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Improving Academic Literacy: How to Justify Your Final Year Project

Improving Academic Literacy: How to Justify Your Final Year Project

In this post, we are going to examine how to justify a final year project to avoid producing a research work with weak arguments.

You have already defined the theme for your final year project, the research problem, and the objectives. Very well. The first steps have already been taken. Now, before you even move on to introducing the work, you need to start thinking about the justification.

Yes, this part makes a lot of people confused. You need to know that a research paper is made up of many steps. Think of it as a jigsaw puzzle, where each piece, when put together in the right way, will reveal, little by little, the face of your work. The piece, in this case, the justification, must be fitted right after the introduction of the work. There, you will succinctly describe to the examining board why your work deserves their attention and why it is relevant to society.

What is the justification for the final year project?

First, let’s understand better what the research justification is and what it is for. As its name suggests, “Justification” is intended to justify something. In another way, it is to explain the cause, the motive, the reason, and the circumstance that made a researcher defend this theme. The justification is why your work exists. It is through justification that you will convince your supervisor and the board of examiners of the relevance of your study and its importance for your field. It is in this space that you will defend your idea.

The justification is presented in the first pages of your work and is as important for the general understanding of the theme as the other items such as the problem, hypotheses, and objective.

The purpose of the Justification is to sift relevant topics out of absurd topics. When a student justifies his work, he is obliged to reflect on its importance. This stage of the work has turned into a very effective tool for controlling clueless topics. Therefore, if you are having a hard time justifying your work, your topic may need to be reassessed, as there are not enough arguments to justify it.

Tips for justifying a research paper

  • Investigate the research topic

Behave as if you were a detective and needed to solve a mystery. For this, you will need to ask the right questions. The answers you discover, in the end, will be your justification. And what are the right questions? Check them out below:

  • Why this research theme?

When we think about choosing the research theme, this task becomes a riddle. In this context, it should be clear what will be addressed in the research. In other words, an explicit definition must be placed specifying in detail which area the product will cover.

From this perspective, the reason why this theme was chosen is particularly pertinent. This, in turn, must be useful for the researcher, the researched issue and society itself, making it not restricted to the academic environment. With this, it will be important that it is very clear in the Justification, what each of the three parts will gain after it is finalized.

The researcher (the author of the work) must take it beyond the walls of their school, the researched (the institution studied or where the study was carried out) and society (what benefit, or advantage humanity can have about their work).

  • What do you want to achieve?

We must think like a child and ask ourselves what we are going to talk about. When someone starts to defend something, the image comes to mind of what that person is talking about. However, what the person explains may not be what the public understands.

Given this, it will be inevitable that at first it is left, without a shadow of a doubt, what the research is looking for. What purpose does it have for the world? Making the purpose of research clear determines what the student will do at the end of the project.

By doing this, it should be clear what the purpose of the work is. What do you want to achieve and what will you do to achieve the desired result?

  • Who is it for?

Hitting the target when justifying oneself is a difficult act, one of the safest strategies is to know exactly who this research is intended for since it must have value for this chosen group.

When analysing society, it is possible to verify that psychology has been used since the beginning of the 20th century for making advertisements. From that point on, it is possible to notice that people with certain characteristics and needs bought more a certain product.

In research justification, it is also of fundamental importance to present the definition of the target audience. In case there are two or more, the importance of the first about the others must be placed. By clarifying who your project is aimed at, it will help soon to reach the right person. It may undergo adaptations several times, but it should always focus on a certain type of person with specific characteristics or needs.

From the answers, you will most likely be able to see the justification for the project.

1. Search for references

It is not mandatory to present references of authors or other works in the area in the justification. However, as this is the time for you to defend your topic and say how important it is, taking some data out of your sleeve can be a good strategy for creating convincing arguments.

You can cite authors, research and academic papers, statistical data, and anything else to help support your proposal.

Furthermore, by using references you add credibility to your research work and validate its importance, after all, it is not just you who is saying this, other authors have already commented on it.

2. Invite the reader for a reflection

The justification of your research should call the reader to reflect and make him understand, based on the information you have presented, the importance of your topic. That understanding must come from him. Therefore, at no time write sentences like “this topic is important because…”. Your arguments should convince you, remember that.

3. Review your goals

When writing the justification for your work, look for your goals and mention the importance of achieving them.

4. Be clear and objectives

A good justification cuts to the chase. No going around and not saying what you need. The justification for the work should not be longer than three paragraphs. That is, it is a short text. Hence the importance of being clear and objective.

5. View the impacts of your work

Imagine the future consequences that your research can cause, whether in a company, in society or in academia itself. With this information in hand, you will have one more reason to say how important your work is to generate better results and create new realities. Also, reflect on what could happen if the survey was not carried out. What are the downsides of this? How could the absence of work impact the lives of people, society, companies? The answers to these questions can also help you build a convincing case.