MASTER REPORT FORMAT

Leading with Title Page (Your Name, Title of Project, under supervision of Dr. Evelyn Gullett, GNU, Date)

The Master’s Project should have the standard sections of a research paper, each of
which addresses basic questions:

1. Introduction
What is the project about?
What are your research objectives or goals?
What is your specific research hypothesis/research questions?
Why is this an important research question/topic to study?
How will you analyze this issue?

2. Literature Review
What do we already know about this issue? (What have others said and
provided evidence for?)
What theories or frameworks are relevant to your research, and in what
ways might they be deficient?
How have you organised and synthesised the existing literature in a way
that demonstrates you have covered all the relevant perspectives?
What takeaway(framework/tools/theories) from the literature review will
you be using for your study?

3. Methodology
How will you examine this issue?
What is your overall research design and how do you justify it? Were there
other alternative designs that you considered?
Is your research design sound and likely to answer the research questions
that you have set yourself?
How have you addressed biases or other elements that might interfere with
the research?
Will you adopt a qualitative, quantitative or blended approach – and why?
What data do you intend to collect, and how will you collect it?
Who or what are the subjects you will collect data from?
If applicable, what survey and questionnaires will you use?
How do you intend to code and analyse the data?

4. Data Analysis & Interpretation

How well did the data collection process go? Were there any anomalies or
errors?
How did you analyse the data? Were statistical or other methods used?

5. Findings and Recommendations

What are the main findings of the project?
Did these findings support your research hypothesis?
Are you finding significant or inconclusive? Were the findings consistent
with your expected or surprising?
What limitations do you think exist?
In what ways do these modify/add to the existing literature?

6. Conclusions
What was the overall contribution of your research to the existing body of
knowledge in the area?
What were the limitations, or things you might do differently next time?
How significant are your findings? Do they corroborate earlier findings or
raise new issues?
What are the theoretical or policy implications of these findings?
What are the fruitful research directions on this topic?

7. Appendix & Annexures (for example, Description of Datasets; robustness checks of

econometric analysis)

8. References
Which sources did you consult?