(rather than the specific research problem) in order to provide a rationale for
the research.
"This work presents the performance of a solar drying system consisting of an
air heater and a dryer chamber connected to a greenhouse. The drying system is
designed to dry a variety of agricultural products."
This part of the abstract gives the main objective of the research.
"The effect of air mass flow rate on the drying process is studied."
Here the authors give the parameter they will be focusing on in order to measure
the effect of air mass flow rate on the drying process. Their research problem,
therefore, is to find out the effect of air mass flow rate on the drying process.
"Composite pebbles, which are constructed from cement and sand, are used to
store energy for night operation. The pebbles are placed at the bottom of the
drying chamber and are charged during the drying process itself. A separate test
is done using a simulator, a packed bed storage unit, to find the thermal
10


characteristics of the pebbles during charging and discharging modes with time.
Accordingly, the packed bed is analyzed using a heat transfer model with finite
difference technique described before and during the charging and discharging
processes."
This part of the abstract summarizes the methodology used.
"Graphs are presented that depict the thermal characteristics and performance
of the pebble beds and the drying patterns of different agricultural products. The
results show that the amount of energy stored in the pebbles depends on the air
mass flow rate, the inlet air temperature, and the properties of the storage
materials."
Here we are told in what form the results are presented, and the main findings.
"The composite pebbles can be used efficiently as storing media."
Finally, we are presented with the main conclusion of the research.
Example 2 Abstract Text Analysis
Example 2
"The long‐term performance of various systems was determined and the
economic aspects of solar hot water production were investigated in this work."
Here the authors present the objectives of their research (and by implication
their research problem, i.e. the long‐term performation and the economic
aspects are unknown and need to be found).
"The effect of the collector inclination angle, collector area and storage volume
was examined for all systems, and various climatic conditions and their payback
period was calculated."
Here we are told what was studied and calculated, i.e. we are given a very brief
summary of the methodology.
"It was found that the collector inclination angle does not have a significant
effect on system performance. Large collector areas have a diminishing effect on
the system’s overall efficiency. The increase in storage volume has a detrimental
effect for small daily load volumes, but a beneficial one when there is a large
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daily consumption."

This part of the abstract presents the main finding (i.e. results) the authors
obtained.
"Solar energy was found to be truly competitive when the conventional fuel
being substituted is electricity, and it should not replace diesel oil on pure
economic grounds. Large daily load volumes and large collector areas are in
general associated with shorter payback periods. Overall, the systems are
oversized and are economically suitable for large daily hot water load volumes."

Finally, the main conclusions and recommendations from the research are given.

Introduction
HOW TO USE THIS PAGE?
Most of the links will take you to another part of this page where you can find
more detailed information.
The links for the references, for example, (Boucher and Smeers, 1996), will take
you to the References page where you can find bibliographic information for the
articles used in this on‐line course. If you want to know more about how to
reference, access the How to Reference page.
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE INTRODUCTION?
Of course, the introduction comes at the start of a piece of writing. It introduces
the research by situating it (by giving background), presenting the research
problem and saying how and why this problem will be solved. Without this
important information the reader cannot easily understand the more detailed
information about the research that comes later in the thesis. It also explains
why the research is being done (rationale) which is crucial for the reader to
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understand the significance of the study.
After reading an introduction, the reader should be able to answer most of these
questions:
• What is the context of this problem? In what situation or environment can
this problem be observed? (Background)
• Why is this research important? Who will benefit? Why do we need to
know this? Why does this situation, method, model or piece of equipment need
to be improved? (Rationale)
• What is it we don’t know? What is the gap in our knowledge this research
will fill? What needs to be improved? (Problem Statement)
• What steps will the researcher take to try and fill this gap or improve the
situation? (Objectives)
• Is there any aspect of the problem the researcher will not discuss? Is the
study limited to a specific geographical area or to only certain aspects of the
situation? (Scope)
• Is there any factor, condition or circumstance that prevents the
researcher from achieving all his/her objectives? (Limitations)
• In considering his/her method, model, formulation or approach, does the
researcher take certain conditions, states, requirements for granted? Are there
certain fundamental conditions or states the researcher takes to be true?
(Assumptions)
COMMON PROBLEMS
• Too much detail, and hence too long. Remember, this is the
introduction, a kind of overview. Although you will cover important points,
detailed descriptions of method, study site and results will be in later sections.
Look at the proportion of a research paper an introduction takes up. Notice it is
comparatively short because it serves as a summary of what follows.
• Repetition of words, phrases or ideas. You will have keywords that are
crucial to your study. However, your reader doesn't want to read them over and
over! A high level of repetition makes your writing look careless. To reduce it,
highlight repeated words or phrases ‐ then you can easily judge if you are
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overusing them and find synonyms or pronouns to replace them.
• Unclear problem definition. Without a clear definition of your research
problem, your reader is left with no clear idea of what you were studying. This
means that they cannot judge your work's relevance to their own work, or its
usefulness, quality, etc. As an exercise, you should be able to complete a sentence
that starts, "The purpose of this study is . . . " that encapsulates the problem you
are investigating. Of course you will not include this exact sentence in your
thesis, but it serves as an easy way to check that you have a clearly defined
problem. In your thesis you should be able to write your research problem in
one sentence ‐ you can add details in the sentences that follow. You should also
ensure that your research problem matches the title of your thesis (you'd be
surprised how many don't !) as well as its methodology and objectives.
• Poor organization. Writing an introduction that effectively introduces

your research problem and encapsulates your study is not an easy task. Often
when we write we discover gradually what we want to say and how we want to
say it. Writing is often a process of discovery. Bear this in mind when you write
your introduction, and be prepared to go back and make big changes to what you
have written, and the order in which you have presented your ideas and
information. Your introduction must have a logical sequence that your reader
can follow easily. Some suggestions for how to organize your introduction are
given below (see the next section and the modified Swales schema).
HOW RESEARCH ARTICLE INTRODUCTIONS ARE ORGANIZED?
The following schema is adapted from Swales (1984). Swales researched the
structure of introductions to academic journal articles. The schema presented
here is the pattern that he found occurring in a majority of the articles. It is not a
set of rules for how you must write ‐ rather, it is a useful guideline for how to
think about structuring your information. An explanation of the terms and
examples is given further down this page (click on the links to find the right
section).
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Move 1: Establish the field by:
• claiming centrality (why this field of study is important) AND/OR
• moving from general to specific AND/OR
• reviewing relevant items of previous research
Move 2: Define a research problem by:
• indicating a gap OR
• raising a question OR
• continuing a previously developed line of inquiry OR
• counter‐claiming (disagreeing with an existing/accepted approach)
Move 3: Propose a solution by:
• outlining purpose/setting objectives AND/OR
• announcing present research (methodology) AND/OR
• announcing principal findings (results) AND/OR
• indicating the structure of the research
Adapted from Swales, J. (1984). Research into the structure of introductions to
journal articles and its application to the teaching of academic writing. In
Common Ground: Shared interests in ESP and communication studies. [eds.] R. J.
Williams, J. Swales, and J. Kirkman. Oxford: Pergamon
FIELD
First you need to establish the area of research in which your work belongs, and
to provide a context for the research problem. This has three main elements:
Claiming Centrality: Claiming that the area of research is an important one, and
therefore implying that the research done is also crucial.

For example:
"Minimum safe low temperatures (above freezing) and high humidity control are
the most important tools for extending shelf life in vegetables." (Barth et al., 1993).
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Here the words "the most important tools" indicate centrality by showing that
these two factors are crucial.
General to specific: Most writing starts with general information and then
moves to specific information. This is true of introductions too.

For example:
In recent years, there has been an increased awareness of the potential impact of
pollutants such as heavy metals. Moreover, the traditional methods for treating
aqueous streams containing metal contaminants are expensive and can have
inadequate facilities (1). This is particularly true in developing countries. This has
led to the use of alternative technologies. The use of biological materials is one
such technology which has received considerable attention. (Ho et al., 1996)
Explanation:
• The first sentence: impact of heavy metals (general).
• The second sentence: expense and shortcomings of methods of removing
heavy metals (less general).
• The third sentence: expense and shortcomings of methods of removing
heavy metals in developing countries (more specific).
• The fourth sentence: alternative technologies to overcome expense and
shortcomings of methods of removing heavy metals (yet more specific).
• The fifth sentence: biological materials as an example of alternative
technologies to overcome the expense and shortcomings of methods of removing
heavy metals (very specific).

Notice how each sentence adds a piece of information (shown in italics) to move
the introduction from the general topic of "heavy metals" to the specific topic of
"biological materials as an alternative method of removing heavy metals."

Do not begin by being too general. If your work is examining the delivery of cash to
ATM machines, do not start by a history of the banking system in Europe since the
Middle Ages it's probably not relevant and will mean you will take a very long
time to reach the specific area of your research. Think of "general" in terms of
information which will help your reader understand the context of your research
problem (rather than your whole field of study!).
Previous research: Often the introduction will refer to work already done in the
research area in order to provide background (and often also to help define the
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research problem).

For example:
Numerous studies on the utilization of plant proteins as a partial or complete
replacement for fish meal in diets have been conducted using various freshwater
and marines fishes (Lovell, 1987; Tacon et al., 1983; Murai et al., 1989a; Cowey et
al., 1974). (Takii et al., 1989)
PROBLEM
Your research must be new in some way. It must add knowledge to your field so
you need to show in what way your work explores an area/issue/question that
has previously not been explored, or not been explored in detail, in not explored
in the way that you are going to use. In other words, you need to give a rationale
for your work (i.e. show the reasons for doing it). There are four ways to
demonstrate that you are adding to the knowledge in your field:
Gap: A research gap is an area where no or little research has been carried out.
This is shown by outlining the work already done to show where there is a gap
in the research (which you will then fill with your research).

For example:
Numerous studies on the utilization of plant proteins as a partial or complete
replacement for fish meal in diets have been conducted using various freshwater
and marines fishes (Lovell, 1987; Tacon et al., 1983; Murai et al., 1989a; Cowey et
al., 1974). However, very little is known about the feasibility of using soybean meal
as a dietary protein source in practical feeds for yellowtail Seriola quinqueradiata.
(Takii et al., 1989)
Raising a question: The research problem is defined by asking a question to
which the answer is unknown, and which you will explore in your research.

For example:
The question we address here is how technological change occurs when it is the
overall system that needs to be changed. In particular, how can we begin and
sustain a technological transition away from hydrocarbon based technologies?
(Street and Miles, 1996)
Continuing a previously developed line of enquiry: Building on work already
done, but taking it further (by using a new sample, extending the area studied,
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taking more factors into consideration, taking fewer factors into consideration,
etc.).

For example:
Taking all these elements and their possible variations into account is often far too
complex and tedious for determining efficient gas development patterns with
simple back of the envelope calculations. In their survey of these elements, Julius
and Mashayeki [8] present a detailed analysis of these different interactions. They
suggest that these be taken into account through gas planning models constructed
in the same spirit as the planning models developed in the power generation sector.
In this paper, we present a gas planning model that fulfils some of the
specifications established in Julius and Mashayeki [8]. (Boucher and Smeers, 1996)
Counterclaiming: A conflicting claim, theory or method is put forward. Here,
for example, the researchers argue that previous researchers' assessments of
cost effectiveness were too complex, and that a simplified process could and
should be used instead:
Evaluating the cost effectiveness of distributed generation is a crucial resource
planning issue. Many have assessed cost effectiveness by dividing the utility system
into many parts and estimating distributed generation's value to each part. When
this is done, total value can be composed of ten or more individual components
(Hoff and Shugar, 1995), substation transformer (ElGassier et al., 1993),
transmission system, generation system, voltage support (Hoff et al., 1994)
reliability, energy savings, electrical loss savings (Hoff and Shugar, 1995) minimum
load savings, modularity and flexibility (Morris et al., 1993) and financial risk
reduction values (Awerbuch, 1994).

Although impressive, this list of value components suggests that determining the
value of distributed generation requires a team of experts assembled from each
department within the utility. This paper describes a simplified evaluation process
based on the observation that distributed generation is of value because it reduces
variable costs or defers capacity investments. (Hoff et al., 1996)
SOLUTION
Once the field and problem have been defined, it is time to give the "solution." In
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other words, how will the research gap be filled? How will the question that was
raised be answered? This last part of the introduction can also be used to show
the benefits, to explain the objectives, to clarify the scope of the research, to
announce what was found from doing the research and how it can be used.
Notice that an introduction will discuss a number of the following points but is
unlikely to cover them all.
Outlining purpose: Often researchers will describe their objectives in their
introduction in order for the reader to have a clear idea of what they set out to
accomplish. Usually there is a general objective written in one sentence (details
of more specific objectives can be given in following sentences).

For example:
This work aims to establish the extent of interaction of alginate with calcium and
aluminium ions with respect to the influence of algal exudates have on the removal
of humic substances by aluminium coagulation during drinking water treatment.
(Gregor et al., 1996)
Hint!: always give an overall objective before giving specific objectives. This will
help you explain much more clearly to your reader what your work aimed to
accomplish.
Announcing present research (method): Important points about the
methodology used are outlined, perhaps including the scope of the study.
However, the methodology is not given in detail (since details are given in the
methodology section).

For example:
This paper examines the use of peat for the removal of two metals, copper and
nickel, from both monosolute and bisolute solutions. In particular, it reports the
effect that a competing ion has on the rates of removal and examines the
mechanisms which may affect the uptake of minerals. (Ho et al., 1996)
Announcing principle findings (results): Researchers may indicate the kind of
results they obtained, or an overall summary of their findings.

For example:
Different operating modes of the MESFET mixers, gate mixers, drain mixers, and
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resistive mixers were investigated in this work and the results proved that good
conversion characteristics could be achieved.(Angelov, 1991)
Indicating the structure of the research: It is useful to outline the organization
of the written up research that follows so that the reader has a clear idea of what
is going to follow, and in what order.

For example:
This paper is organized as follows. Alternative representations of demand and
supply are discussed in sections 2 and 3 respectively. The model is described in
section 4. Section 5 presents an application of the tool to a gas reserves
development timing problem in Indonesia. The full set of equations is given in the
appendix and is referred to throughout the text. (Boucher and Smeers, 1996)
Indicating directions for further research: Research often opens up other
areas where research could or should be done, so it is common for these areas to
be defined in the introduction. It is also a way of indicating that the current study
is not designed to be comprehensive.
This paper takes a first step in this direction by laying out the rationale for
incorporating feedback and feedforward mechanisms in decision support for
dynamic tasks such as software project management (Sengupta and AbdelHamid,
1993).
Indicating benefits of current research: Indicating the benefits of the research
helps to justify why it was carried out and emphasizes the value of the study.

For example:
The paper further suggests a multidisciplinary management approach to effect a
favorable outcome for the whole fishing community (Lim et al., 1995).
Notice that the introduction includes information that is presented in other
parts of the thesis. Does this mean that if you indicate your results in your
Introduction that you will have nothing left to present in your Results
chapter? No! Introductions literally "introduce" information to give an
overview, often offering only a short summary because full details are
given in later chapters.

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Literature Review
HOW TO USE THIS PAGE?
This page is designed to be interactive, so in places you can jump forward for
more information, or will be asked questions that you find answers by using the
links. This page covers:
• What is "the literature"?
• Why write a review of the literature?
• Writing your own literature review
• How can I write a good literature review?
• Traps
• Literature review: an example
WHAT IS THE LITERATURE?
Although you might think of novels and poetry when you hear the word
"literature," for a piece of research the meaning is more specific. In terms of a
literature review, "the literature" means the works you consulted in order to
understand and investigate your research problem.
USEFUL SOURCES:
1. Journal articles: These are good especially for up‐to‐date information. Bear

in mind, though, that it can take up to two years to publish articles. They are
frequently used in literature reviews because they offer a relatively concise, up‐
to‐date format for research, and because all reputable journals are refereed (i.e.
editors publish only the most relevant and reliable research).
2. Books: Books tend to be less up‐to‐date as it takes longer for a book to be
published than for a journal article. Text books are unlikely to be useful for
including in your literature review as they are intended for teaching, not for
research, but they do offer a good starting point from which to find more
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detailed sources.
3. Conference Proceedings: These can be useful in providing the latest
research, or research that has not been published. They are also helpful in
providing information on which people are currently involved in which research
areas, and so can be helpful in tracking down other work by the same
researchers.
4. Government / Corporate Reports: Many government departments and

corporations commission or carry out research. Their published findings can
provide a useful source of information, depending on your field of study.
5. Newspapers: Since newspapers are generally intended for a general (not
specialized) audience, the information they provide will be of very limited use
for your literature review. Often newspapers are more helpful as providers of
information about recent trends, discoveries or changes, e.g. announcing
changes in government policy, but you should then search for more detailed
information in other sources.
6. Theses and Dissertations: These can be useful sources of information.
However there are disadvantages: 1) they can be difficult to obtain since they
are not published, but are generally only available from the library shelf or
through interlibrary loan; 2) the student who carried out the research may not
be an experienced researcher and therefore you might have to treat their
findings with more caution than published research.
7. Internet: The fastest‐growing source of information is on the Internet. It is
impossible to characterize the information available but here are some hints
about using electronic sources: 1) bear in mind that anyone can post information
on the Internet so the quality may not be reliable, 2) the information you find
may be intended for a general audience and so not be suitable for inclusion in
your literature review (information for a general audience is usually less
detailed) and 3) more and more refereed electronic journals (e‐journals) are
appearing on the Internet ‐ if they are refereed it means that there is an editorial
board that evaluates the work before publishing it in their e‐journal, so the
quality should be more reliable (depending on the reputation of the journal).
8. CDROMS: At the moment, few CR‐ROMs provide the kind of specialized,
detailed information about academic research that you need for your own
research since most are intended for a general audience. However, more and
22


more bibliographies are being put onto CD‐ROM for use in academic libraries, so
they can be a very valuable tool in searching for the information you need.
9. Magazines: Magazines intended for a general audience (e.g. Time) are
unlikely to be useful in providing the sort of information you need. Specialized
magazines may be more useful (for example business magazines for
management students) but usually magazines are not useful for your research
except as a starting point by providing news or general information about new
discoveries, policies, etc. that you can further research in more specialized
sources.
WHY WRITE A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE?
The literature review is a critical look at the existing research that is significant
to the work that you are carrying out. Some people think that it is a summary:
this is not true. Although you need to summarize relevant research, it is also
vital that you evaluate this work, show the relationships between different work,
and show how it relates to your work. In other words, you cannot simply give a
concise description of, for example, an article: you need to select what parts of
the research to discuss (e.g. the methodology), show how it relates to the other
work (e.g. What other methodologies have been used? How are they similar?
How are they different?) and show how it relates to your work (what is its
relationship to your methodology?).
Keep in mind that the literature review should provide the context for your
research by looking at what work has already been done in your research area. It
is not supposed to be just a summary of other people's work!
Here are some of the questions your literature review should answer:
1. What do we already know in the immediate area concerned?
2. What are the characteristics of the key concepts or the main factors or
variables?
3. What are the relationships between these key concepts, factors or
variables?
4. What are the existing theories?
5. Where are the inconsistencies or shortcomings in our knowledge and
understanding?
6. What views need to be (further) tested?
7. What evidence is lacking, inconclusive, contradictory or too limited?
8. Why study (further) the research problem?
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9. What contribution can the present study be expected to make?
10. What research designs or methods seem unsatisfactory?
WRITING YOUR OWN LITERATURE REVIEW.
It's easy to write a bad literature review and difficult to write a good one. The
main mistake that a lot of people make is to write a literature review that looks
like this:
II LITERATURE REVIEW
Until recently many researchers have shown interest in the field of coastal
erosion and the resulting beach profiles. They have carried out numerous
laboratory experiments and field observations to illuminate the darkness of this
field. Their findings and suggestions are reviewed here.
JACHOWSKI (1964) developed a model investigation conducted on the

interlocking precast concrete block seawall. After a result of a survey of damages
caused by the severe storm at the coast of USA, a new and especially shaped
concrete block was developed for use in shore protection. This block was
designed to be used in a revetment type seawall that would be both durable and
economical as well as reduce wave run‐up and overtopping, and scour at its base
or toe. It was proved that effective shore protection could be designed utilizing
these units.
HOM‐MA and HORIKAWA (1964) studied waves forces acting on the seawall
which was located inside the surf zone. On the basis of the experimental results
conducted to measure waves forces against a vertical wall, the authors proposed
an empirical formula of wave pressure distribution on a seawall. The computed
results obtained by using the above formula were compared well with the field
data of wave pressure on a vertical wall.
SELEZOV and ZHELEZNYAK (1965) conducted experiments on scour of sea
bottom in front of harbor seawalls, basing on the theoretical investigation of
solitary wave interaction with a vertical wall using Boussinesque type equation.
It showed that the numerical results were in reasonable agreement with
laboratory experimental data.
24


Have another look at the questions a literature review should answer. See if you
can answer the following questions about the literature review above:
• Which of the questions does this literature review answer?
• Which of them doesn't it answer?
• What system has the writer used to organize the litera
review?
• Is it a good literature review? Why/why not?
HOW CAN I WRITE A GOOD LITERATURE REVIEW?
• Remember the purpose: It should answer the questions we looked at
above. Look at how published writers review the literature. You'll see that you
should use the literature to explain your research ‐ after all, you are not writing a
literature review just to tell your reader what other researchers have done. You
aim should be to show why your research needs to be carried out, how you came
to choose certain methodologies or theories to work with, how your work adds
to the research already carried out, etc.

• Read with a purpose: You need to summarize the work you read but you
must also decide which ideas or information are important to your research (so
you can emphasize them), and which are less important and can be covered
briefly or left out of your review. You should also look for the major concepts,
conclusions, theories, arguments etc. that underlie the work, and look for
similarities and differences with closely related work. This is difficult when you
first start reading, but should become easier the more you read in your area.

• Write with a purpose: Your aim should be to evaluate and show
relationships between the work already done (Is Researcher Y's theory more
convincing than Researcher X's? Did Researcher X build on the work of
Researcher Y?) and between this work and your own. In order to do this
effectively you should carefully plan how you are going to organize your work.
25


A lot of people like to organize their work chronologically (using time as their
organizing system). Unless developments over time are crucial to explain the
context of your research problem, using a chronological system will not be an
effective way to organize your work. Some people choose to organize their work
alphabetically by author name: this system will not allow you to show the
relationships between the work of different researchers, and your work, and
should be avoided!
When you read for your literature review, you are actually doing two things at
the same time (which makes things more difficult for you!):
1. You are trying to define your research problem: finding a gap, asking a
question, continuing previous research, counter‐claiming (see the Introduction
page);
2. You are trying to read every source relevant to your research problem.
Naturally, until you have defined your problem, you will find that there are
hundreds of sources that seem relevant. However, you cannot define your
problem until you read around your research area. This seems a vicious circle,
but what should happen is that as you read you define your problem, and as you
define your problem you will more easily be able to decide what to read and
what to ignore.
TRAPS
Some traps to avoid:
• Trying to read everything! As you might already have discovered, if you
try to be comprehensive you will never be able to finish the reading! The idea of
the literature review is not to provide a summary of all the published work that
relates to your research, but a survey of the most relevant and significant work.

• Reading but not writing! It's easier to read than to write: given the
choice, most of us would rather sit down with a cup of coffee and read yet
26


another article instead of putting ourselves in front of the computer to write
about what we have already read! Writing takes much more effort, doesn't it?
However, writing can help you to understand and find relationships between the
work you've read, so don't put writing off until you've "finished" reading ‐ after
all, you will probably still be doing some reading all the way through to the end
of your research project. Also, don't think of what you first write as being the
final or near‐final version. Writing is a way of thinking, so allow yourself to write
as many drafts as you need, changing your ideas and information as you learn
more about the context of your research problem.

• Not keeping bibliographic information! The moment will come when

you have to write your references page . . . and then you realize you have
forgotten to keep the information you need, and that you never got around to
putting references into your work. The only solution is to spend a lot of time in
the library tracking down all those sources that you read, and going through
your writing to find which information came from which source. If you're lucky,
maybe you can actually do this before your defence ‐ more likely, you will unable
to find all your sources, a big headache for you and your committee. To avoid
this nightmare, always keep this information in your notes. Always put
references into your writing. Notice how on this course we have referenced the
works that we have referred to ‐ you should do the same. (Access our How to
Reference page for more information about why and how to do reference).
LITERATURE REVIEW: AN EXAMPLE
Here is an example of using the literature to explain and define a problem. This
example is taken from an introduction because most thesis literature reviews
tend to be too long for us to easily look at. Although your literature review will
probably be much longer than the one below, it is useful to look at the principles
the writers have used.

On the optimal container size in automated warehouses
Y. Roll, M.J. Rosenblatt and D. Kadosh, Proceedings of the Ninth ICPR

Automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) are being introduced into the
industry and warehousing at an increasing rate. Forecasts indicate that this
trend will continue for the foreseeable future (see [1]). Research in the area of
AS/RS has followed several avenues. Early work by Hausman, Schwarz and
Graves [6, 7] was concerned with storage assignment and interleaving policies,
27


• grouped similar information: "Steudell [13], Tanchoco and

Agee[14], Tanchoco et al. [15] and Grasso and Tanchoco [5] studied
various aspects of this subject."
based on turnover rates of the various items. Elsayed [3] and Elsayed and Stern
[4] compared algorithms for handling orders in AR/RS. Additional work by
Karasawa et al. [9], Azadivar [2] and Parry et al. [11] deals with the design of an
AS/RS and the determination of its throughput by simulation and optimization
techniques.

Several researchers addressed the problem of the optimal handling unit (pallet
or container) size, to be used in material handling and warehousing systems.
Steudell [13], Tanchoco and Agee[14], Tanchoco et al. [15] and Grasso and
Tanchoco [5] studied various aspects of this subject. The last two references
incorporate the size of the pallet, or unit load, in evaluation of the optimal lot
sizes for multi‐inventory systems with limited storage space. In a report on a
specific case, Normandin [10] has demonstrated that using the 'best‐size'
container can result in considerable savings. A simulation model combining
container size and warehouse capacity considerations, in an AS/RS environment,
was developed by Kadosh [8]. The general results, reflecting the stochastic
nature of the flow of goods, are similar to those reported by Rosenblatt and Roll
[12]. Nevertheless, container size was found to affect strongly overall
warehousing costs.

In this paper, we present an analytical framework for approximating the optimal
size of a warehouse container. The approximation is based on series of
generalizations and specific assumptions. However, these are valid for a wide
range of real life situations. The underlying assumptions of the model are
presented in the following section.
Notice how the writers have:
28


• shown the relationship between the work of different

researchers, showing similarities/differences: "The general results,
reflecting the stochastic nature of the flow of goods, are similar to
those reported by Rosenblatt and Roll [12]."
• indicated the position of the work in the research area history:
"Early work by Hausman, Schwarz and Graves [6, 7] . . . "
• moved from a general discussion of the research in AS/RS to
the more specific area (optimal container size) that they themselves
are researching i.e. they relate previous work to their own to define it,
justify it and explain it.
HERE IS AN OUTLINE OF THE SAME PIECE OF WRITING
"On the optimal container size in automated warehouses"
BY: Y. Roll, M.J. Rosenblatt and D. Kadosh, Proceedings of the Ninth ICPR
1. Forecasts of increasing rate of AR/RS introduction [1]
2. Storage assignment/interleaving policies (Hausman, Schwarz, Graves [6,7])
3. Comparison of algorithms for handling orders (Elsayed [3], Elsayed & Stern
[4])
4. Design of AS/RS & determination of throughput (Karasawa et al. [9], Azadivar
[2], Parry et al. [11])
5. Optimal handling unit (Steudel [13], Tanchoco & Agee [14])
a. with pallet size/unit load (Tanchoco et al. [15], Grasso & Tanchoco [5])
b. “best‐size” gives savings (Normandin [10])
c. simulation model (Kadosh [8])
d. stochastic flow (Kadosh [8], Rosenblatt and Roll [12])
6. Summary of previous research: “container size was found to affect strongly
overall warehousing costs.”
7. Present research: “an analytical framework for approximating the optimal size
of a warehouse container.”
29


From this outline, it is clear that the writers are organizing their information
around ideas (in this case research) not around the researchers. This enables
them to focus on the research itself, to show how different research is related,
and how it all relates to their own research.
Literature Review Q & A
Questions and Answers for using literature
Which of the questions does this literature review answer?
This literature offers a summary of previous research, so it answers question 1.
It simply tells the reader what was discovered in previous research.
Which of them doesn't it answer?
This literature review doesn't answer any of the questions from 2 to 10. It
doesn't evaluate the research it summarizes, nor does it show the relationships
between the different theories, views and approaches it describes.
Which method has the writer used to organize the literature review?
The writer has organized this literature review around the researchers, and has
presented it chronologically (arranging the work by when it was published).
Notice that by organizing it around the researchers (the summaries are listed
after the names of the people who did the research) and not around the research
(e.g. around key concepts) the writer emphasizes the people and not their work.
Is it a good literature review? Why?

We don't believe that it is a good literature review. It only gives a summary of
previous research but it does not use the literature to explain more about the
writer's own research problem. Also, it is not critical: after we read it we still do
not know which theories or findings are important, which are inconclusive, what
30


the shortcomings are, etc.

The main problem with this literature review is that it does not show how
previous research relates to the writer's own research problem, or the
relationship between different research already carried out. Given the
organization the writer has used, this literature review could not be effective
literature review because there is little scope for showing relationships, drawing
comparisons, or making evaluations.
Method and Research Design
Details on Method and Research Design
• Purpose
• Common problems
• Overview
• Examples of different types of research
• Examples of method sections
• Writing your own method section
PURPOSE
The method section answers these two main questions:
1. How was the data collected or generated?
2. How was it analyzed?
In other words, it shows your reader how you obtained your results.
But why do you need to explain how you obtained your results?
• We need to know how the data was obtained because the method affects
the results. For instance, if you are investigating users' perceptions of the
efficiency of public transport in Bangkok, you will obtain different results if you
use a multiple choice questionnaire than if you conduct interviews. Knowing
how the data was collected helps the reader evaluate the validity and reliability
of your results, and the conclusions you draw from them.
31


• Often there are different methods that we can use to investigate a research
problem. Your methodology should make clear the reasons why you chose a
particular method or procedure.

• The reader wants to know that the data was collected or generated in a
way that is consistent with accepted practice in the field of study. For example, if
you are using a questionnaire, readers need to know that it offered your
respondents a reasonable range of answers to choose from (asking if the
efficiency of public transport in Bangkok is "a. excellent, b. very good or c. good"
would obviously not be acceptable as it does not allow respondents to give
negative answers).

• The research methods must be appropriate to the objectives of the study.
If you perform a case study of one commuter in order to investigate users'
perceptions of the efficiency of public transport in Bangkok, your method is
obviously unsuited to your objectives.

• The methodology should also discuss the problems that were anticipated
and explain the steps taken to prevent them from occurring, and the problems
that did occur and the ways their impact was minimized.
• In some cases, it is useful for other researchers to adapt or replicate your
methodology, so often sufficient information is given to allow others to use the
work. This is particularly the case when a new method had been developed, or
an innovative adaptation used.
32


COMMON PROBLEMS
1. Irrelevant Detail
2. Unnecessary explanation of basic procedures
Remember that you are not writing a how‐to guide for beginners. Your readers
will be people who have a level of expertise in your field and you can assume
that they are familiar with basic assessments, laboratory procedures etc, so do
not explain these in detail. For example: "Total chlorophyll content
(microgram/gram vegetable tissue) was determined spectrophotometrically by
the Anderson and Boardman method (1964), as adapted by Barth et al., (1992)"
(Barth et al., 1993). Notice that the authors do not explain the Anderson and
Boardman method (we can assume it is known in their field of study) nor their
own previous adaptation of it (because the adaptation has already been
recorded in the work they published in 1992). However they do record in detail
their own procedures that have not been previously recorded: "At each time
interval, three replicates/treatment were taken, ground (stem and florets) with
a Kitchen‐Aid grinder Model K5‐A and used for determination of reduced
ascorbic acid" (Barth et al., 1993). Notice that they specify the equipment used
because it could affect the results.
3. Problem blindness
Most of us encounter some problems when collecting or generating our data. Do
not ignore significant problems or pretend they did not occur. Often, recording
how you overcame obstacles can form an interesting part of the methodology,
and means you can also give a rationale for certain decisions, plus a realistic
view of using the methods you chose.
OVERVIEW
• Introduction: Introduction of research problem introduction

of objectives introduction of how objectives will be achieved
(methodology), optional introduction of main findings and
conclusions, optional
• Literature review: Review of previous work relating to

research problem (to define, explain, justify) review of previous work
relating to methodology (to define, explain, justify) review of
33


previous work relating to results (particularly reliability, etc.)
• Method: How the results were achieved): explanation of how

data was collected/generated · explanation of how data was analyzed
explanation of methodological problems and their solutions or effects
• Results and Discussion: Presentation of results interpretation
of results discussion of results (e.g. comparison with results in
previous research, effects of methods used on the data obtained)
• Conclusions: Has the research problem been “solved”? to what
extent have the objectives been achieved? what has been learnt from
the results? how can this knowledge be used? what are the
shortcomings of the research, or the research methodology? etc.
This is how method fits into your thesis:
EXAMPLES OF DIFFERENT TYPE OF RESEARCH
• Analysis: Classes of data are collected and studies conducted to discern
patterns and formulate principles that might guide future action.

• Case Study: The background, development, current conditions and
environmental interactions of one or more individuals, groups, communities,
businesses or institutions is observed, recorded and analyzed for stages of
patterns in relation to internal and external influences.

• Comparison: Two or more existing situations are studied to determine
their similarities and differences.

• CorrelationPrediction: Statistically significant correlation coefficients
between and among a number of factors are sought and interpreted.

• Evaluation: Research to determine whether a program or project
followed the prescribed procedures and achieved the stated outcomes.

• Designdemonstration: New systems or programs are constructed,
tested and evaluated

• Experiment: One or more variables are manipulated and the results
analyzed.

34


• Surveyquestionnaire: Behaviors, beliefs and observations of specific

groups are identified, reported and interpreted.

• Status: A representative or selected sample of one or more phenomena is
examined to determine its special characteristics.
• Theory Construction: An attempt to find or describe principles that
explain how things work the way they do.

• Trend Analysis: Predicting or forecasting the future direction of events.
METHOD SECTION: AN EXAMPLE
The following example is abridged (the introduction has been removed, as well
as the results, discussion and conclusions).
Task: Look for the purpose of each part of the methodology. Examine each
sentence and see if you can decide its function. Here is a range of possibilities to
help you: rationale (reasons for doing something), description (e.g. of
equipment), purpose (e.g. of the model), application (how something is used),
structure of the research (the order in which information will be given),
assumptions (for a model), parameters (these may be variables that are
measured).

Click on the highlighted sentences for suggested answers. The answers are
designed for you to jump and forth rather than to read as a complete text.

Production and Storage of Ice for Cooling Buildings

Wubben, E.A., Shapiro, H.N. and Nelson, R.M. Transactions of the ASME, Vol. 111,
pp. 338 ‐ , 1989.

35


Abstract

A strategy that may provide economic benefits in buildings is to use and ice
production system to provide cool storage for later use when cooling is needed.
Understanding the fundamental dynamics of the storage tank is critical in
determining the feasibility of such strategies. For this purpose, a lumped
parameter model of ice growth on a heat exchanger is developed. Results of an
experimental study of an ice storage system installed in a residential research
facility are also presented. The results of the parametric study are also presented
that show some of the effects of geometric and operation variables on system
performance. Trends exhibited in the results suggest ways to optimize ice
production for the particular exchanger studied.

Introduction

Lumped Parameter Model of Ice Growth
In this section, governing equations are developed to model ice growth on the
heat exchanger plates. The model is intended to characterize the dynamics of the
ice growth without the [added problem] of the detailed ice profiles. The
presentation begins with mass and energy balances and concludes with the
development of a model for the heat transfer between the water and the coolant.

Energy and Mass Balances
An analytical model of a storage tank and heat exchanger was constructed to
predict the amount of ice that could be produced on the heat exchanger. The
model predicts the energy flows into and out of the storage tank by considering
energy and mass balances for a suitable control volume. The rates of energy
removal from the tank are related to parameters that depend on the properties
of the storage medium, the physical characteristics of the system, and the
environmental conditions. After this model was verified by experiments, it was
used to predict the effects of these parameters on the system performance.

The heat exchanger, illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, consists of two plates with
attached tubes placed in parallel between supply and return headers. This type
of heat exchanger was chosen because of its thermal characteristics, large
surface area, ready availability, and because the ice remains attached to the heat
36


exchanger. To simplify the model, no stratification of the water is allowed in the
storage tank. A submerged pump is placed in the tank to keep the water well
mixed.
WRITING YOUR OWN METHOD SECTION
• Bear in mind the purpose of the method section.
• Keep notes of what you did, why you did it, and what happened. Some
researchers keep research diaries so that they have a record of the methods they
used. Make sure you develop some way of recording your work, and that you
then carefully select which material to include in your final methodology section.
• Remember who your audience will be, and be careful not to include
unnecessary details.
• Avoid using "I" to write about what you did. Do not use "we" unless you
really were working with one or more other researchers. One way to avoid this
problem is to use passive voice.
• Verb tenses ‐ be consistent, and choose the correct one!
Method Text Analysis
Method and Research Design Text Analysis
"In this section," "begins with," "concludes with"
Structure of the written report: the writers are telling you how
their research will be presented in the following section,
including the topic and the order in which information will
appear. This is useful because it gives an overview of the
methodology section and therefore makes what follows easier
to understand. Without an overview it may not be evident why
the author/s are presenting certain material or the relevance of
certain sections. This first paragraph functions like an
introduction to the following section. Usually every section of a
piece of research writing has some form of introduction that
gives the main points of what follows or outlines the structure
37


of the research.
"is intended to," "was constructed to"
Purpose: in this case, the purpose of the model. Very often in
methodology sections the purpose is given first, or at least very
early because knowing the aim of the research is obviously
paramount to understanding how the researcher/s set out to
achieve their objectives. Later, in the second paragraph, the
more specific purpose (in this case to predict) is given.
>The model predicts"
What the model does: the model predicts energy flows. In this

sentence we learn a more specific purpose than was given in the
previous paragraph, and are given more information about how
it works.
"The rates of energy removal from the tank are related to
parameters"
Functioning of the system: here the authors tell us which
variables affect the rate of energy removal, i.e. how the system
functions. In the following sentence we are told that the model
is used to predict the effect of these parameters.
"it was used"
Application: how the model was used, in this case as a method of
predicting how well the system would work.
"consists of"
Description: a description of the model, in this case the physical
equipment assumed in the model.
"was chosen because"
Rationale: reasons why this method (in this case, this heat
exchanger) were chosen for this model. It is often crucial to give
38


an explanation in order to justify decisions.
"To simplify the model"
Assumptions: models necessarily involve simplifying reality.

Here the authors specify their assumptions (no stratification in
the water), and provide a rationale for why they can assume
this to be true (a submerged pump in the tank is assumed to
keep the water sufficiently well mixed).

Verb Tense and Method
FOR YOUR THESIS OR DISSERTATION PROPOSAL
Because you haven't yet carried out your research, you should write about what
you plan to do in the future tense (because you will do the work at some point in
the future). For example:
A multiple choice questionnaire will be administered to the top managers of fifty
information technology companies in the country.
Use "will" to make the future tense rather than the more informal "going to."
For facts or information that are true and unlikely to change, write about them in
the present tense. For example:
A multiple choice questionnaire will be used since it offers a way to reduce the
time respondents will need to complete it, and therefore to increase the number
of completed questionnaires.
The fact that the multiple choice questionnaire offers a way to reduce
completion time is true whether the questionnaire is administered today or next
year (it is always true), so "offers" is used instead of "will offer."
39


FOR YOUR THESIS OR DISSERTATION
Most of your methodology section will be written in the past tense because you
are recording what you have done. Notice too that it is usually written in the
simple past (the verb tense used for events that are now finished). For example:
1) The sample was weighed.
2) Fish seed were added to the pool.
3) A thermometer recorded changes in external temperature.
These sentences are written in the past tense, because an action took place and
is now finished. (For example in 1, the sample was weighed on the 18th August,
1996 at 3pm and is not still being weighed ‐ the action of weighing is finished so
simple past is used). Notice that although 1, 2 and 3 are all in the simple past, 1
and 2 are passive verbs while 3 is active. (See Passive and Active Voice for more
information). For facts or information that are true and unlikely to change, write
about them in the present tense. For example:
Vietnam was chosen for this study because it has a long coastline.
(Present tense is used because we assume that the length of Vietnam's coastline
is unlikely to change.)
Cornmeal was used to feed the fingerlings because it provides high nutritional
content at a relatively low cost.
(Present tense is used because we assume that neither the nutritional content
nor the cost of corn meal is likely to change.)
Other verb tenses may also be used, for example to describe one event
happening during another. Example:
Ethyl alcohol was added while the sample was being dried.
(past continuous passive)
40


Notice, too
• the present tense is used to talk about the thesis or dissertation
itself and what it contains, shows, etc.
For example:
Table 3 shows that the main cause of weight increase was nutritional value of
the feed. (Table 3 will always show this ‐ it is now a fact that is unlikely to
change, and will be true whenever this sentence is read, so present tense is
used.)
• "to" is often used to mean "in order to"
• "by" is usually followed by a verb ending in ‐ing
AN EXAMPLE OF VERB TENSES AND VERB TENSE SHIFTS
Look at the text below and see if you can decide why each highlighted tense has
been used. Find suggested answers by clicking on the words, then return to the
text by using the arrows.
Takii, K. and Shimano, S. et al.. In The Current Status of Fish Nutrition in
Aquaculture, Takeda, M. And Watanabe, T. (Eds.)

Materials and Methods

Formulations and proximate compositions of the experimental diets are shown
in Table 1. Brown fish meal was used to provide approximately 54% (dry matter
basis) crude protein for the control diet 1. In diets 2‐4 and 5, approximately 15‐
46% and 31% of the fish meal was isonitrogenously substituted with a soy
protein concentrate (SPC), respectively, diets 2‐4 were supplemented with the
essential amino acids (DL‐menthionin, L‐lysine, L‐histidine, L‐valine and L‐
threonin) to simulate the composition of the control diet 1. Feeding stimulants
(L‐alanine, L‐proline and 5’‐IMP) were supplemented to each diet. The SPC used
in this experiment was DANPRO‐A, product of Aarhus Olie Co., Ltd, (Denmark,
supplied by Bayer Japan Co., Ltd., which contains a high level of crude protein
and a low level of trypsin inhibitors, as a result of the treatments of defatting,
41


ethanol extraction and toasting.

Moist pellets were prepared by thoroughly mixing the dry ingredients with oil
and cold water and then extruding the dough through a laboratory pelleting
machine. Resulting pellets, 3 or 5 mm in diameter, were stored at ‐20 degrees
until use.
For information about voice, see Passive and Active Voice.
Description of above example
are shown in Table 1: simple present (passive). Always use simple present to
refer the reader to a table or figure in your text.
was used to provide/was isonitrogenously substituted/were

supplemented/were prepared/were stored: simple past (passive) ‐ this is the
most commonly used tense in a method section because it describes actions that
are now finished. Passive Voice because it sounds more objective not to use “I”
(see Active and Passive).
used/was/supplied by: simple past. The product was used (an action now
finished). In this experiment (now finished) the product was DANPRO‐A. The
product was supplied (also an action that is now finished).
contains: we assume that what the product contains is unlikely to change,
therefore we can describe it in the present tense.
42


Voice in the Method chapter
43


Passive and Active Voice
Verbs can be used in either in the passive voice (The biscuit was eaten by the
dog OR The biscuit was eaten) or the active voice (The dog ate the biscuit).
What does it matter? Well, using passive or active voice changes the emphasis of
a piece of writing. For example:
"The biscuit was eaten by the dog." This sentence is passive because the main
focus of the sentence is on the biscuit, but the biscuit does not do anything ‐
instead something is done to the biscuit (by the dog). In fact, we can even leave
out the part about who performed the action: The biscuit was eaten.
"The dog ate the biscuit." This is active because the main focus of our attention is
on the dog, and the dog is the one who does something (it eats the biscuit).
WHY USE PASSIVE VOICE?
People reading your thesis or dissertation are going to be far less interested in
you than in your work so the emphasis should be on what you did and not on
you. Also, by not saying "I weighed the sample" but "The sample was weighed"
you make your writing sound more objective.
HOW DO I MAKE THE PASSIVE VOICE?
Passive voice is the verb to be followed by a past participle: For example:
• Rice is grown in Thailand. (simple present is plus past participle grown)
• The film is being shown at Future Park Mall. (present continuous is being
plus past participleshown)
• The sample was weighed to find its dry weight. (simple past was plus past
participle weighed)
• The samples were being dried . (past continuous were being plus past
participle dried)
• The interviews will be conducted in groups. (future will be plus past
participle conducted)
44


WRITING ABOUT WHAT THE RESEARCHERS HAVE DONE
Research writing usually avoids using "I" or "we" (although "we" is becoming
more acceptable in co‐authored papers). By convention, if the passive voice is
used we assume that an action was carried out by the researcher/s, and we don't
say directly who did it. For example:

INCORRECT
The temperature inside the chamber was increased from 0 C to 20 C by the
researcher.

CORRECT
The temperature inside the chamber was increased from 0 C to 20 C. (We
assume the researcher increased the temperature.)

INCORRECT
Four thermocouples were monitored hourly by the researcher.

CORRECT
Four thermocouples were monitored hourly. (We assume the researcher
monitored them.)
WRITING ABOUT WHAT THE EQUIPMENT HAS DONE?
The active voice is usually used when the equipment has performed an action
(i.e. when it is not the researcher/s who have performed the action). For
example:
• A 200hp generator provided power to the piezometers.
• Control gauges monitored air pressure inside the chamber.
• The use of active voice indicates that the researchers were not directly
involved in the functioning of the equipment.

The passive voice can be used to describe an action involving equipment,
but a "by" clause must be included to which equipment performed the
action. For example: Power was supplied by 14 generators with
capacities ranging from 90 to 300 KW.
45


Results
DETAILS ON THIS SECTION

Purpose
Whats the results and discussion sections include?

Common problem

Organization
An Example
Some Advices
PURPOSE

To present the results and make them meaningful to the reader.

WHATS THE RESULTS AND DISCUSSION SECTIONS INCLUDE

Statement of results: the results are presented in a format that is accessible to
the reader (e.g. in a graph, table, diagram or written text). Notice that raw data
is usually put in an appendix, if it is included at all.

Explanatory text: all graphs, tables, diagrams and figures should be accompanied
by text that guides the reader's attention to significant results. The text makes
the results meaningful by pointing out the most important results, simplifying
the results (e.g. "nearly half" instead of "48.9%"), highlighting significant trends
or relationships (e.g. "the rate of oxygenation decreases as the temperature
decreases"), and perhaps commenting on whether certain results were expected
or unexpected.

46


COMMON PROBLEM

The text includes too much detail that simply repeats data presented in graphs,
tables, etc. without making the results meaningful.

Solution: remember that tables etc. are used to present a lot of information
efficiently, but that your job is to direct the reader's attention to significant parts
of this information.

ORGANIZATION

There are two basic ways of organizing the results:

Presenting all the results, then giving a discussion (perhaps in a different
section)

Presenting part of the results then giving a discussion, presenting another part
then giving a discussion, etc.

The method of organization you use will depend on the quantity and type of
results you obtain from your research. You should look for a method of
presentation that makes the information and ideas you are presenting as clear as
possible to the reader.

AN EXAMPLE

Below is part of the results section from "Strategies of failure diagnosis in
computer‐controlled manufacturing systems: empirical analysis and
implications for the design of adaptive decision support systems." Part of the
discussion can be found on the Discussion page.
Task: read through the part of the results section below and try to find the
purpose of each sentence. Click on the highlighted phrases for suggested
47


answers. Here are some ideas to help you: explanation, reference to a figure,
statement of results, making the results meaningful, comparison.

Strategies of failure diagnosis in computer‐controlled manufacturing systems:
empirical analysis and implications for the design of adaptive decision support
systems
Konradt, U. International Journal of Human‐Computer Studies (1995) 43, 503‐
521

SUMMARY (adapted from the abstract)

Objective of the study: to investigate strategies in failure diagnosis at cutting‐
machine‐tools with a verbal knowledge acquisition technique.

Method: semi‐structured interviews with mechanical and electrical
maintenance technicians; protocol analysis was performed on the data. Analysis
of strategies was performed according to technicians’ experience, familiarity
with the problem and the problem complexity. The technicians were categorized
by level of experience.

Results

Figure 2 shows that the most frequent diagnosis strategies were “Historical
information” (29% of the 182 observed strategies), “Least effort” (11.5%),
“Reconstruction” (9.8%) and “Sensory check” (8.7%) (see Appendix). Strategies
such as “Historical information”, which check available information about the
failure history, and “Least effort” are two low cost technical checks which
shorten the time needed for diagnosis activities (see Appendix). Strategies such
as “Split half”, leading to a binary reduction of the problem space, and
“Information uncertainty” play only a minor role in real‐life failure diagnosis of
machine tools (1.1%, see Figure 2).

48


Historical information (29.0)
Least effort (11.5)
Reconstruction (9.8)
Sensory checks (8.7)
Systematic narrowing (6.6)
Signal tracing (6.0)
Conditional probability (5.5)
Frequency (4.9)
Exclusion (3.3)
Manuals (3.3)
Pattern of symptoms (2.7)
Topographical search (2.2)
Diagnosis software (1.6)
Split half (1.1)
Information uncertainty (1.1)
Miscellaneous (2.7)

Figure 5.2: Frequencies of failure diagnosis strategies (n=182)

"Figure2 shows"
Reference to a figure. Notice that the present tense is used ("shows"). Usually
references to figures, tables etc. are put in parenthesis rather than in the main
body of the sentence because they are of secondary importance to the results
themselves.

"the most frequentdiagnosis strategies were"
The writer is pointing out the significance of three of the results (i.e. that they
were the most frequent diagnosis strategies). Notice that the writers refers to
the figure containing the information ("Figure 2 shows"), and that detailed
percentages are de‐emphasized by being included only in parentheses. In fact,
this detailed information does not need to be included in the text since it appears
in the figure. For more detailed information, the reader is referred to the
49


appendix: "(see Appendix)." Notice that this reference is in parentheses too as it
is not part of the main body of the sentence.

"are twolow‐cost technical checks which"
The writer is summarizing the benefits of two of the strategies in order to
indicate why they were most frequently used. Although this is in fact discussion,
it is helpful for the reader to have this information while looking at the results. A
detailed discussion of the results appears in the Discussion section of the same
article.

"playonly a minor role"
The writer is pointing out the least frequent strategies. In this case, the low
frequency of these strategies is of interest (see the Discussion section of the
same article) and therefore the reader's attention is directed towards them.

SOME ADVICES

References to the figure and to the appendix are generally put in parentheses,
e.g. "(see Appendix)" because this information is of secondary importance. Of
primary importance are the results themselves, so most of the sentences focuses
on them. Look at the following two sentences. Which one is more effective?
Remember the purpose of the text in a results section. Click on them to find out.

a) Table 1 shows the results from the laboratory experiment.

b) The results from the laboratory experiment indicate that the reaction
proceeds faster in the presence of this metal (see Table 1).

a) Table 1 shows the results from the laboratory experiment."
The point of this sentence is just to tell the reader to look at Table 1. It does not
make the results in Table 1 meaningful because it does not comment on them.

b)The results from the laboratory experiment indicate that the reaction
proceeds faster in the presence of this metal (see Table 1)".
This sentence is more effective than a) because it makes the results in the table
meaningful by pointing out a relationship between the speed of the reaction and
the presence of the metal. Notice that the reference to the table is de‐emphasized
by being put in parentheses because it is of only secondary importance.
50


Discussion
DETAILS ON DISCUSSION SECTION
• The Purpose of the Discussion section and what it includes
• Common Problem
• Organization
• An Example
• Some Advices
PURPOSE AND CONTENT OF THE DISCUSSION SECTION
The discussion section is for comment on and explanation of the results.
It includes:
• Explanation of results: the writer comments on whether or not the
results were expected, and presents explanations for the results, particularly for
those that are unexpected or unsatisfactory.

• References to previous research: comparison of the results with those
reported in the literature, or use of the literature to support a claim, hypothesis
or deduction.

• Deduction: a claim for how the results can be applied more generally (a
conclusion based on reasoning from the results, e.g. we fed fish a new feed, all
the fish gained weight, therefore the new feed causes fish to gain weight).
• Hypothesis: a more general claim or possible conclusion arising from the
results (which will be proved or disproved in later research).
51


COMMON PROBLEM
The discussion does not discuss ‐ simply supplies more detail about the results
obtained.
Solution: remember that the discussion should explain the results.
ORGANIZATION
There are two basic ways of organizing the results and discussion:
1. Presenting all the results, then giving a discussion (perhaps in a different
section)

2. Presenting part of the results then giving a discussion, presenting another
part then giving a discussion, etc
The method of organization you use will depend on the quantity and type of
results you obtain from your research. You should look for a method of
presentation that makes the information and ideas you are presenting as clear as
possible to the reader.
AN EXAMPLE
Below is part of the discussion section from "Strategies of failure diagnosis in
computer‐controlled manufacturing systems: empirical analysis and
implications for the design of adaptive decision support systems." Part of the
results section was included on the Results page of this online course. The
square brackets indicate the information that has been left out.
Task: read through the discussion section and try to find the purpose of each
sentence. Click on the highlighted phrases for suggested answers. Here are some
ideas to help you: explanation, purpose, supporting reference, theory,
description, summary, comparison.
52


Strategies of failure diagnosis in computercontrolled manufacturing

systems: empirical analysis and implications for the design of adaptive
decision support systems
Konradt, U. International Journal of Human‐Computer Studies (1995) 43, 503‐
521
SUMMARY (adapted from the abstract)

Objective of the study: to investigate strategies in failure diagnosis at cutting‐
machine‐tools with a verbal knowledge acquisition technique.

Method: semi‐structured interviews with mechanical and electrical
maintenance technicians; protocol analysis was performed on the data. Analysis
of strategies was performed according to technicians’ experience, familiarity
with the problem and the problem complexity. The technicians were categorized
by level of experience.

Discussion: Strategies in Real‐life Diagnosis
In fault diagnosis in advanced manufacturing systems, four typical strategies are
found:
• Restriction of diagnosis to components which are known and susceptible
to failures (“Historical information”);

• Performing tests that result in least efforts (“Least effort”);

• Reconstruction of the conditions that lead to the failure
(“Reconstruction”);

• Perception of symptoms, i.e. loose connections, odors, sounds, play
(“Sensory checks”).

These strategies appeared in about 60% of the total observed strategies. The
primary strategy was “Historical Information”. This corresponds to the results of
Hoc (1989). In information theory, strategies such as “Information uncertainty”,
which eliminates the greatest number of failure causes, or “Split half”, which
53


results in a binary splitting of the problem space, are economical ways to
shorten the problem space. We found that in real‐life failure diagnosis, even
maintenance experts with more than 20 years experience seldom used these
strategies. One reason may be that the use of this strategy requires information
about conditional probabilities and a fully described problem space that cannot
be supposed for troubleshooting in complex manufacturing systems.
Discussion Text Analysis
"The primary strategy was “Historical Information": Up to this point, the
writer is providing a summary of the results by highlighting the most significant
findings
"corresponds to the results of Hoc (1989)": The writer supports the validity
of the results by referring to similar results obtained by another researcher.
"In information theory": The writer summarizes relevant information from the
theory. Notice how this is important to put the writer's own research into
context (see the next sentence).
"We found that": The writer summarizes the results in order to show that they
differ from what the theory would predict (the theory was summarized in the
previous sentence).
"One reason may be": The writer suggests why the results from this study do
not correspond with the theory, i.e. the writer is explaining the difference
between theory and this study's results outlined in the previous sentences.
54


SOME ADVICES
• If you are putting your discussion into a discussion section separate from
the results, you may want to provide a summary of the results to remind your
reader of your main findings.

• Put your results in context (e.g. by comparing them with previous
research, or with existing theory) in order to explain them.

• Give reasons to account for differences between your research and
previous research or existing theory, or to explain unexpected results.

• Although there may be some repetition of information in the results and
discussion sections, it should be kept to a minimum.

• Remember too that the focus should be different: while you are simply
presenting results and making them meaningful to your reader in the results
section, in the discussion section you are explaining them.

CONCLUSION

Detail on Conclusion Section

Purpose
Common Problems
Examples
Purpose

To give a summary of:

What was learned (this usually comes first)

What remains to be learned (directions for future research)

The shortcomings of what was done (evaluation)

55


The benefits, advantages, applications, etc. of the research (evaluation), and

Recommendations.

COMMON PROBLEM

Too long: The conclusion section should be short. Often the conclusion section is
as little as 2.5% of an entire piece of published research.

Too much detail: Conclusions that are too long often have unnecessary detail.
The conclusion section is not the place for details about your methodology or
results. Although you should give a summary of what was learnt from your
research, this summary should be short, since the emphasis in the conclusions
section is on the implications, evaluations, etc. that you make.

Failure to comment on larger, more significant issues: Whereas in the
introduction your task was to move from general (your field) to specific (your
research), in the concluding section your task is to move from specific (your
research) back to general (your field, how your research will affect the world). In
other words, in the conclusion you should put your research in context.

Failure to reveal the complexities of a conclusion or situation: Negative
aspects of your research should not be ignored. Problems, drawbacks etc. can be
included in summary in your conclusion section as a way of qualifying your
conclusions (i.e. pointing out the negative aspects, even if they are outweighed
by the positive aspects.

Lack of a concise summary of what was learned: In order to be able to discuss
how your research fits back into your field of study (and the world at large) you
need to summarize it very briefly. Often the summary is only a few sentences.

Failure to match the objectives of the research: Often research objectives
change while the research is being carried out. This is not a problem unless you
forget to go back and rewrite your original objectives in your introduction so
that they accurately reflect what you were trying to accomplish in your research
(not what you thought you might accomplish when you began).

56


Here is an example of an objective and conclusion that do not match:

Objective: The main objective of this study was to assess the impact of
roadbuilding on villages on rural communities.

Conclusion: The model produced in this study can accurately predict the social
and economic impact of road‐building on villages in northern Laos.

If we rewrite the objective to match what we actually did (we developed a
model), it will fit the conclusion:

Rewritten objective: The main objective of this study was to develop a model to
predict the social and economic impact of road‐building on rural communities.

EXAMPLES

Read the texts below and see if you can decide the purpose of each highlighted
sentence (e.g. summary of research, major conclusion, problems/drawbacks and
other negative aspects, qualified conclusion, directions for future research,
structure of the writing). Click on each sentence for suggested answers, then use
the arrows to return to the texts.

Example 1
Analysis of coupled shear/core walls using a beam‐type finite element
Kwan, A. K. H., and Cheung, Y. K. (1994) Engineering Structures. Vol 16 No 2.
Conclusions

The Sisodiya and Cheung beam‐type element is found to be particularly suitable
for the analysis of coupled shear/core wall structures. However, it is not without
problems. Firstly, when connected with coupling beams, it yields large
fluctuations of shear stresses which are not realistic.Secondly it gives only the
average bending moments within the elements but would not give directly the
maximum bending moments needed for structural design. Thirdly, the finite
57


element method is computationally less efficient than many other methods.
These problems have been studied and the following remedies are proposed.
To resolve the problem with shear stress evaluation, it is suggested that the
shear stresses in the element should be determined from the horizontal nodal
forces acting on the element instead of from the strain‐displacement relation of
the element. This can eliminate all the unrealistic fluctuation of shear stresses
and produce shear stress results which are always in equilibrium with the
external loads. To resolve the problem with bending stress evaluation, it is
proposed to use the element in pairs in the form of a composite element and
apply linear extrapolation to determine the maximum axial and bending
stresses. Finally, in order to improve the computational efficiency of the method,
the number of unknowns to be solved is reduced by neglecting the lateral strains
in the walls which are generally insignificant. After these modifications, it is
believed that the improved beam‐type element method is a better method than
most others for the analysis of coupled shear/core wall structures.
Example 1 ‐ Text Analysis
"The Sisodiya and Cheung beam‐type element is found to be . . . ."
Major conclusion of the research. (The objective was the assess the suitability of
the Sisodiya and Cheung beam‐type element for analysis of coupled shear/core
wall structures). Notice that this conclusion is very general ‐ no details are given
here about research findings as they were given in the Results section.
"However, it is not without problems."
Evaluation. The previous sentence concluded that the beam was suitable. Now
the authors moderate this conclusion by summarising their negative findings.
"Firstly . . . Secondly . . . Thirdly . . ."
This helps the reader know the structure of the writing: notice how the authors
have clearly labelled the three drawbacks. By following the same order for the
solutions they propose, they make it easy for the reader to follow their
argument.
"These problems have been studied and the following remedies are proposed."
This indicates the structure of the writing: this sentence serves as a link between
the problems just listed and the solutions that follow in the next paragraph. By
58


using this sentence as a link, the writers make it clear to the reader what will
come next and why. Such links (or "transitions") make writing easier to follow.
"After these modifications . . . ."
Qualified conclusion (evaluation). Taking into consideration its drawbacks, the

Sisodiya Cheung beam‐type element method is still seen as the one of the best
methods for analysis. Notice that the authors have discussed the problems
involved in this method, making this qualified conclusion more complex than the
initial conclusion they drew at the beginning of their conclusion section.
Example 2
Buckling solutions for Mindlin plates of various shapes
Wang, C. M., Y. Xiang., S. Kitipornchai, and K. M. Liew (1994). Engineering
Structures, Vol 16, No 2.
Conclusion

New buckling solutions for regular polygonal, elliptical, semicircular and annular
Mindlin plaes under isotropic inplane loads have been presented. It can be seen
that the shear deformation effect depresses the buckling loads more significantly
with increasing plate thickness and greater boundary restraint. Future research
on such plate buckling problems should be directed at considering: firstly, other
loading conditions, such as shear loading, partial loadings and non‐uniform
loadings at the edges; and secondly, boundary conditions involving point
supports, mixed edge conditions and elastic restraints.
Example 2 ‐ Text Analysis
"New buckling solutions . . . have been presented."
This is the short summary (or overview) of the research.
"It can be seen . . . greater boundary restraint."
This is the major conclusion. This is the main information learnt from the
research.
"Future research on such plate buckling problems should be directed at. . . "
59


Directions for future research. The present research added to the body of
knowledge in this field, but other gaps still remain or have been discovered.
These gaps are identified as being in need of research.
REFERENCING
Details on Referencing Section

What is referencing?
What must I reference?
What do I need to reference?
Different referencing systems
Which system should I use?
Referencing online sources
Quoting and paraphrasing
Plagiarism

What is Referencing?

Referencing (also called citing or documenting) your sources means

systematically showing what information or ideas you are quoting or
paraphrasing, and where they come from. You are entitled to use someone else's
words, ideas or information in your work ‐ and in fact you have to do so ‐ but you
must show that they are not your own by indicating their source.
Referencing systems vary between different fields of study and between
different journals or publishers within a field of study. Despite this variation, all
referencing systems have the same basic components:
an in‐text reference to show that a piece of information, idea, quotation, etc. you
have included in your writing belongs to another writer. It is always designed to
be short because it is interrupting the text, and is usually in parentheses:

60


In recent years, there has been a rapid increase in car sales in Thailand (Honda
1995).

OR

In recent years, there has been a rapid increase in car sales in Thailand (Honda,
1995).

OR

In recent years, there has been a rapid increase in car sales in Thailand (Honda
135).

OR

In recent years there has been a rapid increase in car sales in Thailand [1].

OR

In recent years there has been a rapid increase in car sales in Thailand1.

The reader then uses the in‐text reference to find full bibliographic information
(about when and where the source was published, and by which publisher)
either at the end of the page or more usually at the end of the paper (as a
footnote), thesis or book (depending on the referencing system used).

A referencing system that in the text uses the author's family name will always
list sources on the references page alphabetically by author's family name; a
referencing system that uses numerical in‐text references will usually list
sources in the order in which they appear in the writing (not by author's name).
This enables the reader to find sources easily.
Problems

Mixing two referencing systems. If you are using (name year) for your in‐text
references, do not list your sources by number on your references page because
your reader will be looking for the author's name. Similarly, if you are using
numerical in‐text references, you cannot list your sources on your references
page by author name ‐ your reader will be looking for numbers.
61


What should you do if there is more than one author listed? For the in‐text
reference, for a paper with two authors list by paper by both (for example, Shaw
and Clayton, 1996), but for a paper with more than two authors list by the main
author and add et al. (literally "and the others"), e.g. (Jones, Suzuki and Chan
1997) is written as (Jones et al., 1997). Note: do not change the order of the
names, i.e. you cannot write (Chan et al., 1997) because Chan is not the main
author.
What should I do if there is no author listed? Some articles are credited to
organizations rather than to individuals (e.g. many software manuals) so the
organization is listed as the "author." Many on‐line materials do not have an
author listed: again, often the organization is used or, if no organization owns
the material, then it is referred to by its title. See the links below for more details
for both electronic and print materials.
Adapting existing referencing systems for your own work. Why make work for
yourself by adapting an existing referencing style? Use a referencing style that is
commonly used in your field and use it yourself. Besides, strange, new styles will
only confuse your reader (and as a student, your readers are your professors),
and are often used just because the writer didn't bother to follow an existing
referencing style! [Ask your advisor]
What should you do if you want to use information by Writer X that you have
found quoted or paraphrased in Writer Y? Your first choice should be to refer to
the original source. For example: you find a book by Honda published in 1993
that says: "A study by Singh (1990) has shown that 60% of clowns suffer from
chronic depression". If you want to use this information, try to find the study by
Singh and read it for yourself. If this is difficult or impractical, you should
indicate where you found the information. You cannot attribute the information
simply to Honda (as that writer was not the person who did the research) and
you cannot attribute it to Singh (unless you have read Singh's study). Instead, in
your research, you will write something like this:
"Previous research supports this argument, since it has been found that 60% of
clowns are sufferers of chronic depression (Singh, 1990, cited in Honda, 1993)."
This shows that you found the information from Singh in a piece by Honda and
that you did not read the original, i.e. if there's a mistake, it's Honda's not yours.
62


WHAT MUST I REFERENCE?
All work done by other researchers, and that you want to refer to in your own
writing.
Other writers' words
You must reference (in other words, indicate the source of) all information and
ideas from existing work that you use in your writing, whether you use the
source's words or your own. All information that is not referenced is assumed to
be general knowledge (in your field) or to come directly from you, so neglecting
to reference someone's work often means you are leading your reader to believe
that the work is your own (see the section on plagiarism for more details about
this).
WHAT DO I NEED TO REFERENCE?

• General knowledge (e.g. that George W. Bush is the President of the U.S.A.,
that China has a larger population than Thailand),

• Information that is common knowledge in your field, and

• Ideas that are definitely your own, and findings or insights from your own
research.

PROBLEMS

1. What should you do if you find that your idea has already been published by
another writer?

Acknowledge the other writer's work, for example by writing in your reference
something like: (see also Wong, 1993). You must not ignore the other author's
work, because your readers may think that you have either taken the idea or
information without referencing (this is plagiarism) or that you do not have a
good idea of the literature in your field.

63


2. What should you do if you want to use an adapted version of someone else's
work?
You must still cite the original work. For example, maybe you are using a
diagram from an article by Wattana published in 1996, but you have altered it.
Reference the adapted diagram as (adapted from Wattana 1996). You can also
use other terms in order to specify the exact relationship between the source
and the version you have presented e.g. based on Wattana 1996, summarized
from Wattana 1996, etc.
3. What should you do if several authors have published very similar
information or ideas?
You can indicate that the idea or information can be found in the work of more
than one author, e.g. Though in fact many authors have described this kind of
system (for example, Hynes, 1989; Wu, 19991; Lefrère, 1994) little work has
been done on extending it to application to robotic systems. If you only reference
one author, then your readers may assume that only one author has published
this on this topic, or that you have not read the literature thoroughly and are not
aware of the other work published in this area. Use your referencing to give your
readers a clear idea of the situation, not a distorted one, and to demonstrate
your knowledge.
4. Should you avoid referencing other people's work?
Referencing other people's work is NOT a sign of weakness in their own work. In
fact, the opposite is true. If you write up your research with no references to
previous work, you are indicating to your reader that you are not familiar with
the research that has already been done, and are therefore undermining your
own credibility and the validity of your own work. Including references is a way
of demonstrating your knowledge of your field ‐ therefore you must refer to
previous work.

5. What if I find exactly what I want to say in other people's writing?

It depends on what it is; if someone else has done the same thesis as you, then
you're going to have to change your topic, or find something new to say about
what you're doing.

If it is someone else's particularly succinct expression, but fits perfectly what you
have been trying to say, you can quote directly, citing the page reference as well
as the author and year of publication.
64


DIFFERENT RESERENCING SYSTEM

Chicago style: This referencing system is used widely in science and technology,
and in some fields of the humanities. The in‐text reference uses the family name
of the author/s plus the year the work was published:

In‐text reference:

(Smith 1978) Note: no comma between name and date
OR . . . according to Smith (1978)
If there are more than two authors, generally the name of the first is used
followed by the words "et al." (which means "and others"). E.g.: The yield has
substantially increased since 1993 (Wong et al. 1997).

References page:

This page comes at the end of the paper, thesis or book (but before any
appendices) and has full bibliographic information. In other words, it provides
all the publication (or other information about the source) that readers need to
either find it themselves or to assess its validity. It contains a list arranged
alphabetically by the last name of the main author and only includes works that
have been referred to in the text (i.e. that have in‐text references.

Example:

Smith P. 1988. An argument against wet paddy mechanization of wet paddy
agriculture. Journal of Rice Production, 8: 34‐60.

Wong, X., M. Singh and P. Duncan. 1997. Increasing rice yields in wet paddy.
Agricultural Review 15: 167‐191.

For full information, see The Chicago Manual of Style (available in languages'
Learning Resource Center, Room 236). For example for sources not mentioned
here, such as anonymous sources, interviews, TV programs.

65


APA (American Psychological Association) Style:

This system is primarily used by those writing in the social sciences. It is similar
to the Chicago style outlined above. For more information, consult the University
of Southern Mississippi on‐line tip‐sheet (which also includes information for
referencing electronic sources).

Intext reference:

(Smith, 1978) Note: comma between name and date
For referencing a quotation or specific part of a source: "Development will be
slowed by such a move" (Smith, 1988, p. 80)

References page:

As for the Chicago style, only works referenced in the text are included, and are
listed alphabetically by main author's last name. E.g.

Smith, P. (1988). An argument against wet paddy mechanization of wet paddy
agriculture. Journal of Rice Production, 8, 34‐60.

Wong, X., Singh M. & Duncan, P. (1997). Increasing rice yields in wet paddy.
Agricultural Review, 15, 167‐191.

For information about citing electronic sources using the APA system, see the
University of Vermont's webpage.

CBE (Council of Biology Editors) Style:

This style is predominantly used by writers in the natural sciences. It is rather
different from the Chicago and APA styles because references are numbered.

Intext reference:

As Smith (1) has argued, Wong et al.'s (2) theory is still in need of development
because wet paddy yield in the area remained low (3).

66


For the references page, sources are listed in the order in which they appeared
in the text i.e. (1) then (2) then (3) etc.

1. Smith, P. An argument against wet paddy mechanization of wet paddy
agriculture. Journal of Rice Production 8: 34‐60; 1988.
2. Wong, X.; Singh M.; Duncan, P. Increasing rice yields in wet paddy.
Agricultural Review 15: 167‐191; 1997.
3. Ahmed, M. Causes of low rice yields of the Mekong Delta area. New York:
Random House; 1996.

Note: 3 is a book, not a journal article so the publisher and place of publication
are listed.

Other referencing systems: other systems use endnotes (that appear at the end
of the article or thesis) or footnotes (that appear at the bottom of the page on
which the in‐text reference appears. The in‐text reference may take the form or a
number in brackets (e.g. Rice yields have consistently fallen [9]) or a superscript
number (e.g. Rice yields have consistently fallen 9). As with CBE style, sources
are numbered according to the order in which they appear in the text, and in the
endnotes or footnotes sources are listed in the same order. Note: some systems
mix referencing foot/endnotes with foot/endnotes that provide additional
information to the text, E.g.



3. It has also been argued that the official figures for crop yields are
unrealistically high, and that the true figures could be as much as 30% lower in
some cases.

Random House; 1996.
67


Other referencing systems: other systems use endnotes (that appear at the end
of the article or thesis) or footnotes (that appear at the bottom of the page on
which the in‐text reference appears. The in‐text reference may take the form or a
number in brackets (e.g. Rice yields have consistently fallen [9]) or a superscript
number (e.g. Rice yields have consistently fallen 9). As with CBE style, sources
are numbered according to the order in which they appear in the text, and in the
endnotes or footnotes sources are listed in the same order. Note: some systems
mix referencing foot/endnotes with foot/endnotes that provide additional
information to the text, E.g.



3. It has also been argued that the official figures for crop yields are unrealistic
high, and that the true figures could be as much as 30% lower in some cases.

Random House; 1996

WHICH REFERENCING SYSTEM SHOULD I USE?

With so many referencing systems available, it can be difficult to decide which
system to use. Here are some tips:
talk to your advisor, who will be able to tell you if your School or program has a
preference, and which system is most commonly used.
look at current academic journals in your field of study to see how they ask
writers to reference sources.
look at recent theses or dissertations in your field of study in your institution.
Bear in mind, though, that some students' referencing work may not be as
reliable as that of published authors.
bear in mind that the numbering systems (e.g. CBE) are growing less popular
that the parenthetical Chicago and APA styles, which are generally easier for
readers to use.
68


REFERENCING ONLINE SOURECS

Referencing systems for electronic sources are becoming standardized (so do
not try and reference sources by inventing a system yourself or adapting an
existing non‐electronic system!). The in‐text reference should follow the same
format as for printed sources; however, the bibliographic information on your
references page will be different and generally requires you to include the type
of resource plus when it was accessed, as well as the URL for on‐line sources. For
example,
American Council of Learned Societies (2000). "Fulbright Economics Teaching
Program, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam". Available online:
http://www.acls.org/pub‐list.htm. (Downloaded: May 10,2000).
For further information, consult the following links:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sources/contents.html This site gives a
complete, clearly organized summary of all the main issues involved in citing
sources.
University of Southern Mississippi This is a good reference site for APA style.
Andrew Harnack and Eugene Kleppinger have published a book on citing
Internet sources called onOnline! The book's website has excellent advice on
each style.
For APA: http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/cite6.html#1
For MPA: http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/cite5.html#1
For Chicago:http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/cite7.html#1
How to Cite Electronic Resources from Williams College, Williamstown,

Massachusetts
Citation Guides for Electronic Documents from the International Federation of
Library Associations and Institutions.

69


QUOTING AND PARAPHRASING

A quotation is the use of your source's exact words in your work. A quotation
may be as short as one word but, if that word is significant, it must be put in
quotation marks and referenced.

Quotations should include the exact words of your source inside quotation
marks, e.g. "Everything we do is an experience of a kind" (Kenny 1996: 45). If
you look in Kenny 1996 at page 45 you will find the words Everything we do is
an experience of a kind with no alterations or omissions. However, you can make
changes, if necessary, as follows:
leaving out a word or words:

ORIGINAL

"In many academic circles in America, literary translation is still considered a
secondary activity, mechanical rather than creative, neither worthy of serious
critical attention nor of general interest to the public" (Gentzler 1993: 34).

SHORTENED

"In many academic circles in America, literary translation is still considered a
secondary activity . . . neither worthy of serious critical attention nor of general
interest to the public" (Gentzler 1993: 34).

No matter how many words you take out, you only use three dots (except if the
quoted sentence comes to an end, in which case you use three plus a full stop, i.e.
four). Also, there is no need to use en ellipsis ( . . . ) at the beginning and end of
each quotation.

Note the use of page numbers here ‐ in this case, the quote is borrowed from
page 34 of Gentzler's 1993 publication. You should always give page numbers
when you quote text directly from a source.

making small alterations/clarifications:

70


ORIGINAL

Raymond (1996) argues that, "The people never knew what good food was"
(p.245).

ALTERED

Raymond argues that "[t]he people [in England] never knew what good food
was" (1996: 245). Here the writer clarifies who "The people" are, and changes
capital T to small to fit the writer's sentence structure.

Quotations should be included in your sentence. For example:

INCORRECT
"Everything we do is an experience of a kind" (Kenny 1996: 45).

CORRECT
It can be argued that "[e]verything we do is an experience of a kind" (Kenny
1996: 45). Here the writer has included Kenny's quotation in his/her own
sentence.

The quotation should fit grammatically into your sentence ‐ so choose the point
at which to start.

This is a long quotation and so is not shown by quotation marks but by being set
in a block that is indented and usually single‐spaced. The exact style of
indentation (e.g. indented on one side or both, indented by three or five spaces)
will depend on the style you are using in your work (e.g. APA, CBE, etc.)
(Brightwell, 1998)

Quotations must be indicated with quotation marks (" . . .") unless you are using
a long quotation, in which case it should be set in an indented block.

Quotations should be kept short and kept to a minimum (i.e. only use quotations
when the words themselves are important). Avoid using a large number of
quotations as they mean you are letting your sources present ideas instead of
you presenting your own.

71


Paraphrasing means putting an author's ideas or information into your own
words:
Original
"This has led to the conclusion that, out of the US population at large, 90%
watch television to excess" (Wu, 1994).
Paraphrased
"In contradiction to Suzuki’s claim, Wu argues that 90% of Americans watch too
much television (1994)".
There is no need to use Wu's exact words as it is his information (not his words)
that is important here. Notice too that with paraphrasing it is easier to comment
on the work you are referring to (e.g. here it is compared to Suzuki's). It is also
not usually necessary to give page numbers when paraphrasing.
You should be careful to indicate which are your ideas and which are the
author's by careful use of references and by where and how you break
sentences. This is a subtle art and you should look at published work for
examples for how to do this effectively.
Paraphrasing must include page references. This is necessary, as you are
claiming that the quote you are reproducing is authoritative; the reader needs to
be able to check the exact point in the text to which you refer.
Paraphrasing is more generally used than quoting as it enables you to comment
on, evaluate and summarize information;
Paraphrasing can be used with quotations (i.e. you can quote within a
paraphrase);
Paraphrasing must always be referenced (because you are using someone else's
ideas or information);
Paraphrasing is never enclosed by quotation marks or indentation;
Paraphrasing does not mean a word‐for‐word rewrite of the original (usually
you are summarizing your source or highlighting one or more points).
72


PLAGIARISM
This means using someone else's words, ideas or information without
referencing them ‐ in other words, presenting them as your own. Any work that
is not referenced is assumed to be yours, so ensure that this is true.
Plagiarism is a serious academic offence and can result in penalties, including
dismissal from the Institute.
To avoid it, use quotations and paraphrases with proper referencing. When you
are reading, keep careful notes of your sources, including all the bibliographic
information that you need to write a full reference for the sources.
References in APA style

LIST OF REFERENCES
These references have been used on these writing up Research pages:
Angelov, I., & Zirathj, H. (1991). On the different types of MESFET‐mixers.
Microwave and Optical Technology, 4(12).
Barth, M. M., Kerbel, E. L., Broussard, S., & Schmidt, S. J. (1993). Modified
atmosphere packaging protects market quality in broccoli spears under ambient
temperature storage. Journal of Food Science, 58(5).
Bjorkman, I., & Schaap, A. (1994). Outsiders in the Middle Kingdom: Expatriate
managers in Chinese‐Western joint ventures. European Journal of Management ,
12(2), 147‐153.
73


Boucher, J., & Smeers, Y. (1996). Optimal development planning of gas reserves.
Energy Economics, 18, 25‐47.
Everett, J. G., & Slocum, A.H. (1993). CRANIUM: Device for Improving Crane
Productivity and Safety. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management,
119.
Gregor, J. E., Fenton,E., Brokenshire, G., Van der Brink, P. & O'Sullivan, B.
(1996). Interactions of calcium and aluminium ions with alginate. Water
Research, 30(6), 1319‐1324.
Hoff, T., Winger, H., & Farmer, B. (1996). Distributed generation: an alternative
to electric utility investments in system capacity. Energy Policy, 24(2), 137‐147.
Ho, Y. S., Wase, D. A. J., & Forster, C. F. (1996). Kinetic studies of competitive
heavy metal adsorption by sphagnum moss peat. Environmental Technology, 17,
71‐77.
Konradt, U. (1995). Strategies of failure diagnosis in computer‐controlled

manufacturing systems: empirical analysis and implications for the design of
adaptive decision support systems. International Journal of Human‐Computer
Studies, 43, 503‐521.
Kwan, A. K. H., & Cheung, Y. K. (1994). Analysis of coupled shear/core walls
using a beam‐type finite element. Engineering Structures, 16(2).
Liberatore, M. J. (1987). An Extension of the Analytical Hierarchy Process for
Industrial R&D Project Selection and Resource Allocation. IEEE Transactions on
Engineering Management, EM‐34(1).
74


Lim, C., Matsuda, Y., & Shigemi, Y. (1995). Problems and constraints in
Philippine municipal fisheries: the case of San Miguel Bay, Camarines Su'.
Environmental Management, 19(6), 837‐852.
Paselk, T. A., & Mannering, F.L. (1994). Use of duration models for predicting
vehicular delay at a US/Canadian border crossing. Transportation, 21, 249‐270.
Roll, Y., Rosenblatt, M., & Kadosh, D. (no date). On the optimal container size in
automated warehouses. Proceedings of the Ninth ICPR.
Sengupta, K. , & Abdel‐Hamid, T. (1993). Alternative conceptions of feedback in
dynamic decision environments: an experimental investigation. Management
Science, 39(4), 411‐428.
Street, P., & Miles, I. (1996). Transition to alternative energy supply
technologies: the case of wind powe'. Energy Policy, 24(5), 413‐426.
Swales, J. (1984). Research into the structure of introductions to journal articles
and its application to the teaching of academic writing. In R. Williams, J. Swales
and J. Kirkman (Eds) Common Ground: Shared Interests in ESP and
Communication Studies. Oxford: Pergamon.
Takii, K., Shimeno, S., Nakamura, M., Itoh, Y., Kumai, H., & Takeda, M. (1989).
No Title. In Proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Feeding and
Nutrition in Fish, Toba, Japan, 281‐288.
Wang, C. M., Xiang, Y., Kitipornchaij, S., & Liew, K.M. (1994). Buckling solutions
for Mindlin plates of various shapes. Engineering Structures, 16(2).
75


Wubben, E.A., H. N. Shapiro and R. M. Nelson (1989). Production and Storage of
Ice for Cooling Buildings. Transactions of the ASME, 111, 338 ‐346.
The Basic of Good Writing
So you're going to sit down at your computer, go through your notes, and in a
few hours produce a piece of research writing. Right? Wrong!
It is impossible to start from nothing and produce a good piece of writing,
because it is very hard to organize your material and write at the same time. If
you are working out which piece of research to talk about next and worrying
about verb agreement, you are less likely to produce a good piece of writing.
Some Suggestions:
Plan your writing. Before you start writing, find a way to organize your material
so that you know what you are going to write about, in what order, and what
you're going to say. Try writing an outline. Trying writing your ideas down on
the back of an envelope, or a piece of old paper. It doesn't have to be beautiful, it
just has to help you think about what you are going to say. Use whatever method
works for you, no matter how strange!
Ignore the language! When you plan your writing, don't worry about the
language. Concentrate on what you are going to say. Write in notes so that you
don't have to think about verb agreement. Don't waste time worrying about
spelling. You can think about all these aspects of writing after you've decided
what you are going to say. If you spend a lot of time fixing all the prepositions
and conjunctions in an early draft you are not going to be willing to cut out
paragraphs or sentences that you later realize aren't necessary, or to change
them substantially. So don't put a lot of effort into proofreading until you are
sure that what you want to say is the best you can come up with, then you can
spend more time on fixing up the writing so that the punctuation, spelling, etc. is
correct.
76


Write and rewrite! More experienced writers rewrite more times and more
substantially than less experienced writers. Are you surprised? Good writing
takes time for everyone. The better a writer you become, the more you will see
that the first thoughts/ideas/writing that comes out of your head and onto the
page can be improved. So give yourself time to rewrite so that your readers see
the best of your thoughts and writing, not the best you could come up with at the
last moment.
Find readers! ask people to read what you've written. Ask friends, ask
professors, ask your writing advisor in languages. But don't wait until your
writing is "perfect" because then if people suggest changes you won't want to
make them! Give people drafts and let them know what sort of feedback you
want: comments on organization? on ideas? on your language? on the technical
aspects of what you've written?
Keep writing! Good writing takes practice. The only person who can make you a
better writer is you. So work at it, show your work to other people, and rewrite,
rewrite, rewrite.
There are plenty of writing handbooks and guides available. They can give lots of
useful hints and tips, but if the methods they suggest do not work for you then
use a different method: there is no one way to write. Of course, the way you
write depends very much on what suits you, and what suits the particular piece
of writing you are working on.
Introduction to SOM Texts
The research article introductions below are for text analysis in AIT Extension ‐
LC's Writing Up Research course. See the three‐move pattern given in the
introductions web page of the on‐line course then read the introductions below
to see how they fit the schema. Bear in mind that some introductions fit it closely
whereas others do not ‐‐ if not, why do you think the author/s chose the
structure that they used?

77


Example 1:
Outsiders in the Middle Kingdom: Expatriate Managers in Chinese‐Western Joint
Ventures

Bjorkman, Ingmar and Schaap, Annette (1994). European Journal of
Management, 12/ 2, 147‐153,

Introduction

The opening up of the “Middle Kingdom” for Western influence of different
kinds, including the operations of foreign companies within the country, is a
relatively recent phenomenon in Chinese history. Although some foreign
investors operated in China prior to the Communist take‐over in 1949, it is only
since the end of the 1970s that large scale foreign direct investment has been
carried out in China. Recently there has been a tremendous boom in foreign
direct investment (FDI) in the People’s Republic of China, most of which has
been in Sino‐foreign joint ventures. While the total contracted FDI in 1986 was
3.3 billion US dollars, in 1991 it had grown to 11.9 billion, and in 1993 to no less
than 58 billion dollars.

A few years ago it was en vogue in the business press to publicize stories on the
setbacks of Western businesses in China. Today many of the foreign companies
in China are going extremely well financially (Stelzer et al., 1992; Osland, 1993).
Nevertheless, most foreign managers express frustration over the problems they
encounter [1]. It is thus of utmost importance for foreign companies to identify
and further develop foreign managers who are able to work effectively in China.
This paper reports on various human resource issues related to the use of
expatriates in Sino‐Western joint ventures. Data is presented on staffing,
selection, training and preparation, and the tenure and development of the
expatriates’ stay in China. Company practice is analyzed in light of information
provided by Chinese and foreign employees in 36 joint ventures [2]. Based on
our data and extant research we will present a number of suggestions for
Western companies concerning how to handle issues related to the use of
expatriates in China.
78


Example 2:
An Extension of the Analytical Hierarchy Process for Industrial R&D Project
Selection and Resource Allocation
Liberatore, Matthew J. (1987). IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management,

Vol. EM‐34/ 1, Feb .

Introduction

The Research and Development (R&D) project selection decision is concerned
with the allocation of scarce organizational resources, namely, funds, manpower,
and facilities, to a set of proposals for scientific and engineering activities.
Although a variety of mathematical decision process modeling approaches have
been proposed to address this problem, few available methods are being utilized
by research and engineering management as aids to decision making [9]. The
purpose of this paper is to examine the applicability of an extension of the
Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) for priority setting and resource allocation
in the industrial R&D environment. A framework for applying AHP and
supporting methods in this context will be developed, and then illustrated using
an extended example.

The importance of the R&D project selection decision can be attributed to two
key factors. First, in many industrial organizations, R&D spending represents a
sizable investment. Project selection decisions have a significant impact on the
current and future financial position of the organization, and its ability to
compete on a technological basis. Projects often entail large organizational
commitments that translate into significant opportunity costs if an improper
choice is made. Thus, project selection decisions should be linked to the strategic
objectives and plans of the firm.

Second, the organizational returns from R&D projects are multi‐dimensional in
nature and risky in terms of projected outcome. For example, a heavy reliance on
cash flow‐rate of return measures for R&D project selection may lead to an
unbalanced portfolio of product and process improvement efforts at the expense
of new product/process and exploratory studies. Certain projects may be
required to maintain a threshold of competence in technologies of strategic
importance, or to boost the morale of scientists. Also, the direct financial benefits
of research projects may occur ten to twenty years in the future. R&D’s
contributions are sometimes difficult to measure and separate from those of
79


other organizational activities, such as manufacturing, marketing, and

commercial development, who may play roles of varying importance in the
development, nurturing and commercialization of the R&D knowledge base.

Example 3:

A Framework For Improved Development Appraisals In Developing Countries

Smyly, B. (1993). Journal of Property Research, 10, 135‐145.

Introduction

Development projects are organizationally complex though the extent, degree
and sources of complexity vary from one project to another (Sachdeva, 1984),
and from country to country. Complexity is often attributable to uncertainties
and risks which are unavoidable everywhere. Development appraisal techniques
ultimately aim at forecasting the level of uncertainty associated with
development projects. In all development projects, there are uncertainties
regarding costs, duration, objectives and technology. These variations are often
most vividly observed in developing countries where in addition to these
ambiguities the outcome of most property development projects will normally
be dependent on political stability, the future expectations in prices, the
availability of foreign exchange, the general economic policies of the government
and the perceptions and inspirations of developers and financial institutions
backing the particular project. All the foregoing variables are, no doubt, subject
to considerable uncertainty in all countries, but the degree of uncertainty is
exacerbated by the ambiguities of a turbulent developing country environment.

The objective of any analysis is to obtain realistic projections. A realistic
projection should not only be a surprise free estimate but one in which both
internal and external factors have been taken into account. This implies that
analysis should not only take into account the theoretical approaches to the
solution but also the particular and peculiar attributes, as well as the practical
aspects of the situation. The ultimate goal in using the three levels of analyses in
development appraisal should therefore be to guide both the analyst and
developer to achieve surprise free projections for property development
projects. This objective can be achieved not by indiscriminate application of
techniques but rather by the systematic application of techniques geared
towards the particular problem.
80


The aim of this paper is to attempt to bridge the widening gap between the
growing sophistication of theory and practice of development appraisal in
industrialized countries and the ad hoc methods often used in practice in
developing countries, and to show that more concerted and organized
approaches to the analysis of property development projects would not only
improve professional practice but also aid in minimizing the often large
variation between forecasts and actual occurrences. More specifically, this paper
examines the method of scenario analysis/ planning general usage and in use by
development appraisers in particular and concludes that in developing
countries, scenarios analysis, would be more appropriate and beneficial.

Introductions to SERD Texts

Example 1:
Ethyl Alcohol Distillation in a Basin Solar Still
Namprakai, P., J. Hirunlabh, and T. Kiatsiriroat (1997). Renewable Energy, 11,
169‐175.
Introduction
Ethanol is a liquid biofuel that may be used in place of refined petroleum. It can
be produced from natural plant products such as sugar and starch crops by a
fermentation technique, from which the alcohol concentration is ca. 10% by
volume. To achieve a higher concentration or a pure alcohol, a great deal of
energy is required in the process of distillation.
81


Solar stills can be used as a low‐energy alternative to increase the alcohol
concentration. Some authors [1, 2] have reported that the ethyl alcohol yielded
from their solar basin stills had a concentration of ca. 14% from 10% by volume.
In order to develop an effective design for a solar still for alcohol distillation, a
theory to predict mass transfer rates in the still is needed.
In this paper, Spalding's mass transfer theory [3] was modified to predict the
mass transfer rate of alcohol distillation in an enclosed horizontal space of which
an evaporating surface (S) was at the lower surface and a condensing surface (G)
was at the top surface. The predicted rates were compared to the experimental
results.
Introductions to SET Texts
Example 1:
CRANIUM: Device for Improving Crane Productivity and Safety
Everett, J. G. and A. H. Slocum (1993). Journal of Construction Engineering and
Management, Vol. 119, March 1993.
Introduction
Cranes, ranging from small cherry pickers to huge tower cranes, are among the
most important pieces of equipment on many construction sites. Because
construction cranes operate in a constantly changing work environment, heavy
reliance must be placed on the crane operator’ skills (Shapiro 1988). The
mechanical technology used by cranes has improved dramatically in the past
several decades, but the techniques for coordinating the crane operator’s actions
with other craftsmen have not. Cranes “have advanced at such a tremendous
82


pace that technology has, in many ways, outstripped the ability of people to
apply these machines safely” (Dickey 1975).
Example 2:
Use of duration models for predicting vehicular delay at a US/Canadian border
crossing
Paselk, Theodore A. and Fred L. Mannering (1994). Transportation 21: 249‐270.
Introduction
The US/Canadian border in Whatcom County, Washington, with its four primary
crossings, has been the focus of concern because of a continual increase in traffic
volumes. Since 1985, the volume of automobile and commercial traffic crossing
the border has increased dramatically. In fact, since 1985, border crossing traffic
has increased over 115 percent at the four crossings. This increase is due in part
to shopping opportunities, changing tax structures, increased mobility, and a
general increase in population. The number of Canadian border agents has been
increased to accommodate the increase in northbound traffic into Canada, but
unfortunately, the traffic peaks are less predictable than those of urban traffic.
Therefore, adequately staffing the facilities has become a difficult task.
Providing congestion/delay information to motorists might help to redistribute
trips, either by time or route. Redistributing trips would lower peak volumes,
which would result in reduced delays, smoother traffic flow, and fewer
accidents. In addition, motorists generally experience less stress, even if they
cannot modify their trips, when they have advance knowledge of congestion, and
the reasons for it. Motorists would not be the only beneficiaries. Border agents
would see a change in their work‐load as the traffic was distributed throughout
the system; air quality would be enhanced by the reduced delay; and business
owners would see mobility increased along the streets near their stores.
Although providing information to motorists would not be a cure‐all for
congestion, it would be perhaps the least expensive, most implementable
alternative.
This paper provides a first step toward developing a fully‐automated motorist

information system by studying the determinants of vehicle delay at the busiest
of the four US/Canadian border crossing in Whatcom County, the I‐5 (Peace
Arch) crossing at Blaine, Washington. The purpose of this research is to apply
duration models to estimate vehicle delay, and to demonstrate their suitability in
83


a fully automated motorist information system. The results of this study are
being considered for implementation in a system of queue length detectors and
delay estimation software. It is hoped that delay information provided to
motorists by this automated system can significantly reduce congestion at the
border crossings in Whatcom County, which are the busiest of all US/Canadian
border crossings in terms of annual vehicular travel.
The paper begins by giving a background of the four border crossings in
Whatcom County and a physical description of the I‐5 Peace Arch crossing,
which will be the focus of the delay study. This is followed by a description of the
survey and resulting data, and by a statistical analysis of delay using these data.
Finally, the paper examines concerns related to delay prediction accuracy and
system implementation.

84

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1. Journal articles: These are good especially for up‐to‐date information. Bear

4. Government / Corporate Reports: Many government departments and

JACHOWSKI (1964) developed a model investigation conducted on the

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What the model does: the model predicts energy flows. In this

Assumptions: models necessarily involve simplifying reality.

was used to provide/was isonitrogenously substituted/were

Strategies of failure diagnosis in computer­controlled manufacturing

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How to Cite Electronic Resources from Williams College, Williamstown,

Konradt, U. (1995). Strategies of failure diagnosis in computer‐controlled

Liberatore, Matthew J. (1987). IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management,

other organizational activities, such as manufacturing, marketing, and

This paper provides a first step toward developing a fully‐automated motorist

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• Subcontracts: A sub‐contract is a contract to other organization(s) of some

• Surveyquestionnaire: Behaviors, beliefs and observations of specific

Strategies of failure diagnosis in computercontrolled manufacturing