Bell, Bryman, and Harley: Research Project Guide

Table of Contents

1. Preparing yourself to do research
2. What do I want to research exactly?
3. The research process
4. Writing up your research report
   1. Preliminary planning
   2. The structure of a dissertation
   3. Title page, acknowledgements and contents page
   4. Abstracts
   5. Introduction
   6. The literature review
   7. Research methods
   8. Results
   9. Discussion & Conclusions
   10. References, appendices and obligations
   11. Writing up research checklist

Preliminary planning

Writing up your research

Chapter 7; page 140)

• Start early
• Structure your writing - follow the Structure of a dissertation
• Be persuasive
  • you must convince your readers of the credibility of your conclusions
• Get feedback
  • try to get as much feedback on your writing as possible and respond positively to the points anyone makes about what they read
  • provide your supervisor with drafts of your work to the fullest extent that regulations will allow and do so in good time
• Avoid sexist, racist, and disablist language:
  • One of the biggest problems (but not the only one) of non-sexist writing is in avoiding complex his/her formulations. The easiest way to deal with this is to write in the plural, e.g.: 'I wanted to give each respondent the opportunity to complete the questionnaire in his or her own time and in a location that was convenient for him or her.'
  • This is a rather tortuous sentence and, although grammatically correct, it could be phrased more helpfully as: 'I wanted to give respondents the opportunity to complete their questionnaires in their own time and at a time that was convenient for them.'

Web link:

www.languages.ait.ac.th/el21open.htm - from the Language Center at the Asian Institute of Technology, includes sections on how to write up (intro, methods, results etc.) good general advice though aimed at Master's students.