May, 2016 - PhD Thesis Bangalore

Few aspects of contemporary Social Research

Research is a blend of a wide range of activities and skills. In an attempt to be a good researcher, it is required that one is able to work with diverse people, understand those specific methods that have to be adopted for conducting research, have thorough knowledge about your topic of study, be able to … Continue reading “Few aspects of contemporary Social Research”

Research is a blend of a wide range of activities and skills. In an attempt to be a good researcher, it is required that one is able to work with diverse people, understand those specific methods that have to be adopted for conducting research, have thorough knowledge about your topic of study, be able to articulate thoughts vocally as well in a written way, and so on. The list of qualities and skills desired in a good researcher are endless.

Though, the aspects related to contemporary social research can be described through an endless list, but some of the most explicit and straightforward aspects that relate to research are:

Theoretical: Social research is primarily theoretical as its major concern is with the development, exploration, testing of ideas of the researchers regarding the way the world operates. But is it only theoretical?

Empirical: In addition to be being theoretical, it is also empirical, which means that its foundation rests on observation and measurements of reality of the perception that we carry of the world around us. Most of the research that we see around, is a good blend of the theoretical as well as the empirical aspects of research.

Probabilistic: Another word that describes Contemporary Social Research in a good way is a Probabilistic. This is because this research is based on probabilities. All the inferences that are made in social research have probabilities that are associated with them and the word certainty does not have much to do with research. Research only helps us to approximate probabilities for the situations studied.

Causal: This term means, that most of the research is focused on looking at cause and effect relationships. Though this may not be true for all studies, as some of the studies are only observational and some are attempted to explore relationships. However, studies are beneficial and useful, only when they go beyond observation and exploration. As, change can only be brought by understanding the cause and effect between the factors, so that the problems can be eliminated.

These are some of the important components of Contemporary Social Research and though the list is not exhaustive, and one can surely add more factors to it, but these are the important and definitive components that are used in defining the basic meaning of Research. Researchers must acquaint themselves with the meaning and thorough understanding of these terms, so that they know what their study expects from them.

How to work with different literature for crafting the Literature Review?

In an attempt to create a successful Literature Review, most of the researchers target to connect their work to the diverse literature that they read. That diverse literature could be as varied as, from research papers, policy documents, blogs, websites, articles, books etc. Scholars, sometimes even go further and incorporate cartoons and films. So literature … Continue reading “How to work with different literature for crafting the Literature Review?”

In an attempt to create a successful Literature Review, most of the researchers target to connect their work to the diverse literature that they read. That diverse literature could be as varied as, from research papers, policy documents, blogs, websites, articles, books etc. Scholars, sometimes even go further and incorporate cartoons and films. So literature should be considered as something plural, because, though it is a single entity but it couldn’t be created without compiling content from multiple ends and directions.

The primary objective behind reading a literature is, to gather lots of relevant information about a topic. It helps to confirm ones opinions about what he already knows. When you read varied literature on a particular topic, you categorically come to know what is known to you and what is not. The researcher, who is in the process, or at the stage of evaluating existing literature, gets an open perspective and looks at it from a critical point of view, so that beneath the knowledge on the surface of the literature, what is the view point, can also be understood. Eventually, when you have lots of literature with you, you are able to compare, contrast and then ultimately develop a perspective, which can be combined as common characteristics or approaches.

Researchers who don’t have an in-depth understanding of what is the core objective of creating the Literature Review, create it with the only sole purpose of text summarization, making lists of results and arguments. You must remember, this is just the first step in the creation of the literature review. You must rather have an evaluative perspective and not just listing down or compiling content. The job of Literature Review should be completed, to do justice to your research, as well as, to all the effort you make in collecting information and compiling it. The task is complete only when you have mapped the entire field. You should be able to clarify what has been the explicit contribution of the research, and its relationship with the prior research that has already been done.

Once you have done that, you unambiguously bring out the gap that is unfilled and still needs research. So you can end your Literature Review highlighting very clearly, that thorough analysis of existing literature brings out some gaps, and filling of those gaps is the objective of your research

A checklist to know your article is ready for submission

You keep working on a paper continuously and endlessly. You may be happy and contented with the research you have done and the kind of effort that you have put in but you may still with perplexed with the question that “ whether your article is ready for submission or no?” You have to consider … Continue reading “A checklist to know your article is ready for submission”

You have to consider various aspects to ensure that your paper is ready for submission. An incomplete argument that you submit way to early before completion may indicate ambiguity and confusion leading to rejection from the end of the editor. And at the same time, if you keep delaying submission because of personal dissatisfaction, you may never be able to submit because there always is room for exposure and improvement. You got to know the point where you have to stop by and just submit else it remains with you for all times to come. Whether it gets rejected, accepted or improvements are suggested, is something that needs to be seen with time, but your surity and confidence before submission depends on few factors.

Here, we have a small checklist that you must go through before you actually decide whether it is ready to be fowarded or no.

Take feedback from a third person:

Assessing your own work without getting biased about it is nearly an impossible task. You may not be able to look at it with a sense of objectivity. Remember that you have the scope to improve your work significantly with another intelligent feedback from a person who looks at it from a fresher perspective. Make sure the person you choose has the experience of publication himself has the eye to look at the work critically as well as independently. If you are not careful about choosing the person, the entire exercise may become a pointless one.

If it is difficult for you to find a person of calibre and interest in your field, to give feedback, you may alternatively choose to present your paper in a conference or seminar. The feedback that you get there,from the audience may help to add a lot of worth to your document.

Keep off work for a while: it may be a good idea to put the paper off your sight for a few days. You have been thinking about it all day and night for the past few weeks. If you continue to do that wich can sometimes block your critical perspective. Keeping it away from your sight and mind for a few days is a great idea so that you can come back to it and then decide whether it needs improvement or if it is good enough to submit like the way it is.

How much is good enough: Clear the Literature Review confusion

The key basis for any of the research study is the question that is there in itself. If your research question is vague or lacks clarity and specification then what follows in forms of objectives and hypotheses of the study will also not be clear. If you so intent to develop the right question for your study, what is required is a very strong and solid review of literature. A good understanding and exhibition of literature depicts the amount of expertise you have in your topic and you are able to justify and validate the question that you put up in your literature review.

All of this is easier said than done and sounds very good on paper. But from the glut of research that is available in the academia at the moment, it becomes a challenge to identify how much is enough. If you take the opinion of your supervisor, most likely he would tell you that you shouldn’t run after quantity but rather focus upon the quality of the content. It surely is valuable guidance, but still it may become a challenge to be able to decide how much of content sufficient content is.

There are some simple rules that apply here:

There is a strong connection between the breadth and depth of your literature review. The area of the study that you choose will have some amount of history attached to it in terms of previous work done. If the amount of work done previously is limited then you would have to go more in depth of that limited work available. However, if lot of work in your field is already existing then you would have to do wider study going back in to the history as much as possible. Keep the chronological arrangement structured and avoid gaps if any in the chronology.

The effectiveness with which you select your keywords will determine the quality of your work. If you choose too many keywords then you would be buried under the results for a long time and if you choose too few then you would bear the risk of slipping over a relevant theory and important paper that could a lot of weight to your paper.

Decide the length of your literature review on the basis of you’re a lot of reviews that you read. Feeling confident about the length of your content will reflect in the feeling that it is enough to add weight to your study.

A fun filled writing session

Do we see words such as fun and laughter get along with PhD scholars? Presumably, the life of a PhD scholar is so gruelling that all things that related to relaxation and fun fly out of the window and everything that links to stress and anxiety becomes your partner for that duration. However, we see the trend changing, people know and agree that productivity can be improved and enhanced in a fun filled social writing. Scholars around the world are trying and testing the means to meet in a social gathering. This helps to create that subtle peer pressure because of which the scholar cannot depend upon lame excuses for procrastination of PhD work.

The idea behind meeting in a social group from time to time with likeminded people who are also working on writing regularly and sometimes struggling with being regular in getting the desired productivity from their work. If you haven’t tried one yet, it is a good idea to do it. What you need to do is, make a group of people who are upbeat on joining and set aside regular time period at least once in a week to sit and write together at a location that is away from the usual location, in pleasing and sociable environment. A café is a good option. You would be excited to go there as it would be an opportunity to meet people, drink and eat and know the progress of other people. It can be constructive motivation. Make sure you set some rules for this session. It should be away from email, phone calls, social networking and other such distractions. It should be a social interaction opportunity that should progress further into enhanced productivity in terms of your writing goals. Even if you are able to do it for one hour once in a week, the inspiration and motivation that you draw from it should last you for the remaining days of the week. Keep your group big or small, as per your preference and where you find your productivity surfacing to the best possible level. And yes, remember that you need to maintain the positivity in group so regular and consistent feedback is important so that everyone is at the desired comfort level and is able to derive the kind of output desired from joining the group.

Happy fun filled writing in a social group!!!