WRITING YOUR SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Every research work must be delimited to a particular scope. Your scope of study is your coverage area, you need to limit your study to a catchment you can sufficiently handle, it must be within your capacity. The idea of wanting to cover a whole country is not admissible, before choosing a scope of study, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Do I have enough fund to handle the area?
2. Do I have a means of collecting data from respondents across the selected area?
3. How does my study relate to this area?
4. Does my population of study fall within this area?
5. Do I have enough time to visit the area for personal observation or interview?
6. Can I freely access the location?
7. How does my research problem affect the area?

These (above items) should be put into consideration. It is recommended that you identify areas you can reach within the shortest time possible, within your budget and very accessible.

This is because you don’t want to throw in questionnaire in locations that would take you 7hours of travel, what then happens after the questionnaires have been filled, would you still travel another 7hours to collect completed questionnaires. Why not pick one or two Local Government Area, a city or at most a state especially where you reside or very familiar with.

Even if your topic deals with problems affecting the nation (e.g., case study research), why not select a region, a few states (if you have to compare) or a few locations from two or three states and do proper research on them. The truth be told, most research whose case study covers the entirety of a country find it difficult collecting accurate data (with use of questionnaires), they end up copying from already researched papers (plagiarism).

In addition, the scope of the study defines the upper and lower bounds of the study and it is meant to explain the keywords in the topic or title either in terms of the subject matter, location, or in terms of time dimension. The main goal is to limit the level of responsibility of researchers to whatever queries may arise during the execution of the study. Defining the scope of the study exonerates the researchers from other issues that are relevant to the study but not covered. It is important for the researcher to know that the scope of the study should be specific, measurable, identifiable, time-bound, and cost-effective. If the scope is too wide, it will be very expensive to cover.

Furthermore, it is important to set limits on how much one tries to cover in a single study. The issues (or factors or variables) investigated are the study’s independent variables. It is possible for the dependent variable in the problem to relate to many factors. When this is the case, delimit the study to a few of the independent factors. If the study applies to a subject in a wide geographical coverage, it is necessary to also delimit the study to a reasonable coverage.

In general, the scope of a study in research must cover the following;

1. The geographical area under study
2. Materials/data on the subject area, population, components, or element to be covered.  
3. Introduction of time factor or period to be studied.

Example 1 of the simple scope of a study

The study is on the effect of Government quarters monetization policy on housing development in Enugu urban; therefore, to effectively do justice to this subject, Secretariat Quarters Ogui, Ologo Quarters, Agbani Road, CBN Quarters Trans Ekulu and Artisan Quarters are adopted as a case study. This includes the buildings, infrastructural facilities, environment, and the general components of the various quarters in Enugu urban.

Example 2 of the simple scope of a study

The study is on the examination of problems associated with using real estate as collateral for loan facilities in selected banks in FCT – Abuja between 2013 to 2022. The study was further limited to fourteen commercial bank branches in FCT – Abuja comprising Zenith Bank Plc., First Bank of Nigeria; Fidelity Bank, Union Bank plc, First City Monument Bank, Sterling Bank.

Example of a slightly detailed scope of a study

The study is on the problems associated with using real estate as collateral for loan facilities in selected banks in Enugu. There are various motives for loan applications in Enugu, notwithstanding; for the purpose of this study; emphasis is laid on loan applications for real estate investments and business transactions; the study was limited to the following commercial banks in Enugu urban; Zenith Bank, Independence layout; First Bank of Nigeria, New Haven Branch; Fidelity Bank, Okpara Avenue; Sterling Bank, Market Road and Access Bank, Ogui Road.

Example of detailed scope of a study in research

The scope of this study covers the Ketu area; it is bordered by a major highway in Lagos Metropolis, the Lagos Ikorodu Road which serves as a link from Jibowu to Ikorodu. The area to be studied comprises of Demurin and Akintan Corridor in Kosofe Local Government Area in Lagos metropolis. It requires a piece of comprehensive information consisting of variables on the socio-economic features of residents as affecting housing quality in the subject area; including the population, age and sex distribution, level of education, and marital status, the study also intends to investigate the physical features of available housing in the area under study and demographic variables of the households representing the housing characteristics such as costs, rents and quality of housing in the metropolis.

For in-depth study, this work will assess the condition of housing, available facilities in the subject neighborhood, the number of floors, size of the habitable rooms, the occupancy ratio, housing quality indicators the likes of structural adequacy, neighborhood quality, residents’ perception on neighborhood safety, level of public services allowed, access to work and other social amenities, room density and affordability of housing. The study also considers the contributing factors to housing problems over a period of 10 years (2013 to 2023).

Your scope should have a jurisdiction, a limit…a start point and an end point.

See sample