Getting prepared

• Before you come to the first class please • read and print out the assessment brief which you will find in the assessment section • prepare any questions you have • familiarise yourself with the core text book by Saunders below • think about the areas you might wish to research and why • read about the structure of your project below • The structure of your project should be as follows: Introduction (300-500 words) This is the first opportunity to build an understanding and a rapport with your reader. Quite clearly there should be a brief rationale as to why you want to undertake this piece of research in the first place (not just stating because I have to!) Include a brief insight into the organisation or context you are focusing on. Nothing too elaborate here as the word count for both elements suggests. Consider the usage of an appendix for any detail you feel it is necessary for the reader to be aware of, that you then refer the reader to in the main body of your work. Research objectives (100-300 words) Research objectives are in essence, “what do I want to look at and explore as part of my research”. There really needs to be a doing verb within each of them that is reflective of level 7. This means something like ‘critically evaluate’ and not i’dentify’ or ‘look at’ – you need to seek to explain what you are looking at not just describe it. Ensure you start with some objective even if you refine it over time. It can be best to phrase your objectives as questions and have one over-arching research question that you break down into sub objectives if you have to. Breaking your research question down can help define the different stages of your research process. Make sure you can measure what it is you say you will look at. For example how are you defining importance in the research question – ‘What is the importance of accounting standard X in market Y. Or how are you defining and therefore measuring ‘impact’ in the research question ‘What is the impact of Y or Z?’ Literature review (500 -1500 words) The Literature Review section relates to both academic models and frameworks you intend to engage with to make sense of your data. You need to avoid listing bits and pieces of knowledge but instead craft them into an argument that shows your research question is worth asking and answering. You might consider the limitations of these models and frameworks to show that they aren’t beyond question and therefore how [Type text] you will build upon them. It also extends to relevant articles that you have read that have informed your understanding of your topic and that you are even perhaps preparing to use as the basis of your overall research focus. It should not be purely a description of things you had read as part of your research, but as it states a “review” of the Literature and a discussion of what is known, how it is known, in what ways using what data is was explored and therefore why your work is worth doing. Methodology (500 words) The methodology section must defend how you are conducting your research / how you are answering your research question. You are making a series of choices and each needs defending. • Why are you taking an inductive or deductive approach? • Why are you collecting what sort of data? • How will the form of analysis you have chose produce insights that answer your research question? Discuss the limitations of your choices as well as defending them. Along the lines of Secondary data is used because……. Primary data would have the advantages of X and Y but was not choose because….. Discussing the limitations is not a a sign of personal weakness on your behalf and you will not be marked down for your honesty. It is part of social science research that every piece of research is just a small part of a bigger picture that others are helping to create – those others are the people who you talk about in your literature review. Analysis (3000 – 4000 words) The Analysis section is a very important part of your work because it is where you add value to your research topic. This might be obvious to state, but is often overlooked by students that it must be analytical and not descriptive of events. Every time you finish a sentence or a paragraph you should read it and think” have I said why something is important and not just provided a statement of fact of what had happened?” The analysis you put forward should use appendices to add weight to the “argument” and you should use referencing to add further weight to your argument. Overall you are looking to build up a picture of considered analytical thought based around the research you have done and the Literature you gathered and the models or frameworks you are engaging with, applying or testing, with referencing bringing added weight to your argument and avoiding the possibility of plagiarism. Make sure you refer back to your literature review. Make sure you review back to how you said you would analyse your data in your methods section. Make sure you move beyond description to analysis whereby you create insights from your data. Conclusion (300-500 words) [Type text] This cannot be a simple look at what you have done and nothing else. The best approach to adopt is to take the initial project objectives/research question and review it/them. To what extent did you answer the question you set yourself. Consider • how your work adds to the knowledge reviewed in your literature section • what limitations there are in your work and how they could be worked upon by further research • any reflections you have on what you have learnt from what it takes to create new knowledge that is certain enough to be useful to someone in business Again you don’t have to be just positive. If you could have done something better, then state why it wasn’t possible for you this time, but what you have learnt from the experience. This is perfectly reasonable. Also though if you do think you achieved what you initially intended to do then state why you think this is the case.