Private: Research and Writing Skills for Dissertations and Projects: An Introduction

Published on: May 2017 7 Hours of Core activities 10 Hours of Additional activities

Courses featured in the Research and Writing Skills for Dissertation and Projects programme:

  • Module 1: Preparing your research and managing your supervisor
    Overview

    Core activities: 50 minutes
    Additional activities: 1 hour

     

    Syllabus
    • Preparing to start
      – What makes a good dissertation or project?
      – How do I get started?
      – Generating ideas
      – Picking a subject or area of research
      – Formulating your question or hypothesis
      – Thinking about ethics 
    • The role of examiners and supervisors
      – What are examiners looking for?
      – What is the role of a supervisor?
      – Working with your supervisor: your expectations and theirs
      – Taking ownership
      – Responding to feedback 
  • Module 2: Project-management techniques
    Overview

    Core activities: 50 minutes
    Additional activities: 1 hour

     

    Syllabus
    • Time, resources and scope
    • Lifecycle of a project
    • Project management tools
    • Milestones and deliverables
    • Setting aims and objectives
    • Managing stakeholders
    • Risk management
  • Module 3: Managing your time
    Overview

    Core activities: 40 minutes
    Additional activities: 1 hour

     

    Syllabus
    • Day-to-day time management
    • Note-taking
    • Keeping project records
    • Tools and strategies
    • Managing yourself and taking responsibility 
  • Module 4: The literature review
    Overview

    Core activities: 35 minutes
    Additional activities: 1 hour

     

    Syllabus
    • What is a literature review?
    • Why carry out a literature review?
    • How to search for literature
    • Evaluating and thinking critically about the literature
    • Reading and note-taking approaches
    • Structuring and writing your literature review 
  • Module 5: The importance of ethics
    Overview

    Core activities: 45 minutes
    Additional activities: 1 hour

     

    Syllabus
    • Ethics principles
    • Defining ethics terms
    • Implications of poor ethics
    • Ethics approval
    • Informed consent
    • Confidentiality and anonymity
    • Ensuring the integrity of the research
  • Module 6: Research methodology and methods
    Overview

    Core activities: 30 minutes
    Additional activities: 1 hour

     

    Syllabus
    • The difference between methodology and methods
    • Methodology, methods and research tools: choosing the right ones for your research
    • The relationship between the question or hypothesis and the methodology
    • Qualitative approaches
    • Introduction to quantitative research methods
  • Module 7: Data collection methods
    Overview

    Core activities: 1 hour
    Additional activities: 1 hour

     

    Syllabus
    • Exploring data collection methods 
      – Interviews and focus groups
      – Observational research
      – Questionnaire and survey design
      – Case studies
      – Archives and artefacts 
      – Secondary data 
      – Field or natural experiments
      – Controlled experiments
  • Module 8: Data analysis
    Overview

    Core activities: 35 minutes
    Additional activities: 1 hour

     

    Syllabus
      • Qualitative data analysis
        – Data reduction, data display and conclusion drawing
        – Presenting qualitative data analysis
      • Quantitative data analysis
        – Types of data
        – Statistical tests
        – Mathematical concepts
        – Presenting quantitative data analysis
  • Module 9: Structuring the arguments and chapters
    Overview

    Core activities: 40 minutes
    Additional activities: 1 hour

     

    Syllabus
    • Analysis and discussion
    • Basic components of an argument
    • Building an effective argument
    • Structure of an argument
    • Structuring the chapters
    • Key components of the dissertation
  • Module 10: Writing up and disseminating your research
    Overview

    Core activities: 45 minutes
    Additional activities: 1 hour

     

    Syllabus
    • Steps for writing your first draft
    • Dealing with writer’s block
    • The drafting process and refining your first draft
    • Using analysis and synthesis
    • Paraphrasing
    • Disseminating your research