Papers should have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Your introductory paragraph should

grab the reader's attention, state your main idea and how you will support it. The body of the
paper should expand on what you have stated in the introduction. Finally, the conclusion
restates the paper's thesis and should explain what you have learned, giving a wrap up of your
main ideas. 
1. The Title
The title should be specific and indicate the theme of the research and what ideas it addresses.
Try to avoid abbreviations and jargon. Think about keywords that people would use to search
for your paper and include them in your title. 
2. Cover Page
3. Contents Page
4. List of Tables (different tables that you have used in your paper)
5. List of Figures (Different figures that you have used in your paper)
6. Acknowledgement

7. The Abstract

The abstract is used by readers to get a quick overview of your paper. The abstract should
introduce the topic and thesis, and should provide a general statement about what you have
found in your research. The abstract allows you to mention each major aspect of you topic
and helps readers decide whether they want to read the rest of the paper. Because it is a
summary of the entire research paper, it is often written last. 
You can mention about the purpose of your research, methodology you have used, Main
findings of your analysis, policy implications and originality of your research.
Use keywords that help explain your paper's topic to the reader. 
Use the following format for Abstract:

 Purpose
 Design or Methodology
 Findings
 Practical Implications
 Originality
 Keywords
8. Introduction
The introduction should be designed to attract the reader's attention and explain the focus of
the research. You will introduce your overview of the topic, your main points of
information, any debate about the area of your research and why this subject is important. 
You can introduce the current understanding and background information about the topic. 
Toward the end of the introduction, you add your thesis statement, and explain how you will
provide information to support your research questions. You state the following under
different sub headings:
 Objective (s) (Maximum 1 or 2 objectives that you want to examine based on your
research gap
 Scope and Relevance (state how your study is going to be helpful for the policy
makers or other stakeholders or beneficiaries about which you want to conduct
research)
 Hypothesis (statement of your null & alternate hypothesis for each of the objectives
mentioned).
 Organization of rest of chapters (Give a brief outline of rest of contents of your
thesis).

9. The Literature Review

The purpose of the literature review is to describe past important research and how it
specifically relates to the research thesis. It should be a synthesis of the previous literature
and the new idea being researched. The review should examine the major theories related to
the topic to date. It should also include all relevant findings from credible sources, such as
academic books and peer-reviewed journal articles. You will have to:

 Explain how the literature helps the researcher understand the topic.
 Try to show connections and any disparities between the literatures.

You can use the following scheme:

 Theoretical Literature (major theories related to the topic and their central arguments).
 Empirical literature (it will include studies conducted all across the world with respect
to your research topic) & studies Specific to area/country you are investigating)

Note:
While citing any study, use the following pattern.
1. If a study has been conducted by three authors like
Javed Bhat, Karishma Desai & Parinaaz Mehta, (2020), “Impact of Covid on the
performance of small scale industries in case of India”.
You cite it like Bhat et. al., (2020) and then write the main findings of this study.

2. If a study involves two authors only, like

Javed Bhat & Parinaaz Mehta, (2020), “Impact of Covid on the performance of
small scale industries in case of India”.
You cite it like Bhat & Mehta (2020) and then write the main findings of this
study
 3. If a study involves only one author, like
Javed Bhat, (2020), “Impact of Covid on the performance of small scale industries
in case of India”.
You cite it like Bhat (2020) and then write the main findings of this study
You can organise your literature either chronologically (ascending order of their publication
dates) or according to variables that have been used for analysis or the main findings of
several papers that you have reviewed about your research topic.

 Research Gap (Reveal any gaps that exist in the literature).

You try to look for possible research gaps from the surveyed literature and then state your
specific research question that you want to investigate. Also highlight how your study is
going to be different from existing studies and through which ways you are making any
contribution to the growing body of knowledge. Try to be very brief and clear about your
research gap and the associated objectives.
10. Methodology
a. (Relevant for Researches based on Primary data collection)
 Research Design and types used in the study
 Define the Research Variables that are supposed to be used for analysis
(variables should be selected according to objectives or research question that
a particular researcher wants to investigate).
 Period of Data Collection
 Survey Design
 Define your Population about which you want to conduct research
 Define your Sample, Sample Unit and Sample Size (Due to COVID
you can restrict your sample size to a maximum of 30-40 depending on
availability, however, if possible you can choose a larger sample as if it
is possible on your part)
 Explain your sampling method that you want to use for Sampling
(selecting of respondents from the defined population)
 Questionnaire Structure, different sets of questions, coding, likert scale & Data
Collection Strategy (Personal Interview or sending questionnaire through
emails or post).
 Data Compilation (Refining your data and organizing it properly with respect
to response of selected respondents to various questions and framing of
variable set to be used for analysis like gender, education, income, marital
status, preference etc.)
b. (Relevant for Researches based on secondary data)

 Data (Definition of variables, source, data period, units of measurement, symbols

used in analysis.
e.g.
 Gross Domestic Product at factor cost (Variable definition) of India is measured in
CONSTANT 2010-11 PRICES (BILLION RUPEES), is used in the research with
symbol GDP for period 1970 to 2019 (period) and you are obtaining it from RBI
(source).
 Empirical Methodology.

If you are making use of any statistical method like ANOVA, CORRELATION or
REGRESSION. Try to explain it theoretically with regard to various concepts like
dependent variable independent variable, what ANOVA is all about, what
CORRELATION is all about or what REGRESSION is all about.

11. Results & Discussion

a) Introductory paragraph
b) Quantitative findings, including tables as needed to clarify descriptive or
inferential statistics.
c) Qualitative findings, including quotes to illustrate themes
Note: Either in b. and c. above, or in a separate sub-section after c, the original research
questions should be specifically answered based on the data collected. Depending on the
details of your data, this answering of research questions may also be shifted into your
discussion.

 Discussion
o Address each of the most significant findings or outcomes of your study, as
follows:
a. Briefly summarize the findings.
b. Compare and contrast the findings to other studies
c. Explain the meaning, implications, and value of the findings
o After discussing each major finding, provide conclusions and/or
recommendations based on your findings and discussion. E.g. in an
Education-related study, this usually means things teachers and curriculum
designers should do, based on the outcomes of your study.
Notes: 1) Either in the discussion or in the conclusion, you have the option of listing
suggestions for additional research based on your research design and findings. 2) The focus
of the discussion is the insights of the researcher. Do not make the mistake of simply
repeating facts. Attempt to explain “why.”
12. Conclusion
A concluding paragraph is a brief summary of your main ideas and restates the paper's main
thesis, giving the reader the sense that the stated goal of the paper has been accomplished.
What have you learned by doing this research that you didn't know before? What conclusions
have you drawn? You may also want to suggest further areas of study, improvement of
research possibilities, etc. to demonstrate your critical thinking regarding your research.
Refer back to your original problem and state how your study has addressed this problem. In
the process, restate the significance of your study (policy implications) and with potential
limitations and scope for future research like:

 Summary of Main findings

 Policy Recommendations/suggestions
 Limitations of the study
 Scope for Future research

13. Any Appendices.

14. References
Use APA (American Psychological Association) or “author-date" style for referencing of
various articles that you have cited in your seminar paper.