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

Abstracts

Chapter 7, Page 144

• An abstract is a brief summary of your dissertation.
• Not all institutions require this component, so check whether it is required, and for any guidelines on what is required.
• Journal articles usually have abstracts, so you can draw on these for guidance on how to approach this task.
• Abstracts in modern journals (especially e-journals) are often accompanied by keywords (usually circa six) which can act as a useful guide in constructing searches for your literature.