Here are a few strategies: Plan each day. Block out the 30 minutes, hour, 3 hours, or whatever that you want to work on the dissertation. Choose a scheduling strategy that works for you. Some people like to schedule their daily dissertation work in terms of hours and minutes worked, and others in terms of “problems solved” or “pages Oct 16, · If you fall into the latter category, you probably already have a topic selected, and your strategy should be to build a dissertation literature review that is comprehensive enough to establish your expertise in the topic. It should also justify the need for the area of focus that you are pursuing, whether that is an identified gap in the Estimated Reading Time: 3 mins Dissertation Research Strategy: Getting started. For undergraduate and master's level dissertation students, the Research Strategy chapter is important for three main reasons: First, it not only explains what research you performed, but also justifies all the major choices you made throughout the dissertation process. Second, it can be one of the easiest places within the dissertation to either
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For undergraduate and master's level dissertation students, the Research Strategy chapter is important for three main reasons: First, it not only explains what research you performed, but also justifies all the major choices you made throughout the dissertation process.
Second, it can be one dissertation strategy the easiest places within the dissertation to either gain or lose marks. Third, many students find it dissertation strategy most challenging chapter of their dissertation to get to grips with and write in a clear and consistent way.
As such, the purpose of this article is twofold: First, we explain the role of the Research Strategy chapter of your dissertation. Second, we briefly set out the major sections of the Research Strategy chapter. Our aim is to point to the many "free" sections within the Lærd Dissertation website where you can learn what key terms mean, as well as help you plan your Research Strategy chapter.
In almost all fields, whether the physical or social sciences, humanities, engineering, and so forth, undergraduate and master's level dissertations have a clear, dissertation strategy, distinct section or chapter that outlines the research strategy that you have chosen to guide your dissertation. Your dissertation guidelines may refer to this important chapter or section of your dissertation as Research DesignResearch Methodology or Research Methodsbut these are just three of the components that can be included in the Research Strategy chapter.
We prefer to use the heading Research Strategy because all the choices you make in this chapter should be strategic ; that is, the dissertation strategy paradigm you believe in guides your research design.
This in turn leads to the selection of particular research methodstogether with an appropriate sampling strategy and data analysis techniqueswhether qualitativequantitative or mixed methods in nature. Even the way that you present your findings Presenting Findingsassess their quality Research Quality and make ethical decisions Research Ethics are all interlinked.
As a result, there is no "one best way" when it comes to choosing a research strategy for your dissertation. The choice you make is highly specific to your proposed research.
Your task is to first recognise the different components that make up the Research Strategy chapter or section and then choose which ones apply to you. There are a number of components to the Research Dissertation strategy chapter or section of a dissertation. Whilst it is dissertation strategy to consult your dissertation guidelines to see which components you are required to include, the broad headings are research paradigmresearch designresearch methodssampling strategydata analysisresearch quality and research ethics.
These are very briefly described below, together with links to the major sections within this website where you can learn more:. We all have basic sets of beliefs that guide the way that we perform research.
Before doing a dissertation, you may not know what these are or what to call them. When doing research, dissertation strategy, we summarise these beliefs under so-called research paradigms.
There are a number of these research paradigms e. Getting your head around these research paradigms is arguably the most challenging aspect of your Research Strategy chapter or section ; and for some students, it's the most challenging part of the whole dissertation, dissertation strategy.
Unfortunately, it is important because the beliefs that you have, whether you know what these are or not, dissertation strategy, guide the way you do your dissertation in a very practical way. That is, these beliefs tends to determine everything from your choice of research design and research methodsright through to the data analysis techniques you use, dissertation strategy, and even the way that you assess the quality of your findings, dissertation strategy.
Whilst some students doing dissertations dissertation strategy the undergraduate and master's level do not have to worry dissertation strategy these things, most do. Broadly speaking, when you do a dissertation, you will use one of three research designs : a qualitativequantitative or mixed methods research design, dissertation strategy.
Your choice of research design will be guided by the research paradigm you believe in and the type of research you are trying to carry out.
For example, some types of research, such as experiments in the physical sciences, more naturally lend themselves to quantitative research designs. By contrast, dissertation strategy, more exploratory research in the social sciences is often found to use qualitative research designs, dissertation strategy. Whilst these are crude comparisonsthe important point is that your choice of research design will influence your choice of research methods and sampling strategyconsiderations of research qualityas well as your approach towards research ethics.
The Research Methods section of your Research Strategy chapter usually serves three purposes:. It dissertation strategy the potential research methods that you could have chosen to use in your dissertation. Whilst the choices available to you depend on the research paradigm and research design you adopted, there are still usually a number of options available to you.
For example, even if you dissertation strategy a constructivist research paradigm and a qualitative research design e. Of course, in practice, you may select more than one research method to use. It leaves you to justify your selection of research methods. In so doing, you typically need to discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of your choices. This needs to be very specific. You need to focus on the advantages and disadvantages that your choice of research methods had for your dissertation rather than the generic advantages and disadvantages that are explained in research methods textbooks, dissertation strategy.
Sampling involves collecting units also called casesobjects that you are going to analyse to help answer the research questions you have set in your dissertation.
Such units cases or objects could be people e. Your sampling strategy determines how you select such units to be included in your research and why you selected them. Therefore, the Sampling Strategy section of your Research Strategy chapter tends to do four things:, dissertation strategy. It describes what you units are i, dissertation strategy. It explains the types of sampling technique i. It states the specific sampling technique that you actually used e.
It justifies your choice of sampling technique. Such a choice is based not only on the practicalities of your dissertation e. Therefore, whilst we have a whole section of this website dedicated to Sampling Strategyit is important that you have first selected your research paradigm, research dissertation strategy, research methodology and research methods before selecting an appropriate sampling technique.
One of the most important sections of your Research Strategy chapter is a discussion of the criteria by which the quality of your findings should be assessed, dissertation strategy. In other words, how should the reader i. The answer to this question depends on the research paradigm and research design that is guiding your dissertation.
For example, if you are using a post-positivist research paradigm and a quantitative research design, the quality of your findings will most likely be assessed in terms of their internal validityexternal validity and objectivity. By contrast, the findings in a dissertation guided by a constructivist research paradigm and a qualitative research design would more likely be assessed in terms of their credibility, dissertation strategy, confirmability, dependability, and transferability, amongst other factors, dissertation strategy.
We explain the various ways you can assess the quality of your findings in the section: Research Quality. The Research Ethics section of your Research Strategy chapter explains the ethical choices you made and any ethical challenges you faced during the dissertation process. Dissertation strategy is highly specific to your dissertation, reflecting the nature of your researchthe research methods that you adopted, and the way that you present your findings. For example, dissertation strategy, dissertations that involve participants under 18 years of age may have to get formal approval from parents or a legal guardian.
However, this may also depend on what dissertation strategy are trying to find out from such participants and the research methods you intend to use. Sometimes this means that there is a procedural aspect to the Research Ethics section, explaining how you attained permissions e.
We highlight some of the ethical issues you may face in your dissertation and how to address them in the section: Research Ethics.
All dissertations involve some form of data analysiswhether you collected qualitative or quantitative data or both, dissertation strategy. However, the type of data analysis techniques that you used to analyse the data e. will vary depending on the research paradigmresearch designresearch methods and sampling strategy that you have used. In some cases, the data analysis techniques you used will be pre-plannedwhilst others may arise during the data collection process.
For example, in research that draws on a post-positivist research paradigm, a quantitative research design and a probability sampling technique, dissertation strategy, it will be more likely that the data analysis techniques used i. By contrast, where research draws on a constructivist research paradigm, a qualitative research design, and theoretical sampling technique i.
Whilst this is a crude comparison and a crude generalisationdissertation strategy, the purpose of the Data Analysis section of the Research Strategy chapter is to:, dissertation strategy. These issues, together with the various data analysis techniques you can use in your dissertation are discussed in the section: Data Analysis, dissertation strategy.
When you come to write up the Research Strategy chapter of your dissertation, you may find that some of the headings discussed above are labelled slightly differently in your guidelines. Dissertation strategy, the broad headings above include the main factors you should think about when planning your Research Strategy chapter or section.
When writing this section or chapter of your dissertation, you may also include a number of sub-headings under each of these main headings. For example, if you decided to use a mixed methods research designyou would use qualitative and quantitative research methods, dissertation strategy. Both the qualitative research methods and the quantitative research methods you used would justify a sub-heading of their own, dissertation strategy.
Dissertation Research Strategy: Getting started For undergraduate and master's level dissertation students, the Research Strategy chapter is important for three main reasons: First, it not only explains what research you performed, but also justifies all the major choices you made throughout the dissertation process.
SECTION A: Research paradigms SECTION B: Research designs SECTION C: Research methods SECTION D: Sampling strategy SECTION E: Research quality SECTION F: Research ethics SECTION G: Data analysis techniques. SECTION A Research Paradigm We all have basic sets of beliefs that guide the way that we perform research.
SECTION B Research Design Broadly speaking, when you do a dissertation, you will use one of three research designs : a qualitativedissertation strategy or mixed methods research design. SECTION C Research Methods The Research Methods section of your Research Strategy chapter usually serves three purposes: It explains the potential research methods that you could have chosen to use in your dissertation, dissertation strategy.
It states which research methods you actually chose. SECTION D Sampling Strategy Sampling involves collecting units also called casesobjects that you are going to analyse to help answer the research questions you dissertation strategy set in your dissertation.
Therefore, dissertation strategy, the Sampling Strategy section of your Research Strategy chapter tends to do four things: It describes what you units are i.
SECTION E Research Quality One of the most important sections of your Research Strategy chapter is a discussion of the criteria by which the quality of your findings should be assessed, dissertation strategy. SECTION F Research Ethics The Research Ethics section of your Research Strategy chapter explains the ethical choices you made and any ethical challenges you faced during the dissertation process.
SECTION G Data Analysis Dissertation strategy dissertations involve some form of data analysiswhether you collected qualitative or quantitative data or both.
Whilst this is a crude dissertation strategy and a crude generalisationdissertation strategy, the purpose of the Data Analysis section of the Research Strategy chapter is to: State dissertation strategy data analysis techniques you used.
Explain the data analysis that you performed. Justify the data analysis choices you made. Moving forward
How to Structure Your Dissertation - Scribbr ��
, time: 5:05How to Structure a Dissertation | Step-by-Step Guide
Here are a few strategies: Plan each day. Block out the 30 minutes, hour, 3 hours, or whatever that you want to work on the dissertation. Choose a scheduling strategy that works for you. Some people like to schedule their daily dissertation work in terms of hours and minutes worked, and others in terms of “problems solved” or “pages Oct 16, · If you fall into the latter category, you probably already have a topic selected, and your strategy should be to build a dissertation literature review that is comprehensive enough to establish your expertise in the topic. It should also justify the need for the area of focus that you are pursuing, whether that is an identified gap in the Estimated Reading Time: 3 mins Dissertation Research Strategy: Getting started. For undergraduate and master's level dissertation students, the Research Strategy chapter is important for three main reasons: First, it not only explains what research you performed, but also justifies all the major choices you made throughout the dissertation process. Second, it can be one of the easiest places within the dissertation to either
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