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Theme 2.2

Starting the

research process

Many students look forward to their

independent study or dissertation because it

gives them an opportunity to delve deeper into

an area of interest that they have identified.

Many courses require students to start with

an introduction to research methods, which

can sometimes feel like a ‘necessary evil’, as

something you have to do before you can

start making progress with your own study.

Universities have protocols to ensure that

research is done in a robust way, can stand up

to scrutiny and is carried out ethically. These

protocols often include the following:

• Sessions – either taught or made available

on the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) –

on the whole research process. These help

you to understand key theory. You will also

cover other key aspects such as research

ethics, confidentiality, gaining informed

consent and subjectivity.

• Preparing a research proposal. This is an

outline of what you are hoping to do,

including your proposed research

questions, the areas of literature that you

will draw upon, some detail regarding how

you intend to carry out the research and

how you will deal with any ethical issues

that could arise. Sometimes your proposal

is submitted as a piece of assessed work.

• Submitting your proposal to an ethics

review panel. Following the panel meeting,

tutors and/or supervisors will offer

feedback and give guidance on anything

that needs to be amended. At this point you

may be asked to submit some revisions

to your proposal before going ahead

with your research, particularly if there

are any ethical issues that are apparent. It

will be important to address these carefully

and quickly, so you don’t lose important

time for carrying out your research project.

All of these steps are important in preparing

you for the research process and will help

you to carry out your research confidently

and well. It is good to remember that your

research proposal is a working document, one

that you can re-visit as your study progresses.

As such, it is worth keeping it to hand, so

that you can refer to it easily and quickly.

This could mean having a copy of it on your

desktop, and on your phone or tablet. Don’t be

afraid to write notes on it during your study, as

these could act as important reminders during

the writing-up phase.