WEEK 5: STARTING YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT.

How time flies, already a month into the autumn semester, and you have been working hard in the library!

Here are some tips to help you start your research project.

1) Make an outline of your topic. 
You have a research topic? Good, now what do you really want to know about your topic? Bullet point anything you know about the topic already. Bullet things you think you should know more about, and more importantly what you think the reader should know more about. This will help you identify the gap your project will fill in the research world.

2) Form an action plan. Outline in short but succinct detail This is also known as a research strategy. Here is a helpful checklist (Denscombe, 2017; pg 10) to follow to make sure your choice of research strategy is appropriate.

3) Create drafts of your research tools (ie. survey questions, interview material, etc).

The outline of your project, action plan, and drafts will serve you as guides, but also act as your application material for ethical approval. 

4) Make sure that your research strategy is sound by submitting an application or requesting guidance from your Research Ethics Committee, DIT even has a Research Ethics Online Application. This is a highly important step to any research project and is there to help you make the most of your research, while protecting any participants you might have. Cresswell & Cresswell's Research Design (2018), has excellent guidance on writing your proposal (keep in mind an older edition is usually just as good).

5) You have been approved! Good work! Carry on with your research in as close a manner as you can to your plan, keeping vigilant when it comes to questions of ethics, and taking not of all the things you find, not just the ones that support your Thesis claim. Negative results are important in furthering future research so that you, and other can learn why and how things evolved.

If you haven't been approved, don't lose heart, take on the comments of your Ethics board and revise your application, this will only make your project stronger!


FAST FACT: Always check the bibliography of your reading materials for resources you might want to look into. hint, hint. ;)

Bibliography:

Cresswell, J. W., & Cresswell, J. D. (2018) Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative & Mixed Methods Approaches. 5th ed. Sage: Los Angeles, USA.

Denscombe, M. (2017). The Good Research Guide: For Small-scale Social Research Projects. 6th ed. Open University Press: London, UK.