Welcome to Quantity Surveying and Construction Procurement
Assalamualaikum and dear all,
This blog compliments teaching and learning for courses that I facilitate at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). The contents serve to further 'connect' students to the 'real world' (quantity surveying, construction procurement and others). In trying to provide current information to students, I will be quoting or reproducing works of others and for this I am grateful. I will indicate clearly the source(s). I hope I will not offend anyone; and many will frequent this blog and benefit from its contents.
Thank you and wassalam.
Prof. Sr. Dr. Khairuddin Abdul Rashid
Final year Dissertation, AQS4270 Part 3
Salam and dear all,
Generally, the steps to be followed are: - Select a subject area or a topic to study (sources: published lists, self, proposed by others, past dissertations, project papers, etc)
- Approval (by supervisor – through consultations)
- Process of narrowing down the broad subject area into a specific aspect of the subject on which investigations will follow (the 'funnel' process)
- Literature review (time spent here is time saved later on). Why LR? To inform self about the subject, to up-date, etc. How? Consult books, (especially) journals, past dissertations, reports, newspapers, library search, etc. Make notes, photocopies and file them all. Do not worry about writing the initial chapters yet… read, examine, assess and make decision as to how to move forward. Benefits? The outcome of LR forms basis for the initial chapters of the dissertation and for the decisions on the methodology to be used and instruments to be employed for the research. By now, some form of method statement for the study should be available, i.e. the research questions, the structure of the dissertation and the methodology to be followed
- There should be a clear focus (if not go back to reviewing literature). You will be surprised at the amount of information you have gathered and the issues you have discovered. Sieve through the information and compile only those that provide clear indications of the problems (the research questions) and indications of availability/accessibility of data for the study
- If you have done sufficiently well thus far, you should by now be able to provide breakdown of your intended research, the refined research questions (or hypothesis) to be answered, and a much clearer method of investigation (that represents your personal input). Once these issues have been resolved, you should be able to operate with minimum supervision until completion
- The carrying out of the research: Data collection: laboratory investigation, questionnaires surveys (take extra care), interviews, systematic observations, case studies, etc.
- Analysis of data and interpretation of data
- Writing-up .... Complete.
Wassalam.
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