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Beginning the Proposal Process

As with writing a regular academic paper, research proposals are generally organized the same
way throughout most social science disciplines. Proposals vary between ten and twenty-five pages
in length. However, before you begin, read the assignment carefully and, if anything seems
unclear, ask your professor whether there are any specific requirements for organizing and writing
the proposal.

A good place to begin is to ask yourself a series of questions:

 What do I want to study?


 Why is the topic important?
 How is it significant within the subject areas covered in my class?
 What problems will it help solve?
 How does it build upon [and hopefully go beyond] research already conducted on the topic?
 What exactly should I plan to do, and can I get it done in the time available?

In general, a compelling research proposal should document your knowledge of the topic and
demonstrate your enthusiasm for conducting the study. Approach it with the intention of leaving
your readers feeling like--"Wow, that's an exciting idea and I can’t wait to see how it turns out!"

In general your proposal should include the following sections:

I. Introduction

In the real world of higher education, a research proposal is most often written by scholars seeking
grant funding for a research project or it's the first step in getting approval to write a doctoral
dissertation. Even if this is just a course assignment, treat your introduction as the initial pitch of
an idea or a thorough examination of the significance of a research problem. After reading the
introduction, your readers should not only have an understanding of what you want to do, but they
should also be able to gain a sense of your passion for the topic and be excited about the study's
possible outcomes. Note that most proposals do not include an abstract [summary] before the
introduction.

Think about your introduction as a narrative written in one to three paragraphs that
succinctly answers the following four questions:

1. What is the central research problem?


2. What is the topic of study related to that problem?
3. What methods should be used to analyze the research problem?
4. Why is this important research, what is its significance, and why should someone reading
the proposal care about the outcomes of the proposed study?
II. Background and Significance

This section can be melded into your introduction or you can create a separate section to help with
the organization and narrative flow of your proposal. This is where you explain the context of your
proposal and describe in detail why it's important. Approach writing this section with the thought
that you can’t assume your readers will know as much about the research problem as you do. Note
that this section is not an essay going over everything you have learned about the topic; instead,
you must choose what is relevant to help explain the goals for your study.

To that end, while there are no hard and fast rules, you should attempt to address some or
all of the following key points:

 State the research problem and give a more detailed explanation about the purpose of the
study than what you stated in the introduction. This is particularly important if the problem
is complex or multifaceted.
 Present the rationale of your proposed study and clearly indicate why it is worth doing.
Answer the "So What? question [i.e., why should anyone care].
 Describe the major issues or problems to be addressed by your research. Be sure to note
how your proposed study builds on previous assumptions about the research problem.
 Explain how you plan to go about conducting your research. Clearly identify the key
sources you intend to use and explain how they will contribute to your analysis of the topic.
 Set the boundaries of your proposed research in order to provide a clear focus. Where
appropriate, state not only what you will study, but what is excluded from the study.
 If necessary, provide definitions of key concepts or terms.

III. Literature Review

Connected to the background and significance of your study is a section of your proposal
devoted to a more deliberate review and synthesis of prior studies related to the research
problem under investigation. The purpose here is to place your project within the larger whole
of what is currently being explored, while demonstrating to your readers that your work is original
and innovative. Think about what questions other researchers have asked, what methods they have
used, and what is your understanding of their findings and, where stated, their recommendations.
Do not be afraid to challenge the conclusions of prior research. Assess what you believe is missing
and state how previous research has failed to adequately examine the issue that your study
addresses. For more information on writing literature reviews, GO HERE.

Since a literature review is information dense, it is crucial that this section is intelligently structured
to enable a reader to grasp the key arguments underpinning your study in relation to that of other
researchers. A good strategy is to break the literature into "conceptual categories" [themes] rather
than systematically describing groups of materials one at a time. Note that conceptual categories
generally reveal themselves after you have read most of the pertinent literature on your topic so
adding new categories is an on-going process of discovery as you read more studies. How do you
know you've covered the key conceptual categories underlying the research literature? Generally,
you can have confidence that all of the significant conceptual categories have been identified if
you start to see repetition in the conclusions or recommendations that are being made.

To help frame your proposal's literature review, here are the "five C’s" of writing a
literature review:

1. Cite, so as to keep the primary focus on the literature pertinent to your research problem.
2. Compare the various arguments, theories, methodologies, and findings expressed in the
literature: what do the authors agree on? Who applies similar approaches to analyzing the
research problem?
3. Contrast the various arguments, themes, methodologies, approaches, and controversies
expressed in the literature: what are the major areas of disagreement, controversy, or
debate?
4. Critique the literature: Which arguments are more persuasive, and why? Which
approaches, findings, methodologies seem most reliable, valid, or appropriate, and why?
Pay attention to the verbs you use to describe what an author says/does [e.g., asserts,
demonstrates, argues, etc.].
5. Connect the literature to your own area of research and investigation: how does your own
work draw upon, depart from, synthesize, or add a new perspective to what has been said
in the literature?

IV. Research Design and Methods

This section must be well-written and logically organized because you are not actually doing
the research, yet, your reader has to have confidence that it is worth pursuing. The reader
will never have a study outcome from which to evaluate whether your methodological choices
were the correct ones. Thus, the objective here is to convince the reader that your overall research
design and methods of analysis will correctly address the problem and that the methods will
provide the means to effectively interpret the potential results. Your design and methods should
be unmistakably tied to the specific aims of your study.

Describe the overall research design by building upon and drawing examples from your review of
the literature. Consider not only methods that other researchers have used but methods of data
gathering that have not been used but perhaps could be. Be specific about the methodological
approaches you plan to undertake to obtain information, the techniques you would use to analyze
the data, and the tests of external validity to which you commit yourself [i.e., the trustworthiness
by which you can generalize from your study to other people, places, events, and/or periods of
time].

When describing the methods you will use, be sure to cover the following:

 Specify the research operations you will undertake and the way you will interpret the
results of these operations in relation to the research problem. Don't just describe what you
intend to achieve from applying the methods you choose, but state how you will spend your
time while applying these methods [e.g., coding text from interviews to find statements
about the need to change school curriculum; running a regression to determine if there is a
relationship between campaign advertising on social media sites and election outcomes in
Europe].
 Keep in mind that a methodology is not just a list of tasks; it is an argument as to why these
tasks add up to the best way to investigate the research problem. This is an important point
because the mere listing of tasks to be performed does not demonstrate that, collectively,
they effectively address the research problem. Be sure you explain this.
 Anticipate and acknowledge any potential barriers and pitfalls in carrying out your research
design and explain how you plan to address them. No method is perfect so you need to
describe where you believe challenges may exist in obtaining data or accessing
information. It's always better to acknowledge this than to have it brought up by your
reader.

V. Preliminary Suppositions and Implications

Just because you don't have to actually conduct the study and analyze the results, it doesn't
mean you can skip talking about the analytical process and potential implications. The
purpose of this section is to argue how and in what ways you believe your research will refine,
revise, or extend existing knowledge in the subject area under investigation. Depending on the
aims and objectives of your study, describe how the anticipated results will impact future scholarly
research, theory, practice, forms of interventions, or policymaking. Note that such discussions may
have either substantive [a potential new policy], theoretical [a potential new understanding], or
methodological [a potential new way of analyzing] significance.

When thinking about the potential implications of your study, ask the following questions:

 What might the results mean in regards to the theoretical framework that underpins the
study?
 What suggestions for subsequent research could arise from the potential outcomes of the
study?
 What will the results mean to practitioners in the natural settings of their workplace?
 Will the results influence programs, methods, and/or forms of intervention?
 How might the results contribute to the solution of social, economic, or other types of
problems?
 Will the results influence policy decisions?
 In what way do individuals or groups benefit should your study be pursued?
 What will be improved or changed as a result of the proposed research?
 How will the results of the study be implemented, and what innovations will come about?

NOTE: This section should not delve into idle speculation, opinion, or be formulated on the basis
of unclear evidence. The purpose is to reflect upon gaps or understudied areas of the current
literature and describe how your proposed research contributes to a new understanding of the
research problem should the study be implemented as designed.
VI. Conclusion

The conclusion reiterates the importance or significance of your proposal and provides a
brief summary of the entire study. This section should be only one or two paragraphs long,
emphasizing why the research problem is worth investigating, why your research study is unique,
and how it should advance existing knowledge.

Someone reading this section should come away with an understanding of:

 Why the study should be done,


 The specific purpose of the study and the research questions it attempts to answer,
 The decision to why the research design and methods used where chosen over other
options,
 The potential implications emerging from your proposed study of the research problem,
and
 A sense of how your study fits within the broader scholarship about the research problem.

VII. Citations

As with any scholarly research paper, you must cite the sources you used in composing your
proposal. In a standard research proposal, this section can take two forms, so consult with your
professor about which one is preferred.

1. References -- lists only the literature that you actually used or cited in your proposal.
2. Bibliography -- lists everything you used or cited in your proposal, with additional
citations to any key sources relevant to understanding the research problem.

In either case, this section should testify to the fact that you did enough preparatory work to make
sure the project will complement and not duplicate the efforts of other researchers. Start a new
page and use the heading "References" or "Bibliography" centered at the top of the page. Cited
works should always use a standard format that follows the writing style advised by the discipline
of your course [i.e., education=APA; history=Chicago, etc] or that is preferred by your professor.
This section normally does not count towards the total page length of your research proposal.

Importance of a Good Literature Review


A literature review may consist of simply a summary of key sources, but in the social sciences,
a literature review usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and
synthesis, often within specific conceptual categories. A summary is a recap of the important
information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information
in a way that informs how you are planning to investigate a research problem. The analytical
features of a literature review might:

 Give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations,
 Trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates,
 Depending on the situation, evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent
or relevant research, or
 Usually in the conclusion of a literature review, identify where gaps exist in how a problem
has been researched to date.

The purpose of a literature review is to:

 Place each work in the context of its contribution to understanding the research problem
being studied.
 Describe the relationship of each work to the others under consideration.
 Identify new ways to interpret prior research.
 Reveal any gaps that exist in the literature.
 Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies.
 Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication of effort.
 Point the way in fulfilling a need for additional research.
 Locate your own research within the context of existing literature [very important].

Fink, Arlene. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage, 2005; Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998; Jesson, Jill. Doing Your Literature Review: Traditional and Systematic
Techniques. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2011; Ridley, Diana. The Literature Review: A Step-by-Step Guide for Students.
2nd ed. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2012.

Types of Literature Reviews


It is important to think of knowledge in a given field as consisting of three layers. First, there are
the primary studies that researchers conduct and publish. Second are the reviews of those studies
that summarize and offer new interpretations built from and often extending beyond the primary
studies. Third, there are the perceptions, conclusions, opinion, and interpretations that are shared
informally that become part of the lore of field.

In composing a literature review, it is important to note that it is often this third layer of knowledge
that is cited as "true" even though it often has only a loose relationship to the primary studies and
secondary literature reviews. Given this, while literature reviews are designed to provide an
overview and synthesis of pertinent sources you have explored, there are a number of approaches
you could adopt depending upon the type of analysis underpinning your study.

Types of Literature Reviews


Argumentative Review
This form examines literature selectively in order to support or refute an argument, deeply
imbedded assumption, or philosophical problem already established in the literature. The purpose
is to develop a body of literature that establishes a contrarian viewpoint. Given the value-laden
nature of some social science research [e.g., educational reform; immigration control],
argumentative approaches to analyzing the literature can be a legitimate and important form of
discourse. However, note that they can also introduce problems of bias when they are used to make
summary claims of the sort found in systematic reviews [see below].

Integrative Review
Considered a form of research that reviews, critiques, and synthesizes representative literature on
a topic in an integrated way such that new frameworks and perspectives on the topic are generated.
The body of literature includes all studies that address related or identical hypotheses or research
problems. A well-done integrative review meets the same standards as primary research in regard
to clarity, rigor, and replication. This is the most common form of review in the social sciences.

Historical Review
Few things rest in isolation from historical precedent. Historical literature reviews focus on
examining research throughout a period of time, often starting with the first time an issue, concept,
theory, phenomena emerged in the literature, then tracing its evolution within the scholarship of a
discipline. The purpose is to place research in a historical context to show familiarity with state-
of-the-art developments and to identify the likely directions for future research.

Methodological Review
A review does not always focus on what someone said [findings], but how they came about saying
what they say [method of analysis]. Reviewing methods of analysis provides a framework of
understanding at different levels [i.e. those of theory, substantive fields, research approaches, and
data collection and analysis techniques], how researchers draw upon a wide variety of knowledge
ranging from the conceptual level to practical documents for use in fieldwork in the areas of
ontological and epistemological consideration, quantitative and qualitative integration, sampling,
interviewing, data collection, and data analysis. This approach helps highlight ethical issues which
you should be aware of and consider as you go through your own study.

Systematic Review
This form consists of an overview of existing evidence pertinent to a clearly formulated research
question, which uses pre-specified and standardized methods to identify and critically appraise
relevant research, and to collect, report, and analyze data from the studies that are included in the
review. The goal is to deliberately document, critically evaluate, and summarize scientifically all
of the research about a clearly defined research problem. Typically it focuses on a very specific
empirical question, often posed in a cause-and-effect form, such as "To what extent does A
contribute to B?" This type of literature review is primarily applied to examining prior research
studies in clinical medicine and allied health fields, but it is increasingly being used in the social
sciences.

Theoretical Review
The purpose of this form is to examine the corpus of theory that has accumulated in regard to an
issue, concept, theory, phenomena. The theoretical literature review helps to establish what
theories already exist, the relationships between them, to what degree the existing theories have
been investigated, and to develop new hypotheses to be tested. Often this form is used to help
establish a lack of appropriate theories or reveal that current theories are inadequate for explaining
new or emerging research problems. The unit of analysis can focus on a theoretical concept or a
whole theory or framework.

Baumeister, Roy F. and Mark R. Leary. "Writing Narrative Literature Reviews." Review of General Psychology 1 (September 1997): 311-320; Mark R. Fink,
Arlene. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2005; Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature
Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998; Kennedy, Mary M. "Defining a Literature."
Educational Researcher 36 (April 2007): 139-147; Petticrew, Mark and Helen Roberts. Systematic Reviews in the Social Sciences: A Practical Guide.
Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2006; Torracro, Richard. "Writing Integrative Literature Reviews: Guidelines and Examples." Human Resource
Development Review 4 (September 2005): 356-367; Rocco, Tonette S. and Maria S. Plakhotnik. "Literature Reviews, Conceptual Frameworks, and
Theoretical Frameworks: Terms, Functions, and Distinctions." Human Ressource Development Review 8 (March 2008): 120-130; Sutton, Anthea. Systematic
Approaches to a Successful Literature Review. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, 2016.

Structure and Writing Style


I. Thinking About Your Literature Review

The structure of a literature review should include the following:

 An overview of the subject, issue, or theory under consideration, along with the objectives
of the literature review,
 Division of works under review into themes or categories [e.g. works that support a
particular position, those against, and those offering alternative approaches entirely],
 An explanation of how each work is similar to and how it varies from the others,
 Conclusions as to which pieces are best considered in their argument, are most convincing
of their opinions, and make the greatest contribution to the understanding and development
of their area of research.

The critical evaluation of each work should consider:

 Provenance -- what are the author's credentials? Are the author's arguments supported by
evidence [e.g. primary historical material, case studies, narratives, statistics, recent
scientific findings]?
 Methodology -- were the techniques used to identify, gather, and analyze the data
appropriate to addressing the research problem? Was the sample size appropriate? Were
the results effectively interpreted and reported?
 Objectivity -- is the author's perspective even-handed or prejudicial? Is contrary data
considered or is certain pertinent information ignored to prove the author's point?
 Persuasiveness -- which of the author's theses are most convincing or least convincing?
 Value -- are the author's arguments and conclusions convincing? Does the work ultimately
contribute in any significant way to an understanding of the subject?
II. Development of the Literature Review

Four Stages

1. Problem formulation -- which topic or field is being examined and what are its component
issues?
2. Literature search -- finding materials relevant to the subject being explored.
3. Data evaluation -- determining which literature makes a significant contribution to the
understanding of the topic.
4. Analysis and interpretation -- discussing the findings and conclusions of pertinent literature.

Consider the following issues before writing the literature review:

Clarify

If your assignment is not very specific about what form your literature review should take, seek
clarification from your professor by asking these questions:

1. Roughly how many sources should I include?


2. What types of sources should I review (books, journal articles, websites; scholarly versus
popular sources)?
3. Should I summarize, synthesize, or critique sources by discussing a common theme or issue?
4. Should I evaluate the sources?
5. Should I provide subheadings and other background information, such as definitions and/or a
history?

Find Models

Use the exercise of reviewing the literature to examine how authors in your discipline or area of
interest have composed their literature review sections. Read them to get a sense of the types of
themes you might want to look for in your own research or to identify ways to organize your final
review. The bibliography or reference section of sources you've already read are also excellent
entry points into your own research.

Narrow the Topic

The narrower your topic, the easier it will be to limit the number of sources you need to read in
order to obtain a good survey of relevant resources. Your professor will probably not expect you
to read everything that's available about the topic, but you'll make your job easier if you first limit
scope of the research problem. A good strategy is to begin by searching the HOMER catalog for
books about the topic and review the table of contents for chapters that focuses on specific issues.
You can also review the indexes of books to find references to specific issues that can serve as the
focus of your research. For example, a book surveying the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
may include a chapter on the role Egypt has played in mediating the conflict, or look in the index
for the pages where Egypt is mentioned in the text.
Consider Whether Your Sources are Current

Some disciplines require that you use information that is as current as possible. This is particularly
true in disciplines in medicine and the sciences where research conducted becomes obsolete very
quickly as new discoveries are made. However, when writing a review in the social sciences, a
survey of the history of the literature may be required. In other words, a complete understanding
the research problem requires you to deliberately examine how knowledge and perspectives have
changed over time. Sort through other current bibliographies or literature reviews in the field to
get a sense of what your discipline expects. You can also use this method to explore what is
considered by scholars to be a "hot topic" and what is not.

III. Ways to Organize Your Literature Review

Chronology of Events
If your review follows the chronological method, you could write about the materials according to
when they were published. This approach should only be followed if a clear path of research
building on previous research can be identified and that these trends follow a clear chronological
order of development. For example, a literature review that focuses on continuing research about
the emergence of German economic power after the fall of the Soviet Union.

By Publication
Order your sources by publication chronology, then, only if the order demonstrates a more
important trend. For instance, you could order a review of literature on environmental studies of
brown fields if the progression revealed, for example, a change in the soil collection practices of
the researchers who wrote and/or conducted the studies.

Thematic [“conceptual categories”]


Thematic reviews of literature are organized around a topic or issue, rather than the progression of
time. However, progression of time may still be an important factor in a thematic review. For
example, a review of the Internet’s impact on American presidential politics could focus on the
development of online political satire. While the study focuses on one topic, the Internet’s impact
on American presidential politics, it will still be organized chronologically reflecting technological
developments in media. The only difference here between a "chronological" and a "thematic"
approach is what is emphasized the most: the role of the Internet in presidential politics. Note
however that more authentic thematic reviews tend to break away from chronological order. A
review organized in this manner would shift between time periods within each section according
to the point made.

Methodological
A methodological approach focuses on the methods utilized by the researcher. For the Internet in
American presidential politics project, one methodological approach would be to look at cultural
differences between the portrayal of American presidents on American, British, and French
websites. Or the review might focus on the fundraising impact of the Internet on a particular
political party. A methodological scope will influence either the types of documents in the review
or the way in which these documents are discussed.

Other Sections of Your Literature Review


Once you've decided on the organizational method for your literature review, the sections you need
to include in the paper should be easy to figure out because they arise from your organizational
strategy. In other words, a chronological review would have subsections for each vital time period;
a thematic review would have subtopics based upon factors that relate to the theme or issue.
However, sometimes you may need to add additional sections that are necessary for your study,
but do not fit in the organizational strategy of the body. What other sections you include in the
body is up to you but include only what is necessary for the reader to locate your study within the
larger scholarship framework.

Here are examples of other sections you may need to include depending on the type of review you
write:

 Current Situation: information necessary to understand the topic or focus of the literature
review.
 History: the chronological progression of the field, the literature, or an idea that is
necessary to understand the literature review, if the body of the literature review is not
already a chronology.
 Selection Methods: the criteria you used to select (and perhaps exclude) sources in your
literature review. For instance, you might explain that your review includes only peer-
reviewed articles and journals.
 Standards: the way in which you present your information.
 Questions for Further Research: What questions about the field has the review sparked?
How will you further your research as a result of the review?

IV. Writing Your Literature Review

Once you've settled on how to organize your literature review, you're ready to write each section.
When writing your review, keep in mind these issues.

Use Evidence
A literature review section is, in this sense, just like any other academic research paper. Your
interpretation of the available sources must be backed up with evidence [citations] that
demonstrates that what you are saying is valid.

Be Selective
Select only the most important points in each source to highlight in the review. The type of
information you choose to mention should relate directly to the research problem, whether it is
thematic, methodological, or chronological. Related items that provide additional information but
that are not key to understanding the research problem can be included in a list of further readings.
Use Quotes Sparingly
Some short quotes are okay if you want to emphasize a point, or if what an author stated cannot
be easily paraphrased. Sometimes you may need to quote certain terminology that was coined by
the author, not common knowledge, or taken directly from the study. Do not use extensive quotes
as a substitute for your own summary and interpretation of the literature.

Summarize and Synthesize


Remember to summarize and synthesize your sources within each thematic paragraph as well as
throughout the review. Recapitulate important features of a research study, but then synthesize it
by rephrasing the study's significance and relating it to your own work.

Keep Your Own Voice


While the literature review presents others' ideas, your voice [the writer's] should remain front and
center. For example, weave references to other sources into what you are writing but maintain your
own voice by starting and ending the paragraph with your own ideas and wording.

Use Caution When Paraphrasing


When paraphrasing a source that is not your own, be sure to represent the author's information or
opinions accurately and in your own words. Even when paraphrasing an author’s work, you still
must provide a citation to that work.

V. Common Mistakes to Avoid

These are the most common mistakes made in reviewing social science research literature.

 Sources in your literature review do not clearly relate to the research problem;
 You do not take sufficient time to define and identify the most relevent sources to use in
the literature review related to the research problem;
 Relies exclusively on secondary analytical sources rather than including relevant primary
research studies or data;
 Uncritically accepts another researcher's findings and interpretations as valid, rather than
examining critically all aspects of the research design and analysis;
 Does not describe the search procedures that were used in identifying the literature to
review;
 Reports isolated statistical results rather than synthesizing them in chi-squared or meta-
analytic methods; and,
 Only includes research that validates assumptions and does not consider contrary findings
and alternative interpretations found in the literature.

The Good Research Guide: For Small-Scale Social Research Projects

Book Review (for the 4th edition 2010)


4th Edition: Martyn Denscombe, Open University Press, 2010, 400pp, paperback, £20.89, ISBN
0 335 241387
5th Edition: Martyn Denscombe, Open University Press, 2014, 376pp, paperback, £19.24, ISBN
0 335 264700

It is unusual for any researcher to possess a thorough knowledge of the array of methods through
which social science research can be conducted so any book which sets out the range of
approaches one can adopt to manage research projects is a welcome addition to the researcher’s
tool-kit. Here, Denscombe’s overview of the different ways in which to tackle a research project
certainly contributes to this.

The book, systematic in structure and thorough in content, outlines the different methods and
methodologies that can be used when designing and conducting a small-scale research project.
Each chapter describes the features of a particular approach or framework, whether it is
phenomenology, survey-design, grounded theory or lab experiments and suggests ways of
approaching these. Denscombe outlines what they are good for, what they are not good for, and
points out any potential research pitfalls which might scupper the research process. All outlined
in clear, accessible language, with links to relevant other parts of the book highlighted
throughout, thus guiding the researcher along her research trajectory.

In addition to outlining how to approach the design and conduct of a research-project, this book
also suggests possible approaches to the analysis of data gleaned from these enquiries. Chapters
on qualitative and quantitative analysis, including some guidance on the use of data-analysis
software and suggested frameworks for structuring the presentation of findings in a report are
helpful starting points with advice relevant to both the novice and experienced researcher.

Helpfully up-to-date, this book, in its fourth edition, has four appendices which provide some
excellent, insightful and thorough guidance on, for example, research ethics, including the ethical
implications of conducting internet research and data protection issues. These, in themselves,
make the book a very useful starting point for anyone conducting social science research, no
matter what their experience. As such, whether undergraduate or postgraduate, whether
conducting research for academic or other purposes, most researchers’ experiences of conducting
research will be improved by engaging with the material in this book.

I initially had concerns that by addressing such a range of methods, this book would necessarily
prove too basic for a researcher who may end up using only one or two of the methods described.
However, this concern proved unfounded as the easy shifts between surface-level explanation
and in-depth analysis of approaches reflect the author’s intellectual athleticism; managing to
explain diverse concepts with an ease, clarity and depth that makes the content of this book
relevant to researchers at all stages of their career.

Nonetheless, though easy to follow, this book is possibly not one intended to be read
chronologically from cover to cover. Instead it is far more helpful when approached as a
manual, or tool-kit, for the researcher to dip into as their research project progresses. And,
though it is broad in scope and thorough in content, researchers should remember that this book
is just one of a selection of resources that should be used. Over-reliance on the content of this
book, for the whole of a project might hinder its innovative progress. In particular, the section on
‘writing up’ is one, I suggest, which should be read with a pinch of salt, rather than as a
definitive guide.

Having said this, the book remains is a very good resource for approaching the design and
conduct of a social-science research project, and I would recommend it to researchers at any
stage of their career, from undergraduate to PhD and beyond. It is also a helpful source of
information for anyone teaching methodologies in the social sciences. In presenting research
methods in a straightforward and balanced way, this book guides the researcher’s path, shows
them some of the way through the complexities of conducting research and with its patient
explanations and approachable tone, equips them with the wherewithal with which to become
confident, capable and creative researchers. Qualities which are invaluable in order to produce
excellent research.

Reviewed by: Alex Fanghanel, University of Leeds

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