(bit.ly/AZiiie) The more organized website is available at this link. Access my course outlines and lectures for more than TEN COURSES.

For a complete course on Research Methods, designed to teach students how to choose a topic, do research for it, prepare and writeup a proposal, see:  Research Methods 2013

Step-by-Step Guide for Students of International Institute of Islamic Economics:

How to prepare a research proposal for MS

Guide for making good presentation is available at this link

Research is very hard work, and it is important to know that search for knowledge can make a big difference in our lives and those of our fellow human beings. For this purpose, I have prepared some MOTIVATIONAL & INSPIRATIONAL Lectures.

FIRST STEPS:  In starting a research project, our first goal should be self-education. At the end of the project, we should have acquired deep knowledge about the topic under research. To do this, it is necessary to read and understand research of other people on the topic. Typically, you will need to read and understand thirty to fifty papers on a particular topic, to be able to have the required expertise to produce research. ADDITIONALLY, you should attempt to do research which SOLVES a practical problem by providing useful policy advice, which differentiates between good and bad policies.

Spiritual Guidance:

SECOND STEPS:

BACKGROUND Research for choosing a topic

THIRD STEP: Read Thesis Guide 

FOURTH STEP:  Literature Review

Mostly students used Annotated Bibliography as Literature Review, which is wrong. Read Literature Review to see the difference between the two and how to re-organize an annotated bibliography so as to make it a literature review.

 

when you have done an extensive review of literature, finalize your objectives methodology, estimation technique, next step is to write a proposal.

Section 1:INTRODUCTION

Section 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Section 3: METHODOLOGY  

 DATA SOURCES

Some mention of data sources to be used for analysis of the research questions should be present within the proposal. 

Section 4:  REFERENCES

Learning from Past Experience: Please see IIIE Submissions website for many examples of proposals which were submitted, subjected to critique, revised and eventually accepted. By looking at common mistakes committed by others, we will be able to avoid them. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: AVOID PLAGIARISM

Many students commit plagiarism in the preparation of their thesis proposals as well as theses. Even one sentence copied from another source without acknowledgement constitutes plagiarism. It is permissible to copy sentences, but only when it is put in quotation marks and referenced to an appropriate source. For some reason, despite repeated explanations, students do not seem to understand this, and cut and paste material from different sources without acknowledgment.  Any proposal that contains plagiarism will be REJECTED without evaluation. It is SIMPLE to avoid plagiarism: JUST CITE THE SOURCE from which you have taken the material.

SOME SPECIAL TYPES of research are CASE STUDIES, FEASIBILITY STUDIES, and COMPARATIVE STUDIES. These are not frequently used in Economics, but are common in Business and in Banking & Finance. Some guidelines on how to do these are available from the following links:

Feasibility studies are for the case where the student proposes a NEW IDEA about how banks or other financial institutions should work, or a new financial instrument. In this case, since the product is only in the imagination, there will be no data available for, so standard data analysis methods cannot be used for research. The feasibility study is the method to use in such cases.

LINK 1: Course on Writing a Feasibility Study

LINK 2: Another detailed description of how to  write a feasibility study

A new website has been created for IIIE Thesis Writers. This is restricted to students in thesis/proposal writing phase. It can be accessed here: [link]

Guide