Research

FEEDBACK ON COM3706 ASSIGNMENT 01

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This document takes the place of Tutorial Letter 103 as it provides feedback and guidelines based on Assignment 01 and preparation for Assignment 03

Note: The indication of a total maximum page length of 35 pages for your exam portfolio is a guide only. You can go over this limited, but we would prefer you do not go overboard and send us a portfolio of 40 or more pages because this means you are being verbose (that means you are long-winded and using too many words!)

* Introduction

The most important point about research is often the most overlooked: the whole purpose of doing research is to solve a problem and in the process to generate knowledge about the topic of that problem. And that, basically, is what you are doing in the exam portfolio. So the very first thing you need to do is to establish the problem that needs resolution. Because this is often the most difficult part, we have tried to make the process easier by giving you a problem to resolve. You need to keep this problem in focus all the time and everything that you do in the exam portfolio must work towards resolving that problem.

Many students are still confused with the research process. The process consists of three stages:

1 Setting out what you are going to do

2 Explaining how you are going to do the research

3 Doing the actual research (this is the part that comes in the exam portfolio) This third stage itself consists of a further three parts

4.1 Gathering the data (data collection – section 10)

4.2 Interpreting the data (data analysis –section 11)

4.3 Resolving the research problem (Findings –section 12)

If we look at the above outline this means that in Assignment 01 all you are doing is to explain what you are going to do in the research. There is no actual research in Assignment 01. This process is illustrated by the various maps that can be found in...