Project Tips

The deadline for the project draft and final submission is fast approaching. You have one week to complete the draft and two weeks to submit the final version for marking. Here a reminder of the project process.

Gathering Information

To conduct any research you need to gather information. For this particular project you were required to:

1. Conduct a literature review.
2. Conduct an observation of the cafeteria.
3. Write and administer interview questions to pose to the cafeteria's staff and users of the cafeteria.
4. Write and conduct a questionnaire to about 30 users of the cafeteria.
5. Tabulate your questionnaire responses to create charts/graphs/tables/diagrams.

Literature Review: After doing the lit. review you woud have had a clear set of guidelines to which cafeteria's should adhere.

Observation: Using your guidelines, you examine the premises to see if the conform to or breach the set of guidelines

Interview: Allows you to question the workers about areas that you could not observe, areas that you observed but you needed some clarification. The inteview of the users (about 5) allows you to ask open-ended questions to determine how users feel about the food and services offered by the cafeteria.

Questionnaire: Based on the points or views raised in the interviews, the questionnaire is designed to determine how many other persons had similar views. After the questionnaires are conducted then you would have an idea of how the sample feel about the cafeteria and its products.

Tabulating Data: At this satge you tabulate your responses to create charts/diagrams. Tip: Separate your responses into two groups (1) Food (2) Services. For each of these you then organize the respones into negative, positive and neutral. Then comb through your questionnaire responses and tabulate them.

Click on the link below to see a tabulation sample. The sample shows how the response from three questionnaire sheets were tabulated and how one part of the tabulation was converted to a chart.

Sample Tabulation

Click the link below to view a PowerPoint show that explains how to create charts using Excel

Creating Charts in Excel

Organizing The Information

After you have made all the diagrams you intend to use you need to prepare what you are going to say about them. In other words you must describe what each chart is saying and what the information implies as it concerns the research topic. Please note that you may and should have other information that may not be represented by any chart e.g. data about physical breaches or inadequate furniture e.t.c.

Bear in mind your research topic every time you write or prepare a chart. Your aim is to determine if the cafeteria is operating up to standards. Which standard? The standard or guideline you found when you did your literature review.

Once again I urge you to work diligently on your research project and your incident reports. You are almost out of time! Do not procrastinate any more! Email your questions and/or sample work at marvin.williams9@gmail.com or m_williams99@yahoo.com