A Gentle Guide To Research Methods

Gordon Rugg & Marian Petre A Gentle Guide to Research Methods A Gentle Guide to Research Methods A Gentle Guide to Research Methods Gordon Rugg and Marian Petre Open University Press McGraw-Hill Education McGraw-Hill House Shoppenhangers Road Maidenhead Berkshire England SL6 2QL email: [email protected] world wide web: www.openup.co.uk and Two Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10121-2289, USA First published 2007 Copyright © Gordon Rugg and Marian Petre 2007 All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency Limited. Details of such licences (for reprographic reproduction) may be obtained from the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd of 90 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1T 4LP. A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library ISBN-10: 0 335 21927 6 (pb) 0 335 21928 4 (hb) ISBN-13: 978 0 335 21927 8 (pb) 978 0 335 21928 4 (hb) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data CIP data applied for Typeset by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk Printed in Poland by OZ Graf. S.A. www.polskabook.pl Contents List of figures Preamble Acknowledgements Introduction The structure of this book: research design, data collection and data analysis Taught degree projects: what they are, things to watch out for, and practical points PhD second studies: what happens when your first study changes your plans Strategies and principles: demonstrating excellence, exploring territory rather than trying to prove a hunch, avoiding trouble, and learning from the wise Choosing a topic, or cups of coffee, easy pickings and blaming others Departments, systems and supervisors: how to behave like a professional, get a good reference, and avoid needless trouble ‘How do I get a good mark?’ – things that can send out the wrong signal, and how to avoid these Academic writing: why it’s different from other writing, and how to do it well Doing a good project: summary 1 About research Research: introduction to the nature of research, and types of research Research questions, and the nature of evidence: deciding what type of question to ask, and how to handle the various types of answer Mud pits and how to avoid them: things that go wrong Isms: necessary assumptions, dubious assumptions, and being caught in crossfire Searching the literature: why, where, what for and how ix xi xiii 1 1 3 8 10 15 19 22 25 30 31 31 37 42 45 48 vi 2 3 4 CONTENTS Research in society – agendas, context and the like: things we take for granted, and things that can cause you trouble 56 Research design 60 Types of design: which to use and how to use them Surveys and sampling Field experiments: doing research in the world Controlled experiments: changing things systematically and seeing what happens Summary and technical terms 60 67 70 Generic advice 80 Arranging a study: subjects, equipment, procedures, things to remember, things to beware Locati