Assignment (3)

Assignment 3

Research Project

Part 1: Research Proposal (due on week 8)

Part 2: Research Paper (due on week 16)

Mission

You are required to research a problem in architecture that is of interest to you. I recommend that you select a topic that is related or relevant to your expected theme for graduation project one. By doing so, your effort would be more geared toward your graduation project. If you are unable to link your topic with your graduation project, you should still benefit from the applying the procedures and you can reapply them during graduation project (1) course. You should use the following criteria (in order) to select your research problem:

Relevant to your graduation project (if possible)
Of general interest to you, professionally or academically
Can be done in the time limit and using the available resources

Part 1: Research Proposal (due on week 8)

Objectives of Part 1 (Research Proposal)

Practice the selection of a problem area
Conduct a brief literature review
Improve on the skill of refining the research problem area
Ability to write research questions
Ability to design the research

Requirements & Format:

The proposal must include the following subtitles:

Topic: A phrase stating the general topic for the problem area
Title: A clear and short title for your research project
Abstract (draft, will be finalized in part 2): A brief paragraph summarizing and introducing the project and should include the research objectives or what you would like to achieve from doing the research
Initial Literature Review (will be finalized in part 2): For part 1 only one or two paragraphs are enough that contain information you found about the topic
Research Problem: Description of the problem expressed in a question or a statement.
Research Design or Methods: Description of the steps you expect to take to gather, analyze, and evaluate data. This section should include stating the hypothesis if available, your research design, data collection techniques you propose to do, how you will choose a sample, and your suggested data analysis methods.
References: List the references used in your proposal and ones you intend to use later for part 2.

The proposal (part 1) could be as short as one page and as long as five pages. You need to submit the proposal as hardcopy and as a Word file on disk.

You should be ready to make an oral presentation if asked in class.

Submission due:

At the beginning of week 8

Hyperlinks of assistance:

Ahmed (Sec 01 second term 2000-2001) has found the an example of a research proposal online. Although the example is in a field other than architecture, and uses a different format, yet the overall logic and sequence is similar to assignment 3 (Part 1). So you may look at it for comparison.
Haifa (Sec 51 second term 2000-2001) has found examples of research topics relevant to structure fracture and failure prevention. This is an interesting example of physical sciences as compared to social sciences. Take a look at how they are briefly introducing research topics in this area.
Designing a research strategy in architecture: I also found a useful link on Designing a Research Strategy from the University of California at Berkeley. Focus on Steps in Designing a Research Strategy (the first section in this link) and you might get some help.

Part 2: Research Paper (due on week 16)

Objectives of Part 2 (Research Paper)

Report the results of your research
Ability to write a research paper
Understand the logical sequence of research papers

Requirements & Format:

In the paper you should write the following subtitles (except items 1 & 2) followed by text:

Title: A clear and short title for your research project (do not write the word "title" just write the title itself)
Author name & affiliation: Write your name under the title (do not write the phrase "author name & affiliation" just write your name, section and semester)
Abstract: A brief paragraph (100 - 300 words) summarizing the entire paper. It should introduce the research problem, the research objectives, the methods used, the results and conclusions in brief
Introduction: Write one to three small paragraphs introducing the research to the reader. The general objectives can be mentioned as well as the scope of the paper.
Literature Review: Sometimes called "Background to the Problem" contains few paragraphs that describe information you found relevant to the topic and research question
Research Problem: Description of the problem expressed in a question or a statement. Hypotheses should be stated here if they are used in your paper. This section should follow logically from the literature review.
Research Design or Methods: Description of the steps you took to gather, analyze, and evaluate data. This section should include your research design, data collection techniques you used, how you choose a sample, and how you analyzed the data.
Results & Discussion: This section is most important. You report the immediate results as derived from analyzing your gathered primary data, and briefly discuss them. You can use graphs, tables, etc. to clarify the results.
Conclusion & Recommendations: You should state the more general conclusions as derived from the results and discuss architectural recommendations.
References: List the references cited in your paper using the APA format.

The complete paper could be as short as five pages and as long as ten pages (maximum 5000 words).

You need to write the paper in Word, and submit the paper as a print version on A4 size sheets. You may use desktop publishing designs for better presentation and you may use some colors, but do not exaggerate or overdo the presentation. You also need to submit a disk or CD copy of your work.

Submission due:

On Final Exam Day at the most.

Grade:

Both the proposal and the paper account for 30 point of the course 100 points.

This page last revised: 09/05/03