1. INTERIM REPORT REQUIREMENTS
BS and BT Final Year Project
Prepared by:
Sr Dr. Md Azree Othuman Mydin
School of Housing, Building and Planning

2. The Interim Report?
 Should provide the majority of the content (this
may well change, BUT not by very much) for the
first three Chapters of the final Dissertation
Document, i.e.:
 Chapter 1 - Introduction
 Chapter 2 – Literature Review
 Chapter 3 – Methodology
 AND
 It is never to early to start to build the References
section of the final Dissertation Document.
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3. The Interim Report - Structure?
 Contents:
 Full Name (& Student Number)
 Title of Dissertation
 Aim & Objectives
 Literature Review
 Methodology
 References
 NB.
 Make sure that your Interim Report contains ALL of the
above.
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4. The Interim Report - Content?
 Full Name (& Student Number)
 For sure your name!
 Title of Dissertation
 i.e. your ‘current’ Dissertation Title
 The title of you Dissertation may have changed since
you submitted your original Dissertation Proposal
(and it may well change again?).
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5. The Interim Report - Content?
 Aim & Objectives
 Re-visit, and perhaps modify the Aim & Objectives of
your original Dissertation Proposal.
 A general introductory paragraph should lead to the
statement of;
 the main Research Aim,
 followed by the statement of 3 to 4 specific Research
Objectives that you believe can be achieved during the
Dissertation process.
 These should be;
 investigative objectives and therefore problem-based, i.e.
rather than solution-based,
 and bear in mind the need to analyse rather than merely
describe.
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6. The Interim Report - Content?
 Literature Review
 The idea here is to place your Research into relevant
contexts; i.e. matched to specific Objectives.
 Re-visit, and expand upon, the Relationship to Previous Work
of your original Dissertation Proposal.
 No investigation starts from scratch; someone else
MUST have done something relevant to the Aim &
Objectives of you Research in the past.
 It is NEVER sufficient to say, “There has been little work done in
this area before…”
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7. The Interim Report - Content?
 Literature Review (continued)
 Appropriate contexts might be subject-based;
 e.g. “What has been done in this subject area before?”,
 Or problem-based;
 e.g. “How has this kind of problem been approached in
previous studies?”
 Only include citations/extracts from relevant literature
here, i.e.:
 relevant to the topic/subject of your Dissertation.
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8. The Interim Report - Content?
 Methodology
 This section must detail the way in which the Objectives
of your Research are to be achieved.
 This means not only a description of the methods to be used,
but also a discussion of the logic of those methods.
 It should answer the question; “Why are you using
these methods?”
 The discussion should, therefore, include consideration of
alternatives and demonstrate the appropriateness of the
approach being proposed.
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9. The Interim Report - Content?
 Methodology (continued)
 This section must go beyond merely itemising a data-
collection approach.
 What you really need to do here is to explain what will be in
each Chapter of the final Dissertation Document.
 If basing your research upon a previously used
methodology, then it should also answer the question;
“Which methods have been judged to be appropriate in
the past in previous work?”
 You have to move beyond this previous work in some clearly
identified way (therein lies your originality).
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10. The Interim Report - Content?
 References
 A reference list for each of the citations in your
Interim Report should appear under this
heading.
 Only include those references which you have
actually cited.
 This list of references must be presented using
the Harvard System:
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11. The Harvard System?
 You MUST use the Harvard System:
 This applies to everything that you produce throughout
your time at this University.
 All documents ‘used’ should be listed (in a References
section at the end of the text) in the general form:
 Author (Date), Title, Publisher.
 NB.
 Only ever list References to works actually cited in the
text.
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12. Harvard - a system of two parts!
 References
 A full bibliographic description for each source that has
been used, e.g:
BSI (1989), Recommendations for references to published
materials. (BS 1629), British Standards Institution.
 Citations
 From the text to the Reference source used, e.g.:
"a set of data describing a document, or part of a document,
sufficiently precise and detailed to identify it and to enable it
to be located" (BSI, 1989).
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13. List References by Author’s Name
 Bournemouth University (2005), Citing References, [Online], Academic
Services, University Library, Bournemouth University, Available:
http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/library/using/harvard_system.html [Accessed: 06 Sep
2005]
 Bryman A. & Bell E (2003), Business Research Methods, Oxford University Press.
 BSI (1989), Recommendations for references to published materials. (BS 1629),
British Standards Institution.
 Ghauri P & Gronhaug K (2005), Research Methods in Business Studies: A Practical
Guide, 3rd Ed., Financial Times Prentice Hall.
 Trochim W M (2005), The Research Methods Knowledge Base,
[Online], Available: http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/index.htm
[Accessed: 9 Aug 2005]
 University of Hull (2005), References: how to collect and present them, [Online],
Academic Services, Libraries, University of Hull, Available:
http://www.hull.ac.uk/lib/infoskills/collect.html [Accessed: 06 Sep 2005]
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14. What do Citations look like?
 If a citation can NOT contribute to the sense of a sentence:
 There is some evidence (Alas, 2003) that these figures are
incorrect.
 If the citation can contribute to the sense of the sentence:
 Smith (2004) has provided evidence that these figures are
incorrect.
 If referring to particular sections of a document:
 … is positively associated with educational achievement. (Jones,
2005, p.151)
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15. Remember!
 We treat Plagiarism very seriously.
 If it is not yours, i.e. you have read it elsewhere, then you must
reference it.
 You MUST use the Harvard System :
 This applies to all documents that you produce throughout your
time at this University.
 References, MUST appear in full, at the back of your text,
in the form:
 Author (Date), Title, Publisher.
 Citations, MUST appear in the text, in the form:
 (Author, Date)
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16. The Interim Report?
 The Aim & Objectives, Literature Review & Methodology
sections of this ‘Interim Report’ should provide a
‘prototype’ of the first 3 Chapters of your final
Dissertation Document;
 It is almost certain that the content of these Chapters will
change;
 but you really need to have done something under each of these
headings by now; in order to be able to complete your Research
on time.
 It is NEVER too early to start building your References
section;
 Remember, you need a ‘full’ reference (i.e. in the Harvard style)
for anything you cite/use in your Dissertation.
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