ABSTRACT
It is almost certain that you will be expected to collect and analyse data during the process of completing your foundation degree. Collecting data is one of the oldest and certainly most widely used ways in which we find out about things we want to know. Other terms we use, such as research, investigation, enquiry and study, are all used in this chapter. This may seem confusing, particularly as the word research is often associated with highly intelligent people or large organisations using rigorous and complicated methods. However, it can be argued that whenever we seek to find answers to a question we are ‘doing research’. Bell (1995:2), referring to Howard and Sharpe (1983), claims that research is, ‘seeking through methodological processes to add to one’s body of knowledge and hopefully that of others’. In Chapter 3 we investigated ways of finding and storing data for your stud-
ies; some of the techniques you have learned will be invaluable for what follows. In Chapter 9 we look at the internet as a source to support your studies. This chapter aims to help you complete enquiry or research tasks. It offers suggestions and reflections on how you can carry out well-planned, methodologically sound and well-written research, and submit it on time. There is a wide range of texts written for researchers ranging from those like you to those engaged in work at post-doctoral level. A few suggestions for further reading have been included at the end of the chapter, together with some useful websites. However, all the reading in the world will not make you skilled; in fact there
is a danger that too much knowledge can make you so indecisive that you never get started. What this chapter will do is alert you to the fact that when you are researching, everything you do must be thought through very carefully in advance before you act. It will offer useful clues on how to help your thinking. By wasting your respondent’s time on an ill-conceived survey, for example, relationships may be damaged. Research is not abstract or complicated; if you look at Chapter 6 you will find
it is much like writing an essay; it has a beginning, a middle and an end.
