Making Sense of Social Research Methodology

Making Sense of Social Research Methodology PDF Author: Pengfei Zhao
Publisher: SAGE Publications, Incorporated
ISBN: 1506378692
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 497

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Book Description
Making Sense of Social Research Methodology: A Student and Practitioner Centered Approach introduces students to research methods by illuminating the underlying assumptions of social science inquiry. Authors Pengfei Zhao, Karen Ross, Peiwei Li, and Barbara Dennis show how research concepts are often an integral part of everyday life through illustrative common scenarios, like looking for a recipe or going on a job interview. The authors extrapolate from these personal but ubiquitous experiences to further explain concepts, like gathering data or social context, so students develop a deeper understanding of research and its applications outside of the classroom. Students from across the social sciences can take this new understanding into their own research, their professional lives, and their personal lives with a new sense of relevancy and urgency. This text is organized into clusters that center on major topics in social science research. The first cluster introduces concepts that are fundamental to all aspects and steps of the research process. These concepts include relationality, identity, ethics, epistemology, validity, and the sociopolitical context within which research occurs. The second and third clusters focus on data and inference. These clusters engage concretely with steps of the research process, including decisions about designing research, generating data, making inferences. Throughout the chapters, Pause and Reflect open-ended questions provide readers with the space for further inquiry into research concepts and how they apply to life. Research Scenario features in each chapter offer new perspectives on major research topics from leading and emerging voices in methods. Moving from this dialogic perspective to more actionable advice, You and Research features offer students concrete steps for engaging with research. Take your research into the world with Making Sense of Social Research Methodology: A Student and Practitioner Centered Approach.

Making Sense of Social Research Methodology

Making Sense of Social Research Methodology PDF Author: Pengfei Zhao
Publisher: SAGE Publications, Incorporated
ISBN: 1506378692
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 497

Get Book

Book Description
Making Sense of Social Research Methodology: A Student and Practitioner Centered Approach introduces students to research methods by illuminating the underlying assumptions of social science inquiry. Authors Pengfei Zhao, Karen Ross, Peiwei Li, and Barbara Dennis show how research concepts are often an integral part of everyday life through illustrative common scenarios, like looking for a recipe or going on a job interview. The authors extrapolate from these personal but ubiquitous experiences to further explain concepts, like gathering data or social context, so students develop a deeper understanding of research and its applications outside of the classroom. Students from across the social sciences can take this new understanding into their own research, their professional lives, and their personal lives with a new sense of relevancy and urgency. This text is organized into clusters that center on major topics in social science research. The first cluster introduces concepts that are fundamental to all aspects and steps of the research process. These concepts include relationality, identity, ethics, epistemology, validity, and the sociopolitical context within which research occurs. The second and third clusters focus on data and inference. These clusters engage concretely with steps of the research process, including decisions about designing research, generating data, making inferences. Throughout the chapters, Pause and Reflect open-ended questions provide readers with the space for further inquiry into research concepts and how they apply to life. Research Scenario features in each chapter offer new perspectives on major research topics from leading and emerging voices in methods. Moving from this dialogic perspective to more actionable advice, You and Research features offer students concrete steps for engaging with research. Take your research into the world with Making Sense of Social Research Methodology: A Student and Practitioner Centered Approach.

Doing Excellent Social Research with Documents

Doing Excellent Social Research with Documents PDF Author: Aimee Grant
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351709895
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
In today’s society we increasingly create and consume written content and images. This includes a range of sources, from social media posts to records held within organisations, and everything in between, including news articles, blogs, shopping lists and official government documents. Critically reading these ‘documents’ can help us to understand a huge amount about society. Doing Excellent Social Research with Documents includes guidance on how to ‘read between the lines’, and provides an overview of six research projects which use documents as data. The substantive chapters are organised in two sections, with each chapter focused on a specific type of data. Section one focuses on documents that are found in isolation from their authors, including official and historical documents, traditional media, diaries and online content. Section two focuses on using documents in addition to existing data from primary research, including the role of documents in ethnography and visual research methods. In each chapter, you will be guided through the process of: Developing research questions, and how this impacts on which documents are selected; Considering aspects of bias and quality within the documentary sources; Undertaking analysis using six different strategies including thematic analysis, framework analysis, content analysis, discourse analysis and narrative analysis. Drawing on research projects which reflect real world situations, you will be methodically guided through the research process in detail, enabling you to examine and understand the practices and value of a range of documentary analysis approaches. Doing Excellent Social Research with Documents is a practical how-to guide for students (final year undergraduates onwards) and researchers using documents as data.

Seven Rules for Social Research

Seven Rules for Social Research PDF Author: Glenn Firebaugh
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691190437
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Seven Rules for Social Research teaches social scientists how to get the most out of their technical skills and tools, providing a resource that fully describes the strategies and concepts no researcher or student of human behavior can do without. Glenn Firebaugh provides indispensable practical guidance for anyone doing research in the social and health sciences today, whether they are undergraduate or graduate students embarking on their first major research projects or seasoned professionals seeking to incorporate new methods into their research. The rules are the basis for discussions of a broad range of issues, from choosing a research question to inferring causal relationships, and are illustrated with applications and case studies from sociology, economics, political science, and related fields. Though geared toward quantitative methods, the rules also work for qualitative research. Seven Rules for Social Research is ideal for students and researchers who want to take their technical skills to new levels of precision and insight, and for instructors who want a textbook for a second methods course. The Seven Rules There should be the possibility of surprise in social research Look for differences that make a difference, and report them. Build reality checks into your research. Replicate where possible. Compare like with like. Use panel data to study individual change and repeated cross-section data to study social change. Let method be the servant, not the master.

How to Do Your Social Research Project Or Dissertation

How to Do Your Social Research Project Or Dissertation PDF Author: Tom Clark
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198811063
Category : Dissertations, Academic
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
How to do your Social Research Project or Dissertation provides a straight-talking, easy-to-navigate, and reassuring guide to support final-year social science undergraduates. Uniquely shaped by real social science undergraduates from a range of institutions, the book includes their advice to help you through with what can be a daunting, but rewarding stage of your degree. From the look and feel of the book, to the development of the chapter content and the advice it provides, students have been involved at every stage of the book's development to ensure it is focused on what's important to you. Expert advice from real supervisors across the subject disciplines in the 'Working with your supervisor' feature also helps you to make the most of research supervision, and learn from the experience of real researchers in your chosen field. By providing anecdotes, words of wisdom, scenarios, or simply reminders, hints, and tips on how best to prepare for meetings, and communicate effectively, How to do your Social Research Project or Dissertation is the most complete guide to facilitate the student-supervisor working relationship. Dedicated chapters cover all the typical stages of a research project or dissertation in the social sciences, while their carefully constructed structure allows you to quickly and efficiently navigate the content. Throughout the book, you'll focus on three key questions: 'What do I need to know?', 'What do I need to think about?' and 'What do I need to do?'. In so doing, each chapter gives you a clear and direct checklist of actions as you progress through your dissertation or research project, keeping you organized, motivated, and confident. The book's online resources include a wealth of free-to-access materials, including: DT Author-led videos for each chapter of the book focussing on key areas of social research including supervision, thinking up research questions and ethical challenges in social research among others. DT Student videos focussing on key issues in undertaking a research project or dissertation and how these have been overcome. DT 'Finding your Way' research pitfalls and how to avoid them. DT General dissertation template. DT Good and bad examples of various research tools: questionnaires, interview questions, observation plans. DT Good and bad examples of extracts from literature reviews. DT Downloadable research checklist. DT Further reading/research suggestions, broken down by chapter. DT A list of links to online time-management tools. DT Research plan templates. DT Links to freely available datasets. DT Tips on increasing your sample size. DT SPSS/NVIVO links/resources. DT Interactive activity to help narrow down research topics. DT Mind-mapping tool. DT Interactive editing exercise to practise writing-up, and making efficient use of word count.

Doing Social Research

Doing Social Research PDF Author: Therese L. Baker
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities, Social Sciences & World Languages
ISBN: 9780070060029
Category : Social sciences
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This third edition of Therese L. Baker's popular text, Doing Social Research offers a hands-on, step-by-step approach to social research that combines authoritative content, effective pedagogy, and an engaging writing style. To that end, the author includes real, classic and contemporary research studies, as well as interviews with the authors of these studies, to personalize the experience of doing social research, and keep students interested and motivated. Baker exposes students to a broad range of research methods, encouraging them to explore the rich universe of social research. In this text, Baker encourages a sense of commitment to doing social research. She exposes students to the choices, the challenges, and the excitement of trying to study some piece of social action, and encourages students to believe that they can become social researchers. Doing Social Research, Third Edition is the answer for sociology and social science students who need a practical understanding of today's key research theories and techniques.

Key Concepts in Social Research

Key Concepts in Social Research PDF Author: Geoff Payne
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1446233898
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
`This clearly written and user-friendly book is ideal for students or researchers who wish to get a basic, but solid grasp of a topic and see how it fits with other topics. By following the links a student can easily and efficiently build up a clear conceptual map of social research′ - Malcolm Williams, Reader in Sociology, Cardiff University `This is a really useful book, written in an accessible manner for students beginning their study of social research methods. It is helpful both as an introductory text and as a reference guide for more advanced students. Most of the key topics in methods and methodology are covered and it will be suitable as a recommended text on a wide variety of courses′ - Clive Seale, Brunel University At last, an authoritative, crystal-clear introduction to research methods which really takes account of the needs of students for accessible, focused information to help with undergraduate essays and exams. The key concepts discussed here are based on a review of teaching syllabi and the authors′ experience of many years of teaching. Topics range over qualitative and quantitative approaches and combine practical considerations with philosophical issues. They include several new topics, like internet and phone polling, internet searches, and visual methods. Each section is free-standing, can be tackled in order, but with links to other sections to enable students to cross-reference and build up a wider understanding of central research methods. To facilitate comprehension and aid study, each section begins with a definition. It is followed by a summary of key points with key words and guides to further reading and up-to-date examples. The book is a major addition to undergraduate reading lists. It is reliable, allows for easy transference to essays and exams and easy to use, and exceptionally clearly written for student consumption. The book answers the needs of all those who find research methods daunting, and for those who have dreamt of an ideal introduction to the subject.

Doing Social Science Research

Doing Social Science Research PDF Author: Simeon Yates
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 9780761967989
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
Providing an introductory overview of the process of social research, and including classic readings in research methods that all students and researchers should be familiar with, this text offers a comprehensive introduction to key areas of quantitative and qualitative research.

Social Science Research

Social Science Research PDF Author: Anol Bhattacherjee
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781475146127
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
This book is designed to introduce doctoral and graduate students to the process of conducting scientific research in the social sciences, business, education, public health, and related disciplines. It is a one-stop, comprehensive, and compact source for foundational concepts in behavioral research, and can serve as a stand-alone text or as a supplement to research readings in any doctoral seminar or research methods class. This book is currently used as a research text at universities on six continents and will shortly be available in nine different languages.

Creative Writing for Social Research

Creative Writing for Social Research PDF Author: Phillips, Richard
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447356004
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
This groundbreaking book brings creative writing to social research. Its innovative format includes creatively written contributions by researchers from a range of disciplines, modelling the techniques outlined by the authors. The book is user-friendly and shows readers: • how to write creatively as a social researcher; • how creative writing can help researchers to work with participants and generate data; • how researchers can use creative writing to analyse data and communicate findings. Inviting beginners and more experienced researchers to explore new ways of writing, this book introduces readers to creatively written research in a variety of formats including plays and poems, videos and comics. It not only gives social researchers permission to write creatively but also shows them how to do so.

Do It Yourself Social Research

Do It Yourself Social Research PDF Author: Yoland Wadsworth
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315430282
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
With the rapid growth of collaborative, indigenous, and community-based research, one of the key challenges researchers face is finding an effective way of involving non-researchers in the research process. Do It Yourself Social Research has been a best-selling methodology guide for action research projects and community groups in Australia for almost three decades. Always emphasizing the importance of a spirit of inquiry, it demystifies the research process, covering where to start, how to manage a research project, what methods, techniques and resources to use, and interpretation, analysis and reporting. This third edition has been thoroughly revised, adding the use of narrative and dialogue in research, rich research design, and what digital technology can (and can’t) contribute to the research process. With its hands-on, no-nonsense approach, Do It Yourself Social Research is an essential resource for community groups, college students, and other novice researchers in health, social welfare, education and related areas.