Graduate Diploma Route B
Research Methods Preparation Pack – Your Research Project
A letter from your research methods tutor:
You will be joining us on the Graduate Diploma Course in January 2015. Your course will
consist of three main elements: English for Academic Purposes; Management Studies and
Research Methods. We are writing to you now about the research you will be expected to
do as part of the course. Please note then, this pack is about the RESEARCH METHODS part
of the course, not the English or Management part of the course.
To complete the Research Methods part of the Graduate Diploma course successfully, you
will need to
DESIGN, CARRY OUT and WRITE UP
a research project
This project will be supervised by your research methods tutor – the people who are writing
to you now. We will advise you on a suitable topic for research, how to go about
researching that topic and how to analyse the results of your research
This is not an easy task for anyone and we have found through experience that Route B
students on the Graduate Diploma course can find the start of the course very, very busy
indeed. That is:
Hard work
As a research student, of course, you should be ready for hard work but, in order to make
your task a little easier, we would suggest working through the following pack and give
some thought to what research is and what you will need to do and also to think about a
suitable topic for your own research project before you arrive on the course.
Debbie Lea and Jen Magson
Research Methods Lecturers, Graduate Diploma
INTO Manchester
Contents of this pack
This pack includes four items:
1. An outline of the course content for the research methods part of the graduate
diploma course so that you can get some idea of what to expect
2. A short reading task and questions to answer to help you start to develop an
understanding of research
3. A short reading/video list with some indicative reading and viewing which you may
find helpful. In particular, the Saunders book mentioned first is very useful.
4. A form to fill in where you can sketch some ideas for your own proposed research
project – this should be handed to your research methods tutor once you start the
course. Please don’t worry about this part of the pack too much – what is important
here is that you start to think about research and about what you might do during
the course.
1. Course Coverage
Introduction to Research Methods
Term 1: Scheme of Work
Week
1
2
3
4
Content
• Understanding what research is
• Choosing a ‘good’ topic
• How to write a research question
• Introduction to the research
process
 Introduction to research
proposals
 Why & how to write a
research proposal

Materials/Activities Assessment
 Lectures
 Tutorials
 Classroom
activities
 worksheets


Lectures
Classroom
activities
Templates


Lectures
Literature
/source
searches
Lectures
Class room
activities
Literature/s
ource
searches
Lectures
Class room
activities
Visit to
Manchester
University
Library

Tutorials
Reviewing 1st
attempt at
Research
question
Tutorials

Tutorials


Tutorials
Worksheets


Lectures
Group
activities


Tutorials
Worksheets



Lectures
Worksheets
Group
Activities

First draft of
Literature
Review
submitted


Literature Reviews: What, How
& Why
Sources & searching



Literature Reviews: Continued



5

6

7


Research Philosophies &
strategies
o Qualitative vs.
Quantitative or Mixed
Strategies: Experiment,
Surveys, Case Studies,
Action Research,
Grounded Theory &
Ethnography
What is Methodology?
o Mono, Multi or Mixed
o Time Horizon: cross
sectional or
longitudinal
Reliability & Validity
Qualitative Methods:
Interviews & Focus Groups



8


Tutorials

9
 Quantitative Methods:
Lectures
class
activities
Class
activities
 Tutorials
Questionnaires & Sampling


N/A

Literature Review Feedback
10

Presentation Tips

11

N/A


Literature
Review First
draft
assessed
Research
proposal
submitted
Research
Presentation
2. Reading Task
Please read through the following short article. What you need to do is start to develop
some idea of what research is about and what sort of research you might like to do as part
of this course. As you read, think about the following questions:
What is Research? – Can you develop a definition?





What are the main characteristics of academic research (unlike other types
of research)? You can make a list of the keywords you would use to describe
academic research.
What are the aims of academic research?
Who does academic research?
How should your research relate to the research of other people?
What sort of methods are suitable for research?
This is a short article from the University of San Diego written for their post-graduate
students:
Research is a systematic inquiry that investigates hypotheses, suggests new interpretations
of data or texts, and poses new questions for future research to explore. Research consists
of:
 Asking a question that nobody has asked before;
 Doing the necessary work to find the answer; and
 Communicating the knowledge you have acquired to a larger audience.
In practice, research methods vary widely, depending upon the academic discipline’s
accepted standards, the individual researcher’s preferences, or a particular study’s needs.
Research in science and engineering often involves conducting experiments in the lab or in
the field. Research in the arts, humanities, and social sciences may include archival work in
the library or on the internet, conducting surveys or in-depth interviews, and a wide range
of creative and artistic projects – from costume design to playwriting to curating a fine arts
exhibit.
Research is not a solitary activity but an act of community. As a member of the research
community, you are building on the knowledge that others have acquired before you and
providing a road map for those who come after you. You are adding to a body of work that
will never be complete. Research is an ongoing, collaborative process with no finish line in
sight.
http://urp.ucsd.edu/for-students/what-is-research.html, accessed 1 Dec 2014
You might also find viewing and reading some of the material in the following section useful
to help you answer the questions above and we would also encourage you to pursue your
curiosity about these ideas on the internet.
3. Suggested Reading and Video Viewing list
Below are some resources you might find useful and interesting to look at before you come
onto the course and as you have a think about the exercise at the end of this pack.
This is the main text recommended for use during the course (please note you do NOT need
to buy this book):
Saunders, Mark, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill. (2012). Research Methods for Business
Students, 6th Edition, Harlow, Essex: Pearson. In particular, you might find it useful to look
at the short section on pages 4-6. Don’t worry if you can’t find a copy of this book before
you come. There are several copies in the library here and you can have a look when you
first arrive.
Have a look at this video about the nature of research at post-graduate level
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJhpQs82uR8
Earnshaw, John. (2011). What is Research?, UTube, accessed 21st November 2014
And have a look at this video about choosing research topics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enA29lrcMT0
Earnshaw, John. (2012). How to Find the Best Research Paper Topics, UTube, accessed 21st
November 2014
4. Pre-Course Exercise – thinking about your own
research topic
Finally, before you come onto the course, we’d like you to have a think about what you
might like to research yourself. It is a requirement of the course that you develop a suitable
research topic (around which you will eventually design a project and carry it out). This
should be:




Something that is interesting to you and also of wider interest to others
Something that has an element of finding out new knowledge
Something that you can do in the time you have available
Something that you can find suitable resources to complete
Spend some time thinking about this and then before you arrive, try to fill in the following
form. Don’t worry if you struggle to answer some of the questions. What is important is
that you start thinking about what sort of topic you want to investigate. It is this that will
allow you to start the course confidently. A word of warning though: try to avoid very
general ideas like ‘something in marketing’, try to be a bit more specific and detailed.
This form should be completed and handed to your research methods tutor in the first
research methods class of the course.
Graduate Diploma Route B Research Methods
Proposed Research Project
Developing Your Research Topic
Name:
What topic would you like to research?
(You might have more than one idea here – that’s ok)
What is interesting about this topic to you?
Why do you think it is important?
What methods might you use to investigate
this topic?
What do you think your research can show
that is new?
(Please note here that not everything you investigate
with your research needs to be new – just some part
of what you do needs to produce new knowledge or
information about a topic).