How to do your research project : a guide for students in education and applied social sciences / Gary Thomas.

Previous edition: 2009.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Machine generated contents note: Question: Where do I begin? Answer: Begin at the beginning, with an introduction -- Doing the BIS -- Thinking of a research idea -- Purposes of research -- Moving on to research questions -- Kinds of question-and some nutshell-sized studies and their implications -- Descriptive or explanatory questions? -- A research question-or a hypothesis? -- Coming up with a question -- Is it feasible? Problems with research questions -- Prima facie questions -- Kinds of evidence and kinds of answer -- A title -- What research is-and what it isn\'t -- Overview -- Checklist -- Further reading -- Understanding tie structure of your dissertation or thesis -- Drawing a timeline -- Just look at those fingernails! Time management -- Stresses in doing research -- Working with your supervisor -- The importance of being ethical -- Getting clearance - ethical review -- What to think about in considering ethics -- Access -- Overview -- Checklist -- Further reading --

Contents note continued: Primary and secondary sources -- Quality of sources -- Your literature review should tell a story - it should not be a list -- Making it a story -- Speed reading and taking notes -- Critical awareness: be your own Jeremy Paxman -- Click on \'Search\': finding information -- Reference managers -- Hints on searching - separating the wheat from the chaff -- Understanding how sources are cited: the Harvard referencing system -- Taking notes and quotes -- Overview -- Checklist -- Further reading -- Seeing the wood for the trees -- From storyboard to storyline -- Your final question -- Theory -- Overview -- Checklist -- Further reading -- Research design -- Research approach -- Frameworks for thinking about the social world - paradigms -- Paradigms and research approach -- From purposes to questions to approaches to data gathering -- Overview -- Checklist -- Further reading -- Some general issues in design -- Sampling -- Variables -- Reliability -- Validity --

Contents note continued: Experimenter effects -- Generalisation and generalisability -- Positionality -- Triangulation -- The design frames -- Action research -- Case study -- Ethnography -- Evaluation -- Experiment -- Longitudinal and cross-sectional studies - and surveys -- Comparative study -- No design frame -- Can I mix design frames and methods? -- Postmodernism -- How to structure and write your methodology chapter -- Overview -- Checklist -- Further reading -- Tools and methods -- Be creative -- Data-gathering tools mainly for use with words -- Interviews -- Accounts -- Diaries -- Group interviews and focus groups -- Document interrogation -- Data-gathering tools - for use with words and/or numbers -- Questionnaires -- Observation -- Gathering image-based data -- Data-gathering tools - mainly for use with numbers -- Measurements and tests -- Official statistics -- Overview -- Checklist -- Further reading -- Analysing words -- Constant comparative method --

Contents note continued: Network analysis -- Construct mapping and theme mapping -- Grounded theory -- Thick description -- Discourse and content analysis -- Computers and verbal data analysis -- Sociograms -- Analysing numbers -- Kinds of numbers -- Eyeballing -- Using Excel to do your data analysis -- Statistics that describe -- Statistics that help you understand a relationship between two variables -- Statistics that help you to deduce (or infer) -- Discussing your analysis -- Analysis and synthesis -- Drawing out \'theory\' -- Overview -- Checklist -- Further reading -- Writing a conclusion -- Writing up -- Writing an abstract and finalising the title -- General points about writing and presentation -- Coda -- Checklist -- Further reading.

Direct, informative and accessible the new edition of Gary Thomas\'s bestselling title is essential reading for anyone doing a research project. Packed full of relevant advice and real world examples the book guides you through the complete research process. Using refreshingly jargon-free language and anecdotal evidence it is a witty, easy to follow introduction that will answer your questions, set out best practice and walk you through every stage of your project step-by-step.