The Dissertation: A Guide for Social Sciences

This book is intended for students who are new to research and those who are yet to build their confidence in carrying out research. Of particular interest are those for whom a dissertation, or a research task in general, forms part of their assessment task at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Therefore, it gives a deliberate, easy to follow step by step guide to the research process from the research proposal to the dissertation write-up. In this respect, the book covers the core elements of what should be included in dissertation for it to meet assessment requirements and how this could be done. The book also covers key activities of research, including doing a literature review, instrument design, data collection, data analysis and drawing up implications of results. To aid understanding, there is also a useful quick-access glossary of key research terms. In summary, the core content of this book is: INTRODUCTION TO THE DISSERTATION; THE RESEARCH PROCESS; THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL; REVIEWING THE LITERATURE; DATA COLLECTION METHODS AND METHODOLOGIES; VALIDITY, RELIABILITY and QUALITATIVE CRITERIA; ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS; DATA ANALYSIS METHODS AND METHODOLOGIES; DISCUSSING FINDINGS AND USING EVIDENCE; IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE, RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH AND CONCLUSIONS and THE ABSTRACT and APPENDICES.