Research & Investigation

Got worried with mounting pressure of finishing your studies for your exam on one hand and to the other your case studies that are completely against arm chair.Chances are there that you might face problems to carry out practical nature of investigation by setting fieldwork study/research questions and come up with the quality data, use of statistics and interpretation to it.

But we got something that let you enjoy the fieldwork and devise great personal satisfaction form the experience of producing individual enquiries to the highest possible standard. Here are some tips you must not forget it.

HOW TO GET STARTED:

Science is all about exploring within code of conduct to obtain a data reliable to your purpose. Doing fieldwork investigations while you are on a field trip is real case scenario that you can find barely in classroom. And most importantly it is not just for roaming around to the site and cracking the jokes with friends. Science doesnot believe in these things. Science counts your output from your personal attitude and knowledge to understand the features of fieldwork situation. You should orient objectively; face and should be able to learn from the real case situation. It would be wise to get as much field informations from literature available as possible and get mentally prepared beforehand .

You might carry out a personal audit identifying your potential strength. Find a topic that interests you. You can get it from various ways, like from local newspapers cuttings, past projects, teachers, and friends can help. Think about a possible question to research. Research and map your area and look for survey sites. Decide on a sampling strategy. Identify possible secondary data sources. Formulate your title and research program.

Well it not that easy to come up and set up a scene like this in a matter of seconds. You got to finalize your aims with justification of hypothesis before you move anywhere from your desk. Refer to past research on the topic i.e. old projects or historic data. Obtain a map and aerial photograph of the study area. Investigate the main issues and give a brief history of the study area.

METHODOLOGY:

Pilot and develop questionnaires. Develop booking sheets ready for database. Computer spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel can help you. Work out sampling strategies and summarize the rationale. Check out the availability of equipments from your centre. Find a companion to work with and check all health and safety issues. Organize group research. Identify what you can use from group research. Collect the data and bring back to be checked. Research to secondary sources. Evaluate and criticize data sources or collection.

RESULT ANALYSIS:

Process all the data. e.g. provide summary spreadsheets of questionnaires and tables. Get all the diagrams, maps and graphs drawn. Make sure your maps all have scales and direction arrows, and your graphs carry title and a footnote with the information source. Organize all you photographs and sketches to use them to the best advantage. Incorporate all the data from secondary sources and acknowledge. Decide what statistical techniques you are going to use and process them taking care that you interpret them rigorously. Assemble all your diagrams and describe and analyze what they show. How do the results measure up to expectation? Look at values analysis by developing a conflict matrix.

EVALUATION AND CONCLUSION

Recall and summarize your main findings. Evaluate the success of your project, commenting on the wider significance of your conclusions. Are they similar to published research? Do they show change? Include a section on limitation of your enquiry. Write a brief summary of further research you could carry out.

PRESENTATION AND GENERAL ADVICE:
Organize your project under the mark scheme headings for your specification. Number all the figures and pages. Organize the appendix to include evidence/diary of data collection (raw data) supporting resources. Include bibliography of sources and acknowledgements of assistance give. Word process your project as this makes it much easier to reorder to cut out words etc. Keep to the word limit (use tables, diagrams etc) but do not cut short on the analysis and conclusion. Make sure you do some good hand drawn maps as well as computer drawn maps.

Reference:

Warn & Holmes (2003), Fieldwork Investigation- A Self Study Guide. Hooder and Stoughton