Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Dissertation outline (HOW? (Literature Review
The research report needs…
Dissertation outline
HOW?
- Literature Review
- The research report needs to be inspired by the work completed for your critical literature review
- Is there any assumption in literature you have read that remains understudied?
- Is there a theory that you could test through an empirical case study?
- Does the theory that you have looked at for your literature review holds true in other contexts ?
-
-
Strategies and considerations
- Keywords are good search strategy and it is better to use specific rather than general keywords and phrases.
- Initial appraisal from raw bibliographical data:
- What are author's credentials, are they expert in this field? Are they affiliated to reputable organization?
- What is the date of publication, is it sufficiently current or will knowledge have moved on?
- Is publisher a reputable and scholarly publisher?
- If it is a journal, is it a scholarly journal which has been peer reviewed?
- Does the author review the relevant literature?
- Does the author write from an objective viewpoint and are their views based on facts rather than opinions?
- Is writer addressing a scholarly audience?
- Is it primary or secondary?
- Does the author have a particular theoretical viewpoint, eg. feminist?
- What is the relationship of this work to other material you have read on the same topic, does it substantiate it or add a different perspective?
- Is the author's argument logically organised and clear to follow /
- If the author's writing from a practice based perspective, what are the implication of practice?
Analysing your findings
- What themes emerge and what conclusions can be drawn ?
- What are the major similarities and differences between the various writiers?
- Are there any significant questions which emerge and which could form a basis for further investigation ?
-
-
-
(h)_Limitations
There are some matters that this methodology may not help me to explain but these might .....
Choosing the conepts and theoritical frameworks
- examine the thesis title and research problem . The research problem anchors the study and forms the basis which you will develop your theoretical framework.
- review related literature to find how scholars have addressed your research question
- list the constructs and variables that might be relevant to your study. You might want to group these into independent and dependent categories.
- Review key social science theories that are introduced to you in your course readings and choose the theory that can best explain the relationship between the key variables in your study
- Discuss assumptions or propositions of this theory and point out their relevance to your research.
WHAT ?
(a)Topic
The project will study ......
- the topic is too broad to be manageable when you find that you have too many different ideas about how to investigate the research problem.
- Start with one big research question then ask yourself how am I to find answer to my main question and what do I need to know in order to address it?
- Choose One lens through which to view the research problem or look at just one facet of it.(eg. rather than examining the role of communities in emergency planning, study the role of communities in relation to one kind of natural disaster or in one region)
- Choose one place - The smaller the area of analysis, the more narrow the focus (eg: rather than study trade relation in West Africa, study trade relations between Niger and Cameroon)
- Look at one relationships- How do two or more different perspectives or variables relate to one another ? (eg. Cause/effect, contemporary, historical, group/individual, opinion/reason, problem solution)
- Choose on type- focus your topic in terms of a specific type or class of people, place or things
- Combination of these- use two or more of the above strategies to focus your topic very narrowly.
(b)_Question/Problem/Focus
To find out .....
- Good question will be focused and help you to guides and centres your research. It should be clear and summarize the issue that you want to investigate.
- remain open to other perspectives of course because as you read and conduct further research you may find that evidence better supports alternative positions and therefore you will need to change or alter your argument
- Arguments will thus evolve throughout the research process.
- The ability to identify what you don't know yet but need to know is a key to be the good researcher.
- The key question is whether you as a post-graduate student can come up with meaningful questions to ask and* problems that need solving for your own dissertation
-