UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE: DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WORK

DISSERTATION STRUCTURE

PREPARED BY DR. MAKUYANA

makuyanaaby@gmail.com/amkuyana@ssw.uz.ac.zw

CHAPTER 1

1.1. INTRODUCTION

Here write the introduction which highlights the structure of the chapter. Your introduction must indicate all the
major subheadings in the chapter. This includes the background, statement of the problem, aim, objectives,
research questions, justification, envisaged dissertation structure and summary of the chapter. You do not just
state these subheadings but you show how they are going to be interlinked.

Background to the study

Provide an elaborate but concise outline of the issues or debates around the subject of inquiry. You may among
other things write about the debates around the phenomenon under investigation. You may also indicate the
statistics, policy environment and brief history. When you are writing this section, be sure that you have covered
all angles of the subject of inquiry. To do so, you have to use what we call the funnel approach, that is, you start
looking at the subject from a broader perspective, that is, from a global level, then you narrow it down to
continental level (Africa), then you further narrow it down to regional perspective (SADC), then narrow it down to
the national level (Zimbabwe) before you zoom on to your local area of interest (study domain).

1.2. Statement of the problem

The research problem is a section in which you convince the reader that there is a problem that needs urgent
investigation. In other words it is a tentative/hypothetical statement in which you guess a possible outcome of a
particular issue. Generally the statement of the problem begins with a hypothetical statement in which you
advance an opinion regarding an issue and you substantiate this opinion by referring to observed social issues and
then ends with a statement of intent. A statement of intent is when you indicate that despite your conviction that
there is a problem, you are not sure of what could be the magnitude, the cause, the extent or implications of the
problem, hence you would want to carry out an investigation.

1.3. Aim

Here you write in broad terms the purpose of your study. Your aim is in many ways a reflection of your research
topic. You simply tell what you intent to do. Usually, this is in one sentence. Your aim should not be written using
ambiguous terms, and it should be free from emotions.

1
1.4. Objectives

Most academic studies use at least three objectives. Objectives are direct and specific to what the researcher
intends to find out. You must avoid composite /complex objectives, that is, objectives with more than one
actionable variables. An objective must be prefixed with doing words, e.g. to investigate, to explore, to identify,
to establish, to examine, etc. emulate to establish some sense of flow within your set of objectives. This means
that, you use logic to determine which objective should start and which one should be the last. It is advisable that
your last objective should be one that provides recommendations (we carry out studies to solve problems, not to
leave them hanging).

1.5. Research questions

Research questions are directly derived from your objectives. For each objective you need to have one particular
question that will inform the investigation. For three objectives it means you must have three questions.

1.6. Justification/Significance

Research is carried out to solve social problems. This means, we need to carry out studies that are significant and
relevant to a certain of the society. Under this section, you need to demonstrate that your study will benefit
society in one way or the other. Studies generally are significance in a number of ways which includes contributing
to the body of literature, advocating for policy refinement and inform professional practice. For you to be able to
demonstrate the significance of your study, you need to expose the policy, practice or literature gaps that you
would have identified and then indicate how your study will cover these gaps.

1.7. Envisaged Dissertation Structure

Here you provide an outline of how you are envisaging to write the dissertation. This should be logical and should
follow the international research standards.

1.8. Summary

Your summary must sum up you have written from your introduction up to the end, and must provide a link to
the next chapter. For example, at the end of your summary you may write that the following chapter explores the
theoretical framework and literature which informs this study.

2
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

The introduction for your chapter two may start off by alluding to the magnitude of the problem and outline major
debates around that subject. You then go on to indicate what you want to do in the chapter, that you are going
to explore literature on the subject you are investigating. You then provide a schema/mental picture of what the
reader may expect in terms of the structure of the literature review, e.g. you are going to start off by exploring
the theoretical framework and this will be followed up by general literature on the discourse of investigation. You
also need to be precise in indicating that the literature is going to be discussed with respect to the objectives and
research questions which underpins your study. You also need to ensure that in your literature review you
deliberately set aside a section for the policy/ legislative framework pertaining to your study area. To make it easy
for you, remember that literature review is an extension of your research background.

How to write a theoretical framework section

When you are writing your theoretical framework, first of all extensively research which theories are applicable
to your area of research. The introductory part of your theoretical framework should clearly state the
theory/theories underpinning your study. You also highlight the proponent(s) of the theory. You may provide
background of the theory, that is, changes or refinements that it underwent. In your introduction again, you may
highlight the major tenets/principles of the theory and then you indicate that you going to discuss the theory, its
implications and application to the current study under sub headings of these principles of tenets. You then go on
to develop sub headings using the principles of the theory and discuss how these are applicable to your current
study. You may do this for all or applicable principles of the theory.

Conclusion

Here you are concluding the chapter. You provide a rundown of what you have done and the major discourse
points. You then close off with an indication that the ensuing chapter is going to provide an outline of the
methodical and procedural issues pertaining to how the study is going to be conducted.

3
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3. Introduction

Introduce by way of demonstrating the purpose of the chapter, that is, to lay the foundation for data collection
and analysis towards answering the central research questions. You then provide an elaboration of the structure
of the chapter.

3.1 Research Approach/ Methodology

This is where you pick a philosophical framework which guides your understanding of social reality, that is, you
either indicate that your study will be qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods and provide appropriate
rationale for the choice. Usually, a research approach is guided by the nature of problem under investigation,
availability of adequate resources, disciplinary orientation and training of the researcher among others.

3.2 Research design

Research design is more about the specific way you are going to structure your study. Each research approach
has its specific designs. For example, qualitative uses case study and exploratory designs while quantitative use a
descriptive design.

3.3 Study area

Here you need to provide an outlook of the area in which you are investigating. This among other things includes
an elaboration on the demographics of the area, physical location of the area and where possible a discussion on
the vulnerability factors that may be causing the problem within the study domain.

3.4 Target population

The population of a study relates to a group of persons or subjects bearing common characteristics which the
study intends to generalise about. Here it is important to differentiate a population group from a sample, a sample
is drawn from the population. e.g, in a study seeking to find out the impacts of imprisonment on lactating mothers.
The potential population will include all women in prisons who are still breast feeding. In this case, the total
number of Lactating women will constitute the sampling frame from which you are going to choose your sample.

3.5 Sampling

Researchers would probably want to engage all members of the population group, that is, people or subjects
bearing the characteristics being sought by a study. However, this is not always possible due to resource and time
limitations. Researchers thus, resort to sampling that is, selecting a few representative members of the population
group to participate. The two main approaches used to select study samples are probability (quantitative) and
non-probability (qualitative) sampling approaches. You research methodology should inform you sampling
approach.

3.5.1. Sampling strategy

This is the specific design/ strategy that is used under each research approach. e.g, purposive and snowball for
qualitative sampling and random sampling for quantitative.

4
3.6 Data Collection Methods

These relates to the methods used by the researcher in collecting data for answering the central research
questions. Again, the methods are streamlined along the available research approaches. Some methods are
applicable to quantitative while others are only used for qualitative and there is an overlap into both approaches
in the case of mixed methods. Common methods for qualitative approaches include in-depth interviews,
observations and focus group discussions. On the other hand surveys are the common method for quantitative
data collection.

3.6 Research instruments

These are the tools used in collection data. e.g interview guides for interviews, focus group guide for focus group
discussions and questionnaire for surveys.

3.8 Data analysis

This relates to the methods when interpreting or reading into the collected data so as to make sense of it in terms
of answering the central research questions and objectives. Quantitative data uses Statistical methods that results
in descriptive statistics accompanied by graphs, tables and other numeric interpretations. On the other hand,
qualitative data analysis uses two approaches, that is thematic analysis and the grounded theory approach.

3.9 Feasibility/Limitations

Feasibility addresses itself to whether a proposed study will be doable under the conditions of the available
resources, human capital, time frames and jurisdiction factors. As a researcher you are mandated to assess if your
research will be doable before you start. Feasibility and limitations are almost one and the same. While feasibility
is interested in identifying the success factors for the study, limitations require the researcher to appreciate the
potential challenges that he/she may encounter and how he/she intends to navigate around this towards ensuring
the success of the study.

3.10 Delimitations

Here you are required to provide context for the study, that is, you set the scope within which your study should
be understood. You set parameters for the generalizability of your research.

3.11 Ethical considerations

You highlight the ethical obligations that are imposed on you as a researcher by research communities and
authorities on how ethical research should be conducted.

3.12 Conclusion

Conclude on the chapter by summarizing the main issues and provide a brief for the next chapter.

5
CHAPTER 4: PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

Here you present your research findings and discuss them with a reference to literature and the theoretical
framework that you would have set. Your presentation of findings should follow the general logic of your
objectives. Each objective must be fully covered in your findings section. Where mixed method is used, both
qualitative and quantitative findings should be referred to.

CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Summary

5.3 Conclusion

5.4 Recommendations

Chapter five is about you validating your research hypothesis or questions. It is more about the researcher asking
him/herself a question on whether he/she has done justice to the research objectives or questions. You
expressively indicate that the objectives of the study were set out to achieve….. In validation objective (1) has
been achieved in terms of the findings (summarise the findings in respect of each objective and possible
conclusions thereof). You may then conclude the chapter by recommendations that are informed by the findings.

REFERENCES

Make sure you include all the references that you used for your study in the reference list. Be careful to reference
correctly using the correct referencing style.