Guide on preparing OBU Research & Analysis Project

Prepared by: Acid

Part 1 The Beginning
In preparing for the OBU Research & Analysis Project, Most students spend a lot
of time wondering as to what exactly the Research & Analysis Project (RAP) is al
l about. The reason for this is because they try to search the same amount and t
ype of guidance as is available for the ACCA Exams. The starting point to work f
or the RAP is first to correct our understanding of what RAP is all about.
Research & Analysis as the name suggests is the applied research which we are re
quired to carry out to meet our objectives. Research is a part of academic studi
es in which you learn more than just models and theories. You need to apply your
professional knowledge in reaching an appropriate conclusion about your subject
matter.
Oxford Brookes University requires you to prepare a 6500 words report along with
a 2500 words Skills and Learning statement (SLS). All information regarding the
marking and grading of this report is available online on the ACCA Website. You
should download the Basic Information Pack 2008 which will provide guidance on ma
rking, skills required in making the report, and a general guidance on the struc
ture of your report.
In this article I will talk about few points we need to make clear while making
the reports.
When preparing this report, you should keep in mind that you first need to set t
he objectives of the report i.e What is it that you need to find out from your r
esearch. For example, If you select the topic of your research as 3 years financi
al and business performance of GE then your objectives are could be:
What was the annual sales growth in 3 years period from 2006-08
What effect did rising oil prices had on the Net profits for the year
How well did GE perform compared to its competitors
What Impact did credit crunch had on the financial performance
What effect did new legislations had on the business performance of the company

These are called Research Questions or Project objectives. Note that in they all
begin with What , How , Did etc.
Your research is supposed to answer all these questions. From this, you should g
et the idea that the information you would need for this is, the financial and b
usiness performance of your chosen company (GE in this case), competitors perfor
mance, financial and business news. To get all this information you could look a
t some of these sources:
Company Annual reports
Competitors annual reports
Journals
News Website ( BBC, Financial Times, Economist etc.)
Search Engine (Google!)
Annual Reports of large companies can be easily located on the company's website
. Try browsing company's Investor Relation or Financial Information sections.The
se are all secondary data, you may collect primary data to increase the quality
of report and present a better analysis however It is completely correct to use
secondary information as far as its rightly referenced.
So in this article, we saw how to begin our project with a correct understanding
. We will continue about the following parts in the next part of our guide.