OPEN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

'TO EQUIP GOD'S PEOPLE FOR WORK IN HIS SERVICE'

22 February 2022
Dear Student,
Greetings in the blessed name of our Lord and Saviour.
On behalf of the Open Theological Seminary, I want to welcome you into the second cohort of our
Master of Arts in Christian Studies programme.
The first module, Research Methods, will be taught over five weeks in March and April 2022, with
three days of classes in Lahore at the start, 14-16 March, followed by one month's field research,
and three days of classes in Lahore at the end, 11-13 April. On each day the class timings will be
from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm, so please prepare yourself to come on time. Lunch and refreshments will
be provided by OTS.
If you are coming from outside of Lahore, please arrange your travel accordingly to arrive on the
evening of 13th March and 10th April. If you wish to stay in the OTS guest accommodation, please
inform the OTS office by 1st March.
I am sending you some readings to do before the course begins. Please EITHER read the first
chapter of the Urdu book 'Tehqeeq ka Fun' by Dr. Gian Chand and answer the questions on that
chapter below, OR read the introduction and first chapter of the English book ‘Research Methods
Knowledge Base’ by William Trochim, and answer the questions that are included at the end of
that text. This assignment is a requirement of the course and will be assessed. If you are able to do
both readings and answer both sets of questions, you will earn extra marks.
I look forward to seeing you on 14th March 2022.

Miss Freda Carey

Mob. 0300 471 3882

Questions from ‘Tehqiq ka Fun’:

1. What examples of research (investigation) in everyday life does the author mention?
2. What definitions of research does the writer give in various languages (Urdu, Arabic, Hindi,
English)?
3. In the light of the previous question how would you define ‘research’?
4. What is the importance and necessity of research according to the author?
5. What are the most important types of research?
6. What are the three conditions which distinguish research done to obtain a degree and research
not done for a degree?
7. What is the difference between critical research / study and comparative research / study? Give
a brief definition of both kinds of research.
8. What qualities of character, intellect, knowledge and language should a researcher have?