When
you start to think about your research project, a useful way of remembering the
important questions to ask is to think of the five ‘Ws’:
What?
Why?
Who?
Where?
When?
Once
you have thought about these five ‘Ws’ you can move on to think about how you
are going to collect your data.
What?
What
is your research? This question needs to be answered as specifically as
possible. One of the hardest parts in the early stages is to be able to define
your project, so much research fails because the researcher has been unable to
do this. A useful tip is to sum up, in one sentence only, your research. If you
are unable to do this, the chances are your research topic is too broad, ill
thought out or too obscure.
Why?
Why
do you want to do the research? What is its purpose? Okay, you might have been
told to do some research by your tutor or by your boss, but there should be
another reason why you have chosen your particular subject. It might be solely
to do with the fact that you are interested in the topic. This is a good start
as you need to be interested in your research if you are to keep up your
enthusiasm and remain motivated. Or you might have identified a gap in the
research literature – this is good as it shows you have carried out careful
background research. Or perhaps you want to try to obtain funding for a
particular service or enterprise and you need to do some research first to find
out if there is demand for what you are proposing.
Whatever
your reason, think very carefully about why you are doing the research as this
will affect your topic, the way you conduct the research and the way in which
you report the results. If you’re doing it for a university dissertation or
project, does your proposed research provide the opportunity to reach the
required intellectual standard? Will your research generate enough material to write
a dissertation of the required length? Or will your research generate too much
data that would be impossible to summarize into a report of the required
length? If you’re conducting research for funding purposes, have you found out
whether your proposed funding body requires the information to be presented in
a specific format? If so, you need to plan your research in a way which will
meet that format.
Who?
Who
will be your participants? At this stage of the research process, you needn’t
worry too much about exactly how many participants will take part in your
research as this will be covered later. However, you should think about the
type of people with whom you will need to get in touch with and whether it will
be possible for you to contact them. If you have to conduct your research
within a particular time scale, there’s little point choosing a topic which
would include people who are difficult or expensive to contact. Also, bear in
mind that the Internet now provides opportunities for contacting people
cheaply, especially if you’re a student with free internet access.
Where?
Where
are you going to conduct your research? Thinking about this question in
geographical terms will help you to narrow down your research topic. Also, you
need to think about the resources in terms of budget and time that are available
to you. If you’re a student who will not receive travel expenses or any other
out of pocket expenses, choose a location close to home, college or university.
If you’re a member of a community group on a limited budget, only work in areas
within walking distance which will cut down on travel expenses.
Also,
you need to think about where you’ll be carrying out your research in terms of
venue. If you’re going to conduct interviews or focus groups, where will you
hold them? Is there a room at your institution which would be free of charge,
or are you going to conduct them in participants’ own homes? Would it be safe
for you to do so?
Would
you be comfortable doing so? If you’ve answered ‘no’ to either of these last
two questions, maybe you need to think again about your research topic. It can
happen and you must never put yourself in a dangerous situation. Think very
carefully about whether your chosen topic and method might have an influence on
personal safety.
When?
When
are you going to do your research? Thinking about this question will help you
to sort out whether the research project you have proposed is possible within
your time scale. It will also help you to think more about your participants, when
you need to contact them and whether they will be available at that time. For
example, if you want to go into schools and observe classroom practice, you
wouldn’t choose to do this research during the summer holiday. It might sound
obvious, but some students present a well-written research proposal which, in
practical terms, will not work because the participants will be unavailable
during the proposed data collection stage.
Once
you have thought about these five ‘Ws’, try to sum up your proposed project in
one sentence. When you have done this, take it to several people, including
your boss and/or tutor, and ask them if it makes sense. Do they understand what
your research is about? If they don’t, ask them to explain their confusion,
revise your statement and take it back to them. One can’t overemphasise the
importance of this stage of the research process. If you get it right now, you
will find that the rest of your work should flow smoothly. However, if you get it
wrong, your problems could well escalate.
So
how come margarine, which is composed primarily of unsaturated fatty acids, is
solid? Because its fatty acids have been artificially saturated with extra
hydrogen atoms. This process, called hydrogenation, turns an oil, such as corn
oil, into a solid fat — margarine.
