Understanding Research ─ Coping With the Quantitative-Qualitative Divide

Planning, undertaking and completing a research project – from dissertations to presentations - can be a daunting undertaking for any student, involving a number of easily taken mis-steps for those without adequate guidance.
The objective of any research project is to gather data, analyse it based on your research question and present your findings and conclusions. For students, having the right approach to these steps can mean the difference between an easily handled process resulting in a well argued and presented project, or panicked flailing, misdirection and confusion.
For those fearful of not getting enough research done, doing it the wrong way, putting it together incorrectly, or unsure of what the end result will be, then Understanding Research is an invaluable guide to getting it right and putting fears to bed.
Successfully completing a research project is a major milestone in most university degrees, and it should be daunting – although not unassailable. This book provides students with the guidance necessary to start, undertake and present their research project in social science or the humanities.
This text addresses:

Where do I start? How do I begin my research and pull it together into a research question? - takes the student through the process of project design, starting research and gaining confidence in their choices
Am I Researching the right things? Is it taking me in the direction I want to go? What direction is it taking me in? - explores the decision making process at all points of a research project and the implications of these decisions in the longer term
Am I researching in the right way – should I be conducting interviews, reading articles or collecting statistical data? - outlines the practical and philosophical conundrums around specific techniques for gathering and analysing data
Focussed explicitly on the needs and experiences of students and including a wealth of practical tips, this work is an essential resource for all students embarking on a research project.

Understanding Research includes:

90 illustrations
2 tables
21 text boxes
Glossary
Further Reading guides for each chapter

M. I. Franklin is Reader and Director of the Global Media & Transnational Communications program at Goldsmiths (University of London, UK). With an academic background in the Humanities (History and Music) and Social Sciences (Politics) she has held teaching and research positions in Humanities, Social Science, and Engineering faculties in New Zealand, the Netherlands, USA, and the UK. She has received research funding from Social Science Research Council (USA) and Ford Foundation and awards for teaching excellence in the UK. Previous books include Postcolonial Politics, the Internet, and Everyday Life: Pacific Traversals Online(Routledge) and Resounding International Relations: On Music, Culture and Politics (Palgrave MacMillan). Digital Dilemmas: Power, Resistance and the Internet will be out in 2013 (Oxford University Press).

1. Introduction: Aims & Objectives; Who Should Read This Book; Using this Book in Context; What is academic research?; On Divides Real & Imagined; Key Concepts and their various uses; Chapter Organization.
PART I – Divides & Designs
2. Putting Research into Perspective: Introduction; Key Elements of a Research Project; Looking Ahead: Milestones, Destinations, & Expectations; What is a Dissertation/Thesis?; What is a Research Proposal/Outline?; What is Originality?; Getting Started - Deciding a Topic; Theory and Method - Of Carts and Horses; Concluding Comments.
3. Research in Practice: First Steps in Project Design: Introduction; Main Stages in a Research Project; Work-Plans & Proposals; From Research Topic to Research Question or Hypothesis; On Science, Worldviews, and other Brainteasers; Other Practical Matters; Recognizing and Setting Your Limits;Research Ethics and Codes of Practice: More than ticking boxes;The Supervisory Relationship; Methodological Coping Strategies - Plotting a Course; Concluding Comments.
4. The Politics of Research: Living with Your Choices: Introduction; Doing Research Today: Location, Location, Location; Literature Searches and the Literature Review; Historical & Philosophical Note; Purpose and Categories of literature reviews; Practicalities; Pitfalls; Rules of Thumb; Process & Product; Finding the literature; the web or library?; Sources & Resources that matter; Acknowledging Sources; What is plagiarism?; Research Communities & (Multiple) Disciplinary Identities; Concluding Comments.
5. Internet Research Skills & Online Research: Introduction; Setting the record straight; Back the Future: A Quick Prequel; The Internet as resource; Online data-gathering & analysis & Digital Tools;Online Research: Fields, Relationships, Ethics; Web-Analysis: Sites, maps, and hypertexts; Summing up.
PART II – Coping & Communicating
6. Doing Research - Gathering Data: Introduction to Part Two; Chapter Aims and Organization; Data-Gathering Techniques - Review; Surveys & Questionnaires; Interviews; Focus Groups; Ethnographic Fieldwork & Participant-Observation; Summing Up - Repositioning the Divide.
7. Doing Research - Analysing Findings: Introduction; What is analysis?; Working with Texts - Content Analysis, Textual/Visual Analysis, Discourse Analysis, Deductive and Inductive Paths to Knowledge; Behaviouralism & its Discontents; Data-Analysis as Process and Product; Concluding Comments.
8. Writing it All Up and Going Public: Introduction; What is academic writing?; Writing Formalities - Citation & Styles Guides; Feedback - Examinations & Going Public; Procrastination and Prevarications; Coping and Moving On - Creatively; Revising and Editing – what to look for; The Final Cut - What to remember.
9. In Conclusion: Reappraising Divides Imagined and Real; To the Exit and Afterlife of a Research Project.