Students' Guide for Comprehensive Project

PGDM (2009-11)

Part I: GENERAL GUIDELINES

This section contains general guidelines which will guide students in framing and
undertaking comprehensive project.

What Do We Mean by Comprehensive Project?

A comprehensive project is different from minor project which you are quite used
to while taking it up for each course you studied. A comprehensive project shall be
in the nature of coherent, holistic and logical document of an original
investigation. The major distinction here is the requirement of the project to
produce a substantial piece of research.

A comprehensive project is seen as a sustained and systematic piece of

investigation that incorporates a logical line of argument, is supported by
evidence which may be based upon analysis of data and contains argument
relevant to the examination of a particular topic. A comprehensive project shall be
usually divided into coherent sections or chapters that link together in a logical
manner. Each chapter shall contribute to the advancement of the argument and
when taken together all chapters should form an integrated whole. It should be a
disciplined investigation, not a mere compilation of the work of others, or just a
presentation of data in a variety of ways.

Choice of topic

It is your role to define, in broad terms, the research problem or project topic/area
and identify possible lines of investigation. Once you submit the topic and
proposal for comprehensive project, the Institute will attach you with a faculty
depending upon specialization in topic/area. However, we encourage you to
discuss further the topic of the comprehensive project submitted to us with the
designated faculty guide for its further refinement.

It is part of the faculty guide’s role to review constructively the detailed plans, and
to ensure that the student is adequately prepared to address the problem. It is
also the faculty guide’s job to assess constructively drafts of the project but not to
undertake proof reading. These matters of editing, proper citation and quotation,
spelling, grammar and so on, are student’s responsibility.

Documentation and Presentation

Full documentation of the sources of quotations and ideas is essential. Failure to

document or cite adequately and fully is to ignore scholarly conventions and may
mean that you may not receive full recognition for originality. Documentation

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should be used not only to provide the source of a direct quotation but also to
give the source for any information, ideas or interpretation that you have used
and placed in your own words. Inconsistencies of spelling and capitalization, in the
use of quotation marks, margins, headings and page numbering, detract from the
quality of the work done. The responsibility for attention to such detail rests
entirely with you.

Materials. The report should be typewritten or printed on plain, white, A4 size

paper. Normally printing should be on one side of the page only but where good
quality paper is used, printing on both sides is acceptable. Use black print. In all
circumstances the text must be legible.

Margins. A left-hand margin of approximately 3-3.5 cm allows adequate space

for binding. The top margin of the first page and of the first page of each
succeeding chapter/Section should be 4 cms. Other top margins, the right side
and bottom margins should be a minimum of 2.5 cm in size. If printing on both
sides is intended, a right hand margin of approx 3-3.5 cm on even page numbers
would be needed to allow space for binding.

Typing. The text material should be typed with one and a half spacing
between the lines. Tweleve point font size is to be used in Times New Roman
fonts.

Pagination. Beginning with the first page of Chapter 1/Section 1, pages are
to be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals. Small Roman numerals should
be used for all preceding pages, with the exception of the title page which is
unnumbered.

Proof Reading. Allow yourself adequate time to go through the manuscript word
by word, line by line and page by page, ensuring that all typographical and other
errors are removed. Examiners are going to check references and quotations to
see whether they are accurate. Some examiners can be extremely searching, so
be warned. Check these things before your original copy is duplicated.

Attachments. Attachments such as data sheet, graphs or photographs should

either be securely attached to the body of the project or submitted separately in a
strong enclosure.

Binding. Bound copies of project may be submitted in either hard-bound or

soft-bound. Documents which are bound securely by being spiraled on their spine
are also accepted.

Submission Procedure. When you are satisfied that all the necessary
revision has been completed and the project report is ready for submission, you
should sign a declaration that the work is original and it is ready for examination.
The declaration needs to be a part of your project submission. The draft of
declaration is provided as Annexure. Detail information on submission can be

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found in the next Part.

PART 2: PROJECT PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Introduction

It is advisable that you gradually develop and start refining your ideas concerning
your project topic. It is important for you to create a time line for the development
of your project research so that it is realistic and it gets over in the stipulated
time.

Project Proposal:

You are required to submit a project proposal which carries 40% marks. This
project proposal serves the dual purpose of allowing you to think through what it
is you want to do in detail and also allows the institute to identify a faculty guide
for you.

The project proposal has specific length and should normally be of 3 typed pages.
The proposal should have the following details, page wise.

First Page
*Broad Area (such as Marketing, Finance etc.):
*Proposed topic:
*Name of Student with signature:
*Registration number:
Second Page
*Brief statement of problem:
*Brief account of data/information sources:
Third Page
*Brief account of how you are proposing to undertake the study:
*Brief account of what you are expecting to find out from your study:

Final Report

There will generally be a strong relationship between the structure of the proposal
and the final structure of your report. Final report carries 60% marks.

Each project report has its own structural peculiarity. Nevertheless, it would not be
totally out of place to outline a ‘typical’ structure which will also serve as a
building block for you and it will also help in setting targets.

SUBMISSION DATES:

PROJECT PROPOSAL (to the faculty guide) : April 3, 2010

FINAL REPORT SUBMISSION : (to the faculty guide ) : April 23, 2010.

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Preliminaries. The preliminaries of your report should be in the following order:

• Certification
• Title page
• Acknowledgments
• Preface (if any)
• Table of contents
• List of Tables
• List of Figures
• List of acronym (if any)
• Abstract

Pagination for this section will be roman numerals.

Chapter/Section Scheme. There is no typical project structure; it is quite often

guided by the need of the study. Nevertheless, you are ‘typically’ required to take
care of the followings:

• Introduction: The introduction is concerned with identifying the

purpose of study. The introductory chapter should state the nature of
the problem or issues that you are investigating, how this fits into the
current investigation on this topic, how you intend to go about
investigating it. It should also bring about the research questions
raised and the objectives set for your study.
• Review of the Related Literature: In the report the literature
review must be tightly organized. The purpose of the review is to fit
the particular study into a broad scheme or framework, enabling the
reader to see its importance and relationship to other studies or
theories. In some works a literature review may not be confined to
only one chapter/section. Depending on the subject and structure of
the work, it may be appropriate to refer to relevant literature in
several chapters/sections.
• Methodology: In this chapter/section you describe your research
materials and data sources, experimentation etc. You need to explain
and justify the method within the purview of overall theoretical
framework adopted and also why these methods were seen as
appropriate.
• Analysis of Data/Experimentation: This may be confined to one
chapter/section or spread over two/three chapters/sections. This will
include presentation as well as analysis of data or experimentation
collected/undertaken for the study. (Data in Appendix wherever
possible)
• Summary and Conclusion: This chapter/section is about what you
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 know as a result of your research and what still needs to be done. It
may include recommendations. This chapter/section may include—I.
Restatement of the problem, II. Summary description of procedures
(briefly stated), III. Major findings, IV. Conclusions and V.
Recommendations for further investigation.

References. References are arranged in alphabetical order, the last name of

the author listed first, then initials and the date of publication.

Appendices. An appendix contains supplementary material that you consider

necessary to the interpretation of the text itself. The decision on what material
should be included in the text and what material should be placed in an appendix
is at the discretion of the writer. However, caution should be exercised to guard
against the abuse of appendices, particularly against using them as a refuse for
everything that could not be squeezed into the report. Tables and data which are
important but not essential to the understanding of the report, copies of covering
letters, printed forms and questionnaires, tests, etc. may be placed in an
appendix. Each separate entry heading is listed as APPENDIX A, APPENDIX B, etc.

Report Length

It is impossible to be specific on this. The field of investigation is the important

determining factor. However, the majority of students tend to produce reports
which are too long. Length itself is not a positive quality and may make for greater
difficulty in interpretation. Verbosity and inordinate length should be avoided.
However, it is suggested that a 2 full credit point dissertation should be about
4,000-5,000 words.

Final Report Submission

Care must be taken of the sequence of presentation of various components of

your report.

Order of presentation. This includes the followings:

• Certificate of originality
• Title page
• Acknowledgement (if any)
• Preface (if any)
• Table of contents
• List of tables (if any)
• List of figures (if any)
• Abstract
• Introduction (if separate from chapter 1/section 1)
• Chapters/Sections in sequence
• Bibliography

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 • Appendix(ces) if any
Abstract. The report must contain an abstract, or summary, of approximately
200 words. This summary is normally the first text read by the examiner. It is
therefore very important in conveying an impression of the work and what has
been achieved, and should be given much greater share of time and thought than
its size would indicate. It should state simply and directly the objectives, what was
done and the knowledge contributed.
Number of copies. Your report in the final form after binding should be
prepared in two copies. One copy must be submitted to the Institute for
evaluation and one copy should be retained by you.
Report in Soft copy. Along with the hard copy of the Report, you are also
required to submit one copy in CD format.

FINAL DISSERTATION DECLARATION FORM

I hereby declare that the Project work entitled_______________________________

_________________________________________________(write the title in Block Letters)

submitted by me for the partial fulfillment of the Post Graduate Diploma in

Management Program/PGDM-RM/PGDM-IB/PGDM-FS to Institute for

Integrated Learning in Management, Greater Noida is my own original work

and has not been submitted earlier either to IILM GSM or to any other Institution

for the fulfillment of the requirement for any course of study. I also declare that

no chapter of this manuscript in whole or in part is lifted and incorporated in this

report from any earlier / other work done by me or others.

Place :

Date : Signature of Student

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Name of Student : _____________________________

Address : _____________________________

______________________________________

______________________________________

PRESCRIBED COVER PAGE DESIGN

………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………..…….. TITLE ..………………………………………..…
………………………………………………………………………………………..

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the

two year full-time Post Graduate Diploma in Management Programme
PGDM/PGDM-RM/PGDM-IB/PGDM-FS

Submitted by

……………………………………………………………………………….

Roll No:
Batch : 2009-2011

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Institute for Integrated Learning in Management
Graduate School of Management
16, Knowledge Park-II
Greater Noida– 201 306
Month & Year

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