Research and evaluation for busy practitioners

Information for students

Welcome to the student section of the companion website for Research and evaluation for busy practitioners

Please use the menu on the left to navigate your way through the student resources for Research and evaluation for busy practitioners.

There is help for you if you are studying research methods. There is a section on writing for research, including an early draft of part of the book for comparison. There is a page on the point of networking and how to go about it. There are also links to online resources which you may find useful.
Studying research methods

The idea of studying research methods may seem odd. Research methods are designed to help us study other things, so why study the methods themselves? The answer is: the more we know about and understand the methods we use to conduct research, the more confidently we can rely on the findings of that research.

The multi-layered nature of research methods is partly what makes it such a fascinating subject to study. Research methods link theory and practice in two separate ways: the theory of method with the practice of method, and the theory of the topic under investigation with its practice. It can be argued, therefore, that the study of research methods requires more awareness of theory and practice than the study of other subjects.

As well as having several layers, research methods is also a subject with many facets. Whether you have a penchant for maths or photography, spreadsheets or storytelling, writing or jigsaw puzzles, you will find a research method that appeals to you. Of course you will also need to study the parts you don’t find so attractive … which is where our book comes in, to offer help and advice, tips and guidance.

Good luck — and enjoy!

Networking

When you start doing research, your horizons can shrink to form very small boundaries around your work. Academic research is designed to fill tiny gaps in knowledge. There may be lots of people in your department, and of course it’s worth talking to them about your plans and ideas, and listening to theirs, for mutual support and learning. But it’s likely that none of them will share your specific area of interest. So how do you find the people who are interested in the same small part of our world as you? Usually online.

You’ll know from the book about research-specific social networks such as Zotero and Menderley, but more general social networks, such as LinkedIn and Twitter, are also very useful for finding researchers with similar interests. The most useful part of LinkedIn is the groups. At the time of writing, these include: Qualitative Research Using Social Media, NVivo Users Group, and Frontiers in Quant Research. There are many, many more. You can search the groups on LinkedIn, and once you join a couple, LinkedIn will suggest more for you. You can also create your own group if you wish. Membership of, and active participation in, a group, will put you in touch with others in your field, and enable you to ask questions and form relationships.

Another arena which offers lots of scope for this is Twitter. Your lecturers or supervisors may well be on Twitter and, if so, you can learn a lot by following them and finding out what they’re interested in. Look for people whose work you read and like, and follow them too. Check out relevant hashtags – words preceded by the hash symbol, used to help people identify tweets on a particular theme – such as #research or #dissertation or #[your subject]. These will help you to find others with similar interests, even if they’re on the other side of the world.

Writing for research

For many people, writing is the hardest part of research, yet writing skills are rarely taught on research methods courses. One of the things students are often very reluctant to do is the drafting, editing and polishing required to create a truly excellent essay, dissertation or thesis. For sure, this can be tedious at times, even exhausting, but it’s also essential.

We thought it might help to show a very early draft of part of the book, so you can compare it with the finished product. You can download a pdf of the author’s first few pages of work on Chapter 9, about writing. It’s interesting to see that some parts made it into the chapter unchanged, while some didn’t make it in at all. But most of these early thoughts did get into the book, albeit edited or moved around to fit — and sometimes moved into completely different chapters.
Online resources for students

Many universities have student blogs on their websites, which are worth reading for discussion of current issues.

This is an excellent guide to writing essays and dissertations, and to study skills: http://www.rlf.org.uk/fellowshipscheme/writing/index.cfm

For all things PhD-related, I would recommend The Thesis Whisperer.

And for advice about managing life after your thesis: http://www.katherinelwheat.com/lifeafterthesis/top-10-post-phd-resources/

If there are any essential resources we’ve left out, please let the publisher or the author know.