Life cycle stages of research projects: quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods approaches

Water Supply by Water Health International to Honduras

This is the section that gives a brief summary of the entire project or paper, citing the particular areas of emphasis that will be expounded upon in the body of the paper. It enables one to highlight the used methods and the hypothesis being tested (Literacy Education Online, 1998). In this particular case, the abstract will briefly indicate the prompt to the research, the problem being researched into and the research methodology that is to be used. In the quest to look at the research into the possibility of Water Health International supplying water to the Hondurans, use of a mixed research method would be the most appropriate hence the qualitative and quantitative aspects of research will be used.

Introduction

This is the part that gives more details in specifics about the project as well as the background of the topic. It also attracts the reader to the work as it leads them to the thesis (Sam McCoy, 2004). It will outline the background information and facts about Honduras and the water situation in the Island giving a short history of the previous and existing water supply projects. It will also give other relevant information as the economic status, the political conditions, the infrastructural development as well as the topography and geographic location of the area assigned for research. It is also at this point that there will be explanation of the purpose of this particular research project and the objectives that it intends to accomplish by the end of the research project.

It is also at this stage that the prime focus and priority of the research will be divulged. For instance the research into the water supply to Honduras will be fully focusing on availing water to the locals in large scale but meant for domestic use and for animals only not to the scale of irrigation.

Body of the research

The body of the research is the most fundamental part since it comprises the bulk of the research project. It helps give the crucial information, search for the solutions and guide on implementation of solutions to a research problem.

The body in this particular research will look into the situation analysis where the internal strengths of the intended water project will e research upon and noted as well as the internal weaknesses. These will help in the decision making process towards implementation or otherwise of the intended project.

The body of the project will also more often than not look at the external forces that may work against the intended project as well as the external opportunities that may help in the implementation of the particular project being researched on.

There will also be a demarcation of the targeted population and the segmentation of the population into age, sex, race, economic class and so on as fit for the research being conducted. In the case of the water supply, it will be splitting the population into the urban and rural population for ease of identification of the needs of water among the wide Honduras population.

The body of any research will also look further into the objectives that the implemented project would be looking to accomplish. In the case herein, the objectives can be behavior objectives (where the targeted population will be urged towards identifying with the alternative introduced as a safe water source and abandon the past unsafe water consumption), knowledge objectives (where skills are impacted into the target population f how to harvest water and use it wisely)

The body will as well look into the immediate benefits of the project through an audience analysis. It is here that there will be benefits and barriers identified, then the competing alternatives that they may turn to are identified as well and a desired position put forth.