Problem statement example
After you’ve read our guides to defining a research problem and writing a problem statement, take a look at the full-length example to see how you can fit all the parts together.
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Purpose and structure of an advisory report
Some dissertations include a separate advisory report that is specifically designed for a company or organization that wants to act on the author’s advice.
An advisory report should be centered on opinions that are well substantiated – which means it’s more than just the list of recommendations that you include in the main body of your dissertation. You also need to weigh the recommendations against each other and elaborate the consequences that each will have for your “client.”
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Recommendations for a client
If you have done research for a client company or organization, you should include recommendations for action in relation to the problem you investigated. Based on the findings of your research, what specific solutions are possible and what measures should the client implement?
Recommendations are generally included at the very end of your conclusion chapter. If your client prefers, you can also present them in a separate advisory report.
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Writing up your results in a thesis or dissertation
Once you’ve finished collecting and analyzing your data, you can begin writing up the results. This is where you report the main findings of your research.
All relevant results should be reported concisely and objectively in a logical order. You may use tables and graphs to illustrate specific findings.
Don’t include subjective interpretations of why you found these results or what they mean – your evaluation should be saved for the discussion.
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Example of APA Style: Survey
If you’re referring to your own survey research (and its results), you don’t normally need to use a formal APA Style citation. What you do instead depends on which of the following is true:
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How to cite an online article with no author, date or title in APA style
Web resources form a separate category in APA Style. They consist of four components: author, publication date, title and URL.
Unfortunately, some of these components are often missing. For instance, there may be no author or publication date. What should you do if this is the case?
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Citing secondary sources in APA style
If you want to refer to a source that you have found in another source, you should always try to access the original or primary source. You can then just follow the regular APA rules to cite it.
However, if you cannot find the original source, you should cite it through the secondary source that led you to it, using the phrase “as cited in”. This is sometimes called citing indirectly.
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How to use APA style abbreviations in your dissertation
According to the APA Style, you only use an abbreviation if it is standard, represents something that is repeated frequently in your dissertation, or allows you to save considerable space.
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Conceptual framework: Control variables
A control variable is a variable that is held constant to prevent it from influencing the outcome of a study.
When testing a cause-and-effect relationship, it is important to consider which variables might influence the relationship between your independent and dependent variables and control these so that your results are as accurate as possible.
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Conceptual framework: Mediating variables
A mediating (or mediator) variable is an integral part of a cause-and-effect relationship. It makes it easier to understand how the independent variable is affecting the dependent variable and what is governing that relationship.
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