Researcher's Toolbox PDF

The Researcher’s Toolkit
This book presents a fresh, jargon-free guide to small scale research

for the beginner. The Researcher’s Toolkit assumes no prior know-
ledge, and is packed with worked examples and useful tips to aid
understanding and enable readers to apply the basic principles of
research. Written by an experienced team of practising researchers,
it covers the entire research process including: designing and framing
research questions; reviewing research literature; planning research;
developing a research strategy; using research instruments; analysing
data and reporting the research.
This book covers statistical analysis of data and the access to
and use of sensitive data. The Researcher’s Toolkit demystifies and
clearly explains the practical relevance of theory. As a guide it will
appeal to a broad range of readers from undergraduates to work-
based researchers, particularly those involved in teacher training,
education, social work, nursing, criminal justice and community
work.
Dr David Wilkinson is Research Fellow within the Higher Education

Policy Unit at the University of Leeds. He has been a researcher
for a number of years, and previously worked with the National
Foundation for Educational Research, the University of Cambridge
and City University, London.
The Contributors: Margaret Scanlon, Peter Birmingham, Dianne

Hinds, Lesley Gray, Christine Gough, Jane Lovey.
The
Researcher’s
Toolkit
The Complete Guide
◆ to Practitioner Research
Edited by
David Wilkinson
First published 2000 by form or by any electronic,
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© 2000 David Wilkinson for in Publication Data
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individual contributors, their has been requested
contribution
ISBN 0–415–21566–8 (Print Edition)
All rights reserved. No part of ISBN 0-203-18512-9 Master e-book ISBN
this book may be reprinted or ISBN 0-203-18527-7 (Glassbook Format)
reproduced or utilised in any
This book is dedicated to the memory of Margaret (Dolly) Tranter.
Contents
Contents
List of figures xi
List of contributors xiii
Foreword xv
1 Issues in research 1
MARGARET SCANLON
Research: what’s it got to do with me? 1

What is the purpose of research? 2
What is the nature of social research? 6
Stages in the research 9
Some preliminary considerations 10
Conclusion 12
References and further reading 12
2 Planning the research 15

DAVID WILKINSON
The importance of planning 15

Framing your questions 16
Commissioned research 18
Exploring the literature 19
Developing a strategy 19
Collecting and analysing data 21
Drawing conclusions 21
Writing and submitting your report 23
CONTENTS
3 Reviewing the literature 25

PETER BIRMINGHAM
The purpose of carrying out a literature review 25

Locating the literature 29
Selecting appropriate literature and maintaining
literature notes 31
Aggregating literature material 33
Critically analysing the literature 33
Example of a literature review 36
4 Research instruments 41
DIANNE HINDS
Introduction 41
Questionnaires 42
One-to-one interviews 47
Focus group interviews 49
Ethnography 50
Diaries 51
Content analysis 53
Using computers with research instruments 54
5 Finding and locating information 55

LESLEY GRAY
Introduction 55
Where to start 57
Locating information and information resources 58
A literature search strategy 71
Note-taking 74
Referencing 74
6 Analysing data 77
DAVID WILKINSON
Introduction 77
Classifying data 78
Qualitative data 79
viii
CONTENTS
The coding frame 79

Quantitative data 81
Descriptive analysis 81
Inferential analysis 94
Reporting the analysis of data 95
7 Completing the research project 97

CHRISTINE GOUGH
The process of writing-up 97

Motivation 98
Organising 100
Time management 101
Targeting your audience 103
Style of the report 105
Structure of the report 106
References 108
Obtaining and acting on feedback 110
Submission and publication 112
8 Researching in schools: case studies

based on three research projects 117
JANE LOVEY
Introduction: the case studies 117

Developing workable research proposals 118
The school year 121
Recruiting the schools 122
Working with the schools 125
Confidentiality 127
Rewarding the schools 128
Dissemination of findings 129
Conclusion 130
Index 133
ix
Figures
Figures
2.1 Example of a research proposal 17

2.2 Example research plan 20
2.3 Example plan of a questionnaire survey 22
4.1 Example of an open question 45
4.2 Examples of closed questions 45
5.1 Example framework for a search 72
6.1 Number of admissions to Paperfield Hospital 82
6.2 Number of admissions to Paperfield Hospital by gender 82
6.3 Number of admissions to Paperfield Hospital (1997) 83
6.4 Number of admissions to Paperfield Hospital (1998) 83
6.5 Age of women admitted to Department A in 1997 84
6.6 Tally chart of ages: women admitted to Department A 85
6.7 Grouping of ages: women admitted to Department A 85
6.8 Frequency distribution graph: women admitted to
Department A 87
6.9 Graph of exam results 88
6.10 Graph of exam results showing standard deviation 90
6.11 Example of positive correlation 91
6.12 Example of negative correlation 91
6.13 Example of no correlation 92
Contributors
List of contributors
Peter Birmingham is at the Department of Educational Studies,

University of Oxford. He has been a contract researcher for a
number of years and has worked with colleagues at Loughborough
University and the National Foundation for Educational Research
(NFER). Peter is currently exploring the use of Information and
Communications Technology (ICT) in learning environments, which
is part of a major project sponsored by Intel.
Christine Gough is a researcher at the Policy Research Institute at

Leeds Metropolitan University. She is experienced in a wide range
of approaches to research and is currently engaged in local
government policy research.
Lesley Gray is with the University of Cambridge Library. She has

assisted many research projects in finding and accessing information
on a wide range of subjects.
Dianne Hinds is currently working with the Institute of Health and

Community Studies at Bournemouth University exploring issues
related to teaching and learning in the medical professions. She has
been a freelance consultant for a number of years.
Jane Lovey is a researcher at the School of Education, University of

Cambridge. She has worked on a number of education-related
projects and is currently the head researcher on an ESCR project
examining pupils with attention and activity problems.
CONTRIBUTORS
Margaret Scanlon is currently a researcher at the University of

London. She has had a number of years experience working on
education-related projects at the Institute of Education, University of
London and the National Foundation for Educational Research
(NFER). She has been involved with national projects and has
worked for a variety of sponsors including the Local Government
Association, the Department for Education and Employment and
the Teacher Training Agency.
Dr David Wilkinson is Research Fellow at the Higher Education

Policy Unit of the University of Leeds.
xiv
F o r ew o r d
Foreword
Research is not an activity particular to one discipline. My own

background is broadly in the educational field, but I hope it is
informed and enhanced by my own beliefs and experiences. Drawing
on this facilitates a move away from the traditional image of all, or
most, research texts being written by educationalists. What is an
educationalist anyway? If it is someone who professes to know all
about education, how education works, can string long words
together in a sentence and talk about the essence of research – then
that’s not me and I’m definitely not an educationalist. What I tend
to do is return to the question of the research – what is it for and
what are you trying to do or find out?
The brief of this book is to be user-friendly and avoid jargon.
It is not intended for academics who can quiz and argue with
everything we write (or critically evaluate, as they like to call it). It
is written for those new to research who need a quick fix on methods
to use to help get them on their way. There should be no mystery
about research; it’s just like any other job really. If you’re a nurse,
for example, and a patient’s blood pressure has dropped, you
examine why this might be. It could be because the patient’s diet
is unsuitable, but you won’t find that out unless you look into
the situation and examine various data; you’re already a researcher.
Do you feel special now? It never ceases to amaze me how differently
people treat you when you tell them you’re a researcher. You appear
to have special powers over everyone else; what you say, the know-
ledge you have is immense. I can barely recognise myself sometimes!
xv
FOREWORD
I am grateful to the contributors of this text for providing a broad

and knowledgeable background to research in its many forms.
In Chapter 1 Margaret Scanlon covers the notion of research and
its development over recent years. Chapter 2 outlines the planning
processes crucial for the smooth running of a research project. In
Chapter 3, Peter Birmingham provides an informative and useful guide
to the literature review process.
Chapter 4, by Di Hinds, details the many research instruments
that are available to facilitate the collection of data. Lesley Gray covers
accessing the vast amount of data that is available through libraries in
Chapter 5.
Analysing the data you have collected is covered in Chapter 6
where the different types of data are discussed and the methods used
to analyse them are presented. Christine Gough provides, in Chapter 7,
concise and thoughtful advice on the writing-up element of the research
project.
Finally, Jane Lovey presents the story of a number of research
projects – drawing on her considerable experience of conducting
research in schools.
David Wilkinson
xvi
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Issues in research
◆ Margaret Scanlon
This chapter covers the following:
◆ What is the purpose of research? 2

◆ What is the nature of social research? 6
◆ The differences between quantitative and
qualitative research 7
◆ Stages in the research project 9
◆ Some preliminary considerations before starting
the research 10
Research is best conceived as the process of arriving at

dependable solutions to problems through the planned and
systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of data.
It is a most important tool for advancing knowledge, for
promoting progress, and for enabling man to relate more
effectively to his environment, to accomplish his purposes, and
to resolve his conflicts
(Mouly 1978: 12)
Research: what’s it got to do with me?
Research is going on all around us, everyday. Most of us will at some

stage participate, or at least be asked to participate, in some form of
enquiry. We have all received questionnaires in the post asking about
1
MARGARET SCANLON
our preferred brand of toothpaste, chocolate or other consumer goods. A political

pollster may have approached you in the street or come to your house to find out
which party you plan to vote for in the next election. If you attended a training
course in the last few years it is quite likely that you will have been asked to fill out
an evaluation questionnaire at the end. Certain occupational or social groups are
also popular targets for researchers, for example university students.
Participating in research is normally optional, though there are some forms
of information-gathering in which we are obliged to participate, including the
census and the electoral register. Even if you have not participated in any form of
research so far, it is quite likely that you have read about project findings in the
newspapers, or seen them presented on the television news and documentary
programmes. Because of the number of projects that are carried out each year, the
media are highly selective about which ones they report. They tend to be either
topical, ‘sensational’ or relevant to the particular readership of that paper. The
Guardian, for example, is more likely to report on educational research than some
of the other national newspapers because it is seen as the newspaper of teachers
and lecturers. One of the most topical issues at the moment is the effects of
genetically modified (GM) foods. Reports on both the scientific evidence and
people’s opinions on the GM issue have appeared in the media.
Research results may also have indirect effects on our lives. Policy-makers in
central or local government may, for example, make decisions on the basis of
research findings. Each year government departments commission universities or
research organisations to carry out enquiries on their behalf. Similarly a whole
range of organisations (unions, charities, local authorities) instigate studies. Even
the organisations for whom we work may make changes on the basis of research
that they, or others, have carried out. The connection between research and policy
is explored in the following section.
What is the purpose of research?
Broadly speaking, research is carried out to fulfil one or more of the following
objectives:
● To contribute to a particular discipline (for example, psychology).

● To inform policy (for example, policy on housing, crime, education).
● To address a specific issue or problem (for example, drug taking in a local
school).
The objectives outlined above are not discrete or mutually exclusive: they usually
overlap. For example, policy research may also contribute to disciplinary
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ISSUES IN RESEARCH
knowledge. They represent different points on a continuum rather than being

completely separate. Each of these objectives is examined below. However, because
this book is aimed at practitioners, the role of research in informing practice is
explored in greater detail.
Contribution to a discipline
Research can be seen as enquiry designed to contribute to discipline-based

knowledge. Much of what we learn in school, college or university is derived from
some form of research. The social, behavioural and natural sciences, in particular,
are research-based disciplines, but all subjects rely on continuous enquiry and new
ideas. For example, some people may think that history is a given set of facts that
do not change, but it is likely that the version of history that we were taught in
school or university is quite different from the one which our grandparents were
taught. This is partly because history is continually being revised, based on new
evidence or by a re-consideration of the existing evidence. Research moves
disciplines forward and is central to the life of the university.
Research that is primarily aimed at expanding theory and knowledge in a
particular discipline is sometimes called ‘pure’ research. Pure research can be
described as the ‘disinterested search for knowledge and understanding for its own
sake’ (Robson 1993: 430). The application of findings to problem-solving in the
‘real world’ is not seen as a high priority and is usually left to others.
Unfortunately, although research may contribute to the knowledge base of
a discipline, the findings are often accessible to only a small group. Results are
usually published in academic journals that are not very user-friendly or easily
accessible to the non-expert. This is why university-based research is sometimes
referred to as ‘research by academics for academics’. Some commentators argue
that research in the social and behavioural sciences has had little influence on
practice. They suggest that practitioners (for example, psychologists, teachers,
nurses, etc.) do not read research findings, or if they do, they don’t necessarily use
them in their jobs. This apparent lack of impact of research on practice may be
exaggerated; most of what these practitioners will have learned as part of their
professional training will have been based on some form of research. However,
once they complete their formal training, practitioners do not necessarily use the
latest research to inform their practice.
3
MARGARET SCANLON
Informing policy
Research may inform policy or contribute to the debate in a particular field.

The increased funding for research in the 1960s, for example, was largely due
to the belief that research could be used to address social and economic issues
(Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 1995). However, the
optimism of the 1960s soon gave way to disillusionment in the 1970s and 1980s
when it became apparent that research had not been particularly successful in
influencing policy or making the world a better place. Looking at the field of
educational research, Hammersley concluded that government policy in the 1980s
and early 1990s had for the most part gone against the findings of educational
research (Hammersley 1993). Similarly, Adelman and Young have argued that
educational research is largely ignored or taken up within political expediencies
(Adelman and Young 1985). Clearly, research evidence alone is not enough to
instigate change – the political will also needs to be there.
Informing practice
Concerns that conventional research was not having much impact on policy or
practice led to new approaches that were seen as being more practical and relevant
to ‘real world’ situations. In the following section I will look at two forms of real
world enquiry: action research and evaluation.
ACTION RESEARCH
Action research is about diagnosing a specific problem (for example, pupil absence)
in a specific setting (a school) and attempting to solve it. The ultimate objective is
to improve practice in some way. Carr and Kemmis have described it in the
following terms:
Action research is simply a form of self-reflective enquiry undertaken by

participants in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice
of their own practices, their understanding of these practices and the
situations in which these practices are carried out.
(Carr and Kemmis 1986: 162)
Action research is usually, but not always, collaborative. Teams of

researchers and practitioners work together on a project. Alternatively, a project
can be undertaken by the practitioners themselves, without any involvement from
4
ISSUES IN RESEARCH
outside researchers. In action research, practitioners play an active role in designing

the project, collecting data and implementing change. This is quite different from
the forms of research described earlier where an outside researcher conducts a
study (in a hospital, for example) and the role of the practitioners is usually to fill
out questionnaires or participate in interviews. As McNiff has pointed out:
Action research is an alternative to the academy-based notion that, in order

to qualify as a legitimate researcher, you need to be at a university, doing
research on other people (p. xiii).
Action research can take place in a diverse range of settings, for example,
hospitals, companies, or schools. Observation and interviews are the two methods
of data collection most often associated with action research, though a whole range
of other methods, including questionnaires, tests, or documentary evidence, can
also be used. The conditions imposed on other forms of research are often relaxed
with action research; according to Cohen ‘it interprets the scientific method much
more loosely’.
Not surprisingly, action research has been criticised by those who subscribe
to a more traditional scientific approach to research. Critics say that it is too
subjective, it overlooks the need for systematic methods and lacks scientific rigour.
Findings are not generalisable; in other words, they only apply to the environment
in which the research was carried out. Therefore, people situated outside that
particular environment will not learn very much from the conduct and outcome of
a particular project. More detail on this form of research is provided in Chapter 4.
EVALUATION
An evaluation is a study carried out to assess the worth or usefulness of a particular

service, policy or other intervention. It has a distinctive purpose, and is intended
to directly inform practice or policy. Very often the evaluation will be carried out
by the service provider or policy-makers themselves, or they will commission other
researchers to carry out the work on their behalf. This form of research has
increased in recent times partly because public services have become more
accountable. Schools and hospitals, for example, are increasingly being called upon
to provide concrete evidence that they are effective and providing value for money.
As Robson has pointed out:
Accountability is now a watchword in the whole range of public services

involving people, such as education and health and social services. This
concern in the United Kingdom arises in part from political and ideological
5
MARGARET SCANLON
considerations, where it forms part of a drive to place public services within

a framework similar to that governing private profit-making businesses.
Similar moves in other parts of Europe, and particularly within the United
States, suggest a more general phenomenon.
(Robson 1993: 171)
In order to illustrate this type of research, an evaluation of summer schools set up

to improve standards of numeracy and literacy is outlined below.
Evaluation of the 1998 Summer Schools Programme
In 1997 the government instituted a programme of summer schools for 11-

year-old pupils who had not reached the standard expected of their age. This
summer school programme was expanded in 1998 to include over 500
Summer Literacy Schools; a pilot programme of 15 Summer Literacy Schools
for pupils with special educational needs; and a pilot programme of 50
Summer Numeracy Schools.
A project was undertaken by the National Foundation for Educational
Research to evaluate the success of the summer schools programme. The
evaluation had three strands. Participating children were tested at the
beginning and end of the summer school period to ascertain their progress
in literacy or numeracy. Pupils were also asked to complete a questionnaire
to judge their attitudes to their studies in literacy or numeracy at the
beginning and end of the summer school period. The third element of the
study was a qualitative investigation into the process of setting up and
monitoring targets for the summer schools.
What is the nature of social research?
Chapter 4 describes the many data collection methods used in the social sciences.
Each of these methods are different, but have certain features in common. In order
to understand the nature of data collection and analysis two broad categories have
been used to describe different approaches. These are: quantitative and qualitative
research.
6
ISSUES IN RESEARCH
Quantitative research
Surveys, tests, structured interviews, laboratory experiments and non-participant

observation are usually categorised as quantitative data collection methods. One
of the important features of quantitative research is that it is highly structured and
produces data which are amenable to statistical analysis. For example, structured
questionnaires usually ask respondents ‘to tick the appropriate box’ in order to
answer questions – respondents are not usually asked to say anything in their own
words. They simply have to agree or disagree with statements the researcher has
devised. This approach makes it easier for the researcher to quantify the data and
calculate how many people made a particular point.
The results of quantitative research are presented in the form of descriptive
or complex statistics, like tests of significance, correlation, regression analysis. As
the name suggests, quantitative research is concerned with presenting findings in a
numerical form. More detail on quantitative data analysis is provided in Chapter 6.
Qualitative research
Participant observation, unstructured interviews, or life histories are normally

regarded as qualitative research methods (Bryman 1988). The resulting data is
presented in the form of quotations or descriptions, though some basic statistics
may also be presented.
Until the 1960s, quantitative methods and analyses dominated social
research. The social sciences modelled themselves on the natural sciences, focusing
on the need for objective, quantifiable information. Much of the research
in psychology, for example, was based on an experimental design and carried
out in laboratories or similar controlled conditions. Another important aspect
of psychology research was (and still is) the use of various tests, for example,
of intelligence, personality, attitude, and academic achievement. Although
sociological research was not normally experimental in character, it used measure-
ment techniques (for example, pupils ability tests) and forms of statistical analyses
similar to those used in psychology. In the social sciences, surveys, tests and
observation were seen as objective methods of producing ‘hard’ data.
This approach to research began to be questioned and challenged during the
1960s. It was argued that the application of a ‘scientific’ quantitative approach –
in the form of surveys and experiments – failed to take into account the differences
between people and the objects of the natural sciences. In the field of sociology, for
example, ‘radicals attacked the use of natural science methods that assumed a
passive, unthinking human subject’ (Shipman 1985: 11). There were concerns that
the experimental method, in particular, was so artificial and removed from
7
MARGARET SCANLON
everyday life that the findings might not be valid; they might not represent
accurately what they claim to represent. Also, many experiments were carried out
using undergraduates rather than ‘ordinary’ people. One author criticised the
typical laboratory experiment on the basis that it was ‘a temporary collection of
late adolescent strangers given a puzzle to solve under bizarre conditions in a
limited time during their first meeting while being peered at from behind a mirror’
(Tagfel 1984: 474, cit. in Robson 1993: 8). Similarly, Edgar Stones describing
how educational research during the 1960s ‘was concerned mainly with the
development of ever more sophisticated statistical methods of measuring people’
(Stones 1985: 17). Quantitative research just seemed to lack imagination.
These criticisms of quantitative research led many researchers to adapt more
qualitative approaches. A qualitative research strategy, in which participant
observation and unstructured interviewing were the main data collection methods,
was proposed since it would allow researchers to get closer to the people they were
investigating. Qualitative research in education and the social sciences developed
during the 1960s and 1970s. Journals devoted to publishing qualitative research
began to appear, and journals that had previously published only quantitative
research started to broaden their scope (Bryman 1988: 4).
The transition from quantitative to qualitative or mixed methods was not
always smooth. It was not simply a change in research techniques: it also involved
change at a deeper level in terms of ideas about the nature and purpose of research
(Hammersley 1993). The terms ‘quantitative’ and ‘qualitative’ are, therefore, not
simply labels or categories for different research methods, but may also imply a
particular outlook or concept of the nature of enquiry:
Increasingly, the terms ‘quantitative research’ and ‘qualitative research’ came

to signify much more than ways of gathering data; they came to denote
divergent assumptions about the nature and purposes of research in the social
sciences.
(Bryman 1988: 3)
Some commentators have argued that the two approaches are basically
antagonistic and should not be combined. On the other hand, writers like Bryman
(1988) suggest that there is no reason why quantitative and qualitative methods
should be seen as mutually exclusive. Differences exist, but the two approaches can
still be used within the same investigation. There are numerous examples of how
quantitative and qualitative methods have been combined in research projects,
though one method is usually dominant. Furthermore, the distinction between
quantitative and qualitative approaches can be rather artificial and misleading as
quantitative methods, such as surveys, can produce qualitative data if open-ended
questions are included. Qualitative data can also be quantified.
8
ISSUES IN RESEARCH
So far I have looked at some of the methodological debates in research. The

final section in this chapter will look at research in practice, in particular the stages
of research and issues for consideration before you start a project.
Stages in the Research
Research is sometimes seen as consisting of the following main stages:
● Choosing a focus for the research. Obviously, before you start you need a
subject. If you work as a researcher or have been asked to carry out a specific
project as part of your job, then your focus will already have been selected
for you. One of the most challenging parts of the research may be translating
the overall theme of the research into a viable project proposal.
● Research design. The research proposal is prepared and decisions are made
regarding which methods of data collection and analysis are to be used. The
research population/sample is identified.
● Data collection. This is the stage at which you carry out the interviews, send
out the questionnaires, and so on. Not all projects involve the collection of
new data; you may be analysing data already collected by someone else. This
is called secondary data, whereas information gathered by the actual project
team is primary data.
● Data analysis. This usually takes place at the end of the project when most
or all of the data has been collected.
● Writing up the results.
In reality the stages of research are not as neatly separated as the above
description might suggest. For example, you may have got to the data collection
stage and found that some part of your original plan was unworkable or that there
were some important issues that you had not taken into consideration in your
original proposal. In which case you may have to revise some aspect of your plan.
Or, you may start to analyse some parts of the data (for example, the interviews)
while still collecting other forms of data. The researcher often has to move
backwards and forwards between different sequences. Social research is by its very
nature a messy process, as Bechhofer has pointed out: ‘The research process, then,
is not a clear cut sequence of procedures following a neat pattern, but a messy
interaction between the conceptual and empirical world, deduction and induction
occurring at the same time’ (cit. in Bryman and Burgess 1994: 2). Careful planning
is central to good research. For example, although data analysis is one of the last
stages of a project it has to be planned at the beginning.
9
MARGARET SCANLON
Some preliminary considerations
There are a number of factors that shape the way in which a project is carried out,
especially the amount of time, money and other resources (for example, computer
packages for the analysis of data) which are available. Accessibility of the research
subjects and ethical issues also need to be kept in mind.
Resources
What researchers are able to do will depend partly on the amount of money
available. Projects that are based primarily on observation and face-to-face
interviews are labour intensive, and payment to researchers in the field is likely to
be the largest, or at least one of the largest, costs. If the data has been collected
using qualitative methods, such as open-ended interviews, then the analysis can
also be very time consuming as answers will have to be coded.
Some of the main costs in survey research include: piloting the draft
questionnaires, printing, posting, inputting the results and data analysis. Computer
packages (such as SPSS – Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) are necessary
for the analysis of most types of quantitative data, unless you have a very small
sample.
Amount of time available
The time-frame in which you need to complete the research is central to

your planning. Setting realistic goals is important. One trap that researchers can
fall into is that they allow sufficient time to carry out the research and to analyse
the data, but do not allocate enough time for writing up the final report.
Unfortunately, all that hard work may come to nothing if researchers do not write
up the results and share them with others.
Accessibility of research sample
Some groups are more accessible than others. Teachers, university students, and
school pupils are some of the easier targets. The homeless, drug addicts or the super-
rich tend to be more elusive. In some cases you may need to negotiate access with
a ‘gate-keeper’ before you are able to reach the people you would like to reach. For
example, if you want to carry out research on hospital patients, you will probably
have to get the approval of the hospital management. Similarly, it is unlikely that
10
ISSUES IN RESEARCH
you will be able to interview school pupils without first obtaining permission from
the headteacher, and perhaps also from the children’s parents. Therefore, in any
one project you may have to jump several hurdles before you finally reach your
sample.
In some cases negotiating access may be difficult simply because of the
amount of time that the research subject would have to give to the project. For
example, a headteacher might be willing to fill in a short questionnaire but might
not want to participate in lengthy interviews. Guaranteeing confidentiality,
arranging visits well in advance and impressing upon people the value of the
research are all useful tactics in negotiating access.
Ethical issues
You may have noticed that television news programmes sometimes show pictures
of ‘ordinary’ people to illustrate a story they are telling. For example, it could be
people waiting for a train, leaving a football match or queuing up to see Star Wars.
But are these people aware that they are being observed? Would they object if they
knew they were being filmed? Should the camera crew have sought permission
before filming? These are the kinds of question concerning privacy and consent that
researchers need to think about. Ethical issues are, or should be, an important
consideration in the design and conduct of research.
Robson (1993: 33) has identified ten questionable practices in social research.
These are:
1 Involving people without their knowledge or consent.

2 Coercing them to participate.
3 Withholding information about the true nature of the research
4 Otherwise deceiving the participant.
5 Inducing them to commit acts diminishing their self-esteem.
6 Violating rights of self-determination (for example, in studies seeking to
promote individual change).
7 Exposing participants to physical or mental stress.
8 Invading their privacy.
9 Withholding benefits from some participants (for example, in comparison
groups).
10 Not treating participants fairly, with consideration, or with respect.
11
MARGARET SCANLON
Points to note when planning your research
Resources: For example, what finance and equipment is available?

Time available: Clarify when you need to report, and plan your time
accordingly.
Accessibility of sample: Are those you wish to speak to likely to want to
speak to you?
Ethical issues: Show an awareness for the sensitivities of your research
subjects.
Conclusion
This introductory chapter has looked at the role of research in our society.
Research can contribute to disciplinary knowledge, inform policy or address
specific problems. Some of the limitations of research were also discussed: very
few people may see the results, or policy-makers may ignore information that does
not fit their agenda.
Debates about the nature of social research were also examined. We have
seen that the scientific approach has influenced social research methods but that
in the last few decades qualitative methods have become more popular, particularly
in sociology and education.
The chapter concluded with a brief overview of the stages in a research
project and some of the factors that need to be considered before starting. It was
suggested that, whilst there are different phases in research, it is by no means a
linear process, moving smoothly from one point to the next. The inherent
messiness of research can be reduced by careful planning. The following chapters
will look in detail at the planning and conduct of practitioner research.
References and further reading
Adelman, C. and Young, M. (1985) The assumptions of educational research: the last
twenty years in Great Britain. In Shipman, M. (ed.) Educational Research: Principles,
Policies and Practices. London: Falmer Press.
Blaxter, L., Hughes, C. and Tight, M. (1996) How to Research. Buckingham: Open
University Press.
Bryman, A. (1988) Quality and Quantity in Social Research. London: Unwin Hyman.
Bryman, A. and Burgess, R. E. (eds) (1994) Analysing Qualitative Data. London:
Routledge.
12
ISSUES IN RESEARCH
Carr, W. and Kemmis, S. (1986) Becoming Critical: Education, Knowledge and Action
Research. London: Falmer Press.
Cohen, L. and Manion, L. (1980) Research Methods in Education (fourth edition). London:
Routledge.
Hammersley, M. (ed.) (1993) Educational Research: Current Issues. London: Paul
Chapman in association with the Open University.
McNiff, J. (1988) Action Research: Principles and Practice. London: Macmillan Education.
Mouly, G. J. (1978) Education Research: The Art and Science of Investigation. Boston:
Allyn and Bacon.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (1995) Educational Research
and Development: Trends, Issues, Challenges. Paris: OECD.
Robson, C. (1993) Real World Research: A Resource for Social Scientists and Practitioner-
Researchers. Oxford: Blackwell.
Sainsbury, M., Caspall, L., McDonald, A., Ravenscroft, L. and Schagen, I. (1999)
Evaluation of the 1998 Summer Schools Programme. Slough: NFER.
Scott, D. (1996) Methods and data in educational research. In D. Scott and R. Usher (eds)
Understanding Educational Research. London: Routledge.
Shipman, M. (1985) Developments in educational research. In Shipman, M. (ed.)
Educational Research: Principles, Policies and Practices. London: Falmer Press.
Stones, E. (1985) The development of the British Educational Research Association: a
personal view. In Shipman, M. (ed.) Educational Research: Principles, Policies and
Practices. London: Falmer Press.
13
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Planning the research
◆ David Wilkinson
◆ Key steps in planning your research 15

◆ Questions and issues to be addressed 16
◆ The research proposal 17
◆ Commissioned research 18
◆ Initial exploration of the literature 19
◆ Developing a strategy 19
◆ The research plan 20
◆ Collecting and analysing data 21
◆ Drawing conclusions 21
◆ Writing and submitting your report 23
The importance of planning
This brief chapter outlines the importance of planning your research

carefully. Subsequent chapters provide guidance on the elements of
the research process. Here advice is given on how to timetable and
plan these elements effectively.
Depending on the scope or subject matter of your research
there are a number of stages involved. Essentially these include:
• Framing your questions.

• Exploring the literature.
15
DAVID WILKINSON
● Developing a strategy.
● Collecting data.
● Analysing data.
● Drawing conclusions.
● Writing/submitting your report.
Framing your questions
Most research begins with a research question or topic. In some cases, such as a
personal piece of work, you may decide on your own questions; in others, they may
be given to you. In either case, with any topic or focus it may be useful to ask
yourself certain questions or cover issues that clarify in your own mind the extent
of your investigations.
Key questions/issues
◆ Define what you want to find out.

◆ Explain why you wish to research this topic or area.
◆ Establish why it is important for this research to be carried out (for
example is the literature weak in this area? Would it be useful for
practitioners to read and apply the result of your work?)
◆ What data/information exists relating to similar studies elsewhere?
This clarifying process should enable you to develop and frame the questions
you’d like to set out to answer in your research. Initially you will, no doubt, have
generated many questions. Some of these will be related, so you should aim to
limit the questions tackled in your research to a few which are clearly formulated
and distinctive. Many research projects fail due to the sheer number of questions
posed and the lack of clarity they display.
Following refinement and further consideration of your research questions,
you should be able to develop a written research proposal (see Figure 2.1). This
document sets out the scope of your research. It details the questions you intend
to answer and the tools or techniques you propose to use. It should also indicate
the timescale of the project and the resources it will use. This is particularly
important for commissioned research, where costs are often a crucial factor.
16
PLANNING THE RESEARCH
FIGURE 2.1 Example of a research proposal
A proposal to evaluate the new bus service for

Penhope Community
Background In 1999, Parfield District Council funded a pilot bus service for the
community of Penhope. The aim of the service was to enable the community of
Penhope to maintain links with the wider community of Parfield. This year,
Parfield Council has decided to increase the service to four buses per day.
Aim The aim of the proposed research would be to evaluate how far the service
has been successful in facilitating links between the rural community of Penhope
and the community of Parfield.
Evaluation methods There would be two strands to the evaluation. A report

combining the strands would be submitted to the Council upon completion of the
work.
Strand I – Council perspective Key personnel in Parfield District Council would be

contacted and their views on the bus service sought. The following information
would be collected through semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis:
• Information and views on the development of the public transport system in

Parfield generally and Penhope in particular;
• Perceived external influences of the development of that system; and
• The reason(s) for developing the transport link between Parfield and the
community of Penhope.
Strand II – Community perspective A questionnaire survey would be developed and

completed by those who use the bus service. It would be administered on the bus
itself and the respondents would be offered the opportunity to complete it whilst
taking their journey, or they could return it some time later (using a prepaid
envelope) to the researcher. Approximately 50 questionnaires would be
administered. Key question areas would be:
• Views on the cost of the journey;

• Views on the length of the journey; and
• Views on the frequency of the journey.
(continued)
17
DAVID WILKINSON
FIGURE 2.1 continued
In addition, views would be sought on activities undertaken by the passengers

when they reached their destination.
Timeplan The work would begin immediately and would take approximately
10 weeks to complete.
Costings
Strand I
Collecting data (6 researcher days at £180 per day)
Analysing data (3 researcher days at £180 per day)
Report writing (2 researcher days at £180 per day)
Travel/subsistence/administrative costs (£250)
TOTAL FOR STRAND I £2,230
Strand II
Collecting data (6 researcher days at £180 per day)
Analysing data (3 researcher days at £180 per day)
Report writing (3 researcher days at £180 per day)
Printing/postal costs (£300)
Travel/subsistence/administrative costs (£300)
TOTAL FOR STRAND II £2,760
TOTAL COST FOR BOTH STRANDS £4,990
Commissioned research
The vast majority of research is now sponsored research, commissioned with

explicit aims and outcomes. Typically, the content of such research exercises is set
out in the research specification, which may require that those undertaking the
research do so using certain research tools or techniques. A research specification
may be along the lines shown in the box on p. 19.
Before developing a proposal it may be useful to consult a colleague who
knows about the subject of your research, or who at least is aware of it. They
usually provide a helpful ‘bouncing-off’ point for your ideas.
18
Lifelong Learning in Bradfax LEA
Bradfax LEA in its aim to introduce a comprehensive Lifelong Learning

Programme wishes to commission a consultant/research body, with
experience of post-compulsory education, to carry out an audit of its Adult
Learning provision in order to assist the development of the LEA’s Lifelong
Learning Programme.
Interested parties should submit a proposal detailing how they intend
to audit the Adult Learning provision, and quote the fee required within a
budget of £12,000. It is anticipated that the work will be carried out during
the month of July, and a final report submitted to the Chief Education Officer
by 1st September.
Exploring the literature
In many proposals, the research makes reference to key literature to emphasise

points and provide authority to the work being undertaken. Therefore, early
consultation of the literature in a research project is important. Chapter 3 details
the processes involved in comprehensively reviewing the literature and this should
be carefully timetabled into the project. A quick literature search or scan through
relevant journal abstracts in the early stages of the research should, however,
provide assistance in establishing the key concerns in your subject area. Following
a comprehensive literature review, you may find that your original research
questions are no longer appropriate or require reshaping (for example, you may
discover that very similar work has been carried out elsewhere). In this case you
would need to refine your questions to concentrate on an area not explored fully
in the other work, or concentrate on questions which add to the research already
conducted. This re-forming of the research is quite common and you should not
feel obliged to stick rigidly to your original questions. I have known many
substantial projects change their focus once it has emerged that similar work has
either been carried out or is being carried out elsewhere.
Developing a strategy
Once you have framed and perhaps reshaped your questions, how will you actually
go about answering them? You will need to develop a strategy for your research.
The example research proposal (Figure 2.1) indicates the strategy or methods used
19
DAVID WILKINSON
to fulfil the requirements of the research. It indicates the tools, techniques and
instruments needed to collect and analyse the data. Your research strategy should
focus on the questions and explore the most effective and efficient ways of
answering these questions. For example, your strategy should detail which research
instruments you will use and how you will collect the data (through documentary
analysis, via telephone/face-to-face interviews, through questionnaires, by using
case studies, etc.). The strategy forms a major part of the research and it is useful
to develop a visual plan (see Figure 2.2) as part of the strategy indicating key
milestones in the research.
Of course, even the most carefully organised research may not go according
to plan. For example, it might prove difficult to interview teachers during the
summer holiday when the school is closed! Therefore, you need to build into your
plan some ‘leeway’ and you may need to change the order of things slightly.
Attempt to view your plan as a template: all the necessary ingredients for the
Week 1 to 2
• Develop questions
• Consult colleagues
• Refer to key journals
• Review current research in the area
• Write proposal
Week 3 to 10
• Develop strategy for research
• Design instruments
• Pilot instruments
• Refine instruments
• Select sample group
• Administer instruments
Week 10 to 13
• Collate data
• Analyse data
• Submit draft report to colleagues for comment
Week 14
• Submit report
FIGURE 2.2 Example research plan
20
research should be there, but the ordering of them may change. This shouldn’t
alter greatly the eventual ‘dish’ that you serve.
Collecting and analysing data
Do not underestimate the length of time it takes to collect data. In addition, do not
overestimate the amount of data your are likely to be able to collect. Many
researchers expect to achieve a response rate of between 30 per cent to 60 per cent
for questionnaires. Therefore, do not be too disheartened if, after all your work,
only 30 out of 100 questionnaires are returned. You should, however, anticipate
that this might be the case and you should aim to distribute many more
questionnaires (subject to cost considerations) than you expect to be returned
completed.
The ease of analysing your data will depend on how well structured your
instruments for collecting the data are. Chapter 4 details the design of research
instruments – one of the most common being the questionnaire. (See Figure 2.3 for
an example plan of a questionnaire survey.) Many researchers rush to use this
instrument as they often view it as a cheap and easy way to collect data. In many
cases this is true, but the structuring, planning and layout of a questionnaire all
require careful consideration, which is often a time-consuming process.
The process of analysing data can also take time and it may even produce
results you did not expect to find. Again, be prepared for this and apportion time
to consider the implications of the data being different to how you expected them
to be. Can you explain this? Does it necessitate further analysis or data collection?
Drawing conclusions
Drawing conclusions from your data is often the most difficult part of a research
project. You may have considered your conclusions when designing or framing
your research questions. Once you have collected your data you must ask yourself
how the data answers your original questions. Does it provide evidence (in your
findings) upon which to make conclusions? Do you consider alternative
explanations for your conclusions? In other words, is your research topic subject
to other factors perhaps not considered in your work? It is not a major failing if
you indicate that other work or external factors beyond the remit of your research
affect your conclusions. However, it would be a failing if you didn’t mention them.
In addition, do you indicate the strengths and weaknesses of your research (or
methodological) approach? These are the types of question you should seek to
address in the conclusions of your research report. They show that you have
evaluated the approach you have taken in the work.
21
DAVID WILKINSON
Construct/design your
questions
Pilot your questionnaire Select sample group

with friends/colleagues for your questionnaire
Restructure your
questionnaire in light of the
feedback you have received
Explore printing requirements. Print

questionnaire. Collate questionnaire
Administer
questionnaires
Log returned
questionnaires
Develop coding frame and code

questionnaires if necessary
Analyse data from

questionnaire
Draft report and

seek comments
Revise report and submit
FIGURE 2.3 Example plan of a questionnaire survey
22
Writing and submitting your report
In PhD research, which takes an average period of three years full-time study, it is
usual for 6 months to be given to the write-up of the work. This is often in addition
to notes and draft chapters written throughout the period of study. Many of those
new to research don’t allow enough time for writing. The process often involves
drafting and re-drafting. In, say a 10-week project you should aim to leave perhaps
2 weeks for writing the report. Chapter 7 provides further detail on the writing-
up process.
University Press.
Herbert, M. (1990) Planning a Research Project: A Guide for Practitioners and Trainers in
the Helping Professions. London: Cassell.
23
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Reviewing the literature
◆ Peter Birmingham
◆ The purpose of carrying out a literature review 25

◆ Locating the literature 29
◆ Selecting appropriate literature and maintaining
literature notes 31
◆ Aggregating literature material 33
◆ Critically analysing the literature 33
◆ Example of a literature review 36
The purpose of carrying out a literature review
Everyone who decides to undertake a piece of research should feel

confident and knowledgeable about the topic they are studying and
the questions they are asking. A researcher who fails to invest
sufficient time and effort into investigating others’ previous, related
work in their chosen area of study will be unable to make much
progress. How can you refine and build upon the work of those who
have come before if you are not fully aware of the efforts they have
made and the conclusions at which they have arrived? Likewise,
once you have decided to undertake a piece of research you should
want your finished work to be both valued and valuable. It will be
most highly valued if it is apparent that it has been informed by,
and has expanded upon, a rigorous and thorough attention to
similar work undertaken in the past. It will be valuable if, precisely
25
PETER BIRMINGHAM
because of the efforts devoted to its formative stages, the research reveals the final
pieces of a complex puzzle, or indeed introduces more puzzles to the debate.
To put it simply, you cannot advance knowledge in your field without first
learning what has been achieved by others and what still remains to be achieved.
The literature review is to a research project what the foundations are to a house.
Without solid foundations the house is likely to fall down, and without a detailed
look at the literature, your project is likely to be simplistic, naïve and an inferior
repetition of work already completed by someone else.
Learning to review the literature has never really received the attention it
undoubtedly deserves. Despite the long-standing tradition of literature reviews
featuring in the early stages of research, there has been a significant lack of
attention paid to just how a researcher ought to go about searching for, collecting,
evaluating and using past research in his or her current project. In fact, it seems to
be a lot more difficult to provide a definition of a literature review that we can all
have confidence in than it is to recognise one on paper when we turn to the first
few pages of a research report.
Researchers’ opinions of, and attitudes to, the nature, process and purpose
of a literature review vary enormously. There are, however, common elements
that all researchers ought to take on board. Why do we review the literature?
Why carry out a literature review?
A literature review:
◆ reports the research of others and not the new research itself;
◆ provides a background to the new research;
◆ provides a peg on which to hang the new research;
◆ links the new research to what has preceded it;
◆ identifies effective practice;
◆ justifies the need to conduct new research;
◆ provides a bibliography;
◆ seeks to do one or more of the following:
(a) describe;
(b) summarise;
(c) interpret;
(d) synthesise;
(e) evaluate;
(f) clarify;
(g) extend;
(h) integrate others’ research.
26
REVIEWING THE LITERATURE
A literature review enables a researcher to accomplish a number of more

specific aims. It is likely, for example, that in the early stages of your research you
may have only a vague idea of the area you would like to explore more fully.
You may have only a tentative outline of your research problem. This should
not give you cause for concern. A review of the literature will help you to focus
your tentative problem by both limiting and defining more clearly the topic you are
interested in researching. Look out for recommendations made by researchers for
those intent on continuing with research in a particular field. You may be provided
with advance warnings of possible pitfalls, or research questions that have been
thus far neglected. Reading around the subject will help you to distil the issues
you wish to concentrate upon and leave you with a concise, detailed and distinct
plan of action.
The existing literature relating to the topic you wish to study is just as
important for what it omits as it is for what it contains. Do not be overwhelmed
by the work others have done before you. You may have experienced something
related to your area of interest that others have not; an experience that allows you
to approach the problem from a unique and novel perspective.
In examining the available literature it is tempting to look first (or only) at
the results and conclusions the authors have drawn. It is advisable to employ a
little scrutiny. Rather than focus on results alone, look at the methods,
measurements and subjects that the researcher has used. In tackling a particular
research problem, the use of certain methodologies and sampling procedures will
prove more fruitful than the use of other, less appropriate strategies, and a good
researcher will justify his or her choice from a range of possible options. Do not
disregard whole studies because you may not be convinced by their results. If you
throw out the baby with the bath water you may miss out on insights into how best
to design a piece of your own research that produces findings which stand up to
the criticism and scrutiny of others.
Having discussed why a literature review is a vitally important element of any
research, it is appropriate to consider just what such a review might entail. It seems
that there are as many approaches to undertaking a literature review as there are
research methods textbooks available to new researchers keen to conduct their
own inquiries. It is fair to say that experienced and novice researchers alike differ
in their understandings of literature reviews because of this. But just what are these
understandings? A study of 41 research students engaged in higher degrees at an
Australian university concluded that they had six qualitatively different
conceptions of the literature review (Bruce 1994: 221–3):
1 A list or collection of descriptions and key words from journal articles,

books, newspapers, etc. that represent the available literature on the research
topic. The emphasis is on the listing of the literature rather than its content.
27
PETER BIRMINGHAM
2 The act of searching for and identifying information of relevance to the

research topic. Again, the content of the literature does not receive priority.
Instead, the literature’s ability to steer the researcher in the direction of other,
relevant existing literature is the prime motivation.
3 A survey or a scan of past, present and possible future writing or research
related to the research topic. The focus is very much on the content of the
literature, especially what is known about a particular topic.
4 A means by which a researcher can increase his or her knowledge of a
particular research topic and test his or her own thoughts or hypotheses. The
focus here is on the literature’s potential to influence the researcher, in terms
of his or her personal development, but not to influence the research.
5 An instrument capable of supporting, influencing, directing, shaping or
changing the research to be undertaken. In this conception the literature
influences both the researcher and the research.
6 A report in its own right, or as a discrete section of a larger report, in which
the researcher frames and thematically organises the literature. It is a final
representation of the ways in which the literature has impacted upon both the
researcher and the research project.
Definitions of literature review
◆ A list
◆ A search
◆ A survey
◆ A knowledge enhancer
◆ A supporting/directing tool
◆ A report
(adapted from Bruce 1994: 221–3)
Bruce notes that there is a relationship between the six conceptions. She describes
them as ‘progressively more encompassing’ (Bruce 1994: 225). It is a good idea to
view the conceptions as six rungs of a ladder. It is not possible to climb on to a
higher rung without first being familiar with, and actually using, the lower rungs.
Similarly, you continue to appreciate the lower rungs in assisting you to climb
higher, long after you have reached the top of the ladder.
28
Locating the literature
Wherever you go or to whomever you speak in order to gather your information,

the first thing you ought to do is identify and list as many key words as you can
that relate to the topic of your research. This is because, as a general rule, all
resources open to you – apart from people with experience or knowledge related
to your topic you might be lucky enough to access – are organised by subject. It is
by means of these key words that you will be able to find information connected
with the topic you intend to study. They provide you with a starting point. Of
course, in these very early stages of your research you will not want to overlook
related studies completed by others before you, especially those which may prove
to be important or relevant. You should therefore ‘cast your nets’ as widely as
possible when you come to making a note of key words.
Try thinking of a way to turn the topic of your research into a question.
What is it you may wish to find out? If, rather than doing the research yourself,
you were able to approach someone in your imagination and ask them to give you
the answers you seek, how would you phrase the question? For example, if you
were a nurse interested in investigating the ways in which elderly patients on
geriatric wards were viewed by your colleagues, you may ask: ‘What are the
attitudes of medical professionals towards geriatric patients in hospital?’
Alternatively, as a teacher (say, of history) you may be interested in looking at
how a new computer program may impact upon a lesson. In this case you might
ask: ‘What effect do computers have on the teaching of history?’ In both cases you
can see that some of the words within your question would be appropriate key
words with which to start your search: ATTITUDES, MEDICAL PROFESSION,
GERIATRIC, PATIENT, HOSPITAL, and COMPUTERS, TEACHING,
HISTORY.
This initial list of key words may be very short – as in the second example
above which contains only three words – but do not be put off by this. The next
stage is to take each of the words from your list in turn and think of related words
or phrases. You might use a thesaurus to help you find these synonyms. Terms
related to COMPUTERS, TEACHING and HISTORY which you think
appropriate to add might include INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, IT, ICT,
ILT, PEDAGOGY, CLASSROOMS, TEACHER TRAINING, HUMANITIES,
and so on. Soon your list will have grown, along with your chances of finding as
much of the literature as possible when you begin your search.
The information you do find might be located in a range of different sources,
two of the most common being books and journals. Your first port of call should
therefore be a library. This may be your local municipal library, a college or
university library you may be a member of, or a specialist library that houses
literature and information on topics relating to your job or profession. The range
29
PETER BIRMINGHAM
of materials which you may be able to access will no doubt vary according to your
own particular circumstances, and you should make efforts to find out what
facilities are available to you. After all, you want to maximise your chances of
collecting as much information relating to your research topic as you possibly can.
The more libraries you can visit and the wider and more specialist the content held
in them, the more chance you have of your literature review being thorough and
exhaustive.
The library catalogue will tell you which books are held there. The catalogue
may take the form of a traditional card catalogue, a microfiche, or – as is
increasingly common – a computerised version often referred to as OPAC.
Although the computerised version will let you use a variety of search options
(including author, year of publication, ISBN), all catalogues, in whatever form,
are searchable by subject. By comparing the list of key words you have compiled
with the list of subjects found in the library catalogue you ought to be able to find
books that may prove a good resource for your own research. Obviously, some
books will be more relevant than others, and the catalogue can only ever point
you to the books that that particular library has on its shelves.
There will, of course, be more books written about a particular subject than
any single library can ever hope to stock. It is important, therefore, to consult
some general bibliographical sources. Bibliographies should be available for you
to consult in most types of library, and include details on what is, or has been, in
print related to your area of interest. The British National Bibliography and the
American Book Publishing Record include references by author, title or subject to
books published in the UK and the United States respectively. Whitaker’s Books
in Print may also be of use to you, although this bibliography tends to be organised
mainly by author or title. As you consult these resources you may see patterns
emerge. Perhaps a small number of authors appear again and again, or you may
notice alternative synonyms to those you listed crop up repeatedly. In either case,
cross-referencing the bibliographies with the actual library catalogue may help
you to find more books of relevance to your topic of study than you thought were
available after consulting just the library catalogue.
It is only a matter of time before a book, once published, becomes out of
date. Any new developments in the subject covered by a specific book will go
unmentioned until (or unless) a subsequent edition is published. Journals, on the
other hand, are published at regular intervals throughout the year, and each new
number contains the most up-to-date information available on a particular topic
along with information that is often unsuitable to publish in book form, for
example debates and correspondences, book reviews and editorial comments. You
would find it an inefficient use of your time to look through the contents of
numbers and volumes of journals devoted to the topic that interests you to find
potentially useful information. Instead, you ought to use indexes and abstracts,
30
which are intended to help you identify and locate research articles and other
information relevant to your own project. Finding precisely what you want is by
no means a straightforward task, but to discover a reference closely centred on
exactly the nature of your own inquiries has the potential to be the most valuable
single find in your entire investigation, so persevere!
For more detail on accessing information, particularly through a library, see
Chapter 5.
Selecting appropriate literature and maintaining literature notes
As you begin your investigations in earnest you will begin to get a feeling for the
amount of information that has been written by others about the topic you wish
to research. You might find yourself with tens or possibly hundreds of pieces of
relevant information each of a different length, prospective audience or focus of
study. At this point you need to consider ways in which you might manage and
organise all this information to prevent it getting out of hand. A good idea would
be to produce concise summaries of the book chapters and journal articles you
have collected on small record cards, but this will prove an effective and helpful
way to summarise all the information only if you are consistent in your selection
of the material to be extracted.
Begin with the most recent studies. They are likely to be more valuable to you
as their authors should have used earlier research as a foundation. Apart from
noting accurately where to find the material again once you have returned it to the
shelf, a good summary of a piece of research literature you uncover should include
details about:
● The problem the material is attempting to address.

● The purpose(s) of the study or studies related in the material.
● Brief information about the population(s) studied – comprising whom? How
many subjects?
● Methods and techniques used by the researcher(s).
● The results of the study or studies.
● Any conclusions.
Introductions to articles usually contain details on the first two of the above
points, while more information on methods and results is usually reported in the
middle and the end of articles respectively. Of course, after reading through the
abstract at the beginning or the summary at the end, you may decide that a
particular article contains insufficient information relevant to your study to justify
reading the whole thing from end to end. When you do find the articles you think
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PETER BIRMINGHAM
could be of benefit to your own research you shouldn’t find it too difficult or time-
consuming to abstract these and any other details you consider especially
important.
One thing is certain: the contents of a research article or chapter of a book
will remain fresh in your mind only for the time you are reading it. With so much
to familiarise yourself with you will begin to confuse the contents and conclusions
of others’ research very early on in your reading. With each new piece of literature
you consult you will find yourself relying more and more on the summaries you
make, so it is worth investing some time and effort in collating thorough and
consistent notes at this stage.
Apart from listing all the pertinent points in each of the studies you consider
to be important, you might like to record your own evaluation of the study at the
same time. In your opinion, does it contain any particular strengths or weaknesses,
perhaps relating to the techniques employed in the study, unfamiliar or unusual
methods to collect or analyse data, or interesting theoretical underpinnings? Most
importantly, how might the article you have just read relate to the work you are
keen to undertake? How significant is the material for your own research?
You should attempt something similar with articles or book chapters which,
rather than reporting instances of actual research, comprise essays, discussions,
debates, opinions or syntheses of past research connected in some way with the
work you wish to undertake. One way to familiarise yourself quickly with this
type of material might be to scan what has been written by reading the first one
or two sentences of each paragraph. This ought to provide you with enough
information to help you to decide whether an article or chapter is worth reading
thoroughly from start to finish. For those articles you choose not to discard you
should still be able to summarise the problem being addressed in the material, and
the conclusions drawn by the author, despite the less rigid, more fluid structure of
book chapters. In such cases your focus should turn to summarising and evaluating
the theme or themes of the material: What is the author saying? What reasoning,
logic or arguments does he or she use to say it? On what is the author’s reasoning
and logic based? Can you see any strengths or weaknesses in the author’s
arguments?
Occasionally you may find an author has written something in a particularly
skilful way, for example managing to phrase a complex idea, argument or
conclusion in concise and clear terms. Similarly, you may sometimes come across
a couple of lines in a report which sum up the essence of the whole article. If you
find yourself in this situation it would do you no harm to copy this down carefully
somewhere in your summary, enclosing the extract in quotation marks and noting
down the relevant page number.
32
Aggregating literature material
As you continue with this process you will begin to find yourself surrounded by
dozens of record cards each containing a summary of a piece of work related to,
or important for, your own intended research. Just as it is necessary to impose
some kind of order upon your choice of key words in the earliest stages of your
literature search if it is to be focused and well-defined, it is equally necessary to
organise and group all your record cards in order both to maximise their value for
your research and to minimise your workload.
One way of organising your summaries is to code each one according to the
characteristics of the information it contains. You may find that your original key
words can, on the whole, act as ‘pegs’ on which to ‘hang’ your summaries. For
example, the author of a review of the literature written about the use of computer
software in classrooms might code each summary according to one or more of
many issues which arise when bringing new technology into schools:
● L Articles dealing with pupils’ abilities and how pupils Learn.

● U Articles about the User-friendliness of software, its scope, its aims and
the way it ought to look.
● M Articles relating to the structure and content of additional Materials,
such as users’ guides and teachers’ notes to supplement the software.
● T Articles dealing with Technical issues surrounding the software, such
as its compatibility with a school’s existing hardware.
● E Articles about Educating pupils using software, for example, when to
use it or when not to use it.
● R Articles about the technology’s impact on teacher and pupil Roles,
including the interactions between pupils, teachers and computers.
By writing the appropriate code in, say, the top right-hand corner of each
record, it will help you to become aware of the ways in which researchers before
you have tried cogently and sensibly to make sense of all the issues which surround
a topic. It will also enable you to locate more quickly all your notes relating to one
area within your topic of study and, perhaps, most important for the novice
researcher overwhelmed by information, it should ease the burden of writing up
your review by dividing it into easy-to-handle, bite-size pieces.
Critically analysing the literature
How much trust should you place in the research you find? Even after you have
discarded those studies that appeared to be pertinent to your own research but, on
33
PETER BIRMINGHAM
closer inspection, proved not to be, does each and every piece of research you are
left with deserve to be a part of your own inquiry? If not, on what basis should you
include and exclude material in the section of your own work which deals with
related, previous research?
In short, you may have to make some evaluative decisions. In order to do
that, you have to establish your own set of criteria for judging the adequacy of the
material in front of you. As authors base the conclusions of their studies (at least
in theory!) on the outcomes of analyses of the data they have collected, any critical
evaluation ought to include as its focus a thorough scrutinisation of a study’s
methodology and results sections. You may find instances where data have been
collected or recorded unreliably or erroneously. You may also discover that results
or analyses have been calculated incorrectly, and that conclusions have been made
on the basis of those miscalculations. Such errors do occur – researchers are not
an infallible breed. Obviously, the extent to which you feel confident in your own
ability to make calculations and re-calculations of others’ data to check their
reliability and authenticity will depend on your background and experience of
these situations, but even the least confident of novice researchers should be able
to spot intuitively any reported values or measurements that seem spurious, or at
least a little odd. Can the results be trusted in your opinion? Do you think the
study was carried out in a sufficiently careful manner? After considering just these
few basic questions you ought to be able to do one of three things:
● Include the study in the literature review section of your own work.
● Exclude the study because it ‘fell at the first fence’.
● Reserve judgement as to the trustworthiness of the study until you are able
to make a more informed decision, perhaps based on a wider range of criteria
for judging research quality.
Even at this stage you should be aware of something called confirmatory bias.
Researchers – as well as being fallible creatures – do not live in a vacuum. We have
been known to have biases and predispositions towards certain points of view and
certain outcomes of studies rather than others. This, if not sufficiently borne in
mind, could lead your evaluation of another’s research to be coloured or distorted
by its premise, outcomes or conclusions. Experiments have shown that a reviewer’s
predispositions towards a review’s results can influence his or her judgement about
the quality of a piece of research. In the past, reviewers have accepted material
which, despite containing questionable and dubious methodology, has supported
their own intuitions, while rejecting sound and well-grounded research that
advances counter-intuitive conclusions (Mahoney 1977; Lord et al. 1979).
Related work in this area has shown that comparatively inexperienced
researchers are not the only ones to succumb to these subjective pressures. Cooper
34
(1989) found evidence to suggest that the decisions of professional evaluators (such
as those who judge submitted manuscripts for possible publication in journals)
are occasionally made on the basis of where, along two dimensions, they locate a
particular research paper:
● their perception as to the way in which a study to investigate a particular

topic or problem should be designed; then
● their judgements as to how well, once the research is underway, it meets its
own design criteria.
In other words, opinions about the trustworthiness of a piece of research

may depend on answers to the questions ‘is this the best way to study X?’ and
‘now you have decided to study X in this way, how well is your study going?’ As
with confirmatory bias, these judgements are based on prior opinions of how best
to accomplish a piece of research so that its results are valid and stand up to
scrutiny. Bearing all this in mind, and allowing yourself as much as possible not
to be influenced by such biases, what means other than your own intuition do you
have at your disposal to judge the adequacy of a particular study? Let the material
defend itself. Try asking yourself the following questions.
Does the article go into sufficient depth?
Does it provide you with enough information about, for example, the reasons why
the research was conducted; the context or location in which the research took
place; the methods employed and the results obtained? Do you get the impression
the author has included as much detail in the write-up as he or she was capable of,
or do you feel that there have been certain omissions?
Are there any inconsistencies?
For example, are there inconsistencies in the way the author refers to, or provides
information about, the size(s) of the population(s) studied? Are references to the
initial sample and the achieved sample made consistently? Confusing the number
of people originally contacted to partake in the research and the number who
actually responded and took part will produce inaccurate results, occasionally
skewed in favour of the researcher! Does the researcher inform you to your
satisfaction of details about response rates, the sizes of sub-samples, the number
of drop-outs and those unable to be contacted (sometimes referred to as the
attrition rate), and the total on which any percentages are based?
35
PETER BIRMINGHAM
Where did the author obtain this information?
Is it clear how and from whom information presented to the reader as fact was
obtained? Which questions were asked? Of whom? Were there any attempts to
obtain corroborative evidence from another source? Do you sense any assumptions
made by the author? In other words, has he or she accepted some aspects of the
research blindly which you would have liked to have been investigated further?
Are the author’s claims reasonable?
Do you feel that too much is being claimed on the basis of the evidence in front of
you? Have the author’s analyses been adequate? When something is referred to as
‘significant’, is it? How has the author measured significance? Do you consider
there to be equally plausible explanations for the results of the research that the
author has failed (or worse, refused) to consider?
Example of a literature review
What follows is an excerpt from a chapter of a book by Fenton et al. (1998) which
explored the relationship between the social science community and the media.
The aim of the introductory chapter from which this excerpt is taken was to set
the scene for the presentation of previous research findings into the portrayal of
social science research in the British mass media, and how it compared with the
coverage of natural science. This excerpt provides a neat and concise summary of
research into the nature of media coverage of science.
Science in the media

It is necessary to cover the reporting of science in the mass media because
most of the issues addressed in such research are replicated in studies of social
science reporting. Indeed, as has just been suggested, much research on
science in the media subsumes the representation of social science reporting.
A major fixation in this research is with textual representation and
accuracy. Generally speaking, science reporting comes across as reasonably
accurate and no worse than other areas of news reporting; inaccuracy often
tends to involve omissions – of names of all researchers involved, of methods,
of qualifications of findings – though misleading headlines, over-
generalisation and misquoting seem quite common (for example, Tichenor
et al., 1970; Tankard and Ryan, 1974; Pulford, 1976; Singer, 1990; Peters,
1995). In one of the most frequently cited studies, Tankard and Ryan (1974)
36
asked scientists, whose work had been reported in newspaper articles, to

specify whether the articles contained any of 42 kinds of error. A mean error
rate of 6.22 was found with only 8.8 per cent of articles revealing no errors.
The most common errors, that is those found in over 30 per cent of articles,
were: omission of information about methods; omission of important
information about results; omission of certain names within a research team;
omission of qualifications to aspects of findings; and misleading headlines.
Pulford’s (1976) partial replication of this research used a smaller list
of 11 types of error, made up of those most frequently mentioned in the
Tankard and Ryan research and of general categories which subsumed a
number of the less frequently mentioned errors. Using this probably more
realistic list, 29.4 per cent of articles emerged as having no errors. In this
and subsequent research, the kinds of error are very similar to those discerned
in Tankard and Ryan’s investigation. Thus, Moore and Singletary’s (1985)
examination of network television news coverage of science found that
complaints from scientists involved tended to revolve around inadequate air
time, omission of details, sensationalism, and incorrect impressions being
given. However, in spite of the criticism of inaccuracy that scientists often
level at scientific articles, they tend to think more highly of articles in which
they themselves are cited or quoted (Dunwoody and Scott, 1982). There is
also variation between the media: Hansen and Dickinson (1992) found that
scientists in Britain thought more highly of television and radio stories in
which they had appeared than of newspaper ones. Moreover, they thought
more highly of newspaper articles in the ‘quality’ press than those in the
‘popular’ press. The finding that television was the medium with which
scientists were most pleased (very slightly more than radio) is surprising in
light of Friedman’s comment that it is ‘perhaps the hardest medium of all
for science communication’ (1986: 35). Certainly, in some forms of television
programme, like the audience discussion programme, the scientific expert is
especially vulnerable to ridicule and to an inability to get his or her point
across (Livingstone and Lunt, 1994; Ussher, 1994).
The problems of accuracy tend to be attributed to the different norms
and cultures of news-gathering organisations and of science (predominantly
in universities, but also in government). Writers on science in the media
typically draw attention to such things as the deadlines to which journalists
have to work and the competition for newspaper space or air time in which
they have to engage. Journalists often do not have enough time to assimilate
fully the information they are given and have to write quickly. In the process,
important details from the point of view of the scientist may be omitted. The
pressure for space or air time means that the journalist has to write a piece
that will attract the attention of editors, many of whom are not particularly
37
PETER BIRMINGHAM
attracted to scientific stories. Consequently, scientific stories have to be

engaging and this means that certain details which might detract from, or at
least not contribute to, their allure are likely to be ignored. This position is
nicely captured in a comment from a science reporter quoted by Winsten:
I’m in competition with literally hundreds of stories every day, political
and economic stories of compelling interest . . . We have to almost
overstate, we have to come as close as we can within the boundaries of
the truth to a dramatic, compelling statement. A weak statement will
go no place.
(1985: 9)
Moreover, writers frequently draw attention to the fact that editors
will often make substantial changes to a journalist’s piece in order to enhance
its interest. A further source of inaccuracies that is often mentioned by writers
is the almost inevitable problem of translating complex ideas into generally
readable prose.
Nelkin (1987) argues that most science reporting is remarkably
homogeneous. It tends to conform to a ‘frame’ which acts as a template. As
a result, certain images, motifs and concerns seem to run through a wide
variety of writings regardless of the topic itself. Scientists tend to be depicted
in heroic terms, selflessly furthering knowledge for the nation and for
humanity. The imagery of science (laboratories, test-tubes, the technology
of science) tends to replace actual content. Science also tends to be depicted
as a series of vital dramatic events, which often leads to the charge of
sensationalism from scientists themselves. This concentration on break-
throughs and major discoveries is indicative of another feature of science
reporting – a focus on competition between research teams. Moreover, in
spite of the focus on the heroic scientist, science reporting tends to be
depopulated. There tends to be little attention given to the actual procedures
of science (other than iconically). In a study of the Canadian press, Einsiedel
(1992) found that only a quarter of stories contained details about pro-
cedures. As a result, the scientific labour process tends to be sidelined. In an
examination of the British scientific television news magazine, Tomorrow’s
World, Murrell (1987) found that the work of scientists, their personal goals
and the conflicts that are rife in the scientific community are ignored. This
contrasts sharply with other spheres of news reporting, such as sport, in
which there is a great deal of interest in the world and lives of sporting
personalities.
This template for science writing reflects the notions of what constitutes
news and how it should be presented among journalists in general (Hansen,
1994). In a study of scientific journalism in German periodicals, Böhme-Dürr
38
(1992) found that journalists’ main reasons for choosing a story were
timeliness, perceived reader interest and informativeness. These factors
presumably lie behind the well-documented tendency for medicine and
health-related topics to predominate in what actually does get published
(Jones et al., 1978; Dennis and McCartney, 1979; Einsiedel, 1992; Hansen
and Dickinson, 1992; Hansen, 1994).
Science journalists carry around a clear notion of source credibility,
based largely on cues such as seniority and affiliation; they tend to use the
same sources again and again and deliberately create a feeling of mutual
trust. Writing mainly about the USA, Nelkin (1987) notes that science
journalists cultivate relationships with scientists and rely on what she calls a
‘stable’ of reliable figures. Hansen writes of Britain that most science
journalists ‘have built up a mental map . . . of who does what and where in
Britain’ (1994: 119). Particularly in the so-called ‘quality press’, science
journalists build up relationships of trust with sources and go to great pains
to get their information right in order not to jeopardise those relationships.
Such findings have prompted some writers to describe the relationship
between sources who are scientists and science journalists as ‘symbiotic’
(Peters, 1995: 43), though not all writers agree with such a view (especially
Dunwoody, 1986a). In Norway, a country that does not have a tradition of
specialist science journalism, ‘journalists seem to prefer sources who can
provide clear-cut findings and express clear-cut points of view’ (Eide and
Ottosen, 1994: 428); they also report a harmonious relationship between
the media and academics. As a body, scientists are probably not highly
regarded by journalists. According to Böhme-Dürr, journalists on German
magazines perceive scientists as ‘supercilious, uncooperative, manipulative,
and conceited’ (1992: 171). However, this makes it all the more necessary for
journalists to nurture relationships with scientists who can fulfil their
requirements.
A higher proportion of articles than might be supposed are source
initiated, that is, they are set in train by scientists themselves. In both Norway
and the UK around 25 per cent of articles are generated in this way (Hansen
and Dickinson, 1992; Eide and Ottosen, 1994). This suggests that scientists
can be more proactive than might generally be appreciated.
(Fenton et al. 13–16)
Bruce, C. (1994) Research students’ early experiences of the dissertation literature review.
Studies in Higher Education, 19(2): 217–29.
39
PETER BIRMINGHAM
Cooper, H. M. (1989) Integrating Research: A Guide for Literature Reviews. London: Sage.
Fenton, N., Bryman, A., Deacon, D. with Birmingham, P. (1998). Mediating Social Science.
London: Sage.
Lord, C., Ross, L. and Lepper, M. (1979). Biased assimilation and attitude polarization: the
effects of prior theories on subsequently considered evidence. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 37: 2098–109.
Mahoney, M. (1977). Publication prejudices: An experimental study of confirmatory bias
in the peer review system. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 1: 161–75.
40
Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Research instruments
◆ Dianne Hinds
This chapter covers the selection and design of research

instruments including:
◆ Questionnaires 42
◆ One-to-one interviews 47
◆ Focus group interviews 49
◆ Ethnography 50
◆ Diaries 51
◆ Content analysis 53
◆ Using computers with research instruments 54
Introduction
Research is usually constructed through rigorous, systematic inquiry,

and research instruments are the tools you use to collect and
structure data thus transforming it into useful information. There
are a number of possible approaches to carrying out your research.
These include the survey, case study and experiment. The survey is
concerned with gathering data from, usually, a large number of
people (or respondents), and the data gathered usually focuses on the
views, ideas and attitudes of those respondents in relation to the
research topic. The case study draws on a specific environment, such
as a school, and explores the research topic in relation to that school.
This may involve obtaining the views of the teachers, children and
41
DIANNE HINDS
parents and observing the day-to-day operation of the school. Experimental

research is concerned with establishing the effect of some action upon two groups
or situations. Typically, one of the two groups is known as a ‘control’ group, the
other is known as the ‘experiment’ group. Control groups are used to examine
whether changes might have taken place anyway (without the action), and
experiment groups are used to explore the effect of the action. In all research
strategies and approaches, but probably more so in experimental research, you
should aim to develop procedures which produce results that are both reliable and
valid.
Reliability
Refers to matters such as the consistency of a measure – for example, the

likelihood of the same results being obtained if the procedures were repeated.
Validity
Relates broadly to the extent to which the measure achieves its aim, i.e. the
extent to which an instrument measures what it claims to measure, or tests
what it is intended to test.
All of these approaches to research draw upon a variety of instruments, and

in this chapter we will look at a range of research instruments used to gather data
for these different strategies.
Questionnaires
Questionnaires are useful tools for collecting data from a large number of
respondents. Designing a good questionnaire can be a skilled and challenging
technical activity. Therefore think very carefully before deciding to use one; in
your case it may not necessarily be the most appropriate tool for data collection.
The box below indicates where questionnaires might appropriately be used.
42
RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS
Use a questionnaire when:
◆ Information is sought from large numbers over a relatively large

geographical area.
◆ The information sought is not complex.
◆ You are seeking information about facts, either in the present, or because
of the influence of memory, in the recent past.
◆ You want to study particular groups, or people in a particular problem
area because you want to generalise about them, make comparisons with
other groups or use their responses and comparisons for development.
◆ You are certain that a questionnaire will produce the type of information
you need.
◆ You are certain that barriers such as language and literacy do not apply
to your population.
Developing questionnaires
Developing a questionnaire is a time-consuming process, therefore planning is

crucial. The preparation of the questionnaire will include the ‘total package’ –
including the covering letter in the case of a postal questionnaire. Create a time-
line and plan for delays (see Chapter 2 for more detail about this). Clarity and a
clear plan of action are essential elements of the design process. Also, remind
yourself of what information you need. In addition to the actual construction of
the questionnaire, you will need to make arrangements for piloting, distribution,
and return. You will probably have only one opportunity in distributing the
instrument to ‘get it right’, therefore piloting and amendments need to be carried
out at an early stage. It is also useful to bear in mind the following key questions
in the questionnaire design stage.
Key questions when designing questionnaires
◆ To whom is the questionnaire directed?

◆ Are you sure the instrument will be received and acted on by that person?
◆ How will you structure your questions?
◆ How will you process the returns?
◆ How will you analyse the responses?
◆ How can you design your questionnaire to enhance your response rate?
43
DIANNE HINDS
You might aim to consider this as a collaborative venture, in that the

respondent is going to cooperate voluntarily. Your questionnaire should be user-
friendly to obtain maximum cooperation, and the courtesies of ‘please’ and ‘thank
you’ should not be underestimated. Outline the aims and purposes of the study and
provide a contact number for those seeking further information. In some instances
it might be useful to offer a copy of the completed report to interested participants
as a way of thanking them for their time and effort in completing the
questionnaire.
Ethics
The 1998 Data Protection Act requires that respondents should be informed
if computerised data entry is part of your study. Respondents also have
certain rights over their personal data, such as access to it. From 2001 similar
safeguards will be required for manual records as for computer records. If
you are using a questionnaire it might be helpful to print on the document
that you may be using a computer to analyse the data.
You need to consider how responses will be analysed, so it is important at

the planning and design stage to make decisions about any statistical analysis of
your data. For example, will you add or tally the number of Yes/No responses to
a particular question? Will you split male and female responses? Are you interested
in the similarity of different types of respondents’ answers to the same question?
It is often too late to consider this when your data is returned. Initially some form
of coding will be necessary to aid your eventual analysis of the data generated. In
terms of questionnaire layout, coding boxes should be located on the right-hand
side of the page to be read quickly and enable computerised data entry to take
place.
Open and closed questions
The questions in your questionnaire will either be open or closed questions. Open
questions allow the respondent to insert his or her views, ideas or suggestions
about the question posed (Figure 4.1) Closed questions require that the respondent
chooses one or more from a pre-defined category of ‘answers’ to the question.
There are advantages and disadvantages to both open and closed questions in
terms of analysing answers or responses. Responses to closed questions can be
pre-coded (see Figure 4.2) which can be done in advance of circulating the
44
How do you feel about the provision of dental treatment at this hospital?
(Please write your answer in the box below)
FIGURE 4.1 Example of an open question
Question Pre-coding
Gender:
Please tick the box below that most accurately describes you.
Male 1
Female 0
Marital status:
Please tick the box that most accurately describes you.
Married 1
Single 0
FIGURE 4.2 Examples of closed questions
45
DIANNE HINDS
questionnaire. This will help to speed up the analysis. However, the categories are
the researcher’s and may or may not reflect those of the respondent. Respondents
are instructed to select from the available options, which may be limited to two,
as when a Yes/No answer is offered. However, a more sophisticated series of
alternatives may also be developed. Responses to open questions can only be coded
after receipt by the researcher. This post-coding task adds more time to the analysis
stage but the responses you analyse are the respondents’ own.
Piloting is particularly important to ensure respondents don’t misunderstand
the questions you have asked. Additionally, it is critical to avoid leading questions
worded to suggest that there is only one answer. Your vocabulary should also be
clear, concise and avoid technical or redundant language. Every question should
work for you and your respondents, therefore pre-testing will help reveal any
problematic areas.
Points to remember when designing a questionnaire
◆ Aim for a maximum question sentence length of 20 words.

◆ There should be no hidden assumptions in your questions.
◆ Avoid double-barrelled questions.
◆ Avoid questions using negatives.
◆ Be sensitive to potentially irritating questions.
◆ Questionnaires should not be any longer or shorter than they need
to be.
Detail paid to a range of design and layout aspects can enhance response
rates. The presentation of the document should appeal to the respondent allowing
him or her plenty of space for responses.
Effective distribution
At the planning stage decisions should be made about how to distribute your
questionnaire and what to do about non-responses. Serial numbers may be
allocated to individual documents to easily identify them.
Sometimes internal systems within an organisation may be used for question-
naire distribution. In schools ‘satchel post’ may be used as a communication
channel with parents. Similarly, being able to hand out questionnaires in person,
particularly to a captive audience after a meeting or other event, may maximise
your response rate. Personal contact often encourages cooperation.
46
Part of the design package for the distribution of a postal questionnaire should
include a covering letter, together with a stamped addressed envelope. The letter
should politely request the return of the questionnaire by an identified day and date.
Getting a good response
Maintain a detailed record of questionnaire distribution and return dates. An initial

good response is likely to be followed by a gradual decline. If a decision has been
made to follow up non-respondents, a second letter and questionnaire may be
sent. The second letter should reiterate the significance of the study and state how
much the personal contribution of the respondent is valued, or alternatively a
telephone contact with the person responsible for questionnaire completion may
encourage cooperation. Cohen and Manion (1980) cite a response rate of 40 per
cent in a well-conducted postal survey, indicating that with appropriate reminders
this may be increased to 70 or 80 per cent. Incentives can effectively be used to
enhance response rates. These often consist of entering the respondent’s name in
a free prize draw.
Before coding, a process of questionnaire-checking or editing has to take
place. In the case of self-completion questionnaires this tidying process aims to
identify errors and omissions made by respondents.
One-to-one interviews
Interviews can vary in their structure. They can be focused on a given set of pre-
defined questions that are covered in turn (known as a structured interview), or
they can focus on a pre-defined theme or area and allow a discussion to take place
between researcher and interviewee on that theme (known as an unstructured
interview). In many interview situations a mixture of the two approaches is used,
where some structured questions are asked followed by the exploration of general
themes related to those questions.
Use interviews when
◆ In-depth information is required.

◆ Where the subject matter is potentially sensitive.
◆ The issues under examination would benefit from development or
clarification.
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DIANNE HINDS
It is important when planning your interview to consider the information

the interviewee might reasonably need to know, the location of the interview, the
recording of the interview, its subsequent write-up or transcription and analysis.
Prior to the interview you will probably have informed your interviewee on
the area of research, either by telephone or by letter, and given a guideline on the
anticipated length of interview. If the interview is to be tape-recorded, then consent
should be sought. The respondent should be advised of the potential audience of
the research, and given assurances about anonymity and confidentiality. Any
arrangements for ‘member checking’, or transcript return should be offered to the
interviewee. The setting should be carefully chosen, with minimum outside or
distracting noise. Also, try to ensure that no interruptions are likely to take place
and that chairs are carefully placed in the room at a comfortable distance apart.
If a tape recorder is being used, the tape should be inserted (and checked). It is
often helpful at the planning stage to pilot your interview with a friend or colleague
who could provide constructive feedback on your interviewing performance.
Conducting the interview
Your interviewee should be made to feel comfortable, so begin the interview by

thanking them for cooperating and assisting with your work. This helps to
establish a relaxed attitude.
Any encounter between two people involves conscious and unconscious
elements. Besides the verbal aspects of the interaction, non-verbal communication
also affects the encounter both in obvious and more subtle ways. Both body
language and eye contact are important and you may wish to record or note an
interviewee’s body language or eye contact when you cover a particularly
important question or theme. For example, they may adopt an aggressive pose
when answering questions covering subjects they feel strongly about. It may also
be useful to mirror the interviewee’s body language occasionally to encourage
rapport.
If tape-recording an interview it is helpful to advise informants that your
eyes may occasionally follow the progress of the tape – thus removing any
possibility of anxiety regarding a perceived lack of attention. If possible, use a
60-minute interview tape with a separate conference or lapel microphone. Try not
to use a pocket tape recorder with a built-in microphone, as many internal micro-
phones seem to interfere with the quality of the taped material.
Without use of a tape or video recorder some method of creating an account
of the event is necessary. Taking notes is one possibility, but this may be difficult
to maintain whilst giving full attention to the content of the interview. If you do
take notes attempt only to note key points made by the interviewee rather than
48
trying to record everything they say. Your notes should act as a reminder of what
was said at the time.
However you record and note your interview, you should be aware of
problems of bias. It is important to recognise that when conducting an interview
you should record the responses made by interviewees as accurately as possible.
Your own preferences or, perhaps, stake in the outcome of the interview should
remain secondary. You should record accurately what was said and not what you
think should have been said. Robson (1993) notes that many of these ‘biases’, such
as selective attention, are familiar to psychologists and they can be present in both
the interviewer’s and interviewee’s mind.
As the interview draws to a conclusion I frequently ask the informant
whether they have anything to add to the interview that has not been addressed
by any of my questions or their responses. This helps avoid a situation where the
respondent is prompted to add to the interview following the conclusion of the
interview. All interviews should conclude with a heartfelt message of thanks from
the interviewer. Some very privileged researchers are fortunate to find themselves
thanked for a process that participants have experienced as therapeutic, or
developmental in some way.
Transcription and analysis
Tapes require transcription and analysis. Transcription takes time, to the extent
that advice on my first research project included allowing a ratio of 10:1 between
collecting data and the resultant transcription and analysis of that data. For every
hour spent interviewing allow ten times as much time to process the data. Writing
up your notes into a full account as soon as practically possible following data
collection has the advantage of capturing all, or most, of what was said, as it will
still be fresh in your mind.
Focus group interviews
There can be few individuals who have not heard of focus groups. Political parties
use them, opposition parties spurn their efforts and television companies are
reported to amend their programmes following analysis of focus group responses.
The process is based on the principles of self-disclosure, grounded in a comfortable
environment, a particular type of questioning, and the establishment of focus
group rules. Generally numbering between seven to ten individuals, groups have
been conducted with a minimum of four. Beyond twelve participants the group
tends to fragment. The mix will probably consist of strangers, or people slightly
acquainted with one another, but there will be similarities between them.
49
DIANNE HINDS
Kreuger (1994) recommends that two people conduct the focus group. One
(the moderator) may attend to the questions, and the second can record the
interactions, noting nodding and other non-verbal behaviour, which may indicate
the extent of agreement, for instance. Compared with one-to-one interviews, the
questioner in a focus group interview situation plays the role of a ‘facilitator’,
rather than a ‘director’ of the proceedings. Once the general topic for discussion
has been fixed to everyone’s satisfaction, he or she is responsible for shaping and
steering the path the participants themselves have chosen to tread. In contrast to
one-to-one interviews, the job of determining the precise content of the discussion
within the boundaries of the topic as a whole is deliberately left to the participants.
The reasoning behind this lies in the implication that those aspects of the topic
most important, meaningful or relevant to the participants will emerge first in the
interview. It is important that the interviewer encourages comments of all types,
both positive and negative, taking care to avoid making judgements about
responses and controlling body language communicating approval or disapproval
(Kreuger 1994).
When to use a focus group inquiry
◆ To gain information relating to how people think.

◆ To explain perceptions of an event, idea or experience.
◆ When there is a desire for more understanding of the human experience.
◆ When seeking the perspective of the client.
Ethnography
With some research approaches, you may be required to observe directly the
activities of members of a particular social group with a view to providing an
accurate description or evaluation of those activities. This is ethnography.
Essentially, there are two forms of ethnography – participant and non-participant
observations. With participant observation you as researcher are a part of the
situation you are observing. For example, you could be involved with a meeting
you are recording for your research, or you may be exploring the way your work
environment changes due to the introduction of new working practices. Non-
participant observation involves you as researcher being more detached from the
meeting you are observing. For example, you may be present at the meeting but,
as a non-participant, you will have no input or effect on the meeting.
50
Advantages and disadvantages of ethnography
Advantages
◆ Direct evidence of the event or process under study.
◆ The active role of researcher as research instrument requires little
technical support.
◆ Data produced may offer insights into the complex realities of the
setting.
Disadvantages
◆ To be both participant and observer in a sustained process requires
particular qualities when studying the lives and activities of others.
◆ Opportunities to access settings may be limited.
It is important when planning your observations to consider carefully the

kind of information you want to collect. Is the focus of the inquiry to be on the
content or process of an event or meeting, for example, or how the members of the
meeting interact? Also, are the observations to be based on the actions and
activities of individuals or groups?
When recording your observations note the context of the event. A general
description of the time, place, setting and participants is a valuable adjunct to any
data collection. Sensitivity to the atmosphere and noting any key events, which
may include the late arrival of a particular person, helps contextualise activities.
Charts and seating plans will help to identify participants in a group setting, but
beyond the physical environment an observation schedule, whether self-designed
or commercially available, will require a specific recording method. To assist the
observation process, observation schedules, such as Flanders Interaction Analysis
(Flanders 1970), are often used. The Flanders Interaction Analysis model is an
example of a systematic observation framework for analysing, for example, teacher
and pupil behaviour in the classroom. Ten or so categories describe behaviour and
these guide the observer’s coding of the interactions that take place. Categories
may include ‘shows tension release’ (jokes, laughs, shows satisfaction) and ‘shows
antagonism’ (deflates others’ status, defends or asserts self).
Diaries
The diary is a useful method of gathering routine information relating to particular

activities. This method involves participants being requested to keep an account of
51
DIANNE HINDS
the behaviour or activity under study within an identified time frame. Recently, this
approach has been used in the health services through the use of the patient diary
as a research tool. This can provide a useful insight into, for instance, the patient
experience following surgery (although in the hospital setting this probably
requires the approval of the Ethics Committee).
Uses of the diary
◆ Used as a form of self-completed observation schedule.

◆ As a model of self-completed questionnaire.
◆ Combined with other instruments – for example using a diary prior to
interview, specifically to generate questions.
The frequency of use of the diary will depend upon your research questions.
If you have a clear set of questions, a more structured form of diary may be
appropriate – this could include sections dedicated to specific tasks performed
through the day. Decisions about data analysis will depend on the prior structure
of the instrument. Pre-defined categories will provide a basic structure for analysis,
whilst a more unstructured instrument may itself be used as a model for category
development.
It is important when using the diary as a research instrument to provide
explicit instructions in order to ensure the diary is completed in a manner fitting
the aims of the research questions. For this reason careful piloting is necessary,
and the diary should be planned with the same care and preparation as a
questionnaire. Potentially, diary accounts offer a wealth of information and, as
technology advances, electronic diaries would appear to offer enormous potential
as a method of data collection readily structured for subsequent analysis.
Disadvantages of using diaries
◆ This method places a considerable responsibility on the respondent, and

there may be some problems with self-recording.
◆ The time required for diary completion may prove too demanding.
◆ The representativeness of the activities recorded may be problematic and
introduce bias.
52
Content analysis
‘Content analysis is a technique that enables researchers to study human behaviour

in an indirect way’ (Fraenkel and Wallen 2000: 469). This useful research tool
involves the examination or analysis of the contents of a communication. This
could include analysing newspaper articles, journal contents, magazines, speeches,
advertisements and so on. Analysing communications allows us, for example, to
explore the writer’s own ideas, beliefs and attitudes relating to the subject matter.
To begin the analysis we must build up categories or ratings or scores that can be
applied across the range of material being analysed. The coding of data is discussed
further in Chapter 6.
Essentially three types of content analysis can take place: an analysis of the
number of times a specific word or phrase is used (for example, how many times
televisions are mentioned in material discussing leisure time); an analysis across a
range of material to establish if a topic or theme is or is not raised (for example,
whether articles covering library use mention opening hours); and an analysis that
seeks more than one topic or category (for example, how many times televisions
are mentioned by males as opposed to females).
The ‘steps in content analysis’ box shows the key points to bear in mind
when contemplating a content analysis.
Steps in content analysis
1 Conduct an initial ‘exploratory data analysis’ for questions emerging

from the data.
2 Decide your recording unit – this may be the individual word, sentences,
paragraphs, themes or characters. In some instances the examination of
the context may be necessary (such as the remainder of the sentence).
3 Construct categories for analysis. It is necessary to have a clear view of
the potential categories or issues that might be presented in the text.
4 Code the units to reflect the categories. The text needs careful scrutiny
to code all relevant units, whether words or sentences. The codes may be
written on the text, or entered via a computer.
5 As codes are defined write a careful description of the category. This
might be useful in refreshing your own memory at a later stage in the
research.
6 The frequency of the unit should be counted – analysis may include a
tally of the times units occur.
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DIANNE HINDS
Using computers with research instruments
Highly sophisticated computer programs now exist to aid the design, collation
and analysis of research instruments and the data they help to collect. Many
operate at a variety of levels depending upon the assistance you require. Some
offer assistance in questionnaire design, covering layout and pre-coding issues,
others assist with the analysis and testing of your data. Lexica is a program that
adds to textual analysis and claims to perform complex lexical analysis. Beyond
these applications modules are available which assist the creation of multimedia
and Internet surveys.
Qualitative data analysis programs such as Nudist and Ethnograph are
perhaps the most widely used programs for the analysis of qualitative data. Further
information relating to qualitative data analysis packages can be found in
Qualitative Research: Analysis Types and Software (Tesch 1990) and Computer
Analysis and Qualitative Research (Fielding and Lee 1998).
Cohen, L. and Manion L. (1980) Research Methods in Education. Beckenham: Croom

Helm.
Fielding, N. G. and Lee. R. M. (1998) Computer Analysis and Qualitative Research.
London: Sage.
Flanders, N. A. (1970) Analysing Teacher Behaviour. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Fraenkel, J. R. and Wallen, N. E. (2000) How to Design and Evaluate Research in
Education (fourth edition). New York: McGraw Hill.
Krueger, R. (1994) Focus Groups. A Practical Guide for Applied Research. London: Sage.
Robson, C. (1993) Real World Research. Oxford: Blackwell.
Tesch, R. (1990) Qualitative Research: Analysis Types and Software Tools. London: Falmer
Press.
54
Chapter 5
Chapter 5
Finding and locating

information
◆ Lesley Gray
◆ Where to start 57
◆ Locating information and information resources 58
◆ Using library catalogues 58
◆ Using indexes 60
◆ Using the Internet 62
◆ The inter-library loan facility 66
◆ Other information resources 67
◆ A literature search strategy 71
◆ Note-taking 74
◆ Referencing 74
Introduction
One of the key skills for any research student or researcher is being
able to retrieve and locate information. Information and information
resources need to be searched for and retrieved when required and
must be both relevant and up-to-date.
There are a vast number of information resources available in
a wide variety of formats, such as printed volumes, CD-ROMs or
on-line services delivered via the Web. Advances in electronic and
55
LESLEY GRAY
telecommunications technology have resulted in a proliferation of material from

both traditional or formal publishers and private or self-published material. Not
only does the researcher need to be aware of the diversity and amount of
information that is available, but also of issues relating to the quality and reliability
of the information, and the difficulties associated with locating all available
information – much of which may be produced unsystematically.
There is such a wide range of information resources available to researchers,
that it is impossible to provide a totally comprehensive survey of all information
sources. Due to the nature of the discipline, there is much overlap between various
aspects of education and other aspects of the social sciences, such as sociology, as
well as psychology.
One of the difficulties in writing a chapter such as this is that much of the
information and references to information resources and web sites is out of date
before it even reaches publication. New information sources are being published
all the time, and the nature of information provision is changing rapidly as well.
Developments in computer and communications technology have made an
enormous impact on information provision over the last ten years – and signs
5 steps to be followed in any search for information
Orientate: Orientate yourself with the resources available to you, starting

with the library that you will be using, the range of resources
that are available to you, and with the resource that you will be
searching. This may include learning to use the technology
required to consult the resource such as a CD-ROM or the
World Wide Web.
Search: Plan your search, select your search tools, decide on your search
strategy, select search terms and then perform the search.
Locate: Select items retrieved by the search and then identify how and
where to locate the selected resources. Items may be located
within your local library or perhaps in another library, or they
may be available from a database held locally or accessible
across a network.
Evaluate: Once the information resource has been located, then both the
content and the resource should be evaluated for reliability,
currency, relevance and authorship.
Record: A record, which may take the form of notes, needs to be made
of the resource and its contents or any relevant information
which you can consult when required.
56
FINDING AND LOCATING INFORMATION
indicate that the rate of development is not likely to decrease in the near future.
The development and exploitation of the World Wide Web has had a great impact
on access to information, and it has become both an important source of
information and a universal interface for access to information. The dynamic
nature of the Web means that web sites, databases, and information sources are
changing continuously and what may be available at one site today, may not be
there a day later.
Where to start
Your supervisor
Your supervisor or manager may be familiar with the key literature on the subject
and may be able to give you, or refer you to, key references or the names of
researchers in the field, which could provide you with a good starting point.
The library
The library in your department or university is an obvious point to begin a search

for information. The librarian will be able to advise you on the library facilities,
the range of resources and services that are available to you as a researcher – both
within the institution and with other local libraries – and related organisations.
Library services may include on-line services that the library or organisation
subscribes to, as well as facilities such as inter-library loans, photocopying and
printing facilities. Library staff will also be able to inform you of copyright issues,
and could advise you on reciprocal borrowing rights with other libraries available
to you in the area.
To use a library effectively, you need to become be familiar with its physical
environment and layout, the way in which its resources are organised and learn
how to use the search tools – such as catalogues and bibliographic databases – to
locate information resources. If you are unfamiliar with on-line searching or the
use of any resources, the library staff will be able to assist you. Some libraries
organise on request, or offer regular sessions to train library users in the use of
electronic resources. If you are unfamiliar with the use of any resources, ask library
staff for assistance when required. It may be possible, and often preferable, to
book a session for a time that is suitable to library staff and you.
Many librarians are subject and information specialists. As subject specialists,
librarians have a thorough knowledge of a subject or discipline, especially with
regard to the range of subject-related information sources that are available both
57
LESLEY GRAY
within the organisation and beyond. They will be familiar with the material in the
library’s own collection, and how and where to locate items in the library.
Librarians are information specialists trained in organisation and retrieval of
information and information resources. They are familiar with literature-searching
and with the use of a range of search tools. They will be able to show you how to
use the catalogue and indexes to locate items held in the collection and may also
be able to advise you of relevant sources to search, as well as search strategies and
search terms to use.
Many libraries offer current awareness services for academic and research
staff, and research students. The current awareness service may be informal, with
the library informing you when new material on your topic of interest is processed
and available for loan, or formal. A research or interest profile may be compiled
during a meeting or by the completion of a form, and kept on file in the library.
When new material or new issues of journals are received by the library, the
contents pages and subject coverage of the items are scanned and matched
against the profiles, and readers notified of new items of potential interest available
in the library.
Locating information and information resources
Search tools
◆ Library catalogues
◆ Indexes and abstracting journals or services
◆ Internet search engines
Library catalogues
A library catalogue systematically lists a collection of records that contain

bibliographic information about items held in the library collection. Each catalogue
record describes an item, identifying it uniquely with author, title and other
bibliographic details, as well as the location of the item within the library. A library
catalogue provides information about the ‘physical’ items in the collection, but
does not provide access to the contents of the item. Articles in periodicals or
chapters in books are not usually indexed in a library catalogue.
58
LOCAL LIBRARY CATALOGUE
This is the key local bibliographic resource that provides listings and details of
items held in the library in your institution or organisation. The records in the
library catalogue may cover a wide range of materials such as books, reports,
theses, pamphlets, videos and ephemera. Library catalogues were traditionally
print or card catalogues, but most libraries have computer catalogues now. These
are referred to as OPACs (On-Line-Public-Access-Catalogues).
OTHER LIBRARY CATALOGUES
Other library catalogues
National library catalogues

British Library on-line catalogue, OPAC97 http://opac97.bl.uk/
OPAC97 contains records for material that is held in the British Library in
the major reference collections (London) and the Document Supply
collections of the British Library held at the Document Supply Centre
(BLDSC) at Boston Spa.
Library of Congress (USA) Online Catalog http://catalog.loc.gov/

This is a database of approximately 12 million records representing books,
serials, computer files, manuscripts, cartographic materials, music, sound
recordings, and visual materials held in the in the Library’s collections.
National Library Catalogues Worldwide http://www.library.uq.edu.au/

ssah/jeast/
University and research libraries
COPAC http://www.copac.ac.uk/
COPAC (Consortium of University and Research Libraries On-line Public
Access Catalogue) gives access to the on-line catalogues of some of the largest
university research libraries in the UK and Ireland. A link is provided to the
Web pages of each of the contributing libraries.
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LESLEY GRAY
It is possible to access other library catalogues via the Internet. Searching these
catalogues will provide you with references to sources that are not held in your
local library so you will not have immediate access to the items or the information
that they contain. It may be possible to visit the library that holds the item, to
request the item on inter-library loan or to ask your library if they would consider
purchasing the item.
National libraries are responsible for collecting all publications issued in their
respective countries. A national library catalogue is a comprehensive source of
publications issued in a country, and as such, can be a useful resource when
searching for information. The on-line catalogues of a national library may not list
all the older material held in the library’s collections as not all national libraries
have automated all records yet.
The catalogues of other university libraries, as well as many research libraries
are available on the Internet via HYTELNET, or the NISS Higher Education
gateway (http://www.niss.ac.uk/). The COPAC (Consortium of University and
Research Libraries Online Public Access Catalogue) database provides access to the
records of items held in some of the largest university research libraries in the UK
and Ireland.
Indexes
Indexing and abstracting journals or services (as the electronic forms are known)
are essential tools for research staff and students. They provide access to the
information or contents of various types of publication: articles in journals,
newspapers, chapters in books, reports, theses, as well as a range of other types of
publication. Indexes and abstracting journals are available in several formats: in
print and micro-format, and database format on CD-ROM or on-line, or both.
In general, indexes and abstracting services provide access to each article
which is indexed by author and title, and generally also has a subject entry.
Abstracting journals also provide the abstract from the article itself, and some
foreign articles may include an English abstract. This distinction is not as clear-cut
as it was before, as many indexes that are available in electronic format now
include abstracts as well (for example, ERIC). Indexes may be multidisciplinary,
covering a broad subject area, such as the social sciences, subject specific, or index
records from a particular form of publication such as newspapers or theses.
A citation index contains lists of published documents that reference or ‘cite’
a given work by a given author. Each article in the database includes a list of the
references that are cited in the article, and the index brings together all indexed
articles that cite a particular reference. It is possible to search for a particular
author or search term, and find other articles that have cited the same work and
60
may be of relevance. In cases where other resources retrieve few relevant references,
citation searching may uncover other authors writing on the same or related
subjects that can be followed up, or indicate a change in terminology or thinking
and lead to other sources of information that had perhaps not been considered
before. It is possible to trace how articles or books have been commented on,
and how theories and works have developed chronologically. Significant or impor-
tant works are likely to have been widely cited. It is important to be aware that
retrieved citations may contain errors, as the originator’s list of citations are
not checked for spelling errors of author names and variations in the initials used
and the cited work (usually a journal title) may be heavily and sometimes
inconsistently abbreviated.
Indexes and abstracting services
Education indexes
British Educational Index (BEI)
This is an important resource for educational research in Great Britain. This
index includes references to 350 British and selected European English
language periodicals (and an increasing amount of national report and
conference literature) in the field of education and training. The print version
indexes periodical literature from 1954 while coverage of the electronic
versions extends back to 1975. The Australian Education Index and the
Canadian Education Index are also available in the same format, and
together with BEI are available as a dataset called International ERIC.
British education index. University of Leeds, 1954– .

International ERIC. [CD-ROM]. Updated quarterly. Dialog, 1975– .
British education index. [On-line]. Updated monthly. [Part of BIDS
Education Service], 1986 – .
ERIC
ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) database is sponsored by
the US Department of Education. It indexes over 775 periodicals and
contains more than 700,000 records and has an international coverage.
Entries in the database generally include an abstract of the article or item.
Research documents, journal articles, reports, technical reports, program
descriptions and evaluations, and curricular materials are indexed. The
electronic version of ERIC consists of 2 indexes which are available in print
(continued)
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LESLEY GRAY
form as Research in Education (RIE) and Current Index to Journals in

Education (CIJE).
Other indexes
Periodicals contents index. [Online & CD-ROM]. Chadwyck Healey
PCI contains information from the tables of contents of thousands of English
and other European language journals, from their first year of publication up
to 1990. It is an important resource for historical research as it provides
access to older periodical literature not available from other indexing and
abstracting services.
British Newspaper Index. [Electronic]. Quarterly. Primary Source media.

1992–
This database indexes the following newspapers: Times, Sunday Times,
Times Education Supplement, Times Higher Education Supplement, Times
Literary Supplement, Daily Telegraph. Sunday Telegraph, Independent,
Independent on Sunday and the Observer.
Psychological Abstracts. 12 pa. American Psychological Association, 1955– .

PsycLIT. [CD-ROM]. Quarterly. American Psychological Association. Silver
Platter Information, 1974– .
Social Sciences Citation Index. [Online]. Weekly. Institute of Scientific

Information (ISI) 1981–
SOCIAL SCISEARCH, a component of ISI, corresponds to the print index
Social Sciences Citation Index, a multidisciplinary index to the journal
literature of the behavioural and social sciences. More than 1,400 periodical
titles are covered, with selected relevant items from a further 3,100 physical
and natural science titles. The index includes articles, editorials, letters and
reviews, and abstracts are available for many of the records. Non-journal
literature, such as conference literature or books, is not included. SOCIAL
SCISEARCH features citation indexing, enabling you to search for papers
which have referenced a known paper or other work.
Internet
A vast amount of information is available via the Internet. Retrieval of information

is widely recognised as a significant problem and searching for and locating
information can be time-consuming and confusing.
62
Searching is a process fundamental to using the Internet effectively, but one

that is difficult, as the number of web sites and the pages that they host increases
daily. Sites may disappear or move to new locations as quickly as they appeared,
making it difficult for users to access the information again. The number of search
services available for searching the web also increases and diversifies. It is
important that you realise that various search engines differ in coverage, search
facilities and processes, and in the results that are retrieved and displayed. It is
important to be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the different search
engines.
WEB DIRECTORIES AND SEARCH ENGINES
Web directories are created and maintained by humans. Editors index web sites
that have been submitted to the service, which are selected according to various
qualitative and content criteria. Because these services are labour intensive and
selective in the sites that are indexed, only a tiny percentage of available
information is covered, although the sites retrieved have been selected by humans
for inclusion in the directory. When using web directories, it is important to try
more than one directory when searching for information, as there can be major
differences in their listings.
Web search engines search a database of indexed web sites. When you enter
your search terms, the script interrogates the database, and the results are presented
in a dynamically generated web page. The search engine database is built up by
programs (called spiders or crawlers) that constantly search the Web for new
pages, index words on those pages, and then match the indexed word with the
URL site of the page on which it appears. Because they run automatically and
index so many web pages, search engines may often find information not listed in
directories, although they actually cover only a small percentage of information
available on the Web.
Search engines will only index web pages that have been created specifically
for the Web. Many web sites produce dynamically created pages containing
information extracted on request by the searcher from a database – information
that does not exist in web page format until the query is received – and so will not
be found by a search engine.
Metasearch sites enable the user to search across several search engines and
web directories simultaneously. They allow you to search several services
simultaneously and view the results in one list. These search facilities are slow and
may retrieve only a small number of the total number of hits.
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LESLEY GRAY
Searching the Internet
Web directories Yahoo http://www.yahoo.com

UK Index http://www.ukindex.co.uk/
Web search Altavista http://www.altavista.com/
engines Infoseek(now
called GO) http://infoseek.go.com/
Lycos http://www.lycos.com/
Metasearch sites SavvySearch http://www.savvysearch.com/
Meta Crawler http://www.metacrawler.com/index.html
INFORMATION ON THE WEB
It is necessary to evaluate the content and source of any information resource that
you retrieve. When using information on the Internet, this is of particular
importance as information may be posted by anyone and is not subject to any
form of quality control, authenticity checks or scrutiny by a publisher. When
viewing any site, it is worthwhile to check the following: the source, originator or
owner of the material, the date of the information source, the frequency of
updating and the date of the last update.
There are, however, a number of sites that provide links to selected,
authoritative information sites. Many libraries provide a web interface to their
library and information services, often including access to the library catalogue,
electronic resources, as well as links to other sites of interest. Gateway services are
particularly useful sites as they list and provide links to information sources that
have been selected and evaluated by subject or information specialists. There are
several subject gateways for the social sciences and education. NISS (National
Information Services and Systems) gathers together and provides links to selected
information services for the UK academic community and has links to a wide range
of education sites. Social Science Information Gateway (SOSIG) site is an ‘on-line
catalogue’ of Internet resources for the social sciences, which have been selected,
evaluated and classified by subject specialists. These include reports, papers,
electronic journals, newsletters and discussion lists and also has a subject listings
to help to locate resources for a particular subject area (see http://www.sosig.
ac.uk/).
The Internet is a good source of information of documents published by, and
information provided by, governmental and other public and private agencies such
at the Department for Education and Employment (DFEE), the School Curriuclum
64
Assessment Authority (SCAA), now the Qualifications and Curriulum Authority

(QCA), the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) and the Office
for Standards in Education (OFSTED).
Education on the Internet
Subject gateways
NISS (National
Information Services and
Systems) http://www.niss.ca.uk/
SOSIG (Social Sciences
Information Gateway) http://www.sosig.ac.uk/
Education-line http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/
Official education sites

DFEE (Department for
Education and
Employment) http://www.dfee.gov.uk/
OFSTED (Office for
Standards in Education) http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/
QCA (Qualifications
and Curriculum
Authority) http://www.qca.org.uk/menu.htm
TTA (Teacher
Training Agency) http://www.teach-tta.gov.uk
Government statistical
service http://www.statistics.gov.uk/
Office for National
Statistics http://www.ons.gov.uk/
European sites
euroguide http://www.euroguide.org/about.htm
EURYDICE http://www.eurydice.org/
European Commission:
Education & Culture http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/info.html
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LESLEY GRAY
Selecting the resource to search: manual vs. on-line searching
Many information sources are now available in a variety of formats: print and
electronic (CD-ROMs and on-line databases). In the first instance, your choice of
format of an information resource will depend on the availability of that resource
to you. Many of the resources mentioned in this chapter are available in print and
electronic format, although the titles may differ slightly from format to format.
Many of the on-line services are closed services and require institutional
subscriptions, and access is password controlled. The librarian will be able to
advise if the on-line facilities are available to you, and to which services the
organisation subscribes. Due to the costs of subscriptions to print and electronic
information sources, you may not have access to an unlimited range of resources.
Online searching introduces a flexibility of search not possible in print-based
systems. Computers can manipulate large amounts of data quickly, and can
provide access to information via a large number of access points. Some on-line
and CD-ROM databases also provide or facilitate access to the full text of
electronic journals through links, or may contain the full text of articles or texts.
Manual searches, using print-based systems, can be slow and time-consuming – as
a result many items may be missed or overlooked. Electronic resources usually
contain a substantial resource of references covering a large number of journal
titles. Bibliographic details of retrieved references can be saved to file or printed,
and are generally accurate and complete.
Indexes and abstracts available in electronic format on CD-ROM or on-line
are easier and faster to use that their print counterparts. However, they do require
that the user become familiar with the technology involved, and with using a range
of search interfaces and search facilities in order to retrieve the relevant infor-
mation from the system. Online information services available via the Internet
are more frequently updated, and information becomes accessible as soon as it
becomes available. CD-ROM and print versions are updated on a regular basis,
although there may be a delay of several months between updates.
Electronic databases may only provide access to a limited number of years
of information. Although this differs from database to database, many databases
will only contain 10 to 15 years of data. Digitisation or the re-entering of data is
expensive, and so print resources will need to be consulted if older information
sources are sought.
The inter-library loan facility
It is possible to make use of the inter-library loan facilities in order to obtain

material that is necessary to your work but not locally available. No library can
66
afford to purchase more than a proportion of the publications available on a

particular subject today.
Requests for inter-library loans of journal articles are usually supplied in the
form of a photocopy, while, when requesting books or theses, the item itself (or a
microfilm) may be loaned to the library. There may also be a time delay in actually
receiving the item. The library staff will be able to advise you on the procedures
to be followed. In some organisations, the full cost or part of the cost is passed on
to the requestor (either you or the project on which you are working), but this
varies from place to place. It is therefore necessary when you are considering
requesting an inter-library loan to be selective and request items that will be of
relevance to you. Full and accurate bibliographic details are essential when making
a request.
It may be possible to visit other libraries to consult material that is held in
their collections. The librarian in your library could advise you on cooperative
arrangements with other libraries such as the SCONUL Vacation scheme. Most
libraries will allow you to use their collections and facilities for reference purposes
but will not extend borrowing rights to you. Before visiting another library, it is
advisable to contact the library that you hope to visit and obtain information about
opening hours and any administrative requirements for your entry. Some libraries
require a letter of introduction from your organisation or supervisor, while others
require a written request to be submitted in advance of your visit.
Other information resources
Information resources can be categorised in many different ways: by the format of

the resource (print or electronic), by content and subject, intended audience or
reader or by the type of information that the resource contains, to name but a few.
In this section, several types of information sources are discussed. A few examples
of each type of source that may be useful to researchers are given, but serve only
as possible resources or starting points in an information search. It is in no way
intended to be a definitive list of resources.
JOURNALS OR PERIODICALS
Research or refereed journals contain reports of original research studies, which

include detailed accounts of the methodology and results of the studies. They are
valuable sources of current information, as the frequency of publication makes it
possible to disseminate information more quickly than in books.
Many print journals are published simultaneously in electronic format. The
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LESLEY GRAY
on-line version may list the contents of the journal, selected articles or excepts of
articles, or the full text of the journal. Some electronic titles are available on-line
before the print edition. The full text of an electronic journal is searchable. Links
in the text may provide access to other information sources, and multimedia
technology allows some electronic journals to include colour graphics, sound and
video clips in the articles.
Access to electronic journals is usually provided from links on the library
web page. Several higher education initiatives and projects such as JSTOR,
SuperJournal and CHEST (Combined Higher Education Software Team) are
involved in negotiating with publishers and providing access to electronic journals
for higher education institutions.
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
Conference proceedings may be published in a variety of forms: as separately

published volumes, as periodicals or supplements to periodicals, or distributed
informally to conference participants. Conferences play an important role in the
dissemination of information where new research and current issues are debated
or made public. Conference proceedings may be of value to researchers in
providing reviews of trends.
REFERENCE BOOKS
Reference sources generally cover a wide subject area, and are compiled to supply
authoritative and definitive information. They may be of particular use for answer-
ing a quick enquiry or finding a fact quickly. Reference sources include dictionaries,
encyclopaedias, source books, year books, indexes and bibliographies, which can
also be used to get a brief overview of a topic. When starting a research project,
the reference collection could be used to help you define the subject area of your
study more closely. It may also be able to provide you with facts and figures as
your research progresses.
RESEARCH REPORTS
Reports contain the results of, or progress made in, research projects, investigations
and surveys. A report is usually issued by the funding or performing body
and may not be commercially published. A wide range of organisations publish
research reports. These include organisations such as the NFER, ESRC (Economic
68
and Social Research Council), government and local authorities, university

departments and other agencies. Many of these organisations make reports avail-
able via their web sites on the Internet. There are several publications that are
available which list research in progress in the UK, such as the Register of
Education Research in the UK, published by the NFER.
THESES AND DISSERTATIONS
Theses and dissertations are submitted by the author for a higher degree or
professional qualification or award. They report on an investigation or research
project that has been carried out, and present the findings of the work and the
conclusions reached. They are useful sources to consult as they are a source of
information about work that has already been done in a particular field, and may
be a source of references to other literature on a particular subject, as they generally
incorporate a literature review. Theses and dissertations are unpublished works,
so it is important to establish what the copyright regulations in each institution are
when consulting and reporting on the information contained in them. The British
Library collects most British theses submitted for doctoral degrees. Records for
theses held by the British Library are located in the British Library on-line
catalogue. Copies may be borrowed on microfilm or, in some cases, on microfiche
via the inter-library loan system.
NEWSPAPERS
Newspapers are important sources of information of current events, and may have
historical value. Many newspapers are now available on-line, although some
services do require a subscription. On-line archives of previous editions is generally
limited, although previous issues are available in a variety of formats including
microfiche and CD-ROM. The Times Educational Supplement and Times Higher
Education Supplement are useful sources for education researchers, although other
broadsheets may have education supplements – for example, the Guardian which
has a weekly education supplement.
OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS
Official publications refer to a wide range of publications produced by central

government, government-funded departments, government-sponsored organ-
isations or intergovernmental organisations such at the United Nations or the
69
LESLEY GRAY
European Community. This category of resources includes items issued by

Parliament (Acts of Parliament, Command Papers, Select Committee Reports,
Statutory Instruments) and non-Parliamentary organisations (HMI reports, DfEE,
government agencies and ministries). Although an increasing number of these
publications are available on-line on an organisation’s web site on the Internet,
many are available only in print format.
UKOP Online (http: //www.ukop.co.uk) is the complete catalogue of United
Kingdom Official Publications from 1980 to the present day. It comprises detailed
bibliographic and ordering information on the full range of official publications,
whether published by The Stationery Office, or one of the other 500 bodies –
ranging from Departments of State to quangos and ombudsmen, and British,
European and international organisations – for whom the Stationery Office acts
as agent.
STATISTICAL SOURCES
There are several major bodies whose purpose is to gather and coordinate statistics
and official figures across the UK government, and to store this information in
national archives. These include the Office for National Statistics, the Public Record
Office, the General Register Office for Scotland, the Scottish Records Offices and
the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. Many other major central
government departments have their own research or statistics sections. These bodies
make this information available via printed reports, and latterly, much of this
information is available on the individual organisation’s web site.
Example statistical information sources
◆ Government statistical service http://www.statistics.gov.uk/

◆ Office for National Statistics http://www.ons.gov.uk/
◆ Guide to official statistics. HMSO
◆ Office for National Statistics. 1970– . Social trends: a publication of the
Government Statistical Service. No.1–. London: Stationery Office.
PEOPLE
Communicating with the people around you can also be a source of valuable
information to a researcher. Information gathered in this way may result from
70
formal conversations or communication with colleagues or specialists in the field

of your research, and may take place at a conference or at meetings, or from
informal discussions and communication between colleagues in the department, at
the tea or lunch table, or via e-mail discussion groups. A wide range of e-mail
discussion lists (http://www.mailbase.ac.uk) and bulletin boards are available, and
provide an important forum for researchers and other interested people to share
and exchange ideas.
A literature search strategy
A literature search is a systematic and thorough search of all types of published

literature in order to identify as many items as possible that are relevant to a
particular topic (Gash 1989). The search should include as wide a range of
information sources as possible, including books, journal articles, reports, theses,
government publications, and so on. A full literature search should not be confined
only to material or items held in only one collection. The most effective search is
one that is well thought out, properly planned and well recorded. The detail of
conducting a traditional literature review is covered in Chapter 3. Below is
guidance indicating the requirements of conducting a literature review using an
electronic library catalogue or Internet-based catalogue.
Identify key concepts
You need to identify the key concepts or aspects of the information that you will
need to search for in order to retrieve information relevant to your needs. From
these key concepts, you will then select the search terms that you will use in your
search.
Formulate your search strategy
Consider each of the key concepts that you have identified and develop related
and alternative terms for each. The search terms that you select must be compatible
with the terminology and bias of the resource to be searched. For example, when
searching a database produced in America it is important to select terminology
that would be in used in the USA and take into account differences in spelling or
terms, for example, elementary instead of primary and behavior instead of
behaviour. It may be helpful to identify related or alternative terms, broader and
narrower terms and variations in spelling of terms as well.
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LESLEY GRAY
Using your search statement, you need to identify the concepts or

components as well as their relationships to one another. Boolean operators are
used to construct a search strategy and allow you to specify how the resource will
use the terms to search for the information you wish to retrieve: ‘AND’ will retrieve
items that contain both search terms; ‘OR’ will retrieve items with either of the
terms; while ‘NOT’ (which should be used with caution) will retrieve results that
contain one of the search terms and NOT another (see Figure 5.1). Truncation or
wildcards may also be used. Although the symbols may differ according to the
search tool being used, the * and ? are widely used. Truncation, using the *, allows
you to search for all variations of the stem of a term. For example, searching for
teach* will retrieve teacher, teachers, teaches, teaching, etc. Wildcards may be
used to replace a single letter in a term, for example, wom?n will retrieve items
with the terms woman and women.
and
Concept 1 Concept 2 Concept 3 Concept 4 ... etc.
or
FIGURE 5.1 Example framework for a search
Select your resource
Selection of a resource to use for a literature search will depend on its suitability
to the topic or area of interest that you wish to retrieve information on. A subject
72
librarian will be able to advise you on available and suitable resources, as well as
offering help with using the search tool and conducting the search.
Familiarise yourself with the resource that you are going to search. Each
database has its own interface as well as its own rules for searching. It is necessary
to find out how to enter search terms, specify which field is to be searched, and to
perform a search. You will also need to know how to combine search terms and
limit searches, as well as how to mark, save or print relevant references retrieved
by the search. This also applies to print-based resources that you may be searching.
It is important to make use of all sources of help available to you. Library staff will
be able to assist you in the use of resources in the library, and most on-line and
electronic resources have on-line help facilities to assist you.
Review search results
In order to determine whether the search terms have retrieved relevant information
resources, you need to review the items that have been retrieved. It may be
necessary to change the terms that you selected, to add additional terms or to
remove terms that are retrieving irrelevant items. If your search retrieves too few
or too many results, it may be necessary to broaden or limit your search. To
broaden a search, you may consider using a broader term or removing a term.
There are several ways to limit a search, including adding additional terms,
imposing limits such as date, type or language of publication on the search,
changing an OR operator to an AND operator between concepts.
Recording the search
It is a good idea to keep a record of the searches that you have done, as well as the
name of the resource that you have searched. Keeping a record of each search that
you do may save you time and effort in the long run. Repeating the search at
regular intervals will retrieve new articles or items that have been published since
your last search and will enable you to keep up-to-date with the latest research and
developments in your field of interest. In the light of reading that you are doing,
and results of your research, you may wish to repeat or broaden an earlier search
to include new concepts or terminology. Searches may be recorded by keeping a
note of search terms, and the various combinations that were used, or most
databases (CD-ROM and on-line) will allow you to save the search strategy to
file.
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LESLEY GRAY
Note-taking
During the course of your research project, you will read and make notes from
many information sources. It is important to make accurate and clear notes so that
they are legible and comprehensible when you consult them without the source in
hand. It is an individual choice as to how to keep and organise the notes that you
take, and may include using notebooks, reference cards, sheets or software packages.
Note-taking needs to be done systematically, and requires discipline from
the start of the project. At a later stage in the project, you may wish to use the
information in your writing or return to the original information source. In your
notes, it should be possible to distinguish between a direct quotation, a paraphrase
or summary of the original passage, and your opinions. It is also important that
you can locate the notes that you have made and the items from which they were
taken. Notes should be accompanied by the full bibliographic details of the item
consulted. It is worthwhile making a note of sources that do not appear to be
relevant when consulted as the source may become relevant at a later stage in your
research, or will act as a reminder of the content of the item if you came across a
reference to the same source again.
Making photocopies of relevant sections of an information source (within the
copyright regulations) may be regarded as a form of note-taking. The photocopy
can be used as a notebook that can be annotated with comments. Although photo-
copying is an easy and, in some cases, convenient way of recording information,
it has cost implications and may also result in the mindless accumulation of
unassimilated pages (Berry 1994).
Referencing
It is worthwhile, at an early stage of your research project, to find out which

referencing style or citation format is used by or acceptable to your organisation.
The Harvard citation style, the Publication Manual of the American Psychological
Association, and the MLA style handbook are widely used. It is important to
systematically record all elements of the bibliographic information required for a
citation while you have the source in hand – trying at a later stage, probably when
you are writing up for the final report, to find page numbers for journal articles
or imprint details of monographs that you possibly consulted elsewhere or on
inter-library loan, is both difficult and time-consuming.
There are several software packages that are available for storing and
managing bibliographic references and can be used to help create bibliographies
in word processed documents including EndNote, Pro-Cite, Papyrus and Reference
Manager.
74
Guides to citing references
Gibaldi, J. (1999). MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. New

York: MLA.
Li, X. and Crane, N. (1996) Electronic Style: A Guide To Citing Electronic
Information. Westport: Meckler.
Publication Manual for the American Psychological Association. (1994)
(fourth edition). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Berry, R. (1994) The Research Project: How to Write it. London: Routledge.
Fink, A. (1998) Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From Paper to the Internet.
London: Sage.
Gash, S. (1989) Effective Literature Searching for Students. Aldershot: Gower.
Jellinek, D. (1998) Official UK: The Essential Guide to Government Websites. London:
Stationery Office.
75
Chapter 6
Chapter 6
Analysing data
◆ David Wilkinson
◆ Classifying data 78
◆ Qualitative data 79
◆ The coding frame 79
◆ Quantitative data 81
◆ Descriptive analysis 81
◆ The mode, median and mean 86–7
◆ Standard deviation 88
◆ Associating data 90
◆ Inferential analysis 94
◆ Reporting the analysis of data 95
Introduction
By the time you reach this chapter you should already have your
data neatly collected and piled up waiting for analysis. Therefore, by
the time you get to the analysis stage, all the hard work has been
done. Earlier chapters have guided you through the minefields of
developing research questions, reviewing the literature, locating
information and collecting data. The purpose of this chapter is to
assist with interpreting and analysing the data you have collected.
Data comes to us in many shapes and forms. The role of analysis is
to bring data together in a meaningful way and enable us as
researchers to interpret or make sense of it.
77
DAVID WILKINSON
This chapter begins by outlining the importance of classifying data in order

to make it ready for analysis. Essentially, two data types exist (as briefly discussed
in Chapter 1) – quantitative and qualitative data. These types are detailed, and
the common methods used to analyse these types of data are provided. Throughout
the chapter examples are given which indicate how to present these data and the
results of their analysis.
The focus in this chapter is on the data analysis methods required by those
conducting research for the first time. As a result, the substance of the chapter
deals with the widely used quantitative analysis methods rather than those
associated with qualitative data. For those interested in qualitative research
methods, the references and further reading section at the end of this chapter
provides details of a number of useful texts on the subject.
Classifying data
Before analysing data, it must be classified or coded in some way. In doing this we
are preparing the data for analysis. Some people refer to this as cleaning or
organising data. For example, data could be organised by entering it into a
computer or grouping it into batches relating to the date it was received. Another
method of coding would be to convert the responses in a questionnaire into, for
example, numeric form.
Examples of quantitative and qualitative data
Quantitative data
◆ Number of students enrolled at a college.
◆ Trends in sales figures.
◆ Imports of cars by each country in Europe.
◆ Number of travellers per year using a particular airport.
Qualitative data
◆ A particular view on euthanasia.
◆ Interpretation of a painting.
◆ The interaction of children in a playground.
◆ Documents tabled at a meeting.
◆ Minutes of a meeting.
◆ Film footage of a music concert.
78
ANALYSING DATA
It is important to note at this point that the analyses you can perform on
your data depends upon its basic type. It could be quantitative data, for example,
a collection of figures relating to the number of cars sold over a period of time.
Alternatively, your data could be more qualitative in nature and consist of an
oral account relating to a personal experience of the National Health Service. Both
types of data require specific approaches to their analysis.
Qualitative data
In order to provide some structure and meaning to qualitative data it must be

coded or cleaned in some way. For example, an interview may (and usually will)
produce a great deal of information relating to given topics. How do we sort this?
How are we going to compare it to other interviews? How do we draw themes
from it?
Qualitative data include observations, interviews and life history accounts.

They enable the voices of those being researched to be heard. Qualitative
data is usually analysed by subjecting it to some form of coding process.
The coding frame
An often-used tool to aid sorting and analysis of these kind of data is the coding
frame. This technique is used in many research organisations as a way of classifying
data and drawing themes from it. For example, a theme may emerge, from a
number of interviews with musicians, that playing a musical instrument began as
a hobby for them whilst at school. This type of response to the question: ‘When
did you first show an interest in music?’ could be categorised as ‘school’. The
number of categories or themes which may emerge from your data will depend
on a number of variables such as the amount of data collected and the breadth of
views.
As you begin to code your data you will discover that many categories will
initially be created. However, the purpose of creating these categories is to reduce
the data – so categories may need to be subsumed into super categories in order
for the reader to digest the information quickly. As an example, statements ‘A’
and ‘C’ in the samples on page 80 could be placed in the super category of ‘During
time spent in education’. The number of categories will depend on the amount of
data you have and the requirements of those reading the eventual report. For
79
DAVID WILKINSON
Sample categories that may emerge from the data
Statement Code
(A) As a child I loved to sit with the teacher at the
piano and listen to her play. Child
(B) Following a car accident I spent a great deal of time
in hospital and I found music helped pass the days. Hospital
(C) I joined a music club at college. College
example, if they are concerned with detail, more categories may be necessary,
whereas if they want a broad overview, fewer categories may be more appropriate.
When developing codes it may be useful to take a sample of your interviews
and then develop a coding frame from them. A good yardstick is to attempt to
develop a framework from approximately 20–30 per cent of your interviews.
However, if this involves a great number of interviews, you may notice recurrent
and similar themes emerging by transcript 7 that are not expanded upon in
subsequent transcripts. If this is the case, you will need to exercise your discretion
as to whether the analysis of further transcripts is appropriate.
Developing coding frames
1 Take a sample of your interviews.

2 Read through the sample transcripts several times.
3 Identify an exhaustive list of emerging themes/categories and number
these.
4 Group linked categories into super-categories.
5 Create a coding frame reference by providing examples from the
interviews of all your themes/categories on a separate sheet of paper.
6 Ask a colleague/friend to take your coding frame reference and the same
sample of interviews and re-code the interviews.
7 Compare codings (you should attempt for over 80 per cent accuracy in
your codings).
8 Re-code interviews if necessary.
9 Apply the coding frame reference to all the remaining interviews.
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ANALYSING DATA
Although the process of categorising and coding data has traditionally been
a manual process of transcribing an interview and literally cutting and pasting it
into categories or chunks, it has recently become possible to perform this form of
analysis using a computer. There are many excellent programs available to support
this process, such as NUDIST and NVIVO, and a great deal of the administrative
task of handling the data can be reduced by using them. However, researchers
must be aware that these programmes assist the user in developing coding frames
and theories about the data. They do not replace the role of theory-building – this
remains the responsibility of the researcher – rather, they provide a platform for
maintaining and assisting in its development.
Quantitative data
In essence, analysis of your data can occur in one of two ways. It can either be a
descriptive analysis, which describes the data, or it can be an analysis that
questions the data or tests hypotheses. The latter form of analysis is known as
inferential analysis and usually involves subjecting your data to some form of
statistical test.
Quantitative data are those types of data that can usually be reduced to
numerical form. The analysis of these data types involves manipulating them
in some way and/or applying some form of statistical test.
Descriptive analysis
There are many ways to analyse quantitative data. A key concern here will be a
reference to the knowledge of your audience. For example, an investigation of
admissions into hospital could be conducted by collecting and presenting data on
the number of admissions in a given year (Figure 6.1). However, the analysis might
include a breakdown of admissions by gender and a comparison of recent years
(see Figure 6.2). These data may have been collected as part of a larger research
project examining the operation of Paperfield Hospital, or they could have been
obtained from a nationally available database relating to hospital admissions.
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DAVID WILKINSON
35000
30000
25000
20000
Number
15000
10000
5000
0
1998
Year
FIGURE 6.1 Number of admissions to Paperfield Hospital
20000
18000
16000
14000
12000
Number
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
(1997) Female (1997) Male (1998) Female (1998) Male
Year
FIGURE 6.2 Number of admissions to Paperfield Hospital by gender
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ANALYSING DATA
Variables
A variable is one of the factors in your data. For example, height, weight
and test scores might be variables. Variables can be either independent or
dependent. A dependent variable is one that you would expect to see change
following an increase or decrease in an associated independent variable. For
example, you might expect to see a change in exam results (dependent
variable) following an increase in lectures attended (independent variable).
Another way of reporting or analysing these data would be to indicate the

percentage of male and female admissions in the chosen years (Figures 6.3 and
6.4). This would be a useful way of showing any increase or decrease in male and
female admissions.
40%
Female
Male
60%
FIGURE 6.3 Number of admissions to Paperfield Hospital (1997)
40%
Female
Male
60%
FIGURE 6.4 Number of admissions to Paperfield Hospital (1998)
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DAVID WILKINSON
Essentially, these types of interpretation or analysis provide descriptions of

your data. They provide a way of reducing data into easily and quickly understood
chunks. It may be that data relating to admissions is initially split by a number of
factors, such as duration of admission, department admitting the patient, doctor
in charge of the patient, site of admission, and so on. This may well be useful and
informative, but it could confuse those reading the output of your research if they
are merely concerned with the number of patients admitted. For those who are
interested in the detail of the numbers admitted to hospital, you may wish to
produce a separate report or a technical addition detailing the additional
breakdown of the data. For example, you may wish to explore your data further
to establish the ages of those admitted. Suppose that 50 women were admitted
into a small department in Paperfield Hospital in 1997 and the data relating to
their ages is made available to you.
What can you do with these data? When they are listed, as shown in Figure
6.5, they are difficult to interpret. You could begin by taking the data and listing
the ages from the highest to the lowest. However, this would not add a great deal
to the analysis of the data (although it would allow you to quickly establish the
oldest and youngest female admitted). A helpful way to present the data would
be to produce a ‘tally chart’ indicating how many times each age appears on the
list (Figure 6.6).
Whilst producing a tally chart (or frequency chart as it is also known) helps
you to analyse the age data, it still remains difficult to draw any useful meaning
from it. Reducing the data further into larger chunks may help, and the use of age
ranges may assist with this. When grouping data into ages it is acceptable to use
5 to 10 year categories (Figure 6.7).
50 49 33 38 60 63
64 70 81 45 26 20
19 45 58 56 22 33
45 47 84 30 28 29
37 42 41 62 26 30
46 48 45 39 25 66
45 50 49 33 38 60
63 64 70 81 44 26
20 19
FIGURE 6.5 Age of women admitted to Department A in 1997
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ANALYSING DATA
Age 19 20 22 25 26 28 29 30 33 37 38 39
Number 2 2 1 1 3 1 1 2 3 1 2 1
of
patients
Age 41 42 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 56 58 60
Number 1 1 2 4 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 2
of
patients
Age 62 63 64 66 70 81 84
Number 1 2 2 1 2 2 1
of
patients
FIGURE 6.6 Tally chart of ages: women admitted to Department A
Age 19–23 24–28 29–33 34–38 39–43 44–48 49–53
No. 5 5 6 3 3 9 4
Age 54–58 59–63 64–68 69–73 74–78 79–83
No. 2 5 3 2 0 3
FIGURE 6.7 Grouping of ages: women admitted to Department A
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DAVID WILKINSON
The mode, median and mean
The ‘chunking’ of the data now allows us to see that of the women admitted to this
department, more were aged between 44 and 48 than any other grouping. This
statement refers to the age range with the most occurrences. This is also known as
the mode age range.
Mode
The mode of a group of data is the most frequently occurring value. For
example, in the results of an examination, it might be the most often
occurring grade.
If, instead, you were interested in establishing the age range that was the
centre of all your ranges, this is known as the median age range. To find the
median, you would list your ages from highest to lowest and count from each end
until you reached the middle. In this case the median age is 45. Where there is an
even number of values (ages in this case), the median is the average of the two
mid-points (45+45 divided by two equals 45).
Median
The median is the value that separates the upper half of a list of values from
the lower half. The median is, therefore, the mid-point in an ordered list of
values.
Whilst this is a useful exercise in determining the middle value, it is still a

time-consuming exercise to perform. First of all you need to rank or list your ages
in order and then you must establish your middle point. Another way of
calculating the middle of a set of ages (or values) is to use the mean value.
The mean, or average as it is also known, is calculated by adding together all
the ages and dividing that result by the number of women admitted. Therefore, the
total of all the ages is 2264 divided by the number of women admitted (50) equals
45.28. The mean, or average, age for the women admitted to this department in
1997 was 45.
The mode, median and mean are all known as measures of central tendency.
They provide single values that best describes the group.
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ANALYSING DATA
Mean
The mean is defined as the sum of the values divided by the total number of
values. For example, the mean following exam results would be:
Exam result 45 67 70 55 42 78 59
Mean = 45+67+70+55+42+78+59 = 419
Divided by the number of results (7) = 59
Mean exam result = 59
Following this, you may wish to explore further the frequency of ages of
those admitted. A visual way of doing this would be to develop a frequency
distribution graph (Figure 6.8).
This graph shows that most of the women admitted to the department were
under 46 years of age – you will notice that there is more activity in the graph
between the ages of 19 and 46. This is known as a skewed distribution, whereby
the results are grouped to one side of the graph. In many studies a distribution
4.5
3.5
2.5
No.
1.5
0.5
0
19 20 22 25 26 28 29 30 33 37 38 39 41 42 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 56 58 60 62 63 64 66 70 81 84
Age
FIGURE 6.8 Frequency distribution graph: women admitted to Department A
87
DAVID WILKINSON
occurs where most of the values group around the middle of the graph. This is
known as a normal distribution. If this were the case you would notice that the
figures for the mode, median and mean were all similar in value. As an example,
you might expect a normal distribution to occur when looking at exam results of
undergraduates (see Figure 6.9).
25
20
15
No.
10
0
30 35 40 45 50 59.4 70 75 80 85 90
Result
FIGURE 6.9 Graph of exam results
Standard deviation
From normally distributed data you can measure the distribution of values around
the mean. Using the exam score example, this would be useful as it would allow
you to establish the degree of dispersion or difference between the scores. If the
standard deviation is large then the scores vary considerably, whereas if the
standard deviation is small then the scores are much closer together.
The standard deviation is a key basic statistical technique, which is a
requirement of many more advanced techniques. In essence, the standard deviation
provides an average of all the deviations from the mean. There are a number of
ways to calculate the standard deviation, one of the simplest is:
Standard deviation = Â X2 - X 2
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ANALYSING DATA
Where ⌺X2 = the sum of the squared scores

—
X = the mean of the scores
N = the number of scores
By way of example, consider the exam results reported earlier:
Exam result X2
45 2025
67 4489
70 4900
55 3025
42 1764
78 6084
59 3481
⌺X = 416 ⌺X2 = 25768
—
X = 416 / 7 = 59.4
Standard Deviation = ÷25768 / 7 – (59.4)2 = ÷153 = 12.4
Standard Deviation = 12.4
Having established the standard deviation for the exam scores, we can see
that there is some dispersion among the results. In addition, if the distributions of
scores are normal (as shown in Figure 6.9), certain statements can be made about
the results. In a normal distribution the range from –1 standard deviation to +1
standard deviation contains 68 per cent of the results, the range from –2 standard
deviations to +2 standard deviations contains 95 per cent of the results, and the
range from –3 standard deviations to +3 standard deviations contains 99 per cent
of the results.
The standard deviation is a useful way of comparing across different sets of
data. For example, it could be used to compare the variability in different exam
results – such as Law and Accountancy – among a cohort of students. It is also used
as a basis for many more detailed statistical analyses of your data (see, for example,
inferential analysis on p. 94).
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DAVID WILKINSON
25
47.5 MEAN 71.8

36.4 84.2
20
15
No.
10
1SD 1SD
5
2 SDs 2 SDs
0
30 35 40 45 50 59.4 70 75 80 85 90
Result
FIGURE 6.10 Graph of exam results showing standard deviation
Standard deviation
The standard deviation is a tool used to measure dispersion. The standard

deviation shows the relation a set of values has to the mean. Assuming that
the distribution of scores is normal, certain statements can be made about the
data (69 per cent of values fall within 1 standard deviation of the mean, 95
per cent lie within 2 standard deviations of the mean, and 99 per cent lie
within 3 standard deviations).
Associating data
You may find that with some of your data you wish to explore possible
relationships between two different sets of data (or variables, as they are also
known). This is often referred to as correlation research. There are numerous
techniques available for exploring the relationships between variables. Two of the
most commonly used are Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and
Spearman’s Rank Order Correlation Coefficient. Both of these analyses indicate
whether an association is positive (with a maximum value of +1) or negative (with
a maximum value of –1). It is usually the case that scatterplots are used to show
the results of the analysis.
90
ANALYSING DATA
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
FIGURE 6.11 Example of positive correlation
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
FIGURE 6.12 Example of negative correlation
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DAVID WILKINSON
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
FIGURE 6.13 Example of no correlation
The detailed formula of correlation research is not discussed here, but the
references and further reading section at the end of this chapter will direct you to
appropriate statistical texts that will enable you to carry out a number of analyses
of correlation. As an example, exam scores and number of lectures attended could
be analysed for correlation. Using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation
Coefficient approach (R), the analysis would take the following form, using the
formula below:
——
R = ⌺XY/N – XY
Sx Sy
Where N = number of pairs of scores

⌺XY = the sum of the total of each pair of scores
— —
X,Y = the means of the 2 variables
Sx, Sy = the standard deviations of the 2 variables
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ANALYSING DATA
Exam No. of lectures X2 Y2 XY

score(X) attended(Y)
48 7 2304 49 336
57 11 3249 121 627
72 16 5184 256 1152
36 2 1296 4 72
⌺X = 213 ⌺Y = 36 ⌺X2 = 12033 ⌺Y2 = 430 ⌺XY = 2187
X=
Â X = 213 = 53.25
N 4
Y =
Â Y = 36 = 9
N 4
Sx =
ÂX 2
- X2 =
12033
- 2835 = 13.16
N 4
Sy =
ÂY 2
-Y2 =
430
- 81 = 5.14
N 4
R=
Â XY / N - XY = 2187 / 4 - (53.25)(9)
Sx Sy (13.16) (5.14)
R = 0.99
This indicates that there is a strong positive correlation between these two variables.
However, you must take care when performing correlation analysis on your data.
The appearance of a relationship does not necessarily mean one exists – it does not
indicate causation. In other words, correlation does not prove that one variable
causes another to alter in value.
A descriptive analysis or report of your data is a useful way of introducing
the data to the reader. From a general analysis you can move on to a more detailed
examination of your data (if this is appropriate, given the requirements of the
reader or user of your research). Questions posed here may include: ‘What are the
data saying?’ and ‘What do the data mean?’ Interpreting or questioning your data
in this way often leads to inferentially analysing your data.
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DAVID WILKINSON
Inferential analysis
An inferential analysis of your data assists you in making conclusions about the
data by performing certain operations on it. With inferential analysis you are
inferring from your sample data (for example, the exam scores) what the
population scores are (say, the scores for an entire group of undergraduates).
Sample
A sample is a selection which is taken from a group; it is usually considered

to be representative of that group. As a result, the findings from the sample
can be generalised back to the group.
Population
A population is a group who share the same characteristics. For example, a

population could be members of a club, nurses, students or children.
The major difference between inferential analysis and descriptive analysis

is that with descriptive techniques you are merely describing the data as it is
represented to you. With inferential analysis, you test or perform some operation
on the data in order to make conclusions about it.
Statistical significance
One popular method of inferential analysis is to make judgements of the

probability that the difference in, say, the mean scores in a law exam for a sample
of male and female students is one that is representative of all male and female
students on the law programme; or whether it is down to chance. In this way, we
are said to be testing the significance of the difference in exam scores.
In statistical terms, when we test for significance we must first make a
statement or hypothesis about the data. For example, the hypothesis for the exam
score instance could be: ‘There is no significant difference in male and female exam
scores’. This statement is known as a non-directional hypothesis because it merely
puts forward that no difference exists. The statistical tests to perform on this type
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ANALYSING DATA
Statistical significance
Statistical significance refers to how much, for example, exam results for a
group of students could be down to chance alone. If the results cannot be
explained by chance, it is assumed that another factor, such as number of
lectures attended, had an impact on the results. One of two significance levels
are usually applied when testing for statistical significance – 0.05 and 0.01.
These levels indicate degrees of confidence in the assumption that chance
was not the cause. Whilst 0.01 is the stricter of the degrees, both can be
understood as producing statistically significant results.
of hypothesis are called two-tailed tests. However, if the hypothesis were stated as:
‘males perform better than females in exams’ then the hypothesis becomes
directional, and a one-tailed test is required. The requirements of a one-tailed test
are more strict than those for a two-tailed test, as the latter is only concerned with
proving a difference exists, while the former is concerned with exploring who the
difference favours.
Hypothesis
An hypothesis is a proposition or statement you wish to test with your data.

They are commonly referred to as null hypotheses. These are negative
statements which have to be disproved in order validate the statement made.
There are a number of statistical tests available to researchers when exploring

hypotheses. These include the t-test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and the
Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). These more advanced statistical techniques
are explored in traditional statistical texts and not detailed here. Those who are
interested in developing a more thorough understanding of such methods may care
to consult the references and further reading section at the end of this chapter.
Reporting the analysis of data
As this chapter has shown, data can be presented in a variety of ways. When you
report your data it will be in one of two main forms: a table or a chart/figure.
Tables often reproduce raw data. They should be clear and uncluttered. In
95
DAVID WILKINSON
research reports, tables are often used to present findings, emphasise a point made
in the text or act as the starting point for a discussion or analysis of some aspect
of the data. Even if your report has only one table, it should be clearly labelled with
a title and reference number. Some organisations and institutions have a particular
‘house style’ for the presentation of data, so you may need to check this.
Charts or figures are more graphical representations of your data or the results
of some analysis of it. These presentational tools also require careful and clear
labelling. Presenting your data as a figure or chart may include constructing a
histogram, bar chart or pie chart of your data. These, as shown earlier, are often used
to present descriptive analyses of your data. More complex analyses of your data,
such as an exploration of correlation, are best presented as scatterplots or line graphs.
Tips for presenting data
◆ Remind the reader of the research question or questions when presenting

data. This helps provide focus.
◆ Move from the general to the specific. For example, indicate general
findings before moving on to the more specific and detailed elements.
◆ Keep linked data together in your report and deal with them in one
chapter or section if possible. This aids the flow and structure of your
report.
◆ Keep tables and figures simple! Any detail should be provided in an
accompanying key, or in an appendix at the back of the report.
*Bryman, A. (1988) Quantity and Quality in Social Research. London: Routledge.

Clegg, F. (1982) Simple Statistics: A Course Book for the Social Sciences. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Cohen, L. and Holliday, M. (1996) Practical Statistics for Students. London: Paul Chapman
Publishing.
*Fielding, N. G. and Lee, R. M. (1998) Computer Analysis and Qualitative Research.
London: Sage.
*Miles, M. B. and Huberman, A. M. (1994) Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded
Sourcebook (second edition). London: Sage.
*Tesch, R. (1990) Qualitative Research: Analysis Types and Software Tools. London:
Falmer Press.
Wright, D. B. (1989) Understanding Statistics: An Introduction for the Social Sciences.
London: Sage.
(*Of particular relevance to those interested in exploring qualitative research methods)
96
Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Completing the research

project
◆ Christine Gough

◆ The process of writing-up 97
◆ Motivation 98
◆ Organising 100
◆ Time management 101
◆ Targeting your audience 103
◆ Style and structure 105–6
◆ References 108–10
◆ Obtaining and acting on feedback 110
◆ Revising the report 111
◆ Submission and publication 112
The process of writing up
The completion stage of a research project focuses on the writing-up

process. Many people who undertake research find the prospect of
writing very daunting. This is not just confined to new researchers.
Even people with many years of research experience can lack
confidence. Research writing has been termed ‘one of the most
difficult tasks that human beings have set themselves’ (Orna and
Stevens 1995: 162). This is a statement that I am sure many of us
have identified with when faced with that looming essay or report
deadline.
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CHRISTINE GOUGH
However, like it or not, writing remains the main way to communicate

research. Whatever context you are researching in, some form of written output
will be required. For example, in education, it might be a dissertation or thesis. In
a work context, it might be a report. For that reason this chapter has been written
to be applicable in whatever research setting you may find yourself.
In a lot of the ‘how to do literature’ on research, there is limited attention
given to advice on the writing itself. However, as much as people dread writing,
they don’t want to waste valuable time reading about how to do it. This chapter
offers a concise and practical approach to the process of writing, drawing on some
of the literature as well as using my and others’ experiences. I argue that if you
adopt a more systematic approach to writing, then it doesn’t have to be the most
dreaded task of the research process. Many researchers muddle through for years
in a disorganised way making writing more difficult than it has to be.
This chapter is split into six sections. The first section will deal with the
process aspect of writing up, looking at motivational problems, problems in
starting, the ‘when’ issue, organising and coding sources, time management and
general guidelines for the writing process. Section two deals with issues relating to
targeting an audience, focusing particularly on conventions and content. Then
section three deals with writing style, referencing and how you should structure
your findings. Section four considers how to schedule for feedback and respond to
it. Then, for when the bulk of the writing is done, section five deals with revisions
and in particular, editing and evaluating your writing. The final section deals with
what happens once you have finished writing, i.e. submission for assessment or
publication or both. Whilst there is no substitute for experience, the following
sections will give you useful pointers to guide you into the ways of writing that
work best for you.
Motivation
The first question is when should writing begin? Many researchers mistakenly
think that the report should be written up after all of the data have been collected
and analysed, i.e. at the end of the research. Indeed placing the writing up section
at the end in much of the literature on research processes (as is the case here!)
would imply that this should be the case. That is why I take this opportunity now
to stress that it is important to begin writing early on in the research project. As
Blaxter et al. (1996: 208–9) point out:
Writing up your research should start early and become a regular and
continuing activity. It is also likely to be an iterative or cyclical process. That
is, you will draft a section or chapter, then move on to some other activity,
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COMPLETING THE RESEARCH PROJECT
and return one or more times to redraft your original version. This is partly
because as the totality of the research thesis or report takes shape, what you
have written in subsequent sections affects what you wrote earlier and
necessitates changes in it. It is also the case that as your research proceeds you
find out more, read more, and change your mind about some things.
However, this is all well and good, but, as mentioned in the introduction, many
people find writing difficult. Many experience motivational problems relating to
starting writing, such as lack of confidence, lead to researchers putting things
off. Also, a lot of new researchers grossly underestimate the length of time that is
necessary for writing, which can lead to problems with deadlines and the quality
of reports due to cramming at the end. This section will deal with both of these
problems.
First, the problem of ‘putting things off’. Blaxter et al. (1996) deal with this
issue in more detail, but in a lot of cases, problems relating to this seem to be due
to a lack of confidence because people put pressure on themselves to get it perfect
first time. Also, it can be due to a lack of focus and knowledge of what is expected
of you. That is why it is important to begin writing early on, otherwise you are
faced with that dreaded task at the end of the project. So, allocate plenty of time
for it in your workplan because this will reduce the amount of stress that you put
yourself under. The main advice from the texts is to get something down on paper
that you know will be of use to you in some kind of thematic form. Even the most
experienced of researchers don’t come up with the ideal version first time round.
If you schedule writing into your workplan regularly, then it will gradually get
easier.
Tips for getting started
Write what is fact and then build on that. One researcher I know said that when
having problems writing a book it is a good idea to get your structure laid out and
then write what you know without the aid of notes, literature, and so on, and then
build from that. This can help you to get the main themes down on paper and
develop linkages.
Another useful idea to get you focused is to decide on the number of words
you will devote to each section based on the report’s word limit. However, here
there are some factors to consider, which are summarised by Denscombe (1998:
235) as follows:
When a word count becomes crucial, such as is often the case with academic
dissertations, it is worth noting that the total normally includes only
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CHRISTINE GOUGH
those sections from the introduction to the conclusions/recommendations.

References, appendices and indexes are not normally included, nor is the
initial material before the introduction, such as the contents page, preface,
etc. It is always worth checking, however, that this convention applies in
each specific instance when submitting a research report.
The rest of this section offers guidelines for organising your information for
writing and time management.
Organising
Instead of using the ‘muddle through’ approach that I used for years, I have
adopted a system for writing adapted from the ‘design approach’ of Orna and
Stevens (1995). This emphasises the importance of organising your information
closely in line with the structure of your report before writing. Many of the
research process books pay little attention to how critical it is to organise your
information. I definitely learned the hard way over the years, until I started using
this simple but effective approach. Critics would say that it stunts creativity;
however, this approach arranges your sources, data and information in such a
way that you can concentrate your energies on writing. Whether writing for an
essay, journal, book, or report, this method can be applied to all types of writing
outputs. I am not suggesting that you follow this method rigidly, but think of it as
a framework that you can adapt to your own needs. Even for those who actually
like writing, this method can help improve the quality of your output. Also, it can
be applied to either a manual or computer database of sources. This approach
consists of the following stages:
Stage 1 First, write a draft contents list and break it down into chapters or
sections, or both. Then label your sources, data and any other
information in line with these. This labelling will be done continuously
throughout the whole process as you build up more references and data.
Stage 2 Think of your report as a whole, and mark out the sequence of ideas and
linkages between them. If it’s useful, draw a diagram showing these
linkages.
Stage 3 Within each chapter or section, decide on the themes, draw links and
number the themes to show the order that they will be placed in. Then
add these themes to your contents list. Next, code each theme with a
different shape and colour and mark your sources accordingly. Then pile
them in the relevant order for each chapter.
Stage 4 You can start writing after stage 3, but if the report is particularly lengthy,
100
it can be useful to sketch the framework of what you are going to write
in the form of double page spreads. This provides a useful structure to
write into and can aid with the logic and flow of your argument.
Stage 5 Writing. It wastes time to write in a less focused way, hoping that
something will come together. Even after these stages it is unlikely that
you will be able to write the perfect version of your report the first time
round. Decide what you want to say briefly under each section or heading
and then build up the detail gradually from that. Writing is a process of
progressive refining and you should not underestimate the time it takes.
Also, there is no set way to sequence your argument, so you have to
choose the structure, linkages and cross-referencing that work best for
each report.
A system for writing up research
1 Draft the content

2 Sequence the ideas
3 Develop the themes
4 Devise a detailed writing framework
5 Begin the write-up
Developed from Orna and Stevens (1995)
Time management
Having established an approach to writing, discipline has to come into play in

order to manage your study time efficiently and effectively and thus meet the
deadlines.
Break down your writing into key stages according to, say, particular themes
or sections and then set targets for each, allotting a specific amount of time for each
task. See how much you get written within this writing plan and then you can
adjust it accordingly. This method gives you more focus – it is surprising how
much more you get done if you have set time frames to focus on. Of course, if you
feel that you can add a lot more within each session then do so. Set time frames
are useful for people who are having problems with discipline and focus. In terms
of appropriate time allocations, these are difficult to gauge at first but they will be
easier to estimate with practice when you get more of a feel for your pace of
writing.
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CHRISTINE GOUGH
If you are writing the report jointly, it should be made clear early on in the
research who will contribute to each chapter or section. Then, relevant deadlines
can be set to increase the chances of you all completing your tasks at the same
time so that the report can be pulled together without major delays. Therefore, it
is useful to develop a writing workplan for the project.
Time-saving tips
1 First, make sure that you work in a place where distractions can be kept
to a minimum because they reduce flow and efficiency in your writing.
If you think that interruptions will be inevitable then write a more
detailed plan of key tasks that you have to do within each writing
session. Therefore you can keep track of what you are doing.
2 Write regularly so that you gain momentum – it will get easier and
quicker with practice.
3 Consider the quality of time and effort that you are putting in – keep
focused – and don’t kid yourself that because you have been sitting at
your desk or computer for 6 hours that you have achieved a lot. Keep
reviewing the outputs of your study sessions.
4 Do the more difficult subjects or tasks at the time of day that you know
you work best. For some this is in the morning. A lot of my ideas
unfortunately tend to flow most rapidly in the early hours of the
morning!
5 Another time-saving tip, if you have access to a PC or word processor,
is to write the bulk of your work at the computer. This will save a lot of
time compared to writing hand-written notes and then typing them in
word for word. This may seem strange at first, but not only will it save
time but also mean that you can keep a closer eye on the word limits
and cut and paste sections easily.
Whilst acknowledging that drafting and redrafting will play a part, aim to
get each section to a good standard first time. It is always worth trying to produce
the final version at the first attempt. To write with the idea that what is written will
be redrafted encourages a degree of carelessness, which can produce drafts that
require complete revision. On the other hand if you aim to get it right first time,
there is every chance that all that will be required is minor amendment. This is as
much an attitude of mind as a matter of style.
102
Targeting your audience
The audience for a particular research project will differ according to the subject
matter. As Denscombe (1998: 227) points out, ‘there is no single set of rules and
guidelines for writing up research which covers all situations and provides a
universally accepted convention’. Therefore, whatever written output you are
producing, you need to tailor it to the appropriate conventions and needs of
potential readers.
So, very simply, think about who the report is for and what you are seeking
to achieve by reporting to them. Also, think about what the audience already
knows and what they need to know. As a writer you must find out what types
of reader will be receiving your output and what they will be using it for. For
example, you might need to consider whether they are academic or practitioner,
lay or professional. Also, you might have to produce more than one report in order
to cater for different groups. For example, one for the client and one for the more
general reader. You will also need to consider how your written output will be
used, for example, as a reference to make recommendations, to provide an
overview of a subject or issue, to provide data for further use, to describe or to be
critical.
The type of project and the target audience will determine the format and
content of the report. For example, workplace reports may be short and less
detailed, whereas academic reports are often complex and lengthy. It is usually
the case that at degree level the examiners assess a dissertation or thesis according
to the value of the research questions posed. In essence they decide (a) whether the
questions are good ones (have they been answered already elsewhere? Are they
useful question to work on?); (b) whether the student adequately answered the
questions posed; and (c) whether the student made an adequate contribution to
knowledge.
In addition to the above essential elements, there are usually conventions for
writing and/or presentation that you need to adhere to. For example, a university,
journal or institution may set out requirements in relation to length, essential
information, referencing, and layout. This is discussed in the next section.
Submitting to a journal or other publication
When submitting a research paper to a journal, submission guidelines are often

supplied at the back of the publication (usually on the inside of the back cover).
The explosion of research-paper submissions has led to many journal editors
strictly adhering to these guidelines. I know of many manuscripts or papers that
have been returned to novice researchers for not complying (often to the letter)
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with submission requirements. The requirements can differ considerably from

journal to journal, but usually consist of two elements – presentation and general
content.
Example presentation requirements for a journal

◆ The paper should be printed on A4 size sheets of paper.
◆ The paper should be double-line spaced with wide margins on all sides
(this enables editors to make comments on your paper as they read it).
◆ The typeface should be at least 10 point in size and in a generally
recognised font such as Times New Roman.
◆ Three copies of the paper should be supplied along with an electronic
version (on disk) in a generally recognised format such as Word or
WordPerfect.
Example general content requirements for a journal

◆ The name of the paper.
◆ The author’s name (and usually the place where the research was
conducted).
◆ An abstract of the paper (usually restricted to between 200 to 600 words).
◆ The paper itself.
Content
No matter what type of report or audience you are targeting, it is usual to include
ideas and information on:
Purpose Here you want to say why the work was done and
give some background to the study. Also, this part
should include a statement of aims and objectives.
How the research was done Here you should describe how the work was done
with a discussion and justification of the methods
used. Also, you should highlight any problems that
were experienced during the research.
Presenting the findings Here you need to detail the results.
Discuss and analyse findings Here you interpret the results and discuss their
significance.
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Reach conclusions Here you make conclusions from the analysis

and, depending on the type of report, make
recommendations.
Style of the report
Style relates to the way you write in relation to factors such as detail, complexity,
language, terminology and references, and is a key ingredient to ensuring the
quality of a report.
Whatever the written output required you should aim for clarity in order to
avoid confusion and ambiguity for the reader. Therefore, you should pay particular
attention to the length of sentences and paragraphs, and also vocabulary. Also use
language that makes the report interesting to read.
Try to mix and match the length of sentences because this makes for a more
interesting read. However, be careful not to put in sentences that are too long
because they may be less easy to understand and could make it hard work for the
reader. Also, break up lengthy pages of text with headings and bullet points;
however, be aware that certain conventions might not accept this.
Don’t use long and complex words for the sake of it. Short and simple
words are better unless the conventions or the field you are working in particu-
larly require these. However, consider the tone of your writing. Depending on
your audience, you need to take care not to be patronising. At the same time you
have to be cautious in assuming certain things are self-evident. This is particularly
important in the use of terminology.
Also, take extra care with punctuation. Lots of people find anything beyond
commas, full stops and brackets too much. Dashes can be useful but should be
used so as not to halt the flow of the report.
When developing an argument that is complex, break it up into separate
parts and create linkages to make it easier for the reader to follow.
Another important factor to consider is whether to write using a passive or
active voice. A passive voice could be used to de-personalise the research – which
would be useful if confidential data were consulted. An example would be
‘The conclusion that some managers receive more than others was indicated by
information relating to salary levels’. However, the active voice provides more
information and can aid clarity. An example would be ‘Salary information
indicates that some managers receive more than others’.
Whatever style you use the important thing is to be consistent.
Finally, it is generally accepted that research reports should be written in
a non-discriminatory way, that is, in such a way that does not denigrate or
exclude particular groups of people on the basis of what may be fairly arbitrary
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characteristics like sex, race, religion, physical and mental abilities or sexual
orientation.
Structure of the report
This section offers general guidelines on structure which can be adapted depending
on the requirements of your audience, and the nature, detail and context of the
research being undertaken.
Building on the recommendations from the last section, this part will offer a
detailed breakdown of how a report should be structured. A short paragraph for
each heading will be provided. This section builds on Denscombe’s (1998)
comprehensive list of sections which follows the academic model. He divides the
structure of a report into the preliminary part, the main text and the end matter.
The headings under each can be used in line with the requirements of your report.
Preliminary part
Title This should reflect the contents of the report but has to
be brief. Some researchers find it necessary to include a
sub-heading in order to give more detail.
Abstract This is a one page summary of the work of approxi-
mately 250–300 words. This should give the broad aims
of the work and conclusions. People often only read this
to see if the report will be of any use and so it needs to
be written well.
List of contents List sections or, if it is a lengthy report, each chapter
and section. Also, the appropriate page numbers should
be given.
Lists of figures and On the figures/tables themselves make sure you acknow-
tables ledge the sources, and label axes on graphs, etc.
correctly.
Preface This is a personal statement from the author who
mentions something about the events leading up to the
study and the significance of it.
Acknowledgements Here acknowledge the people who have supported you
during the research. Also acknowledge those people or
organisations that have cooperated with it.
Abbreviations Here provide a list of the full version of each one.
106
The main text
Introduction Here give some background to the study and outline

the purpose. Then aims, objectives and hypotheses
should be set out along with an indication of the scope
of the project and the main gaps in knowledge that will
be addressed.
Literature review This should cover background theory/knowledge, key
concepts and definitions, and will show how the
research fits in with these. However, it should not be an
account of everything that you have read which vaguely
relates to the research. You have to be selective here.
Methods This should show how the methods were used to
address each of the objectives. Therefore, it should
include a justification of the overall research design and
methods – for example, a case study or survey. Also
which type of instruments were used to gather the data
– questionnaire, interview, etc. In addition, what type of
data where gathered – quantitative, qualitative or both?
If it is a survey, you should cover things like the
population surveyed and the sample size. If a case study,
justify your selection and how you gained access, and
say who was involved.
If appropriate, you should give an account of the
research at each stage and mention any problems that
may have affected the results.
Finally, you should say how the data were analysed,
be it statistically or otherwise.
Also acknowledge the limitations of the research
in relation to such things as time constraints and
accuracy.
Results Here you should set out the results in an organised way
– for example, in relation to a particular theme or issue.
The more academic the report, the more specific these
should be.
Analysis and discussion This should interpret the results and highlight the most
significant ones and perhaps deduce things from them.
Here you discuss the findings in relation to the back-
ground theories and knowledge and the original aims of
the project.
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Some researchers prefer to have the results, analysis and

discussion as one section because they think that it gives
a more rounded summary of the research. This is matter
of taste and convention.
Conclusions and Here the researcher needs to assess the extent to which
recommendations the original goals of the study have been met. Also, it
will reflect on the methods used. It might recommend
action or show how it has increased our understanding.
Consider the questions remaining or generated by the
research and recommend further research. It is
important, at these stages, to draw together the threads
of the research in order to arrive at some general
conclusion and, perhaps to suggest some way forward.
Attempt to make them positive and constructive.
The end matter
Appendices Here you should include anything that might interrupt

the flow of the arguments in the report. Material
included here is generally too detailed for inclusion
in the main report, but should be available for exami-
nation by readers to show them the material or instru-
ments you have used, for example questionnaires and
interview schedules.
References This should be an alphabetical list of all of the authors
cited or referred to in the text. It should not be confused
with a bibliography, which is a list of everything that
you have read during the study. The Harvard System is
the most widely used. Within this system the ideas of
the author are referred to in summary or by direct
quotation. Then in the back of the report, the authors
or organisation are listed in alphabetical order. The
next section deals with this in more detail.
References
The following are examples of how to reference different works.
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What should your reference include?
◆ The surname and initial of each author, editor, or the name of the
institution.
◆ Date of publication.
◆ The title, including any sub-titles.
◆ The name of the journal if applicable (should also include the volume,
number and page numbers).
◆ Place of publication.
◆ The publisher.
◆ The edition (only if it is a second, third or fourth edition, etc.).
A BOOK OR REPORT
Bell, J. (1993) Doing Your Research Project: A Guide for First-time Researchers
in Education and Social Science. Buckingham: Open University Press. Second
Edition.
A JOURNAL
Kershaw, B. (1990) Clinical credibility and nurse teachers. Nursing Standard 4(51):
46–7.
AN ORGANISATION OR INSTITUTION
United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting
(1990) The Report of the Post Registration Education and Practice Project.
London: UKCC.
CHAPTERS IN BOOKS
Tierney, A. (1996) Reporting and Disseminating Research, in D. F. S. Cormack

(ed.) The Research Process in Nursing (third edition). Oxon: Blackwell Science.
pp. 373–385.
PAPERS IN PUBLISHED PROCEEDINGS OF CONFERENCES
Gough, C. (1998) Organisational Effectiveness: Lessons from the Public Sector,

in Proceedings of the Organisational Effectiveness Annual One Day Conference,
17 June, Edge Hill University College, Lancashire. pp. 56–64.
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CHRISTINE GOUGH
UNPUBLISHED PAPERS
Wilkinson, D. (1998) Access in the context of lifelong learning. Unpublished

manuscript.
THESES
Stoney, C. (1996) Strategic Management in Local Government. Unpublished Ph.D.

thesis, Leeds Metropolitan University.
Obtaining and acting on feedback
The best way to improve and develop your writing is to be willing to accept
criticism either formally or informally. For obvious reasons people feel uneasy
with this but the best thing to do is to see it as a positive opportunity to learn.
Particularly for a large-scale project, it is important to schedule for feedback in
your workplan at key stages, say after each chapter. Without the discipline from
this activity, the writing can drift on for longer than it has to.
So, in the academic or work context you would arrange to meet with your
supervisor or manager. Also, you could present a working paper at a seminar or
conference, which can at first be very daunting but can be very rewarding. Also,
it can be good for motivation and encourages you to focus your writing.
If the work is commissioned by another organisation, it can vary as to
whether they want you to give feedback on the progress of the work at intervals,
say via an interim report or upon completion of the project. If the latter is the case
it would be advisable for you to arrange to meet with the client when you have
some form of draft so that you can be sure that their requirements are being met.
This could save time at the end and avoid the problem of the report being thrown
back at the end for major changes.
Whatever the research context, make sure that you meet with your
supervisor, manager or client before the final draft stage to ensure that you have
fulfilled the requirements and addressed any problem areas.
If you are new to research it is particularly important that you get feedback
in relation to the ethical standards in your field. This is to ensure that you have
taken the necessary precautions to ensure anonymity and confidentiality. In the
case of a large-scale survey it would be relatively easy to ensure this, but in case
study or small-scale research it may be more difficult to de-personalise comments
or responses. In the nursing field, much of the ethical debate centres on the need
to protect the individual from harm. For more on this consult McHaffie (1996).
110
Once you have received feedback, you must consider whether your report
needs to be adjusted at all. Also, it is worth evaluating the criticisms and ensure
that they were made for all the right reasons.
Revising the report
Once you have made the necessary adjustments from the feedback you need to
edit and evaluate your work.
Bell (1993: 160–1) argues for the need for revision.
One problem about spending so much time on the original draft (the most
difficult part of the writing stage) is that parts of it may seem right simply
because they have been read so often. Another is that you may be so familiar
with the subject that you assume something is understandable to the reader
when it is not. Time will give you a better perspective on your writing, so you
should put the script aside – for several days – so that you can return to it
with a more critical eye. This will help you to identify repetitive passages,
errors of expression and lack of clarity.
Therefore, because there is a tendency to become immersed in your writing it is

important to take a break from your writing for a day or two in order to be able
to edit and evaluate your work effectively.
Revision/editing checklist
◆ Check for accuracy in spelling, referencing, quotations, grammar and

punctuation.
◆ Check that your arguments are clear with logic and flow and that any
headings and sub-headings are used appropriately.
◆ Test for readability – this will be affected by the sentence and paragraph
length and links between sections and chapters.
◆ Make sure that the layout, presentation and referencing style meets with
the appropriate conventions.
◆ In the literature review assess whether an adequate number and type of
sources have been included – for example, between academic and
practitioner. Also ensure there is a balance in articles from books,
journals and other sources.
(continued)
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◆ Have the methods and analysis techniques been adequately justified?

Also, are the data reliable?
◆ Ensure that the findings are clearly presented and that the discussion is
analytical and critical and not just a mere description.
◆ Also ask yourself: Have the original objectives been achieved? If
applicable, have hypotheses been proved or not?
◆ Make sure that your conclusions are based on evidence from your
findings.
◆ Is the layout and style consistent?
Working through the revision checklist can be helpful if you are experiencing
problems finishing off. A common reason for delaying this is that you don’t think
that your work is good enough. Once you are satisfied that all of these points have
been met, then proof-read the final draft. It is useful to do this by reading out loud.
Submission and publication
Submission
Before you submit your work, you need to check that you have met the appropriate
presentation requirements, such as margin sizes, line spacing, paper size, number
of copies, and whether it needs to be bound or not.
In the academic setting it is likely that you will be assessed internally by the
relevant tutors or committee. However, if you go for a higher degree like an
M.Phil. or Ph.D., an external examiner will assess you. In the workplace, senior
management or the board who requested the work may assess you. In either case
you may be requested to a do a presentation and in the academic context, an oral
examination.
There is no such thing as a standard oral examination or presentation. For
either it is important to prepare and ‘perhaps the best mental preparation of all is
for students to be in a position to exploit the strengths of their writing and to pre-
empt criticism of its weaknesses’ (Sharp and Howard 1996: 221). You need to
demonstrate a clear grasp of the research context, what your research has
contributed to the problem and any limitations. If you feel particularly
apprehensive about doing presentations, then there are plenty of guides to help
build your confidence. One that I have found particularly useful is Confident
Speaking: How to Communicate Effectively Using the Power Talk System by
Godefroy and Barrat (1990).
112
Now for the outcome of your assessment. In the work context the outcome
of the assessment process will be to have the work accepted or referred for minor
modifications. However, in the academic context, it is most likely that your work
will be passed with or without a request for alterations. The two most common
referral cases are for plagiarism or for referral for a lower qualification if the
examiners think that you have not achieved the appropriate level.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is any attempt to mislead by passing off the ideas or work of

others as your own. Therefore you must ensure that any quotations,
paraphrasing or citations are fully acknowledged.
If you feel that you have been treated unfairly with your work you can go
through the relevant appeals process. If you are a student, for example, you will
be able to go through the relevant Student Grievance procedure and get support
from the Students’ Union complaints procedure at your institution. However, in
most cases, referrals require minor modifications and are considered part and
parcel of the research process, so you should not feel too disappointed if your
work requires it.
Publication
Once your work is completed and accepted you may decide to publish in order to
spread the word more widely in the public arena and to improve your standing in
your own research community. It is also a useful tool for promotion, job-seeking
and networking with others in your research field. Seeing your name in print can
give you a great sense of satisfaction after all the labours of your research. In
nursing, as well as many other fields, publishing is particularly important. This is
emphasised by Tierney (1996: 377):
Research is still a relatively recent development in nursing and much of the

work is still in the form of small-scale, one-off studies. Further research will
be all the more useful if it builds on studies previously undertaken and, for
this to be done, there needs to be access to earlier work in published form.
It is not only intending researchers who need access to this material. Students
and teachers need it too if research is to be incorporated into nurse education.
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CHRISTINE GOUGH
You could aim to publish a book, a review article or a monograph. However,

the most popular is in the learned journal. For general readership in the area of
nursing, it may be useful to publish in the Nursing Standard or Nursing Times. Or
if you are writing for a specific audience, choose something such as Cancer Nursing
or Journal of Clinical Nursing. The best thing to do is to scan the journals in your
library and examine the writing style used by contributors. Also, get a sense of
what the top journals are in your field. Your library should be able to assist with
this by providing you with the names of the most popular titles.
When targeting aim for the top journals first, it is worth having a go two or
three times before you opt for a lower ranking one. However, at the same time, the
lower ranking journals are not to be underestimated because they can reach a wide
audience. Also aim for a journal that has a record for publishing in your specialist
area – this might increase your chances. Always be aware of the different styles of
journals. Some require a lot of theory, others are happy with a brief overview of
the literature before discussion of your findings. You could also target an electronic
journal via the Internet, which is becoming an increasingly popular option. The
advantage of this is that the publication process is a lot quicker.
Know how to pitch the tone of the article. For example, a journal for
practitioners and academics will be lighter in tone than a purely academic one.
Additionally, don’t waffle. Instead, make the article interesting by using lively
vocabulary. Be innovative with your title and make it an eyecatcher.
A lot of people only read the introduction and conclusion, so make sure that
these are well written. A researcher colleague once suggested that his students
should read only the emboldened parts of an article, as these were the most
important parts. However, I wouldn’t suggest such a minimalist approach!
Finally don’t be intimidated or put off by the prospect of publishing – it is
not just confined to those natural intellectuals in the great heights of academia. In
fact, these people are the exception rather than the rule in the publishing arena. So
have a go and believe that the product of your hard labours is worthy of
publishing.
Summary checklist for writing-up
◆ Begin writing early on in the research project.

◆ Write regularly – it will gradually get easier and quicker.
◆ Tailor your writing to the appropriate needs of the audience.
◆ Style: aim for clarity and consistency.
◆ Avoid plagiarism through rigorous referencing.
114
◆ Be willing to accept criticism – it is a positive opportunity to learn.

◆ Take a break from your writing before revision and editing.
◆ Before submission, check that the appropriate presentation requirements
have been met.
◆ Have a go at publishing – it is not confined to the heights of academia.
◆ Above all, make sure that your report meets the original research aims.
In areas where this may not have been possible, justify appropriately.
Bell, J. (1993) Doing Your Research Project: A Guide for First-time Researchers in
Education and Social Science (second edition). Buckingham: Open University Press.
University Press.
Denscombe, M. (1998) The Good Researcher Guide for Small-scale Social Research
Projects. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Godefroy, C. H. and Barrat, S. (1990) Confident Speaking: How to Communicate
Effectively Using The Power Talk System. London: Piatkus.
McHaffie, H. E. (1996) Ethical issues in nursing research. In D. F. S.Cormack (ed.) The
Research Process in Nursing (third edition). Oxford: Blackwell Science.
Orna, E. and Stevens, G. (1995) Managing Information for Research, Buckingham: Open
University Press.
Sharp, J. A. and Howard, K. (1996) The Management of a Student Research Project (second
edition). Aldershot. Gower.
Tierney, A. (1996) Reporting and Disseminating Research, in D. F. S. Cormack (ed.) The
Research Process in Nursing (third edition). Oxford: Blackwell Science.
115
Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Researching in schools
Case studies based on three
research projects
◆ Jane Lovey
This chapter covers the following
◆ Case studies of research undertaken in schools 117

◆ Developing workable research proposals 118
◆ Research restrictions 121–2
◆ Recruiting and working with schools 122–7
◆ Confidentiality 127
◆ Rewarding research participants 128
◆ Dissemination of findings 129
Introduction: the case studies
All three of these projects were undertaken during the 1990s:
1 A study to establish beneficial strategies for the education of

students who had been excluded from school in Key Stage 4.
2 A project to identify indicators of effective-in class support for
special educational needs.
3 Exploration of the effects of adult attribution on children’s
problematic classroom behaviour.
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JANE LOVEY
The 1990s were a time of great change in schools. Schools had either chosen or
been coerced into having much more responsibility for the way they were funded.
Headteachers were in a position where they were expected to take on much of
the work of a manager of a company, a company accountable to the public for its
product and its ability to work within increasing financial restraints. However,
this financial autonomy was accompanied by far more control from the
government in matters that had previously been regarded as the preserve of those
trained to teach, and to lead teachers. Not only was a National Curriculum
imposed on the schools, with a system of assessment that was to dominate the
school year, but schools were ranked in order of success in what became known
as league tables.
Whilst these changes were happening within schools there were, and still
are, constant news items on failing teachers, a growing minority of unruly, often
illiterate pupils, and mounting exclusions from school. Not surprisingly, teacher
moral hit a new low, and those headteachers who had missed the opportunity for
early retirement, available at the beginning of the decade, often developed the
feeling of being totally embattled and beleaguered.
It is against this background that more and more research projects in
education have been undertaken by the growing undergraduate population,
practising teachers studying for Masters’ degrees and a growing number of
Doctorate students. It is, therefore, not surprising that professional researchers
have to approach projects that involve schools with greater and greater
circumspection.
As a teacher who has come to a career as a contract researcher after 22 years
in classrooms, I feel that it is important to understand how it feels to be on the
other end of school research. Educational or social research is essentially a parasitic
occupation. We feed off our subjects, and without willing heads, teachers, parents
and, to a certain extent, children, we cannot undertake our research. No one would
attempt to research a distant, isolated civilisation without studying the history of
the people, finding out something about the customs and beliefs of the people, and
arming themselves with good maps, and perhaps some gifts. The research interview
is a gift (Limerick et al. 1997). This must be remembered and one needs to consider
carefully what, if anything, those who participate in our research, are going to
receive in return.
It is necessary to bear all this in mind before writing the proposal.
Developing workable research proposals
It is important to think carefully about how much of the headteacher’s time, and
individual teachers’ time is going to be needed to realise the project. The only way
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RESEARCH IN SCHOOLS: CASE STUDIES
to find out how schools really operate, and how they affect, or are affected by, the
pupils within them, is to go in and observe and interview. This will initially involve
the head either spending time talking to the researcher, or spending time selecting
a senior member of staff to whom to delegate contact with the researcher. The
person who will be the contact with the researcher will be the one who, after the
first flush of enthusiasm, will have to persuade stressed, busy teachers that this is
a good use of their time. Try at the stage of writing the proposal to calculate how
much of each teacher’s time will be needed and how much of the contact teacher’s
time will be involved. Are there jobs to be done that do not require a teacher but
can be done by office staff? If this is the case it must be made clear how this will
be arranged and whether the time will be paid for. This is particularly important
if the proposal includes mailing questionnaires to a cohort of the pupils’ parents.
In connection with this, it is necessary to consider what information the
schools are at liberty to give us. In a recent project, written into the proposal was
that questionnaires should be sent to every pupil’s home for the parents to
complete. When the schools were identified and the addresses of pupils were
requested only 3 schools out of 48 felt sufficient trust in the researchers to provide
these lists. Other schools understandably refused on ethical grounds. This
immediately meant that the budget was under threat as serialised letters had to be
sent to each school and administrative staff paid to address them and post them.
Some schools sent bills for postage, others gave out the letters to pupils as
they left at the end of the day. In the proposal it was stressed that letters were to
be sent direct to parents since (a) they were more likely to be delivered, and (b) the
parents would be confident that the information they provided was not for the
school. A freepost envelope was in each. In some schools that gave out the letters
pupils were told to bring the letters in to be posted from school so that they could
be ticked off a list. Although in these cases the teachers felt that they were being
helpful they had invalidated the original proposal that the parent questionnaires
were strictly between the research organisation and the parents. With hindsight
those who wrote the proposal now realise that it was unrealistic to expect the
schools to hand out addresses of pupils. We also now realise that the senior
management of some schools like to feel that they have control over any activity
in their schools.
The proposal also instructed that any parents who did not return question-
naires after 10 days would be sent another, and if this was not returned after
10 days a third and final questionnaire would be sent. Because of pressure of other
events, few schools had even sent out the initial questionnaires within 10 days.
Some first mailings were found in a store cupboard two months later. Many
questionnaires never reached the parents as heads were eager to save us money by
giving them to the children.
The sending of parent questionnaires and then teacher questionnaires was
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JANE LOVEY
simply the preliminary stage of the research. The main part was identifying 500
children throughout England for detailed case studies. Not only was this held up
by the tardiness of the parents’ questionnaire returns, but also by the reluctance
of many of the teachers to complete their questionnaires. This was not purely
because of an over-ambitious proposal, but because many heads and other contact
staff had not informed the teachers of the cohort of students identified that they
would be involved in this. As proposed, in order that teachers would see this as
something they were doing for us and not for their heads, their questionnaires
were sent directly to them personally (at the school address), with a freepost
envelope in which to return them. For many teachers this file of work came to
them like a bolt out of the blue. The headteacher had agreed to the research and
the secretary had either sent out the letters or given them to teachers to distribute
at home time. We were in danger of losing most of our schools and, unfortunately,
we did lose several where we had obtained good returns from parents.
There were a number of schools that, when approached, explained that they
could not consider the research until they had consulted staff. Of these, less than
half agreed to be participants. However, those who had the agreement of the whole
staff have stayed with the project.
In another proposal it was intended to interview the head, the Special Needs
Coordinator, a volunteer teacher, a parent and a statemented child from each of
nine high schools. One of the schools had hoped to take part, but since the
proposal had included the headteacher, and she genuinely did not have the time
to be interviewed, just eight schools were used. Since this was a well-established
girls’ school that had just taken in its first intake of boys, as it became co-
educational, perhaps staff feelings about support for special needs in school would
have been influenced by their new experience. With hindsight I now think that, as
long as I had the good will of the headteacher, the inclusion of this school would
have provided very useful data.
During the course of this research project, it became obvious that much of
the relevant information was with the part-time teachers who supported individual
children in the classrooms. In order to obtain as much information as possible
these teachers were also included. They were interviewed separately and they also
allowed a lively discussion, which was part of an INSET (in-service training) course
run by the author, to be recorded. This was not in the proposal but was a valid area
of focus when looking at all aspects of special needs support in the classroom.
Without the inclusion of these teachers, the identification of indicators of successful
support for special needs in secondary schools would have lacked an important
dimension (Lovey 1995).
Since the proposal is usually linked to the funding of the project, and schools
are becoming more and more like businesses, it is important to consider what we
can offer in return for a school’s participation. For some schools it is enough to
120
know that they are part of a project that might influence the local authority, or the
government in an aspect which is dear to them. Nevertheless, they need reassurance
that the project will not actually cost them anything. This is why it is important,
when writing a project which entails interviewing teachers, to allow funds for
supply cover in the budget, and to bear in mind that although the teacher will
receive a sum according to their point on the pay-spine, some schools will add on
national insurance and superannuation. One authority only allowed us to contact
their teachers if we were willing to offer supply cover. This proviso was made after
the project had had funding granted that did not allow for this amount of supply
cover. Fortunately, only 4 of the 13 schools asked for supply cover.
Others wish to be assured that they will receive a copy of the final report.
Remember, especially if your research is part of a course of study, rather than a
funded project, printing out and mailing even eight copies of a report can add
considerably to expenses. Where it is a large, widespread project, this will need
specific funding, and so will interim newsletters sent to participants to sustain the
original interest.
When writing the proposal it is important to bear in mind:
◆ How much will this cost?

◆ Is all this achievable in the time allowed, given that this is a priority for
the researcher but will not be for the school?
◆ Is information being requested that schools are uneasy about providing?
◆ Are the teachers, as well as the headteacher, or research contact, aware
of their role in this project?
◆ Is the outcome of this research going to add to present knowledge of the
subject in a significant way?
A certain flexibility can be accommodated in most research projects but it is

important that the proposal is carefully enough written in the first place for a clear
focus to be maintained.
The school year
Both when writing the proposal and recruiting the schools, it is important to
understand the impact that the school year can have on research. If you are doing
a study that will last over a year chose your cohort of pupils carefully. Remember
that not only for Year 11 students, but also for pupils at 7, 11 and 14 there is a
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period of the summer term which is a ‘no go’ area. This cuts down considerably
the number of weeks when data can be collected.
Christmas festivities in primary schools, and teacher fatigue as they approach
the end of the longest term in the year, can hamper research activity in schools
during December. Make sure that you have a list of the holiday dates for all the
authorities with whom you are working. There is a handful of authorities that
have very different holidays from most. It is important that researchers do not
bank on being able to work in schools at the very end of term or during school
holiday periods. Since we ‘feed’ off the schools, any work we do must be
convenient to the staff concerned.
Recruiting the schools
Before recruiting the schools to take part in the project it is important to have a
list of criteria by which to select the schools you are going to approach. Having
selected the schools you are going to approach, bear in mind that at least half of
them might not want to take part. As teacher-in-charge of what was then known
as a disruptive unit in the late 1970s, I was flattered when researchers sent
questionnaires and asked to interview me. By the mid-1980s, I was suffering from
research fatigue as more and more people were studying in this field, and I resented
giving yet more time to researchers when they never sent me the reports they had
promised. There was one university from which I always received a report and a
short note of thanks, and postgraduates from that university were still welcome.
Make sure you have a clear idea of how you are going to recruit your school
or schools. The first small piece of research I undertook (not one of the three case
studies) was an attempt to find out how many students in off-site units wanted to
receive accreditation for their learning, what examination bodies provided the
opportunity for this accreditation and how important it was to students, their
parents and their future employers (Lovey 1991). I recruited the units for my
research by looking at the ‘posts advertised’ section of the Times Educational
Supplement (TES) for three consecutive Fridays. It was at a time when units were
being closed to be replaced by outreach teams, and my rationale was that if a unit
was advertising for staff to work there, it must be viable and have prospects of
staying open in the foreseeable future. I selected my employers from the vacancies
page in the local paper. Here the rationale was that if they were advertising for
school leavers they must have an opinion on the value of different types of
accreditation.
The research on indicators of successful classroom support was for the LEA
(local education authority) in which I then worked, so it was done in secondary
schools in which I was already involved. This can be difficult as one has to switch
122
from colleague to researcher, and it is difficult to interview without acknowledging

prior knowledge of what is important in that school.
In my research on the fate of young people excluded from school during
Key Stage 4 (Lovey et al. 1993), an initial questionnaire was sent to each local
authority, and clusters of authorities were selected for case studies. Selecting a
couple of authorities which were near together often led to exploring facilities in
neighbouring authorities. There were a number of really exciting initiatives in
authorities from which replies had not been sent. The network of professionals
involved with excluded 14–16 year olds nearly always informed us of other
instances of successful, empowering practice. Although we had started with the
criterion of studying, in detail, resources described to us by education officers who
returned our questionnaires, other places we explored fulfilled the criteria for
establishments that engaged young people who were alienated from mainstream
education. In research on exclusion from school there is now a large network of
committed professionals, and it is important to access this network if researching
in this field. Often it is only after embarking on the research project that one learns
about vital networks engaged in the researcher’s area. Similar networks exist for,
among others, those studying various genetic disorders and for the provision and
understanding of the specific needs of gifted children.
For another project it was necessary to ensure that a cross-section of schools
in six authorities throughout England were recruited. It was decided to recruit two
primary schools and one secondary school that were in the top 25 per cent of
schools in the league tables, and also had low incidence of free school meals, and
the same set of schools from the middle of the league tables with average free
school meals, and again from the bottom 25 per cent in the league tables and with
above average free school meals. A short list of schools was drawn up with the use
of league tables published in the press and freely available. Obtaining data of
school meals proved a little more difficult as some local education authority officers
were unsure why we wanted these tables, especially as some had recently put their
school meals’ provision out to private tender. With hindsight, we realised a prior
letter describing the project might have been helpful. Although there is value in
telephoning to solicit support for a project, it is advisable to refer to a letter that
is in the post, which will have details of the project. The timing of the phone call
is then important. It is perhaps better to risk phoning before the letter has arrived
than phoning so long after dispatching the letter that it is lost in a pile.
Once a cluster of schools in each category had been identified from league
tables and free school meal data, the Internet was used to help with the final
selection of nine schools in each authority plus nine reserve schools in case the
identified school refused to become involved. The DfEE league table data on the
Internet was invaluable since it not only gave us statistics such as school size, but
also the addresses and phone numbers of the headteachers. Since both of the
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preferred schools in each category and the reserve school often refused to
participate, it was useful to have school meal data and easy access to the Internet
to identify further schools in our chosen authorities.
Because it was written into the proposal, which had received outside funding,
that the cross-section of schools would be co-educational, when all the mixed
schools in one category in one of the authorities refused to take part, two parallel
single sex schools were recruited. In one category the only headteacher initially
willing to take part had too few pupils of the targeted age group, but was really
enthusiastic. He recruited another small school nearby and they worked as one
school. They both fulfilled the criteria for the category, and had, in any case, often
shared resources. In another category, two schools in the process of combining, but
at the time on two adjacent sites, were recruited as one school. This was justified
because otherwise there would have been an important section of the school
population that would not have been represented in the project.
When you are recruiting schools you will need to understand the power of
the school secretary. She, or occasionally he, will almost always be your first
contact in the school. Even though it is vital to communicate with the head, or
the member of staff delegated by the head as the liaison between the school and
researcher, time spent cultivating the school secretary is time well spent. If there
is a rapport between the secretary and the researcher, messages will not be
forgotten and it will sometimes be possible to be put through to the head on the
first attempt. He or she will be an important ally.
During the last 15 years the spotlight has been on education. Some schools
have been named, blamed and shamed, leaving the staff feeling totally
disempowered, and many of the pupils and their families with a feeling of
disappointment, bewilderment and sorrow. There are a few headteachers of such
schools who still have confidence in their school and their staff and might initially
regard an invitation to be part of a research project as affirmation that the school
can survive. A school like this might be very interesting and rewarding for a short-
term project, but there is a risk that the head will not be pleased with feedback
and might end up feeling betrayed by the researcher as well. If you are recruiting
schools in a region with which you are not familiar, you might be unaware that a
school you are recruiting is earmarked for closure. If you have chosen your school
from a list provided by the local authority the staff there might see your involve-
ment as a sign that the closure might not take place. It is difficult to avoid being
drawn into the situation in a school where the staff are in a state of anxiety for their
future and will use the presence of a researcher as another straw to cling to.
If you have chosen your schools from a local authority list, either provided
for you by the LEA or from the Internet, make sure you know about any schools
which are to be merged or closed. Unless you are exploring the effect of school
closure on a community, avoid these schools.
124
When preparing to do research on an aspect of the curriculum in off-site

areas, during a period of great change, I selected the units for preliminary contact
from those who were advertising in the TES for new staff during a 3-week period
in April. My rationale was that units who were advertising for permanent staff to
start in September must have a fair idea that the unit would last at least until the
end of the next school year. This was also a way of ensuring it was a fairly random
selection that covered all areas of the country. It also meant that the researcher had
no preconceptions about the unit and its staff.
Working with schools
The schools have been recruited and the initial stages are underway. Do the schools
really know exactly the extent of their commitment? In the enthusiasm to recruit
schools, the researchers on one project did not always stress to the headteacher that
there were several distinct parts to this research. Naturally, every establishment
approached had received a letter with an account of the complete demands of the
participating schools. By the time the second part of the survey was sent to schools,
some schools had forgotten their original commitment; for some, staffing had
changed; inevitably, a number were preparing for, undergoing, or recovering from
OFSTED inspections. Researchers have to realise that their priorities are often
very low on the school’s list of priorities.
It is very important that when arranging to observe or interview teachers, the
researcher can be sensitive to the needs of the teacher. Some teachers are happy for
the researcher to arrive in the classroom with them. Others might like to have the
class settled first and arrange a time for the researcher to arrive, or send a child to
collect the researcher. Once the observations have been arranged it is important
that none of this valuable time is lost. Observing a class as a researcher can be
difficulty for many teachers-turned-researchers, since it is difficult to suppress prior
assumptions and make the scene of the research exotic enough to be able to
concentrate on a classroom observation as intently as one might do in a less
familiar place. Sanger explains his first experiences of classroom observation thus:
It was not until 1980, thirty-seven years after being born, that I first realised
there was a difference between seeing and observing. All those years I had
found my way round with unconscious lack of precision, only observing
when I needed to remember a route, or a page for an exam, or the face of
someone who might turn out to be important to me.
(Sanger 1996: 1)
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However, perhaps the difficulty faced in researching a situation in which the

researcher was formerly a player might be compensated for by the fact that as a
former teacher one understands the pressures under which teachers work. From
this privileged position it is important to be sensitive in acknowledging that your
research agenda might run counter to how the school wishes to be perceived. Even
good schools have often not escaped completely unscathed as competition has
been encouraged among schools, and a reputation for excellence in catering for the
needs of all children, including those with very distinct special needs, can be
regarded as a death knell for some headteachers. When researching indicators of
effective support for special needs in mainstream classrooms one head, with an
exceptionally good record in this area, was very concerned that his school should
not be identifiable.
Because it has been a time of great change, there has been little difficulty in
finding an area of the curriculum, academic or pastoral, to research. In some
schools children will simply turn to the stranger in the classroom and ask whether
he or she is a student or a researcher. However, for some classes the researcher will
cause some disruption initially. It is very important to agree how you will be
introduced to the class, or indeed whether you will be introduced or whether you
will be yet another visitor in the classroom. The researcher will have a task to
fulfil, which has been explained to the staff at the school. Therefore, it is important
to negotiate a position in the classroom where it is possible to carry out this task.
Sometimes teachers will invite you to join in with the activity. This might be an
excellent way to obtain some data, but collection of other data might be utterly
dependent on careful observation, which would be impossible for a participant. It
might be that this kind of observation cannot be achieved until the children are
used to you being there. It is difficult to know what effect the researcher has on a
class. After one lesson a teacher told me that my presence had made a difference.
Since the class had been lively I was about to apologise, when she said that they
were so good, they must have thought I was an inspector!
An important skill needed when working in schools is to recognise the
priorities of the staff within them while still keeping the focus of the original
research. With the best will in the world teachers will invite you to spend time
exploring areas that are not relevant to the research. If time in school is limited it
is important to be able to politely decline the invitation whilst not dismissing the
subject. However, if you have time, admiring a display that a teacher has spent
hours preparing for an open day, or attending a school play that is on during your
period of researching will gain good will from the staff involved. It might give you
further insights into the area of curriculum, the children or the staff you are
researching, but it may well just be a way of giving a little bit back to those on
whom you rely to provide you with data. Having said this, unless you are doing
participant research (Mac an Ghail 1991), make sure that you do not become so
126
embroiled in the life of the school that it affects your relationship with the data,
which must remain your priority.
It is very difficult for researchers who have been, or maybe still are, teachers
to come to a new research project without preconceptions of how the schools will
function. Since all of us have at some time been at school, all of us carry with us
some internalised memories of what a school is and how it works. Again, this is
where it is important that you are totally committed to the focus of the research
as stated in the proposal. There will be all kinds of distractions, especially when
classroom observations start and it might be difficult not to become distracted by
areas outside the original scope of the research.
Confidentiality
One of the first things to do when embarking on school research is to decide the
codes for the schools. This is particularly important if you work in an institution
where there are a number of in-service courses for teachers. On a recent project we
decided to give all our schools the names of authors. To make this easy to
remember it was originally decided to use an author whose name began with
the fifth letter of the school’s name. However, it was later agreed to let the
schools select their own author. Since this was a project where the teachers were
partners in the research, this was the right action. However, in another research
project, the researchers used the names of trees that began with the third letter of
the schools’ name. When the research was written up there was a small,
unimportant detail inserted in each case study so that no one could positively
identify the units.
If the researcher becomes used to always using the pseudonym of the school
there is no risk of a visiting teacher, who overhears conversation between
researchers in the refectory, identifying the school being discussed. When we were
doing research with teachers we were careful not to disclose their pseudonyms to
the other schools in the project. However, in a meeting, the heads and other
coordinators decided to do this themselves. This had to be their decision, not ours.
The situation where researchers reach the parents of pupils through the
school can be a difficult one. Very few schools would entrust the addresses of
pupils to us so we had to send letters through the school. The follow up was a
similar questionnaire sent to all teachers. Initially the plan was to ask only for
details about those whose parents had returned questionnaires. However, since
some schools were putting pressure on pupils to persuade their parents to return
the questionnaires, it would have been a breach of faith to send a list to the school.
There had been the opportunity for parents to refuse and a few did. There was
unease about giving this information to the school as, again, it could be prejudicial
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to future dealings between the school and the parent. In the end, we simply did not
include a questionnaire for that child.
At the second phase further questionnaires were sent out to parents whose
children had scored highly on a subscale that suggested they might have a
behavioural disorder. Again the school was asked to address and send sealed and
stamped letters to a small number of children. Although teachers had not been
told why these children had been singled out, there was a fair chance they would
have some idea. However, parents were given the opportunity not to take part, and
teachers were asked to give information on all children. Confidentiality had been
kept as far as it could be if a certain group of children were going to be identified
and studied. Without this kind of research, resources could be wasted providing
the wrong kind of support for these children and their families.
Rewarding the schools
For every school that will join in with research because the staff believe in the
intrinsic value of it, there seems to be one where the staff will ask what they will
‘get out of it’. In some cases, this might be the opportunity to participate in the
research, and sometimes even have this work accredited as part of an ongoing
professional development course. Others will be pleased to receive a report when
the research is finished. If this has been promised, it should be a point of honour
to deliver it, as any research done in a school will involve sacrifices made by
teachers. Increasingly heads are beginning to point out the time that filling in
questionnaires, etc. will take their staff, and are reluctant to ask them to do this
in their own time.
During a recent research project, our contact in one of the LEAs insisted that
schools in that area should be offered a day’s supply cover for anything the
teachers had to do. In the event not all claimed this, but a few schools in another
authority, at school level, made this a condition of their continued involvement in
a research project. This had not been written into the proposal. Provision had been
made to give schools a token for the school library and a small token for each
member of staff filling in tick-lists. There was a danger that the few schools that
had insisted on supply cover would use up the money earmarked for the ‘gifts’. At
the time of writing this has still not been resolved.
Because of the way schools are funded, and in recognition of the many
stresses on teachers, it is wise to write into the original proposal the means to
compensate teachers for their time. In another project a head suggested a ‘couple
of bottles of wine’ for each of his staff. The bill was £150, but since good data had
already been collected from the school, it was important that other aspects should
be covered if the data were to be useful in the context of the whole project. In two
128
of these projects there has been concern that those who have responded without
payment will hear of colleagues whose time has been paid for. This underlines the
necessity to write provision for this into the original proposal. When this is done,
bear in mind not only the daily supply rate for a teacher who has taught for nine
years or more, but also the percentage that must be added to this for national
insurance and superannuation. If this is passed through the education office the bill
can be nearly 30 per cent higher.
Dissemination of findings
An important task, when the research is done, is the dissemination. Decisions have
to be made as to how this is to be done and to whom. If the funding has come from
an outside body there might be little choice about the dissemination. In this case
it is important to remember that, as a researcher, you have worked for the funding
agent, via the university, and the sponsor’s logo will have been on all
correspondence, newsletters and reports, as well, in some cases, as the funding
serial number.
It is very important to know what you may do with research that has been
funded externally. If the project is running short of money as it nears its end and
there is enough information to hold a conference, this is a possibility, as long as
the funders agree. The conference can serve to disseminate the work you are doing
and also bring in those people who may ultimately use your research. You have
already spent some months absorbing the thoughts and words of the teachers and
pupils participating in the study. The conference, with its workshops and social
times will add to the insights that have already been gained in the field.
In one research project where a team in each school had researched alongside
the university researchers, workshops were run by each team, and led by the
teachers. In five out of the six cases it was clear that both groups of researchers
were agreed in both the aims of the research and the findings so far. However, it
was possible to understand why the sixth project had not proceeded as planned.
The two groups had very different agendas and expectations. After the conference
it was possible to tackle this and decide the way ahead.
The newsletter, the research article in the paper and the conference can be
done whilst the research is still very ‘live’. The book or books from the research
will take much longer, as will papers in referenced journals. It is when you have
convinced a publisher that you have something to say that has not been said before
and you have signed the contract to deliver a manuscript in eight or nine months
time that you are so glad that you still have all the notes that you made from the
first day onwards. It is important to jot everything down from the very beginning,
including phone calls you make to schools, even if at the time they seem of little
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importance. It is later that this kind of information may explain why the results
from one school seem to differ from those from another similar school. Research
peers will often be as interested in the process as in the theoretical outcomes.
Conclusion
The fact that we have all spent a significant part of our lives in school might well
make this a more difficult area to research. Those whose experience is limited to
their days as a pupil might still feel that their experience of school is typical of all
schools. Those who come to research from a career in the classroom may, initially,
find it difficult to regard the environment with the detachment necessary to explore
in a sharply focused manner.
Despite the ‘research fatigue’ suffered by some schools, it is still possible to
find schools that welcome the opportunity to be part of a well-conceived research
project, especially if they can see the advantages of the possible outcomes of the
study. However, it is important to bear in mind that each time a teacher agrees to
fill in a questionnaire, they are giving us a gift of their time and their knowledge
of the children they teach, or the way in which they teach; when they allow us to
interview them they are giving us a gift of a part of themselves. For this reason we
must do our best to make it a rewarding experience for the school too. It is easy
to depart when the data are collected and forget that we have made ourselves a
brief part of the history of that school and that they will hope to see some evidence
of the part they played in our project. If they have been our partners in the plan-
ning of the research and the collecting of the data, then they must be involved in
some of the dissemination.
Educational research is a rich and varied field in which to work. It is an ever-
changing world which reflects political and sociological changes and developments.
Perhaps the only reward that we can tentatively offer teachers is the knowledge
that through research changes in policy might eventually be underpinned by
evidence from the ‘chalk face’.
Limerick, B., Burgess-Limerick, T. and Grace, M. (1997) The politics of interviewing, power
relations and accepting the gift. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in
Education, 9(4): 449–60.
Lovey, J. (1991) The dilemma of entering disruptive and disaffected adolescents for external
examinations. Maladjustment and Therapeutic Education, 9(2): 73–82.
130
Lovey, J. Docking, J. and Evans, R. (1993) Exclusion from School: Provision for
Disaffection in Key Stage 4. London: David Fulton.
Lovey, J. (1995) Supporting Special Needs in Secondary School Classrooms. London: David
Fulton.
Mac an Ghaill, M. (1991) Young, gifted and black: methodological reflections of a teacher
researcher. In G. Walford Doing Educational Research. London: Routledge.
Sanger, J. (1996) The Complete Observer; A Field Research Guide To Observation. London:
Falmer Press.
131
Index
Index
action research 4–5 content analysis 53; steps in 53

American Book Publishing Cooper, H. M. 34–5
Record 30 COPAC (Consortium of
University and Research
Bell 111 Libraries On-Line Public
Berry 74 Access Catalogue) 59
Blaxter 98
Böhme-Dürr 38, 39 data analysis 9, 21, 77–8; Analysis
British Educational Index (BEI) 61 of Covariance (ANCOVA) 95;
British Library on-line catalogue Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
59 95; associating data 90–3;
British National Bibliography 30 classifying 78–9; coding frame
British Newspaper Index (BNI) 79–81; descriptive 81;
62 hypothesis 95; inferential
Bruce 27, 28 analysis 94–5; mode, median,
Bryman 8; and Burgess, R. E. 9 mean 86–8; Pearson’s Product
Moment Correlation
Carr and Kemmis 4 Coefficient 90, 92; population
CHEST (Combined Higher 94; positive/negative
Education Software Team) correlation 91–2; qualitative
project 68 78, 79; quantitative 78;
coding frame 79–81; developing reporting 95–6; sample 94;
80 software programmes 54;
Cohen and Manion 1, 3 Spearman’s Rank Order
completion stage 97–8; motivation Correlation Coefficient 90;
98–100; organising 100–1; standard deviation 88–90;
report writing 105–15; statistical significance 94–5;
targeting your audience 103–5; variables 83–5
time management 101–3 data collection 9, 21
computers 54 Data Protection Act (1998) 44
133
INDEX
Dennis and McCartney, 39 statistical sources 70; steps to follow

Denscombe 99, 106 56; supervisor 57; theses/dissertations
Department of Education and 69; where to start 57–8
Employment (DfEE) 64 Internet 62–3; education sites 65;
diaries 51–2; disadvantages of 52; uses of information on the Web 64–5; library
52 catalogues 59, 60; Web
Dunwoody 39; and Scott, 37 directories/search engines 63–4
Eide and Ottosen, 39 Jones et al 39

Einsiedel 38, 39 JSTOR SuperJournal project 68
EndNote programme 74
ERIC (Educational Resources Information Kreuger 50
Center) 60, 61–2
ethics 44 library 57–8; inter-library loans 66–7;
Ethnograph programme 54 local catalogues 59; other catalogues
ethnography 50–1; 59–60
advantages/disadvantages of 51 Library of Congress (USA) Online
evaluation 5–6; example 6 Catalog 59
Lifelong Learning Programme 18–19
Fenton et al 39 Limerick, et al 118
focus group interviews 49–50; when to literature: adequacy of 34; aggregating
use 50 material 33; author information/claims
Fraenkel and Wallen 53 36; confirmatory bias 34; critical
Friedman 37 analysis of 33–6; exploring 19;
inconsistencies 35; locating 29–31;
General Register Office for Scotland 70 selecting/maintaining notes 31–2;
Godefroy and Barrat 112 sufficient depth 35
Guardian 69 literature review: definitions 28; example
36–9; purpose of carrying out 25–8;
Hammersley 8 reasons for 26
Hansen 38; and Dickinson 37, 39 literature search strategy 71; formulation
71–2; identify key concepts 71; record
indexes/abstracts 30–1; services 60–2 search 73; review search results 73;
information, finding/locating 55–7; select resource 72–3
conference proceedings 68; Livingstone and Lunt 37
inter-library loan facility 66–7; Lord et al 34
journals/periodicals 67–8; library Lovey 120
57–60; literature search strategy 71–3;
manual vs on-line searching 66; Mac an Ghail, 126
newspapers 69; note-taking 74; official McHaffie 110
publications 69–70; people 70–1; McNiff 5
reference books 68; referencing 74; Mahoney 34
research reports 68–9; search tools MLA style handbook 74
58–71; software packages 74; Moore, and Singletary, 37
134
INDEX
Mouly 1 questionnaires 42; designing 43, 46;

Murrell 38 developing 43–4; effective distribution
46–7; getting a good response 47;
National Foundation for Education open/closed questions 44–6; plan of
Research (NFER) xiii, 65 survey 22; when to use 43
National Library Catalogues Worldwide
59 Reference Manager programme 74
Nelkin, 38, 39 Register of Education Research 69
NISS (National Information Services and reports: content 104–5; end matter 108;
Systems) 64 getting started 99–100; main text
Northern Ireland Statistics and Research 107–8; and plagiarism 113;
Agency 70 preliminary 106; presentation 104;
NUDIST programme 54, 81 publication 113–14; references
NVIVO programme 81 108–10; revising 111–12; structure
106–8; style 105–6; submitting to
OECD (Organisation for Economic Co- journal/other publication 23, 103–4,
operation and Development) 4 112–13; time-saving tips 102;
Office for National Statistics 70 writing up process 23, 97–101,
Office for Standards in Education 114–15
(OFSTED) 65 research: accessibility of sample 10;
one-to-one interviews 47–8; conducting amount of time available 10;
48–9; transcription/analysis 49; when approaches 41–54; commissioned 18;
to use 47 as contribution to knowledge base 3;
Orna and Stevens 97, 101 data analysis/collection 9; design 9;
ethical issues 11; focus 9; informing
Papyrus programme 74 policy 4; informing practice 4; notes
Periodicals Contents Index (PCI) 62 when planning 12; obtaining/acting on
Peters 36, 39 feedback 110–11; participation in 1–2;
planning: collecting/analysing data 21; preliminary considerations 10–12;
developing a strategy 19–20; drawing purpose 2–6; reliability/validity 42;
conclusions 21; exploring the literature resources for 10; results 2; stages in
19; framing questions 16; importance 9–12; writing up 9
15–16; key issues 16; notes on 11; Robson 3, 6, 11, 49
proposal 17–18; writing/submitting
report 23 Sanger 125
Pro-Cite programme 74 School Curriculum Assessment Authority
Psychological Abstracts 62 (SCAA) 64–5
Public Record Office 70 school research: case studies 117–18;
Publication Manual of the American concluding remarks 130;
Psychological Association 74 confidentiality 127–8; developing
Pulford 36, 37 workable research proposals 118–21;
dissemination of findings 129–30;
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority important notes 121; recruiting the
(QCA) 65 schools 122–5; rewarding the schools
135
INDEX
128–9; school year 121–2; working Tankard and Ryan 36–7

with schools 125–7 Tesch 54
science reporting 36–9 Tichenor et al 36
SCONUL Vacation scheme 67 Tierney 113
Scottish Records Offices 70 Times Educational Supplement (TES)
Sharp and Howard 112 69
Shipman 7 Times Higher Education Supplement
Singer 36 (THES) 69
social research: nature of 6–9; qualitative
7–9; quantitative 7 UKOP (United Kingdom Official
Social Sciences Citation Index 62 Publications) Online 70
Stationery Office 70 Ussher, 37
Stones 8
Summer Schools Programme, evaluation Winsten 38
of 6 World Wide Web see Internet

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What is the book about?

What is the book about?

What topics does the book cover?

What topics does the book cover?

The Researcher’s Toolkit

This book presents a fresh, jargon-free guide to small scale research

Dr David Wilkinson is Research Fellow within the Higher Education

The Contributors: Margaret Scanlon, Peter Birmingham, Dianne

Research: what’s it got to do with me? 1

2 Planning the research 15

The importance of planning 15

3 Reviewing the literature 25

The purpose of carrying out a literature review 25

5 Finding and locating information 55

The coding frame 79

7 Completing the research project 97

The process of writing-up 97

8 Researching in schools: case studies

Introduction: the case studies 117

2.1 Example of a research proposal 17

Peter Birmingham is at the Department of Educational Studies,

Christine Gough is a researcher at the Policy Research Institute at

Lesley Gray is with the University of Cambridge Library. She has

Dianne Hinds is currently working with the Institute of Health and

Jane Lovey is a researcher at the School of Education, University of

Margaret Scanlon is currently a researcher at the University of

Dr David Wilkinson is Research Fellow at the Higher Education

Research is not an activity particular to one discipline. My own

I am grateful to the contributors of this text for providing a broad

This chapter covers the following:

◆ What is the purpose of research? 2

Research is best conceived as the process of arriving at

Research: what’s it got to do with me?

Research is going on all around us, everyday. Most of us will at some

our preferred brand of toothpaste, chocolate or other consumer goods. A political

What is the purpose of research?

● To contribute to a particular discipline (for example, psychology).

knowledge. They represent different points on a continuum rather than being

Research can be seen as enquiry designed to contribute to discipline-based

Research may inform policy or contribute to the debate in a particular field.

Action research is simply a form of self-reflective enquiry undertaken by

Action research is usually, but not always, collaborative. Teams of

outside researchers. In action research, practitioners play an active role in designing

Action research is an alternative to the academy-based notion that, in order

An evaluation is a study carried out to assess the worth or usefulness of a particular

Accountability is now a watchword in the whole range of public services

considerations, where it forms part of a drive to place public services within

In order to illustrate this type of research, an evaluation of summer schools set up

Evaluation of the 1998 Summer Schools Programme

In 1997 the government instituted a programme of summer schools for 11-

What is the nature of social research?

Surveys, tests, structured interviews, laboratory experiments and non-participant

Participant observation, unstructured interviews, or life histories are normally

Increasingly, the terms ‘quantitative research’ and ‘qualitative research’ came

So far I have looked at some of the methodological debates in research. The

Stages in the Research

Research is sometimes seen as consisting of the following main stages:

Some preliminary considerations

Amount of time available