HOW TO WRITE BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY IN RESEARCH

Have you ever wondered why every research has a background of the study?

The reason is crystal clear, one cannot carry out a study without knowing the root of the problem. Identifying the roots of the problem helps to easily ascertain what the solution should look like or what one should be looking out for to proffer or recommend solutions. So the background of the study provides details of a problem, what has happened and why it is still so.

Research involves a thorough investigation into a subject matter, the thoroughness is only possible with an enthusiastic, result-oriented and hardworking student who is willing to go through pains to dig out relevant data from the past for a present challenge.

What is the Background of the Study in Research

The background of the study is a detailed historical event of a problem that is being researched. It helps to reveal the foundation of a particular research problem which is expansively narrowed down to the present situation. Every research paper comes with a well-couched background of the study, it is usually the first write-up after the introduction. If well written, the background of a study makes a research paper rich and robust. Every problem is supposed to be traceable through events and activities, that’s what the background of a study does to research.

As implied, the two main terms are “the background” and “the study”

The word background can best be described as a report about a scene, activities or events that took place either in the past or present which affects or could affect a subject under investigation or that is being considered. While study in research is about reviewing, perusing, thorough investigation of a selected topic or case either to acquire knowledge or proffer solutions or answers.

How to Write Background of the Study

Writing background of the study involves some level of skillset blended with good academic capabilities. The background of the study may look easy when read, but requires lots of work during preparation. To write a good background for the study, the following steps should be used;

1. Locate at least 3 recent and related literature for review: This is only possible through a thorough search from either physical sources, online sources or both. The physical sources include; the school library, school archives, textbooks, academic or professional compiled journals and resource materials among others. The online sources are; search engines and online academic platforms such as;
2. Google search engine
3. Google Scholar
4. Academia
5. ResearchGate
6. Others

Journals are recommended for this exercise.

2. Study the materials selected to find the roots of the problems the research is tilting at. This is important for your initial write-up or draft as shown in the next items 3, 4 and 5 below.
3. Arrange the problems found in the materials reviewed with the dates of each event. The arrangement could be methodical or chronological, just make sure it’s straight to the point and easy to understand.
4. Re-write the history of events in your own words, and make sure the dates are arranged in ascending order for better tracing up to the present year the research is undertaken.
5. Proofread the write-up to ensure nothing is left. The background must follow the line of discussions from the project topic. The problem history should start from the roots (issues that occurred earlier e.g. in 1900,… 1960,… 1991… etc.) down to the present event (issues existing in 2022, 2023…).
6. Settle down and write a background of study that matches your exact project topic with the information already organized from the initial write-up above.
7. Narrow down your background of study to be in line with the research aim and objectives.
8. Do a final proofread and continue with other parts of the project, thesis or dissertation.

Structure of a Background of the Study

The introduction – This can be a short definition or narration of the subject matter.

The body – This is where the history of the problem is traced and written.

Conclusion – The researcher has to find a way to connect or link the problems found to what the research wants to achieve.

Why is the Background of the Study Important in Research?

Many students do not think the background of the study is important to their study, they sometimes mistake it for an introduction. Usually background of the study comes under the introduction as item 3.1 in theses or dissertation papers, while some researchers would prefer to have an “introduction” and a “background of the study” others may only have the background of the study thinking both are the same, whereas they are way different in research. Introduction in research brings the reader’s attention to the work that has been done but the background of the study directs the readers’ mind to the roots of the research problem as a way of saying “Hey we’ve been able to find some problems, here are attempts in the past to solve the problems found, the problems have not been solved, but our research will try to solve it”.

The background of the study is important in research for the following reasons:

1. To help the researcher trace the origin of a problem
2. To methodically outline actual problems from history that caused the emanating problems being researched
3. To find out what has been done in the past to ameliorate the existing problem
4. To trace the length of time the problem has been in existence and whether it has already been solved
5. To position the researcher on the best approach to the problem statement and how to couch the research objectives.
6. The background of a study prepares the mind of the researcher for what the research is about and directs the researcher to the best materials to consult to support available knowledge.

What are the Characteristics of the Background of the Study

The characteristics of the background of the study include the following:

1. The background of the study contains the history of an existing problem which is being studied.
2. The background of the study requires patience and time to write
3. The background of the study produces the statement of the problem is well-written
4. The background of the study relies on initial literature reviews at the start
5. The background of the study is detailed but must not exceed 4 pages to pass the needed information.

Qualities of a Good Background of a Study in Research

A good background of a study should be easy to read, and understand and should be able to guide the researcher on how to write a statement of the problem, the research aim and organize the research questions. It should help the researcher prepare a winning hypothesis, the significance of the study and the pattern of further literature reviews to undertake. If the background of the study is well written, the researcher would know what gaps to find in the literature and essential areas to fill. The background of the study should enable the strategic concentrations to certain areas or locations or activities to investigate and collect relevant data that will be sampled or tested to conclude. The conclusion will then lead to proffering recommendations for solutions to the problems identified, studied and analyzed. If the background of the study cannot help the researcher achieve a successful study, it is either the problem found during the initial literature review that has been solved in the past, is irrelevant to the study or what was assumed to be a problem wasn’t one after all.  

Background of the Study Example

An example of a background of the study has been provided in the box below to guide you in developing yours, I hope that this example will help you produce a suitable paper that meets your institution’s standards and requirements.

Background of the Study Example PDF

Here’s free access to a PDF example of the background of the study, you can download the example and keep it for future use or as a guide to develop yours. Having an already written background of the study is a good way to avoid mistakes or keep you organized while writing yours. 

How to Write Background of the Study from Google Search Engine

We will learn how to get relevant materials online on Google. We will adopt the project topic “The Impact of Child Abuse on Secondary School Children in Africa”.

You will need to identify the keywords from the project topic; the major keywords here are child abuse, and secondary school children.

After identifying the keywords in the topic, it’s expected that the researcher picks each and searches for relevant material, a minimum of 3 materials should be gotten for each keyword for proper review. The materials reviewed must have these 3 qualities;

1. Should be a journal
2. Should be recent (not more than 6 years old)
3. Should touch on the specific keyword

What to Do With the Materials Sourced Online

1. Confirm that the materials are relevant to the study
2. Print out the relevant ones
3. Extract the important pages
4. Pen down the references
5. Start reviewing the selected ones

Now let’s get back to “How to Write Background of the Study from Google Search Engine”

To write the background of the study from Google, do the following 9 steps:

Step 1: Open the Google search engine; google.com

Step 2: Type in the keyword as a sentence with PDF at the end of the keyword, e.g. “impact of child abuse PDF”. The importance of PDF is to help Google bring up downloadable results.

Step 3: Click the enter button to get the results

Step 4: Confirm that the results that Google brought out can be downloaded. Look out for a PDF around the results. In the illustrations in the red boxes there are four results, one from “ResearchGate” and the others from “Office of Justice Programs”, Department of Education” and “Academia.edu”. ResearchGate and Academia.edu are recommended for research. But we’ll use researchGate for the illustration.

Step 5: Select the result from ResearchGate.net

Step 6: Click on the verged link or blue download button to download and print for your keeps or use.

Step 7: View the Abstract of the materials printed

Step 8: Copy out the references from the top left corner of the material

Step 9: Start reviewing the materials. Use the 8 steps under “How to Write Background of the Study” above.

HOW TO USE GOOGLE SCHOLAR TO GET RELEVANT MATERIALS TO WRITE THE BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY IN RESEARCH

Firstly, let’s still assume the approved project topic is “AN ASSESSMENT OF USER-DEMAND PREFERENCE FOR RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES IN NEW HAVEN LAYOUT, ENUGU”

Go to your URL and type https://scholar.google.com/ then press the ENTER button…

This is what you’ll see on your device…

Once you reach this stage, type in your approved project topic to search for related materials.

The chances of not getting search results with the exact topic as yours are high and you may be wondering why that is so.

There are 2 reasons why you may not find the exact search result you are searching for;

1. Nobody has written a journal with the same topic as yours or
2. You are just not yet in the right academic search engine for that result

So, what can you do to get related search results?

At this point, you should find keywords closely related to your topic. Remember we are searching for the historical event of your topic and bearing in mind that we have already split the topic into 2 variables.

We will now find related KEYWORDS to either the entire topic or the established variables.

e.g., the history of residential properties in New Haven

evolution of residential property in New Haven

background of New Haven’s development

creation of the New Haven layout

origin of New Haven etc.

Type in your selected keywords and search for materials (journals). Ensure you properly search Google Scholar to give you recent materials (not more than 6 years old), old materials often provide obsolete information and you wouldn’t want to waste your time on outdated information.

To ensure that Google Scholar supplies you with recent materials you will have to do the following:

Click on the circled area to view and select the period you want materials from. If you select “any time” Google Scholar will pick related materials randomly from different years, if you select “since 2019” you will be able to view materials written from 2019 till date, if you select since 2021 you will see materials between 2021 and the current year. Choose a period not beyond 6 years.

Also, click on the circled area and ensure that “include citations” is selected from the option.

Click on the drop-down icon (three lines on the top left bar) and click on “advanced search to get a more advanced optimization page.

After clicking “advanced search” it will bring you here, you can then start selecting and filling in the fields above.

After you are done, click on the blue search icon on the top right corner of the site.

Clicking on the blue search button will bring you hear. At this point, you want to click “view at researchgate.net” to read the material from the website where it was published or download the material directly to your phone as a PDF file. I recommend you click the “(PDF) researchgate.net” to download and print for subsequent literature review.

After downloading your preferred material using your generated keywords, you will have a PDF file like this on your mobile device.

Locate the introduction or background of the study for the historical background of your subject matter.

If you can’t still get sufficient details of what you’re looking for, you will need to try the other keywords and download 2 or 3 more journals, at the end of the search you will surely get related materials.

If what you’ve gotten appears insufficient, use other academic search engines.

Read and Paraphrase: To achieve this, you must do 2 things; Write out the details of the materials you are trying to review, if you are using a journal (strongly recommended) pen down the following; title of the article, name of author(s), date of publication, volume number, page number, issue number, name of journal, DOI or URL…

Read the articles at least twice and underline relevant areas, then start writing down what you have read in your own words. REMEMBER to cite the original authors of the words you are paraphrasing. To cite means to enter the surname name of the original author of the words you are paraphrasing and the year of publication e.g., Okafor (2022) mentioned that……… or according to Okafor (2022) the origin of New Haven was………. Or New Haven was developed in the year……(Okafor, 2022) etc. 

Arrange Your Reviewed Articles Methodically: This should take the form of an inverted pyramid.

Your description of the subject under review should always start from a larger perspective to the lower, then to the least aspect. Meaning if you are describing the history of New Haven, you can do a short description of the State then narrow it down to the Local Government Area and then the creation of New Haven till you get to the development of residential properties and other things that come with it…… (see sample). Also, the dates of events should be methodically and chronologically arranged to give a clear picture of your description.