Burao college of Health Science
Proposal and Thesis Development Guideline
Proposal Guideline
Preliminary pages
1. Cover page 1 page (Name of the university, title, date and advisor name)
2. Acknowledgment
3. Abbreviations and acronyms
4. Table of contents
5 list of figures (if any)
6. List of tables
7. Abstract
Body of the proposal
1. Introduction
1.1 background
1.2 statement of the problem
1.3 significance of the study
1.4 Objectives
1.4.1. General Objective
1.4.2. Specific objectives
1.5 Research Question ( optional)
1.6 Hypothesis ( if any)
1
2. Literature review
3. Method and material
3.1 study area
3.2 study period
3.3 populations
3.3 .1 source of population
3.3.2 Study population
3.4 selection criteria
3.4.1 Inclusion criteria
3.4.2 Exclusion criteria
3.5 sample size determination (if any)
3.6 sampling technique
3.7 variables
3.7.1 Dependent variables
3.7.2 Independent variables
3.8 operational definitions
3.9 data collection procedure
3.10 data quality assurance
3.11 data processing analysis
3.12. Ethical consideration
3.13 dissemination of the results
4. Work plan
5 Budget break down
6. Reference citation style (Vancouver)
Annexes (questionnaire and consent form)
2
Thesis Guideline
Preliminary pages
1. Cover page 1 page (Name of the university, title, date and advisor name)
2. Acknowledgment
3. Abbreviations and acronyms
4. Table of contents
5 list of figures (if any)
6. List of tables
7. Abstract
Body of the thesis
1. Introduction
1.1 background
1.2 statement of the problem
1.3 significance of the study
1.4 Objectives
1.4.1. General Objective
1.4.2. Specific objectives
1.5 Research Question (optional)
1.6 Hypothesis ( if any)
2. Literature review
3. Method and material
3.1 study area
3.2 study period
3.3 populations
3
3.3 .1 source of population
3.3.2 Study population
3.4 selection criteria
3.4.1 Inclusion criteria
3.4.2 Exclusion criteria
3.5 sample size determination (if any)
3.6 sampling technique
3.7 variables
3.7.1 Dependent variables
3.7.2 Independent variables
3.8 operational definitions
3.9 data collection procedure
3.10 data quality assurance
3.11 data processing analysis
3.12. Ethical consideration
3.13 dissemination of the results
4. Results and Discussion
5. Conclusion and Recommendation
References citation style (Vancouver)
Annex (questionnaire and consent form)
Style and Formatting
Scientific writing requires consistency in style and format in research proposals and theses.
Certain rules are followed consistently throughout these documents. These rules are presented
below.
4
A. Font Times New Roman font is required throughout the documents. There should be no
variation in the type of font used throughout the research proposal or thesis. The cover page of
the thesis or proposal is presented in 14 points font size. The thesis will also have an additional
title page where 14 points font size shall be used. The text in the cover page and title page in the
thesis will be in bold face font.
The first level headings in the research proposal or thesis will be in 14 points font size. Aside
from this variation in font size, all of the narrative in the research proposals and theses are in 12
points font size.
B. Margins
A margin of 3.0 cm on the left is for binding. A margin of 2.5 cm each on the right, top and
bottom of the page is required. The same margins should be applied to all pages including those
of the figures and tables.
C. Headings and Subheadings
Each of the titles of the preliminary sections and the chapters of the narrative should be written in
bold lower case letters and be left sided.
The chapter headings of the narrative must be numbered with Arabic numerals starting from 1
for the Introduction. The Arabic numerals shall be followed by a period, a space and the title of
the chapter without the word “chapter.” Note that the titles of the preliminary sections are not
numbered.
The second level headings, i.e. subheadings, are numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals
in an outline numbering system (e.g., 1.1., 1.2., etc. for subheadings of Chapter 1; 2.1., 2.2., etc.
for Chapter 2; etc.). Likewise, the outline numbering system will be used for lower level
headings (e.g. 1.1.1., 1.1.2., etc. for subheadings under s used.
D. Line Spacing
The line space for all whole documents should be 1.5
G. Other Style and Formatting Issues
✓ All measurements should be given in metric or Standard International (S.I.) units.
✓ Only the Somaliland shilling shall be used for budget currency.
✓ Complicated, long or awkward sentences should be avoided.
✓ correct grammatical rules should be followed.
✓ Contractions such as shouldn’t, can’t, and won’t should not be used.
✓ The use of personal pronouns such as I, you and we should be avoided.
✓ Colloquial language (slang) should be avoided.
✓ Technical jargon should be minimized.
✓ The ampersand (“&”) should not appear as a form of contraction in the proposal or thesis
✓ The structure of a sentence is important in scientific writing. For example, do not begin a
sentence by “Study” or “And”. In addition, never start sentences with numerals such as 10,
33, 145, etc. or with an abbreviation such as contracted scientific name. Write out abbreviations
if they appear at the beginning of a sentence.
5
✓ Give attention to English mechanics. To avoid common mistakes, a parenthesis should be
preceded and followed by one space, and a comma should be followed by a space, etc.
✓ There should be no misspelled words in a proposal and thesis. Nor should there be any
grammatical errors. Students are strongly encouraged to use the “Spelling and Grammar” check
in the Microsoft Word to avoid any such language problems.
NOTE:
 Every student should take a lion part the writing and completion of this proposal, as it is applying of
what you have taken the research methodology course.
 Every group should send through Email for every part of this activity as they do
 The total marks of writing this research proposal will be 30 Marks.
 The completion and submission deadline of this proposal will be on December 15, 2021 which is
strictly enforced.
 Students who fail to submit on deadline are regarded as failure and will not be gotten any marks.
6