Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Doing a Successful Research Project is a realistic, user-friendly guide on how to conduct a research project that talks at the student's level; akin to having a tutor right at one's side. It offers an accessible, even-handed introduction to carrying out research methods for undergraduate and postgraduate students conducting a research project for the first time. The research process--from planning, through design and implementation, to completion--is described simply and succinctly, with the emphasis throughout on good preparation. The book provides students with the self-discipline and the confidence to carry out their own research project, as well as enabling them to assess for themselves the advantages and disadvantages of the differing strategies available.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface (p. xiii)
• Acknowledgements (p. xiv)
• Part 1 Planning your research project (p. 1)
• Chapter 1 So you're going to do a research project (p. 3)
• The dominance of research findings in our lives (p. 3)
• Becoming a researcher (p. 6)
• The basic rules (p. 8)
• Qualitative and quantitative research methods (p. 9)
• Are you ready to be a good project manager? (p. 11)
• Ten steps to get you off to a good start (p. 12)
• Are you on message? (p. 15)
• The nature of research (p. 17)
• Exercise (p. 18)
• Chapter 2 Let's make a start (p. 19)
• Choosing a topic and turning it into a question (p. 19)
• Practicalities (p. 22)
• Selecting your methodology (p. 25)
• Fourteen ways of 'doing research' (p. 27)
• Conclusion (p. 35)
• Chapter 3 Drawing up your personal project road map (p. 36)
• Clarify your own ideas (p. 36)
• Make time for an exploratory stage (p. 37)
• Find out how people will react to your method (p. 38)
• Do a literature review (p. 38)
• Give thought to five additional issues (p. 43)
• Prepare a final draft of your research instrument (p. 46)
• Carry out a pilot study (p. 47)
• Put it all together in a timed road map (p. 48)
• Timed road map (p. 49)
• Part 2 Quantitative research (p. 51)
• Chapter 4 The principles of sampling (p. 53)
• Types of sample (p. 55)
• Probability samples (p. 61)
• Non-probability samples (p. 62)
• In defence of the convenience sample (p. 63)
• Representativeness - and bias (p. 63)
• The basic rules of sampling in a learning context (p. 64)
• When you come to write your report... (p. 67)
• A note about experiments (p. 68)
• Chapter 5 Carrying out your survey (p. 70)
• Twenty quality questions for carrying out a successful survey (p. 71)
• An exercise (p. 76)
• An investigation into gender differences in the division of labour within married/cohabiting couples (p. 77)
• Now it's your turn (p. 79)
• Jo Kensit's project results (p. 80)
• Chapter 6 Questionnaires (p. 82)
• Questionnaires are driven by the researcher's own agenda (p. 82)
• The researcher has a professional obligation to maintain high standards (p. 83)
• Rating the performance of job candidates (p. 91)
• Twelve more things for you to think about (p. 94)
• Chapter 7 The art and science of survey interviewing (p. 101)
• The initial encounter (p. 101)
• Interviews should give respondents freedom to use their own words (p. 102)
• The principles of good practice (p. 103)
• The design of interview schedules (p. 104)
• Examples drawn from six classes of interview data (p. 105)
• Exercise (p. 107)
• Preparing your interview schedule (p. 107)
• Finally (p. 110)
• Exercise (p. 111)
• Chapter 8 Analysing your survey data (p. 113)
• Step 1 Think design, think analysis (p. 116)
• Step 2 Living with your data (p. 117)
• Step 3 Data entry using SPSS (p. 118)
• Step 4 Don't despise your frequency distributions (p. 119)
• Step 5 At this point, life gets more complicated (p. 121)
• Step 6 Cross-tabulations (p. 122)
• Step 7 Third variable analysis (p. 123)
• Step 8 Comparing numerical values - measures of central tendency (p. 125)
• Step 9 Comparing numerical values - correlations and rank order (p. 127)
• Step 10 Probability (p. 129)
• Step 11 Dealing with open-ended questions (p. 131)
• Step 12 Drawing your analysis to a close (p. 131)
• A note on inferential statistics (p. 131)
• Part 3 Qualitative research (p. 135)
• Chapter 9 Studying a small sample (p. 139)
• Why study a small sample? (p. 139)
• Identifying your research question (p. 140)
• Qualitative research is dynamic and interactive (p. 142)
• Strategic sampling (p. 143)
• A hypothetical example of strategic sampling (p. 144)
• Exercise (p. 146)
• Gathering your core sample (p. 146)
• What factors to take into account in gathering your sample (p. 147)
• Majorities and minorities are equally important (p. 148)
• The strategic approach to research planning (p. 149)
• Exercise (p. 150)
• Chapter 10 Qualitative research interviewing (p. 151)
• Introduction (p. 151)
• How will you present yourself? (p. 152)
• Having a base (p. 154)
• Unstructured or semi-structured interviewing with a small sample (p. 155)
• The impact of the research interviewer (p. 156)
• Ten rules for running your interview (p. 158)
• What kinds of questions are suitable for use with a small sample? (p. 160)
• Exercise (p. 161)
• The meaning of words (p. 162)
• Recording your interview (p. 162)
• Some of the ideas on offer (p. 164)
• Chapter 11 There is more to qualitative research than interviewing (p. 168)
• Ethnography and the anthropological tradition (p. 168)
• Participant observation (p. 170)
• Insider research (p. 172)
• Non-participant observation (p. 174)
• Exercise (p. 176)
• Learning a lesson from the novelist (p. 177)
• Focus groups (p. 178)
• The art of successful focus group management (p. 181)
• Content analysis (p. 181)
• Case studies (p. 184)
• N = 1 explorations (p. 186)
• Chapter 12 Analysing qualitative data (p. 187)
• Content analysis of the answers to open-ended questions (p. 188)
• Interpretive content analysis of complete interviews (p. 189)
• Being an only child (p. 194)
• Sexual infidelity (p. 195)
• A cautionary note (p. 196)
• Observation (p. 197)
• Observing behavioural dominance in children (p. 199)
• Focus groups (p. 202)
• Case studies (p. 204)
• Triangulation and multiple (or mixed) methods (p. 205)
• NUD*ist, NVivo and computer analyses (p. 205)
• Part 4 The last lap (p. 207)
• Chapter 13 Writing your report (p. 209)
• How to produce a successful report (p. 209)
• A note on word length (p. 216)
• Presenting your findings in a quantitative research study (p. 217)
• Presenting percentages (p. 217)
• Producing a bar chart by using MS Excel (p. 222)
• Presenting your findings in a qualitative research study (p. 223)
• Postscript: Over to you... (p. 228)
• Part 5 Into more complex territory (p. 229)
• Chapter 14 A qualitative researcher's briefing sheet (p. 231)
• Ten golden rules in qualitative research (p. 231)
• The language of qualitative research (p. 232)
• A concise glossary (p. 233)
• A cautionary view (p. 243)
• Chapter 15 Testing for statistical significance (p. 245)
• Eight useful ways of testing for statistical significance (p. 247)
• Testing for significance in cross-tabs (p. 248)
• Exercise (p. 249)
• Comparing differences between means (p. 253)
• When to use the Mann-Whitney test (p. 254)
• When to use the t-test for unmatched or independent samples (p. 255)
• When to use the t-test for paired or related samples (p. 256)
• Comparing pairs of scores in matched samples (p. 258)
• When to use the Wilcoxon test (p. 258)
• When to use the sign test (p. 259)
• Testing for significance in correlations (p. 260)
• When to use Spearman's rho (p. 261)
• When to use Pearson's product moment correlation (p. 263)
• Some terms you need to know and understand (p. 264)
• Bibliography (p. 267)
• Index (p. 270)