module 6 rm Flashcards
What is Academic writing
A tool for sharing the results of a scientific
research
What are the Characteristics of scientific research
- The goal is inference
- The procedures are public / transmissible / cumulative
- Conclusions are uncertain / Falsifiable
- The method!
What are the main components of the research design
- Research topic & research question/puzzle
- Literature review
- Concepts/Theoretical framework
- [Hypothesis] ?
- Data collection methods
- Data analysis methods
What do the components of the research design lead to
Writing the final report (dissertation, PhD thesis,
refereed academic journal article)
What is the first step of the research question
Choice of problem to study
What are the criteria to choose a research topic
Personal tastes & interests
- Yet avoid too much passion to be able to keep a critical distance and avoid too
much subjectivity
- Strategic choice (career)
- Available data
- Originality
What is the main challenge for choosing a research topic
- Main challenge: to define a narrow enough theme to avoid dilution of the object of study → you’ll have to make choices (and justify them)!
How do you find a topic for your research question (RQ)
-Choose by elimination
-Read basic references or textbooks
-Discuss it
-Try to remember something that shocked or surprised you
-Do NOT copy a question from someone else!
-Look up the domains of expertise of academics in the department.
What do you do if you have too many ideas and have to narrow it down
-Rank them by interests and feasibility
-Define the period of study, the geographical scope, etc
How do you formulate a RQ
- What do I want to investigate on this topic?
- With what other phenomenon do I want to link it?
- What type of relationship do I envision?
- What is my level of analysis?
What are required for a good RQ
– Relevancy
– Contribution to the literature
What are the criteria for a good RQ
-Clarity
-Feasibility
-Comprehensive & analytical rather than descriptive
- Think in terms of a puzzle!
- Originality/Contribution
You need to do four things for the criteria, comprehensive & analytical rather than descriptive. What are these four things
-Ask a real question (avoid suggesting the answer in the
question)
- Avoid normative questions (=judgement)
- AVOID descriptive questions (=the answer is obvious)
- Avoid prospective questions (=future)
What is literature review (3 answers)
=In-depth exploration of the literature
=Identifying potential approaches on your research
topic/question
= through the existing scientific literature discover what is
already known about the topic!
Why is the literature review important
-It allows you to detach from your pre-conceptions
-It allows you to know more about your topic: what has been said (to avoid reinventing the wheel) and what has not been said (to identify gaps and to open new perspectives)
What is the main goal of the lit review
To identify the main concepts, the main authors, the major theoretical
approaches and dominant methods related to your topic
What is the prerequisite for writing a literature review
To have good initial research question
What is the next step after the prerequisite for writing a literature review
Explore: preliminary research in order to identify the way your topic has been
studied in the literature (main concepts, approaches & methods), what the main
authors have to tell us
How to fail a literature review
Reading too much or not
reading
Which 2 essential criteria are important to avoid failing the literature review
– relevance with regard to the initial question;
– quality of resources
What is a dependent variable
Phenomenon under study, that you want to explain, that is caused, depends, or is influenced by other variables
What is an independent variable
Variable or factor that causes, influences, determines or affects the phenomenon under study = explanatory factor
What does the relevance with regard to the initial question mean (relevancy)
In order to conduct a good literature review, define what you want to
understand / explain (= dependent variable)
Conducting a literature review means identifying ways of understanding
the various potential explanations of your research topic (= independent
variables)
How to ensure the relevance and quality of sources for the literature review
Explore the literature
In-depth exploration of academic/scholarly sources
Via several search engines
Make a list of references and try to prioritize readings, from general
(definitions of concepts – books or handbooks) to more specialized
(journal articles)
Impossible to be exhaustive, but you have to identify the relevant
literature and present a plurality of approaches
