This weeks’ session was about the next 3 topics on the thesis: Literature Review, Research Methodology and Results / Findings.
Literature Review
Its’ aim should be:
- discuss and review work of other peers who have made studys related to what I am to talk about, articles, books, movies, documentaries, publications among others.
- demonstrate gaps or adress a lack of information in related topics, must justify the research.
Literature review can be inserted in the study in the introduction, as a chapter or inserted in to each chapter if needed. This chapter should demonstrate the student has a clear knowledge of the subject in study backed up by research of others, as well as demonstrate I can intregrate these in a clear way in the thesis. The person who will grade the study will have to see these demonstrations for a successfull outcome.
What should be included:
- Make a statement related to our field of study
- Recognize the work of others
- Consistent argument
- Definition of the current state of the field of study in the area
Making sure all work of others referenced are reviewed by pairs is essencial. Lawrence also sugested to showour thesis to others and see what they understood from it, feedback from people outside of the matter is also good as the study must be accessible to all.
The structure should be:
- Chronological
- Thematical
- The wheel
- The pyramid
- Chapter by chapter
Research Methodology
The research methodology must describe the basis of the chosen research methods, also seen as the philosophy of the research. We should also mention if the work is based on qualitative or quantitative methods, or a mixture of both.
Qualitative:
- measuring the quality of something
- based on opinion
Quantitative:
- measuring the quantity of something
- based on numbers and statistics
What should be included:
- Interviews
- Observations
- Questionaires
- Document Analysis
Structure:
- Clear and concise
- Be sure not to have issues with selection of information and refining of findings
- Include research questions and how will I adress them
- Mention whether a research method is more “tried and tested” or experimental in its approach
- Summarise research methods
- Speak about the main challenges in the study
- These elements may be revised in discussion
Results / Findings
The name of this topic is quite direct in comprehension, this would be the part where we document our results and findings from the document analysis and questionaires, everything included in the research. These must be clear to the audience and related directly to what we intend to discuss. The questions made in the abstract or introduction can be now adressed according to the research results.