ABSTRACT
Introduction Doing research for the fi rst time is quite a challenge. Indeed, doing research under any circumstances can be testing. However, this is a challenge well worth taking on, for research can be both exciting and fulfi lling. Even with limited resources – such as are most likely to be available to you – you can do interesting and original research, exploring the social world and producing evidence about how people see it and experience it, about how it operates and the consequences it has. You need a bit of confi dence to get started and one of the aims of this chapter, in combination with the previous one, is to give you the basis for that confi dence. We begin with what often seems to be a thorny question – choosing the topic for your research.
