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Understand the process of postgraduate research
Understand the unique research degree process - it is not the same as a clearly structured course. It is a journey that will require substantial sustained effort and commitment. Appreciating the nature of the requirement in advance will help you manage the project and structure your energies.
Postgraduate candidature involves two major stages:
The familiarisation stage
- familiarise yourself with past literature and theoretical frameworks,
- recognise a 'niche' for your particular research interests
- prepare and submit a research proposal
The research
- the preparation of research instruments which are trialled and modified where appropriate
- identifying sources of data, contacting stakeholders at the research site
- collecting data by recording interviews, distributing questionnaires, reading documents, or testing subjects, performing experiments, etc;
- collating, transcribing, coding, analysing and interpreting the data
Writing is a process that starts at the familiarization stage, continues through the research phase and then becomes your major activity.
Through writing you will:
- explain the background to the research
- demonstrate knowledge of relevant literature
- explain methodology
- formulate data is into visual tables, graphs, histograms or descriptions and integrate case studies into the whole text
- show how your findings answer / do not answer the research questions
- show how your findings answer / do not answer the research questions
- explain any limitations of the research
- discuss how your research agrees or why it does not agree with previous research in the field
- demonstrate how your research contributes uniquely to the field
- produce a scholarly piece of writing which contributes to the field of research.
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