Research Questions, Aims and Objectives
Chapter -Seven
Syllabus topic 6, "Identification of Research Problem and formulation of Hypothesis."
Pages 424 to 427 of 543
In one line
The aim says what the study is for, the objectives say what it will do, and the research questions say what it will answer, and MU requires the first two as a named design component and the third inside the methodology.
In the wording a student can write in an exam: the aim of a study is its overall purpose, stated in one sentence; the objectives are the specific things the study will do in order to achieve that aim, stated as a short numbered list; and the research questions are the interrogative form of the problem, each capable of being answered by evidence the study will gather; the University of Mumbai requires aims and objectives of the study as one of the seven research design components of an LL.M. dissertation, and requires the identification of the research problem and the research questions within the research methodology component.
The three distinguished
The aim is one sentence and answers what for. To establish whether the constitutional duty to inform an accused of the right to free legal services is performed at the remand stage in one court, so that the need for an administrative remedy can be assessed.
The objectives are what the study will do. They are verbs. To state the legal duty and its content from the authorities; to record what is said at each remand production in the study court over the study period; to establish the proportion in which the duty was performed; and to identify what administrative measures would secure performance.
The research questions are what the study will answer. In what proportion of remand productions was the accused informed, in the defined sense? Did the proportion differ by the officer speaking, by the presence of a lawyer, or by the length of the list?
Notice the grammatical test. An aim is a purpose clause. An objective begins with an infinitive verb: to establish, to compare, to identify. A research question ends with a question mark. A student whose objectives are not verbs and whose questions are not questions has not separated the three.
Writing objectives
Between three and six. Fewer than three usually means the aim has not been broken down; more than six usually means the study is doing several studies.
Each must be achievable and checkable. At the end the researcher must be able to say, of each objective, that it was done or that it was not and why.
They should follow the order of the work, so that the list is also the plan: the doctrinal objective first, the empirical objectives next, the analytical objective after, and the reform objective last.
And they should map onto the chapters, chapter 1320, which is what makes a dissertation feel designed rather than assembled.
Research Questions, Aims and Objectives
Verbs to use: to examine, to establish, to compare, to analyse, to identify, to evaluate, to assess.
Verbs to avoid: to study, to discuss, to look at, to understand. None of them can be shown to have been done.
Writing research questions
Each must be answerable by evidence the study will actually have. A question the design cannot answer is a promise the dissertation will break.
Prefer questions of fact to questions of opinion, chapter 1030.
One main question and two or three subsidiary ones is the usual shape. The main question is the problem; the subsidiaries are the breakdowns.
And a subsidiary question is where the interesting findings usually are, because the main question yields a proportion and the subsidiaries yield the pattern.
How the three connect to everything else
The aim and objectives are a design component MU requires, chapter 1270.
The research questions sit inside the methodology component, which MU says must include the identification of the research problem and the research questions, chapter 1310.
The hypothesis follows from the questions, chapter 1120, because a hypothesis is a proposed answer to one.
The objectives determine the chapterisation, chapter 1320.
And the conclusion answers the questions, one by one, which is how a reader knows the study finished what it began, chapter 1420.
A dissertation in which those five things line up reads as one piece of work. One in which they do not reads as several, and that is the commonest structural criticism a supervisor makes.
A worked example: a specimen set, written out
Aim. To establish whether accused persons produced for remand in one named court are informed of the right to free legal services at State cost, and to identify the administrative measures that would secure performance of that duty.
Objectives.
- To state, from the decisions of the Supreme Court, the content of the duty to inform, the stage at which it arises and the consequence of its breach.
- To record, by direct observation, what is said concerning free legal services at each remand production in the study court over six consecutive weeks.
- To establish the proportion of productions in which the duty, as operationally defined, was performed.
- To examine whether that proportion varied with the length of the list, the officer speaking or the presence of a lawyer for the accused.
- To identify administrative or regulatory measures within the powers of the High Court or the legal services authorities that would secure performance.
Research questions.
Main. In what proportion of remand productions in the study court, over the study period, was the accused informed of the right to free legal services at State cost, in the sense operationally defined?
Research Questions, Aims and Objectives
Subsidiary one. Did that proportion vary with the number of persons produced at that sitting?
Subsidiary two. Where information was given, by whom was it given?
Subsidiary three. Was the proportion different where the accused was already represented?
Now check the set against the tests. Every objective begins with a verb and can be shown to have been done. Every question ends with a question mark and can be answered from the observation schedule of chapter 960. And objective 5 is the one that produces the suggestions MU marks, chapter 1420.
The common failures
Objectives that restate the aim in slightly different words, three times.
Objectives the study cannot do, usually a fifth objective about the whole country attached to a study of one court.
Questions that are really objectives, or objectives that are really questions.
Questions the design cannot answer, which is the most damaging, because it is not discovered until the end.
And no connection to the chapters, so that the reader cannot tell which chapter answers which question.
Quick revision
Aim: one sentence, what the study is for. Objectives: three to six, each beginning with a verb, each achievable and checkable, in the order of the work. Research questions: interrogative, answerable by the evidence the study will have, one main and two or three subsidiary.
MU requires aims and objectives as a design component, and the research problem and research questions inside the methodology component.
They connect: objectives determine the chapterisation, the hypothesis is a proposed answer to a question, and the conclusion answers the questions one by one.
Verbs to use: examine, establish, compare, analyse, identify, evaluate, assess. Avoid: study, discuss, look at, understand.
Failures: objectives that restate the aim; objectives the study cannot do; confusion between questions and objectives; questions the design cannot answer; and no mapping to chapters.
Test yourself
1. Distinguish the aim, the objectives and the research questions, and give the grammatical test for each. The aim is the overall purpose in one sentence and takes the form of a purpose clause. The objectives are the specific things the study will do, each beginning with an infinitive verb. The research questions are what the study will answer and end with a question mark.
2. Which verbs should be avoided in objectives, and why? To study, to discuss, to look at and to understand, because none of them can be shown at the end to have been done. Objectives should use verbs such as establish, compare, identify and evaluate, whose performance is checkable.
Research Questions, Aims and Objectives
3. How do the objectives connect to the rest of the dissertation? They break the aim into the steps of the work, they determine the chapterisation, and the conclusion answers the research questions that correspond to them one by one, which is what makes a dissertation read as a single piece of work rather than as several.
4. Which failure is the most damaging and why? A research question the design cannot answer, because it is usually discovered only at the end, when the data has been collected and it is too late either to change the question or to gather what would have answered it.
The rest of this subject
These notes are cut from the University's printed syllabus. Open the syllabus itself, or the past papers, for the same subject.