ENGLISH RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 1
TRUONG VAN ANH
SAIGON UNIVERSITY
Chapter 1: All at sea but learning to swim
Introduction
- This book focuses on: 1/ the processes of research; 2/ research methods.
- Research is a kind of spiral through which you revisit the various stages of the process, but always with different and developed insights.
- The book is designed to be suitable for those undertaking research in the social sciences: education, business studies, health and social care.


The first time researcher
The first time researcher  A real researcher
Gaps
Worried Great success
Four issues should be considered:
1 You already possess some of the main elements that will contribute to your successfully completing your research. When things get tough, don’t forget this.
2 In terms of skills and knowledge, you have some learning needs that need addressing in either the short or the long term.
3 You have resource needs that need addressing.
4 There are some areas of skill, knowledge and resources that you are unsure or unclear about and, in consequence, need to explore further.
At this point you should consider creating a Personal Development Plan.
Some potential sources of help (you may get at university)
• Your supervisor
• Your fellow students
• University or college services (counselling, information technology, careers, library)
• Specialist departments (e.g. computing, English language support)
• Student union
• Those who have undertaken similar research projects recently
• Family and friends
• Lecturers from previous courses of study.
• The reference books
Getting a flavor of possibilities
Conducting some research, we should follow:
There are at least four common viewpoints for conveying and understanding the various processes of research:
• Research is often presented as a fixed, linear series of stages, with a clear start and end. This is the most common view, and reflects the way in which research is normally written up.
• There are also somewhat more complicated representations of this linear view that allow for slightly different routes to be taken through the process at particular stages.
• Another common representation portrays research as a circular process, analogous to the more general process of learning.
• There are also variants, often associated with action research, that see the research process as cyclical. The process is shown as going through a number of cycles to come to success.
Why am I doing this research?
Researchers are initially motivated by hopes that their work will change the world in some, albeit probably small, way.
3 questions may be asked:
• What are the personal rewards from completing this study?
• What kinds of satisfaction will you experience once the last word is written on the last page?
• How will the knowledge you produce contribute to furthering understandings or changing lives?




You might seek motivation in one of the following ways:
• By changing your research project to something you are more interested in.
• By focusing on the skills you will develop through undertaking the research.
• By incorporating within the research some knowledge acquisition of relevance to you.
• By seeing the research project as part of a larger activity, which will have knock-on benefits for your work, your career, your social life or your life in general.
• By finding someone who will support you and push you through until you finish.
• By promising yourself a reward when it is successfully completed.

Will I have anything new to say?
Is what you are researching new?
What you are researching should be originality.
The research is ‘an original project’, ‘making a contribution to the field’ or ‘evidence of original thinking’.
Here you will find fifteen definitions of originality, collected together by others.
1 Setting down a major piece of new information in writing for the first time.
2 Continuing a previously original piece of work.
3 Carrying out original work designed by the supervisor.
4 Providing a single original technique, observation or result in an otherwise unoriginal but competent piece of research.
5 Having many original ideas, methods and interpretations all performed by others under the direction of the postgraduate.



6 Showing originality in testing somebody else’s idea.
7 Carrying out empirical work that hasn’t been done before.
8 Making a synthesis that hasn’t been made before.
9 Using already known material but with a new interpretation.
10 Trying out something in this country that has previously only been done in other countries.
11 Taking a particular technique and applying it in a new area.
12 Bringing new evidence to bear on an old issue.
13 Being cross-disciplinary and using different methodologies.
14 Looking at areas that people in the discipline haven’t looked at before.
15 Adding to knowledge in a way that hasn’t been done before.
(Source: Phillip and Bugh 2005:62; also Francis1976)


In whose interests is this research?
Perspective  truth
Doing research is, therefore, about producing something that is ‘good enough’ rather than providing the final word of truth on a particular topic.
Their passion does not take the form of dogma or an uncritical acceptance of the views of research participants. Rather, researchers need to maintain their levels of critical reflection, and so ensure their research is conducted in as open and transparent a way as possible in terms of its intentions, methodology, analysis and findings.
Two main points:
+ Your research must be useful/profitable, not theoretical/
dogmatic.
+ It must be conducted in as an open and transparent way.


At last, writing up
Having collected the data, you may begin your writing the research, following the right format (considering the rules, regulations and expectations of the various audiences/readers for your research early on).
Your need, as a researcher, to be aware of the context in which you are researching. This manifests itself in rules, whether written or unwritten. You need to be aware of these rules and to follow them if you wish to succeed.

Exercises
1.1 What skills, resources and knowledge do you already have? Identify as many of the following as you can that have contributed to your success in academic work in the past: skills (e.g. information technology, reading, writing, managing time); resources (e.g. time, money, support networks); knowledge (e.g. subject knowledge, research knowledge, knowledge of systems, processes); your personality/temperament.
1.2 Expanding on past successes. Using the list of skills, resources and knowledge that you have produced in Exercise 1.1, identify those areas: that you know are adequate for your current needs; that you know need developing for your future needs; or where you are unsure whether you have a high enough level of a particular skill, resource or knowledge.
1.3 My Personal Development Plan. To produce a Personal Development Plan, you should enter at least one item under each of the following three
headings:
Identified learning need
How will I achieve this need?
What is my timescale?
Review your plan periodically as your research progresses.
1.4 Reasons for undertaking research. List your reasons for your current or anticipated involvement in research. List as many as you can think of.
1.5 The context of your research. Imagine you are doing research on experiences of training at work, whether within your own company or another.
Would your findings be different if you approached your interviewees through: the managing director, the personnel manager, the shop stewards’ committee, the unemployment centre? How might they differ?
How might this affect your conclusions? What if you had to write a report of your conclusions for each of these audiences? You can think about this as an exercise in finding out what is safe and what is risky in terms of expectations, theory, styles of writing, etc.
As a student, you should consider the following issues: What you research can affect the way you or your friends study; Who can get the benefits; etc.






Good luck!