Mail number 1

Dear Student,
Hope you are progressing well with studies.
This is to inform you that you are required to send in your completed/ final
research proposal by 18th January, 2015. It is important to note that it is an
ARU requirement to obtain your research proposal. Please be informed
that feedback will be provided only on the research topic and objectives
as detailed feedback will be provided on dissertation chapters.
Therefore, it is important that you get your research topic/ title and the
objectives approved by your respective online supervisor.
Research proposal is a plan that you develop before conducting the
research. It should cover information as to how you are planning to
address each section of the dissertation. Essentially you should cover the
following sections in your research proposal;
Introduction (including the title, research background,
rationale, aims, objectives and questions)
Literature review and conceptual framework
Methodology
Timetable and resource requirements
Bibliography
For the proposal, ARU has specified you to use 750-800 words. This could
go up to a maximum of 1000 words and it should not exceed 1000 words.
When ready, you need to send your research proposal along with SID
number included in the cover page.

You could send the proposal directly to your supervisor email

ID harinipeirislsm@gmail.com

Kindly make sure that you adhere to the following guidelines when
submitting your research proposal;

The file should be in Microsoft word format.

Do not copy and paste content in the body of the mail.

When naming the file, include the course name, your full
name and the LS student ID.

Eg: Research proposal_BA_John Doe_6557

Trust the above is clear. If you have any further questions in terms of this
please do not hesitate to contact me.

Mail number 2
Dear Student,

Trust that you are keeping well and progressing well with the research
proposal and/or dissertation.

As I have already informed, your research proposal is due on 18th of

January 2015. It is important to note that it is an ARU requirement to
obtain your research proposal. Please be informed that feedback will be
provided only on the research topic and objectives as detailed feedback
will be provided on dissertation chapters.
For the proposal, ARU has specified you to use 750-800 words. This could
go up to a maximum of 1000 words and it should not exceed 1000 words.

After deciding a research topic and getting it approved, you need to

develop the research proposal by covering the following sections;

1)

Introduction (20%) - This includes 4 parts:

A.
Title : Initially this might be regarded as a working title, and
ideally should mirror closely the content of the document

B.
Background : This informs the reader of the problem or the
situation, and the context you are interested in

C.

D.

Rationale for the study:

What is the research issue?
Why is it an issue?
Why is it an issue now?
What could this research shed light on?

Research Aims
Objectives (this is one of the most important
sections of the research proposal as well as in the dissertation
as you need to develop them properly in line with the
research topic and conduct the research to achieve these).
[The aspects that should be considered when developing
objectives are: development of 3 - 4 objectives; objectives
should follow a logical sequence; final objective could be to
make recommendations]
Research Questions
Hypothesis

2)

Literature Review and Conceptual Framework (30%):

This section will demonstrate the students knowledge of the literature

and make a critical link with the situation to be investigated.
Students are expected to critically review 5 or 6 sources to underpin
the study. Brief summary of each topic can be provided. If relevant a
conceptual framework too can be produced here.

3)

Research Design and Methodology: (40%):

This section gives a detailed rationale of how you intend to achieve

your research objectives. You are expected to:
1)
Explaining your selection of research paradigm/ philosophy and
methods (here you discuss about your qualitative and quantitative
techniques that you are planning to use)
2)

How will access to data be gained and secured

3)
Outlining the methods of data capture (including sampling method
and sample size planned to be used), analysis and interpretation to be
used, and give reasons for the choice.
4)

Highlight any limitations in the chosen approach and methodology.

5)
Discuss the type of ethical issues relevant for the proposed
research.
6)
Discuss about the resources that are required to complete the
proposed research.

4)

Timetable and References: (10%):

Student should provide a plan of how the available time will be allocated
to complete the proposed research. This can be shown in a Gantt chart.
This will give an indication of the viability of this research proposal. The
research process always seems to take longer than anticipated.
Therefore, you should justify the plan.

5)

References:

You are required to provide a list of references that was used in

constructing the research proposal. In doing so, special attention could be
given to the citations and extracts used for the literature review. In
addition, you should also provide a list of citations that have not been
located or looked at yet but will likely be of use before the project is
completed.

General guidelines on format and presentation:

- Relevancy to the research topic
- Professional tone and required format
- Harvard Referencing
- Percentage of plagiarism report

Sample proposals

You may refer the two sample proposals attached,

If you require any assistance in terms of this module please contact me.

Kind regards,

Mail number 3

Dear Student,

Trust that you are keeping well and progressing well with the research
proposal and/or dissertation.

This is to inform you of the important dates of the BA Major Project

dissertations. It is important to liaise with these days to complete your
dissertation successfully.

Research proposal: 18th of January 2015

First chapter submission: 8th of February 2015

Second chapter submission: 01st of March 2015

Final submission: 3rd Week of April 2015

Prior to submitting the research proposal you are required to send me the
topic of your research proposal and get it approved prior to continuing
with your work. This is a MUST.
As per the previous mail, the research topic needs to be within the broad
organisational, management and leadership fields. Therefore chose
carefully what you prefer to research on. Please be informed that
feedback will be provided only on the research topic and objectives on
your research proposal, therefore it is a must that you inform me of the
topic.
However feedback will be provided for the dissertation later on in the
course.

After deciding a research topic and getting it approved, you need to

develop the research proposal.

The ARU specified number of words for your research proposal is 800
words. Yet, after an additional margin, the research proposal should not be
more than 1000 words excluding appendixes.

Trust the above is clear and if you have any questions please do contact
me.

Kind regards,

Mail number 4

Dear Student,

I would like to provide you some guidelines in terms of selecting a suitable

research topic.
Hence, when selecting a research topic you need to;

Select a marketing related topic

Using one specific company (case study approach) is preferred,

although it is also possible to conduct industry wide research (in
which case you need to select an adequate or representative
sample from the industry)

Identify an area of interest for you

 Identify a problem that needs further investigation (why or how

something is happening) or which needs to be solved

Identify relationships invariables or identify the contribution of one

variable to another

Identify a significant aspect/ area to be studied

Your research topic can be either one of the above areas and you need to
ensure that you highlight the purpose of your research in the title. More
importantly, you need to clearly highlight this purpose and the benefits
that can be gained through your research under the rationale.

You also need to use appropriate wordings in your title (such as An

investigation of,
An examination of, Analysis of etc.) and ensure that the research topic
can be realised by collecting data and analysing them using appropriate
methodology.

Hope you can decide on your research topic and start on working the
proposal.

Please note that you are advised to get the confirmation on your topic
from me before start developing the proposal.

If you require any assistance in terms of this module please contact me.

Have a great day!