DEPARTMENT OF MICROBIOLOGY

UMARU MUSA YAR’ADUA UNIVERSITY, KATSINA

GUIDELINES FOR PROJECT WRITE-UP

Prepared by the Department of Microbiology Umaru Musa Yar’adua

University, Katsina
June, 2017

1
COMPONENTS OF PROJECT WRITE-UP

A. Preliminary pages

✓ Front cover or cover page

✓ Fly leaf

✓ Title page

✓ Declaration

✓ Certification

✓ Dedication

✓ Acknowledgement

✓ Abstract

✓ Table of content

B. Main body

The main body of the project should comprise of the following chapters

✓ Introduction (chapter one)

✓ Literature review (chapter two)

✓ Materials and methods (chapter three)

✓ Results (chapter four)

✓ Discussion, conclusion and recommendation (s) (chapter five)

C. Terminal part

✓ References

✓ Appendices – if available

✓ Glossary –if available

2
 A. Preliminary pages

i. Front cover or cover page: this page should contain;

Title of the research topic

Students’ name and Registration number
Address (Department, Faculty, then Name of the University)
Date (Month and Year)
ii. Fly leaf: this shall be next to the cover page and blank

iii. Title page: this page should contain;

Title of the research topic

Students’ name and Registration number, followed by
Degree for which the project is submitted in the following words

BEING A PROJECT SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF MICROBIOLOGY,

UMARU MUSA YAR’ADUA UNIVERSITY KATSINA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT

OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE DEGREE

(B.Sc.) IN MICROBIOLOGY

Date (Month and year).

iv. Declaration: This page should contain the following statement of declaration by the
candidate;
I hereby declare that this research work entitled “State the title of the research” was carried out

by me in the Department of Microbiology, under the supervision of (title and name of the

supervisor) and has not been presented elsewhere for another degree/diploma or certificate at this

or any other institution. The information derived from the literature has been duly acknowledged

and a list of references provided.

Immediately below the declaration, the candidate shall append his/her signature and the date with

his/her full name and registration number as shown below;

3
Name: ………………………….. Reg. No.: …………………………

Signature: ………………………. Date: …………………………….

v. Certification:

This page shall bear a signed statement by the candidate’s supervisor(s) certifying that the research

work and preparation of the project thesis was carried out under his/her supervision in the

following words;

This is to certify that the research work entitled “state the title of the research” by Name

of the candidate with reg. no was carried out under my supervision. The name of the

supervisor, signature and date shall appear as follows;

……………………………. …………………………….

Name of Supervisor Signature/Date

vi. Approval:

This page shall bear a statement certifying that the project/thesis has been examined and

approved for the award of degree (B.Sc.) in Microbiology in the following words;

This project entitled “state the title of the research” followed by Name of the candidate

with reg. no. meets the requirements governing the award Bachelor of Science Degree in

Microbiology of Umaru Musa Yar’adua University Katsina and is approved for its

contribution to knowledge and literary presentation.

4
The statement shall be signed (with names and dates clearly written) by the following as follows;
……………………………… …………………………………...
Name of Supervisor Date
…………………………….. ……………………………………
Name of Head of Department Date

……………………………… ……………………………………
Name of External Supervisor Date

…………………………… ……………………………………
Name of Project Coordinator Date

vii. Dedication:

The student (author) may, if he/she deems it fit to dedicate his/her work to any person(s) or

corporate bodies.

viii. Acknowledgement:

The student (author) shall acknowledge in his /her own words the assistance given by others

during the course of the research work and the preparation of the project write-up.

ix. Abstract:

The purpose of this section is to provide a brief summary of the research work. It should be concise

and not more than 250 words. Avoid citing references, should not be in italics and do not write

keywords. This section should be typed as a single paragraph in block format (i.e do not use

indentation).

NOTE; the following components should form part of the your abstract (brief information require
here);

✓ Background, which include information about the problem (brief outline of the Statement
of the problem)
✓ Purpose of the study
✓ Methods
✓ Results
✓ Conclusion and implication of the study

5
 x. Table of contents:
This section shall contain the list of the all the components of the project write-up and the

respective pages on which they appear. Note, only name of chapters (CHAPTER ONE,

CHAPTER TWO, CHAPTER THREE, CHAPTER FOUR and CHAPTER FIVE) and title

of the major chapters (INTRODUCTION, LITERATURE REVIEW, MATERIALS AND

METHODS, RESULTS, DISCUSSIONS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS)

should be in capital letters and bold.

All subheadings should be in Title case, i.e capitalize only the first letter of each word.

B. MAIN BODY

CHAPTER ONE

This section shall comprise of introduction/background of the study, statement of problem,

justification, aim and objectives of the study

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study: The background of the study (introduction) is a brief section, which
address the relevance of your research and include a short history/trend or relevant background
that leads to a statement of the problem that is being investigated. Introduction usually follows a
funnel style, starting from broadly and the then narrowing. The trend follows from known to
unknown. The introduction should start from broad area to becoming more and more specific. One
should avoid an exhaustive and historic review. There should be a clear connection between
previous research and the present one.

1.2 Statement of Research Problem

1.3 Justification of the study

1.4 Aim of the study

1.5 Objectives of the study

6
 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

This section should present review of relevant and up to date literature and ideas related to the

project topic with citation of references. All citations made should follow the author date

system. E.g citations at the end of a sentence, for single author; (Hayatuddeen, 2015), for two

authors; (Bahauddeen and Mukhtar, 2014) and for multiple authors; (Usman et al., 2009). Note,

the et al should in italics.

Citations within a sentence should be in the above format buy only the year of publication should

be within the bracket.

The literature review shall be towards justifying the objectives of the research project.

Note: title of sub-topics within the literature review should appear in title case and bolded.

E.g 2.1. Global Burden of Diarrhoea Illnesses

CHAPTER THREE

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The purpose of the section is to describe in detail how you performed the study. Someone should

be able to replicate your study based on the information you provided in this section. Therefore,

make it sound professional and employ standard scientific protocols. Note, methods are written

as a process description in a reported speech, not a laboratory manual procedure. When writing

this section you should be precise, complete, and concise. Include only relevant information, no

unnecessary details, excuses, or confessions.

7
The following forms the components of these sections;

• Study area

• Method of date/sample collection

• Experimental procedures

• Methods of data analysis and interpretation

Note: do not forget to cite the source(s) of those experimental or analytical

techniques used.

CHAPTER FOUR

RESULTS

The results section describes but not interprets the major findings of your research. You can

present the data/results using tables, charts, graphs to show trends that that you found and describe

these trends. The presentation of results may either be chronological to correspond with the

methods or in the order of most to least important. There should a brief introduction or description

of the table/figure of result before it is presented.

All tables and figures should be written as Table 1, Table 2, Figure 1, Figure 2 e.t.c

8
Vertical and horizontal lines are not accepted in table of results as shown below:

A B C D

MA 20 13 18

MB 25 17 20

MC 15 23 21

MD 11 27 20

However, it is only the two upper and one terminal horizontal lines that are

accepted as shown below;

A B C D

MA 20 13 18

MB 25 17 20

MC 15 23 21

MD 11 27 20

• Note that as rule, only one table/figure of results should be presented

per page.

9
 CHAPTER FIVE

DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION(S)

5.1 DISCUSSION

This section involves interpretation and conclusion about your findings. Discuss how your result

relates to aim of the study, the implications and how it also relates to the findings of other similar

studies. It is expected of you to demonstrate your ability to synthesize, analyze, evaluate,

interpret and reason effectively. You need to think carefully about your findings in order to draw

conclusion. The following should be noted when writing this section;

• Interpret your results, evaluate, analyze and explain the significance and

implications of your work. And further include generalization that you can

draw from your results, principles that you support/disprove, and

conclusion about theoretical and/or practical implications

• Discuss agreement or contrast with previously published works

• Explain key limitations, questions left unanswered, major experimental

constraints, lack of correlation and negative results

5.2 CONCLUSION

State your conclusion clearly. Conclusion should only be drawn from the findings in your

results or statistical inference and not from theoretical notes.

5.3 RECOMMENDATION

Recommendations should be made based on the challenges encountered in the course of carrying

out the research, or based on some very important observations.

10
 C. TERMINAL PART

✓ References

✓ Appendices – if available

✓ Glossary –if available

REFERENCES

The following should be noted;

• Any citations made in the write-up must be presented in this section and vice-versa

• The referencing and citations must follow the APA format

• List of authors must be arranged alphabetically

• Numbering or use of bullets is not recommended in APA style of referencing

• For journal articles; Name and initials of all authors, year of publication, title of the

article, title of the journal (to be written in italics), volume & no., and page number

should be clearly written . E.g Aminu, M., Ahmad, A.A., Umoh, J.U., Beer, M.C.,

Esona, M.D. and Steele, A.D. (2007). Adenovirus infection in children with diarrhoea

disease in Northwestern Nigeria. Annals of African Medicine, 6(4):168-173.

• For books; name and initials of the author(s), year of publication, title of book, name of

publisher, place of publication, and page number must be included. E.g Norman, T.J.

(2004). Statistical methods in Biology. Cambridge University Presss, United Kingdom,

pp.255.

• For internet sources; state names and initials of author(s), year of publication, title, web

address and date retrieved. E.g Zere, E. and McIntyre, D. (2003). Inequities in under-five

child malnutrition in South Africa. International Journal for Equity in Health, Available

from: http://www.equityhealthj.com [Accessed February, 2014]

11
• If the article/source of information is from an organization; then state the name of the

organization, year of publication, title of the article, website and the date retrieved. E.g

WHO, (2005). Estimated rotavirus deaths for children under 5 years of age

http://www.who.int/immunization_monitoring/burden/rotavirus_estimates/en/.

(Accessed March 2013).

GLOSSARY

The glossary in any case, shall contain a list and explanation of foreign, indigenous,

obsolete, abbreviations/acronyms and their meanings or technical words used in the text.

Internationally accepted standard abbreviations of scientific names not spelt out in the

text may be explained here.

APPENDICES

Appendix is optional and if provided may contain the following;

i. Matters related to data collection e,g sample of questionnaires and other test

instruments

ii. Raw data

iii. Copies of authors’ publication from the research work

iv. Computer program, especially if it was written or modified by the candidate and

the output.

12