OUGD601. COP3. Lecture 1: Organising Your Research Project.

due to my absence in the first week i was unable to attend the first COP lecture, however, i recognised the importance of the information provided in it and so talked to my peers about the content and made some notes from their notes. i then went on to look over the powerpoint and take some more notes so that i fully understood what was said.

Planning the Project:

- write down all the questions i want to answer

- critically evaluate each and choose the best two

- write down my first thoughts

- develop a working title

Project Outline:

- deadline 15 weeks

- consider that i have a life as well

- allow time for reading and writing

Literature:

- find key texts

- find secondary sources/critiques of chosen texts for triangulation

- use journals

Ethics:

- If a student’s CoP3 research involves human subjects

(1) and/or data not in the public domain (2) then ethical

approval must be granted by their supervisor / programme

leader.

Questionnaires/Interviews:

- is a questionnaire/interview useful/appropriate?

- consider the wording of the questions

- what do i actually need to find out?

- be precise

- how will it be recorded?

Observation:

- is observation useful to my project?

- what do i want to find out from it?

- plan carefully and consider how the data should be interpreted

Checklist:

- Don’t procrastinate

- Plan research methods carefully

- Select the most appropriate research

methods for the project

- Document all stages of the process carefully

- Produce a detailed project outline, with

timings, and stick to it

- Get the most from your supervision