The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project

by Zina O'Leary

The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project gives students the knowledge and skills they need to get from `clueless` to `completed`. This highly engaging text guides the reader through each stage of their research project, from getting started to writing up, with each chapter clearly explaining a step along the way. Based on the author`s hugely popular The Essential Guide to Doing Research, this new book retains the warmth, wit and grounded nature of the first, while providing tools to help students through the ins and outs of their own projects, and addressing the key questions students need to tackle, such as: - What is this thing called research and why do it? - How can I assure that my research project has integrity? - How to I develop a researchable question? - How do I construct a winning proposal? - What exactly is expected in a literature review? - What options are there in qualitative, quantitative, mixed and more purposive methodological designs? - Is it best to work with a sample, key informants, or a case? - What data collection options are there and how do I choose? - How should I work with my quantitative data? - What should I do with my qualitative data? - How in the world will I capture this on paper? This is an inspiring book full of down-to-earth advice, illuminating figures and diagrams and engaging real-life examples. With this book as your personal mentor, a successfully completed research project is well within reach. A companion website is available Table of Contents Taking the Leap into the Research World Getting Started Striving for Integrity in the Research Process Developing Your Research Question Crafting A Research Proposal Working

Genres: Research, Nonfiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published October 21, 2009

Reviews

[Rebekah McCann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Has a lot of good advice and it helped me feel more prepared to do research for the first time. I only wish it had been marketed as having a slight focus on the social sciences rather than STEM and other areas of research. As a physics student, a good amount of this book was not applicable to me and I wish I'd at least been warned of that ahead of time. It was still very helpful in a broad sense, though.

[Isaac · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you want an easy insight into the mind of the modern, secular, university level research, then this is a good place to start. That's a pretty specific use though...

For researchers... the average secular westerner will gobble it up, the thoughtful Christian will glean some things that are of benefit.

Note: have only dipped in here and there, not read right through.

[Rach · Rating 4 out of 5]

I forgot I read this for my Intro to Research in Education class this semester for my Master's program. It's a pretty solid read considering it's a textbook and textbooks are usually boring. 4/5 - I learned a lot and it helped me with my assignments.

[Taylor Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear writing, and great examples. It got me started and motivated to finish my proposal. I read it out of order, per the recommendation from my advisor. A pretty fast read for such a large book.

[Jazmine the illustrator · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a textbook

[Claire Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful but pretty boring and I hated the simplified style.

[Sabrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is by far the best research reference book I have read. It is clear, easy to understand, and provides a lot of useful examples and further readings.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

What has Mark Twain with research projects in the 21th century? Nothing. It has everything to do with appeasing the author's need to be an erudite. Otherwise it is not about practical research, the thing that brought people Nuclear Power or the Voyage to the Moon. It is about the petty means of scamming a pay from the University by the academic bureaucrats. What I have appreciated most is the bluntness and total lack of refinement of the author: "Offer a pathway for gaining academic qualifications or getting a raise".