Basics of Doing Research

Instructor: Mr. Abdul Basit

Outline
 Twelve issues to choose a research topic
 Choosing research supervisor
 Originality and critical thinking
Twelve issues to bear in mind
when choosing a research topic
 How much choice you have
 Your motivation
 Regulations and expectations
 Your subject or field of study
 Previous examples of research projects
 The size of your topic
 The time you have available
 The cost of research
 The resources you have available
 Your need for support
 Access issues
 Methods for researching
How much choice you have?
 The general area for your research, and perhaps the detailed specification,
may be determined by your supervisor. But even in these cases, you will
be likely to have some scope for making the project more interesting or
relevant to your own concerns. If, for example, you have to do a piece of
research which you are not particularly interested in, you might make it
more palatable by adding something to it or by focusing on a part of the
project which does interest you.
 It is quite common for researchers, who are registered for degrees which
require them to undertake a piece of small-scale research, and who are
receiving some support from their supervisors, to have their choice of
research topic at least partly determined by their supervisor. Their
supervisor will usually then expect to receive a report on the research
project, and may also seeking a more practical result in terms, for
example, of improved working practices. In such cases, it is important to
be aware of the different expectations of supervisor and educational
institutions, and to plan ahead accordingly.
Regulations and expectations
 If you are undertaking a research project for,
or as part of, a university degree, then you
should be provided with a copy of the
relevant rules and regulations. If you do not
have a copy, ask for one. Read these
regulations, question any you are not clear
about and follow them.
Your subject or field of study
 Many of the unwritten rules and expectations
associated with your research will have to do with
the particular discipline or subject area you are
working in. It may have preferred styles or
conventions for writing, and preferred
methodologies for undertaking research. There will
certainly be established traditions, and work by ‘key
thinkers’, which you will need to be aware of and
perhaps refer to. Your supervisor and department
may also have their own preferences or specialisms.
Your subject or field of study
You should check on all of these by:
talking to your supervisor, their colleagues or other
researchers in the area
looking at other examples of recent research projects
carried out in your subject area
looking at the research literature for your subject area
(books, journals and reports).
Previous examples of research
projects
 If you can get hold of some previous examples, don’t turn
down the chance to do so, because you can learn a lot. This
learning will not be so much about the particular subject you
are going to research, but about what a completed piece of
research looks like, the way it is put together, its scope and
its limitations. When you see a completed thesis, dissertation
or research report for the first time, you may feel daunted and
unable to produce something of that scale. As you become
more familiar, however, you should begin to feel that you
could write something at least as good.
Space and time
Answer the following questions:
How many words or pages are you allowed or
expected to write up your research in?
How much time (in years, months or weeks) do you
have available in which to carry out and write up your
research?
The size of your topic
 You want to select a topic which is not too big, and
not too small, but just right (and one which will not
break).
 If you are new to research you will probably not
have developed this skill. Indeed, it is a very
common failing, but not necessarily that serious a
one, for new researchers to choose topics which are
far too big for them to carry out. Hence the need to
focus down your study.
The time you have available
 Similar considerations relate to the time
you have available for your research
study. For a small-scale research study,
this will typically be of the order of a
few hundred hours in total. You need to
make the best use of this time possible
The cost of research
 Don’t forget the cost factor. Unless you
have an employer, funder or sponsor
who is going to meet absolutely all of the
costs of your research project, you
should be aware of the different costs
associated with alternative kinds of
research.
The cost of research
 Fees for degree registration or examination.
 Travel costs to and from your university or college, and/or
your research sites.
 The costs of consumables such as paper, tapes and batteries.
 Charges for access to certain institutions or individuals.
 Equipment purchase or hire costs (e.g. wordprocessor, tape
recorder, software).
 Book, report and journal purchases.
 Photocopying, printing and publication costs.
 Postage and telephone costs.
 Library fines.
The resources you have available
 If you have colleagues or friends to help you
with your research, this will clearly allow you
to do rather more than if you are on your own.
 Most people undertaking small-scale research
projects will, however, probably be working
largely on their own. But this does not mean
that you have no resources. These may
include, for example, a word processor or
computer access
Your need for support
 Here we are talking about personal and
emotional support, rather than the
academic kind
 Undertaking research, or any kind of
education, can threaten your personal,
family, work or social life. Be aware of
the demands which your research project
may put on your loved ones, friends and
colleagues
Seeking support
Answer the following questions:
Who will ask you ‘How’s it going?’
Who will make you cups of tea?
Who will give you permission not to do things?
Access issues
 Here we are primarily concerned with
the influence of access on your choice of
topic. Access can be seen as relating as
much to the resources you have available
(e.g. a good library), as discussed in a
previous sub-section, as to the subjects
of your research.
Methods for researching
 If you enjoy or have a flair for a
particular method, this can make your
research project more interesting, and
help to motivate you to carry it through.
Or you might like to use your research
project to learn about, or develop your
skills in, methods you are not familiar
with.
What to do if you can’t think of a
topic
Ten ways to think of a research topic
 Ask your supervisor, friends, colleagues, customers, clients
 Look at previous research work
 Develop some of your previous research, or your practice at
work
 Relate it to your other interests
 Think of a title
 Start from a quote that engages you
 Draw yourself a picture or a diagram
 Just start anywhere
 But be prepared to change direction
How to choose a supervisor
Supervisor!!!
 is extra-busy!
 many deadlines every day
lab), etc.
 many ongoing projects
 teaching takes a lot of time
 need to write proposals, papers, reports, organize
committees, organize conferences, render various services
to the university, do research, disseminate research, help
many students

SO…
Interacting with your advisor
 Cut on non-work-related stuff
 When meeting, be sure to provide short reminder of
context. You have one BS project but your advisor is
working on >1 just like yours in parallel
 When meeting, be prepared. Your advisor has no time
to waste
 If your advisor seems too busy, that probably because
your progress has not generated enough excitement
yet. Work harder, implement what s/he suggested, go
beyond that, show lots of results, demonstrate that you
are dedicating your time to your research.
Who owns the project?
 Typically the idea for a project comes from the supervisor

 The supervisor may also have obtained funding for the project

 However the research student must take ownership of the project

 In this circumstance the supervisor should not exercise influence

on the student unethically but in turn the ethical student owes a
debt to the supervisor, and to acknowledge their support
The supervisory process
 At the start:

 Identifying a good area

 Knowing what has already been done

 Anticipating when a problem will be too hard or too easy

In the middle

 Watching over the ‘bigger’ picture

 Nudging your good directions

 Identifying common pitfalls

 Keeping an eye on the clock

At the end
 Telling you when to stop

 Knowing what a thesis looks like

 Anticipating problem areas for your viva

What supervisors expect of their
students
What students expect of their
supervisors
Problems - Students
 Lack of guidance  Lack of resources or
 Not available for facilities
discussions  lack of support in
 Unreasonable process of research
expectations (techniques, data
 Not interested analysis)
Problems - Supervisor
 Students lack  Lack of effort
independence  absent from
 poor written work lab/desk
 not honest about  Oversensitive
progress  don’t accept
 lack commitment challenge
 don’t realise how  No enthusiasm
much work it takes  don’t follow advice
Overcoming problems
 Keep things in perspective
 supervisor is human
 shares your long term goal (research success)
 Be organised
 organise FORMAL meetings
 prepare for meetings with points for discussion
 Be honest
 report any mistakes
 report on difficulties while they are SMALL
Overcoming problems
 Be professional
 take criticism
 Ask for feedback
 don’t wait to be told what to do/read
 Show your enthusiasm
 Meet deadlines
 Communicate with your supervisors (i.e. meetings/reports)
Concept of ‘Originality’
 Novel synthesis
 New interpretation of old material- Old subject, new
evidence
 Using existing technique in new area(s)
 Using technique new to discipline
 Adding to existing knowledge in a way not used
previously
 Cross-disciplinary work combining different
methodologies
 Studying new areas in established discipline
 Writing about new information for the first time
 Not all the work need be ‘original’ in nature!
Critical thinking
 Simple example in literature review
 Ferguson and Wenger (1996), Tate and Lyle (1998)
and Rolls and Royce (2003) all carried out studies in
this area…….
 Tate and Lyle (1998) and Rolls and Royce (2003) both
used much more robust methodologies than Ferguson
and Wenger (1996)…….. However, any of these
studies would undoubtedly have produced better and
more applicable results if they had included the
measurement of psychological parameters…..
Critical thinking
Critical thinker can:
 Raise vital questions and problems and formulate
them clearly
 Gather, assess and interpret relevant information
 Come to well-reasoned conclusions and/or solutions
and test them against set criteria or standards
 Think in an open-minded manner, look at and
evaluate alternatives
 Communicate effectively with others