University of Technology and Applied Sciences

English Programme- Spring 23

ENIT2002/ENBS2004 - Research Skills

Tasks

Student Booklet

Student Name:

ID: Group:

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2021
Research Skills Tasks

The research skills studied in English 4 will enable students to identify a research
problem, collect informational resources that will help them address the problem, develop
the ability to assess these resources for quality and relevance, and come up with an
effective set of recommendations to address the problem. The focus in this course is on
the primary research. Although students will be exposed to various research skills during
the course, they will be assessed on the following four tasks: their ability to identify a
relevant research question, the ability to describe the method of data collection, the ability
to design & administer a questionnaire, and the ability to write the result & discussion
section.

The Research Skills tasks are out of 25 marks and due by the end of week 9.

Components of Details Marks Week

Research Skills Tasks

Title SS choose a research topic related to their - 3

major and write it as their research question.
(SS are advised to use their E3 research
questions)
* Students are not allowed to change
their research questions after week 3. If
he/she changes it after week 3, he/she
will get a zero in the research skills
tasks.

Primary research: SS list the method to be used to find 5 4

answers to their research question (e.g.
A. Method of data questionnaires).
collection They must show what they want to find
out, how to go about it and how it all links
to their research question. Who the
participants are, how many they are, and
why they chose them? The more details
the students provide the better. All
choices must be justified.

B. Designing a SS design a questionnaire (using Google

questionnaire Forms) to collect the primary data to
answer their research question.

10 6

The Questionnaire should:

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  Provide a section for the respondents’
details.
 Include closed-ended questions (e.g. Scale
questions, yes/no questions, multiple
choice questions…etc.)
 A section with open-ended questions.

C. Conducting the Writing a 250-300 words essay 10 9

questionnaire displaying the results of the
+ questionnaire and discuss them in
academic way.
Writing the result &
discussion section

Task1: Choose a Research Topic. (No Marks)

 This must be a specific question, not a general topic.

 The question must be researchable within the semester, and one you can attempt
to cover satisfactorily in a 7minute presentation. There is no point taking a vague
and general question that you cannot hope to answer.
 The question should relate to your major studies but it must not be something that
you have already researched and answered as part of the assessment for one of
your courses.
 The question will involve secondary research i.e. something you research through
the internet or the LRC and an element of primary research i.e. research you carry
out yourself.
 Your teacher will advise you on how to go about choosing this question.

My Topic

My general area of interest is ….

My research question is ….

The above research question was used in English 3. Yes/No

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 Task 2: Method of Data Collection (5 marks)

Here you have to plan your method of data collection. Please read the following questions
and answer them carefully. The more details you provide the better. Always justify your
choices.

1. What is the purpose of your research? What do you want to find out?
(The research objective(s) should be clearly stated and linked to the research question)

2. How are you going to collect your research data ?

(Students should explain the procedures of designing and administering the method of data
collection)

3. How many sections you will have in the questionnaire and what type and how many
questions you will include?
(Students should give more details about the questionnaire (areas that the questionnaire will cover,
number of sections and type and number of questions)

4. Who are your participants and why did you choose them?
(Students should mention more details about the participants (Who? How many? Age? Gender? Job?etc)
and the reasons for choosing this particular category in relation to the research objectives)

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2021
 Task 3: Designing a questionnaire (10 Marks)

Each student must design a questionnaire (using Google Forms) to collect the primary
data to answer his/her research question.

The Questionnaire should:

 Include a clear research question.
 State the purpose of the questionnaire.
 Start and finish by thanking the respondent for his \ her willingness to
participate in the survey.
 Provide a section for the respondents’ details.
 Include closed-ended questions (e.g. Scale questions, yes/no questions,
multiple choice questions…etc.).
 A section with open-ended questions.
 Include 10 to 15 questions (Preferably 15 questions) excluding personal
information section.

Please note that:

 You must attach a copy of your questionnaire template with this proposal. If
you have used “Google Forms”, then attach a screenshot of the questionnaire
template.
 You must have at least 20 participants.

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 Task 4: Writing the Results & Discussion Section (10 Marks)

After conducting the questionnaire, you must write a 250-300 words essay displaying
the results of the questionnaire and discuss them in academic way.

Results and Discussion Section-Sample

To answer the research question ‘How helpful is CAS-Ibri’s E-library to the students?’ a
questionnaire was administered to 20 male and female students from CAS-Ibri. The students
ages ranged from 19-23 and they were either IT or Design students.
The analysis of the results shows that 60% of the participants didn’t know about the existence of
such a system at CAS-Ibri which means that the publicity done for this purpose wasn’t enough.
Out of the 40% of the students who knew about the existence of this service, only 25% have
used it before. This may be due to the lack of training students get in this regard. It can also be
because of students’ perception of this service as about 70% of the respondents think that it is
much easier to use the traditional library. This is also supported by the analysis of the responses
to question 6 as 12% of the participants reported that they sometimes face technical problems
when they use the e-library service.
Regarding the availability of sources in the e-library, the majority of the students who use the e-
library (15%) reported that they sometimes find the references they search for in the e-library.
Of these, 13% think that these references are always up-to-date. The majority of the users think
that the e-library should have a variety of references available (books, magazines, periodicals,
journals…etc.). They also think that the references available should not be limited to the
students’ majors only as sometimes students might like to read on different topics like art, sport,
weather, geography and others. The following graph provides an overview of the questionnaire
results.

Graph 1 Questionnaire Results

Recommendations
The LRC should probably send more e-mails to make students aware of this service and it also
should prepare brochures or flyers to show students how they can use this service.
Word count: 296

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Write here your results & discussion section:

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