Transcript Independent Studies Resource 6: Writing Up

Independent Studies
Resource 6: Writing Up
Dr Jill Hanson
N509
[email protected]
Writing Up
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A quick run through of the structure and
content of the thesis with some additional tips
on how to present it…
Thesis Structure
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Front pages
Introduction and rationale
Aims and Objectives
Literature Review
Methodology
Analysis (results AND discussion of results)
Conclusion
Recommendations
References
Appendices
Front pages of the thesis
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6.
7.
Your thesis should include:
Title page (see handbook for sample)
Executive Summary/Abstract
Acknowledgements (to those who contributed to
the production of the thesis e.g.
organisation/supervisor)
Contents Page
List of Tables
List of Figures
List of Appendices
Writing Convention
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Your thesis should be written in the 3rd
person (except perhaps for the
acknowledgements)
“This research examined…”
“The method adopted was”
And not “I did….”
It’s a story
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Your thesis should tell a story (but in the 3rd person)
It should have a central theme or message that it is
trying to sell
It should have a beginning, a middle and an end
(with signposts at the end of each chapter to
navigate the reader to the next)
Every single sentence in the thesis should be
directly relevant to the main theme or message
Executive Summary/Abstract
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Write in past tense
ONE side of A4 (approximately 200 words)
A CONCISE summary of the following (one or two
sentences on each):
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Rationale and aim of programme of study
Methodology
Findings of Analysis
Interpretation of those findings
Conclusions and recommendations
Written in clear paragraphs, no bullet points
Introduction
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The purpose/structure:
 To provide a general introduction to the area of research and the
theoretical background
 Introduce the organisational context/background
 Define key terms.
 To provide a clear rationale for why the research was required
(this should draw from both theoretical/research limitations in the
literature and from the organisational context)
Length:
 Approximately 2 sides of A4
Is followed by the Aim of the research and the explicit objectives.
These should flow clearly from the rationale you have provided.
You do NOT need research questions
Literature Review
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Purpose:
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To provide a systematic critical evaluation of the
research and literature that is DIRECTLY
RELEVANT TO YOUR OBJECTIVES
It is NOT an essay that describes every thing you
have ever read about the vague subject you are
looking at
Literature Review 2
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Structure may vary depending on what you are looking at and whether one of your
objectives will be met within the review
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Start with a paragraph or two that introduces the reader to the area of research
Quickly move onto discussing key theoretical frameworks relevant to your topic area.
Describe them concisely AND THEN EVALUATE each.
This discussion should provide a clear rationale for the specific framework(s) YOU are
using.
You should make it clear why you have chosen particular frameworks by discussing their
strengths and relevance. But you must also demonstrate you are aware of weaknesses
AND be clear about how you have dealt with those/why they are not too important
A key component of a literature review is to critically review RESEARCH and literature
that is directly relevant to each of your objectives in turn. You need to describe and
evaluate what has been done by other people so as to provide a context for your study
and findings (in the discussion section you will go on to talk about what you have found in
relation to these other studies).
There is a temptation to describe what has been written in text books. DO NOT!
DO place more emphasis on RESEARCH (what did they do, what did they
find, what did they conclude, what were the limitations of that research?)
The key is to evaluate throughout. Question what others have written and be
sure to point out the limitations of the research you discuss.
You can assume that the markers have a certain level of knowledge so you
don’t have to go into basics. However, you must not make statements or
present points WITHOUT evidence. ALWAYS provide evidence (in the form of
research findings along with a correct citation)
Methodology
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Purpose:
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To provide readers with a clear, concise description of what
you did so that the study can be replicated by someone
else
To provide a sound rationale for WHY the study was
designed and conducted the way it was
To demonstrate you have built in as much reliability and
validity to the design and methods as possible.
It is NOT to describe every research method known to man
or to witter on about research onions. Focus on what YOU
did and why.
But remember to write in the 3rd person AND in the past
tense
Methodology 2
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Structure is a series of subsections in the
following order:
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6.
Research Philosophy
Research Design/Strategy
Methods (data collection)
Participants
Procedure (might include pilot studies you
conducted)
Ethical considerations
Research Philosophy
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One or two paragraphs outlining:
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whether you took a positivist approach or a
phenomenological approach and WHY you
decided on that approach
DO NOT witter on and on about all the options
available. Simply state what philosophy was
adopted and why (sometimes it is appropriate to
point out you did not choose another option
because …..)
Research Design/Strategy
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Briefly state the overall research design
e.g.
 Case study / experiment/ quasi-experiment / survey etc
 Cross-sectional/longitudinal
 Exploratory/explanatory
And remember to explain WHY the study was designed in that
way
Again, do not waste your time going on at length about all the
other options available. Briefly state what YOU did and why you
did that as opposed to something else
Remember this all has to be written in the 3rd person
Methods 1
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Written in past tense and third person
What data collection methods did you use and why?
Make sure you concisely state how data to answer each
objective was collected if different objectives required different
data collection methods
You must be clear about how each variable was assessed since
constructs like psychological contract, well being and
commitment would all require different questionnaires – which
scales were selected and why?
Append Interview transcripts and questionnaires and refer to
them in the text (e.g. See Appendix 1)
Methods 2
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Questionnaires:
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Be sure to state where your questionnaire was derived
from and why you used that particular scale. Or, how it
was constructed – where have all the items come from?
Why did you use those items and not some from another
questionnaire? What reliability and validity figures does it
have? Did you pilot it and what did you find? Provide
examples of the questions asked and describe the
response scales.
Interview schedules:
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State whether it was structured/semistructured/unstructured (and why)
How it was constructed (e.g. based on focus group/other
research etc)
Participants
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Who? (and why?)
How many?
Gender breakdowns?
Age breakdowns?
Job breakdowns?
How sampled (and why)?
Procedure
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If your study was complicated or included
waves of data collection then it is useful to
briefly describe the order in which things
were done.
Most commonly seen in experiment write ups
but sometimes necessary in other research
Ethics
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What did you do to ensure that ethical
considerations were met?
E.g.
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briefing letter
Letter of consent
Results/Findings/Analysis
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Begin with a paragraph that details what kind
of data was collected and what you then did
to it (e.g. quantitative data was collected and
inputted to SPSS).
Then structure the rest of this section BY
OBJECTIVE.
Look at each objective in turn and then have
a concluding paragraph that sums up how
each objective has been answered
Presenting Findings For an Objective – Quantitative
data
State the objective and what analyses you have conducted in order to answer it
i.e. state what the remaining sub section is going to include
2.
Describe what the raw data looked like (e.g. likert scale data 1 to 5)
3.
Describe what you did to the data (e.g. transformations such as summing items,
what the scores could range from, what low/high scores meant etc)
4.
Discuss the results of the descriptive statistics (mean/mode/median; SD; kurtosis
and skewness if relevant; frequencies) and produce graphs and tables to illustrate
WHAT YOU WRITE in the text.
5.
State what inferential tests you ran. Describe the variables used within the
analyses
6.
State what the results of the test were using the proper scientific notation and
stating clearly what the test found. Use descriptive data to help illustrate.
e.g. an independent samples t-test was run to compare male and female IQ scores. The
test showed that mean male IQ was 116 (SD= 1.67) and mean female IQ was
123 (SD = 2.12) and that this difference was not significant t (357) = 1.023, p
>.05.
7. Then be clear to state HOW this analysis actually answers your objective
e.g. To answer the objective then it appears that there are no differences between
males and females in IQ suggesting that differences in performance between the
groups is in fact due to some other measure.
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Graphs and Tables
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Must have a Table number or Figure number (for
graphs and diagrams). Usually a chapter number
followed by a full stop followed by the number that
table comes in that chapter e.g. 3.4.
Must also have a title
Must be clearly referred to in the text where you
succinctly state what the table or graph shows
ARE NOT AN ANALYSIS IN THEMSELVES
Pie charts suck.
Use the same table layout for every table you use in
the whole dissertation
Figure 1.2. Scatterplot of Husband’s and Wife’s Age
Table 1.1. Mean IQ Scores and SD’s for Males versus Females
Gender
Mean IQ Score
SD
Male
116
2.56
Female
119
3.12
Presenting Findings For
Qualitatitive Analysis
More or less the same but sometimes analysis for qualitative
data is presented by theme. If you take this approach YOU
must be able to write in such a way that you link it all back to
objectives.
Easier to:
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State the objective
State what form the data was, where it came from, how it was
gathered and what particular form of qualitative analysis has been
conducted (AND WHY).
Describe how the analyses will be presented.
Present the analyses, making sure that you have ample evidence
for the themes you claim to have found
Make sure you sum up with a paragraph that clearly states how
your analysis actually answers the objective.
Results/Findings/Analysis
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Unless you are highly skilled at writing and are therefore
presenting by themes, the key thing you must do is
analyse by objective and make sure that you have a
clear statement at the end of each analysis that
ANSWERS THE OBJECTIVE
Under no circumstances should you analyse your data
by item (from the questionnaire) or by question (from the
interview). This does not answer the objective and is
very difficult to follow.
STRUCTURE BY OBJECTIVE (or by theme if you are
doing qualitative analysis and have the skills to link
your analysis back to the objectives at the end)
Discussing Your Findings
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With pure quantitative data this is traditionally
done in a separate chapter to the
analysis/results
With qualitative data this is traditionally done
in the same chapter.
Either way it should be structured by
objective
With a General Discussion at the end
So what do you discuss?
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How did the findings answer the objective? Can you
explain why you found what you found? (using theory,
organisational context or using quirks of your research
design?)
How do your findings relate to the theoretical
framework(s) in place? (do they support or negate the
theory?)
How do your findings compare to other research
studies which have looked at similar things? (same?
Different? If so why?). How do they add to the
literature?
What do your findings mean within the organisational
context?
What might your findings mean in the grander scheme
of things?
The general discussion
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Pulling together all your findings into a coherent
whole with some sort of explanation that is
grounded in theory or how you designed your
research.
Linking to other theories/across subject matter
Implications for theory, research, organisational
context
Discussing limitations and where future research
might go.
Practical applications
Conclusions
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Summing up of what was found and why
Restatement of aim of research and how that
has been met
Restatement of answers to each objective
What do you conclude
(Don’t bring in new material at this point)
Should lead to what you are going to
recommend in the next section
Recommendations
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MUST be based on theory and your research
findings
Must flow sensibly
Must be viable and resource specific
References
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Presented using the Harvard format (i.e. in
alphabetical order by Author surname)
Should contain EVERY citation from the text,
presented in ONE section and not split into
books/journals/websites etc
Do not use the abbreviation et al within the
reference section – list every author.
You might also include a bibliography (a list of all the
other sources from which you drew from but did not
necessarily use directly)
Appendices
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Should definitely include data collection methods
(e.g. your questionnaire) and should include a
sample briefing/consent letter
Consult with your supervisor as to whether they
want to see transcripts or completed questionnaires.
Some do, I don’t (unless I think you have made
them up).
Might include some additional statistical output if
relevant
Might include diagrammatic representation of
thematic analyses