Module 1: Overview and Introduction to Research

Things to remember:

1. Definition of Research (What is Research) Frascati, Martyn Shuttleworth, Creswell

2. Importance of Research to the Society

Module 2: Identifying Types of Research Design, and the Characteristics, Strengths and Weaknesses of
Qualitative Research

Things to remember:

1. Types of Research Design

Quantitative – establishes relationship between cause and effect of a situation)
Qualitative – used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions and
motivations.

Mixed – a design characterized by the combinations of at least one qualitative and one
quantitative research component
2. Characteristics of Qualitative Research

DESIGN:

Naturalistic
Emergent
Purposeful

DATA COLLECTION:

Data
Personal Experience
Emphatic Neutrality
Dynamic Systems
Analysis
Unique Case Orientation
Inductive Analysis
Holistic Perspective
Context Sensitive
3. Strengths and Weaknesses

Module 3: Introducing Kinds of Qualitative Research and Its Importance Across Fields

Things to remember:

1. Ethnography- In ethnography, you immerse yourself in the target participants’ environment

to understand the goals, cultures, challenges, motivations, and themes that emerge.
2. Narrative - The narrative approach weaves together a sequence of events, usually from just
one or two individuals to form a cohesive story.
 3. Phenomenological- In a phenomenological study, you use a combination of methods, such
as conducting interviews, reading documents, watching videos, or visiting places and events,
to understand the meaning participants place on whatever’s being examined.
4. Grounded Theory - looks to provide an explanation or theory behind the events.
5. Case Study - A case study involves a deep understanding through multiple types of data
sources. Case studies can be explanatory, exploratory, or describing an event.

Module 4: Ethics and Process of Research Designing a Research Project Related to Daily Life (Outlining)

Things to remember:

Research Ethics

1. Honesty
2. Objectivity
3. Integrity
4. Carefulness
5. Openness
6. Respect for Intellectual Property
7. Confidentiality
8. Social Responsibility
9. Competence
10. Legality
11. Subject Protection

Process of Research

1. Identify and Develop a Topic

2. Do preliminary search for Information
3. Make notes
4. Write your paper
5. Cite source Properly
6. Proofread

Module 5: Writing a Working Research Title

Things to remember:

Research Title - It summarizes the main idea or ideas of your study. A good title contains the
fewest possible words that adequately describe the contents and/or purpose of
our research paper.

1. Appropriately reflect the qualitative paradigm

2. Knowing your Audience
 3. Be ethical while honoring your participants’ stories, strengths and particularities.
4. Must contain the characteristics of a Good research title
A. Predicts content
B. Interesting to the Reader
C. Reflect the tome of the writing
D. Contain important keywords

Module 6: Formulating the Research Questions

Things to remember:

A research problem is a statement about an area of concern, a condition to be improved, a

difficulty to be eliminated, or a troubling question that exists in scholarly literature, in theory, or
in practice that points to the need for meaningful understanding and deliberate investigation.

Purposes of Problem Statement:

1. Introduce the reader the importance of the topic being studied

2. Places the problem into a particular context
3. Provides framework for reporting the results

Basic Characteristics of Research Problem

For your research problem to be effective, make sure that it has these basic characteristics:

• Reflecting on important issues or needs;

• Basing on factual evidence (it’s non-hypothetical);

• Being manageable and relevant;

• Suggesting a testable and meaningful hypothesis (avoiding useless answers).

• Formulating your research problem with ease

• Formulating your research problem enables you to make a purpose of your study clear to
yourself and target readers. Focus your paper on providing relevant data to address it.

Module 7: Establishing the Background Information (Rationale)

Things to remember:

Introduction This is the first part of Chapter 1, and it consists of the following:

background of the study, statement of the problem, significance of the study, and scope and
delimination of the study.
 Background of the Study This is a brief statement of the origin of the problem. It is an account
describing the circumstances which suggest the research.

Statement of the Problem The definition of the problem is the first main step in writing the
research paper. It should be stated precisely, accurately, and clearly.

Background of your study discusses in depth about the topic, whereas the introduction only
gives an overview.
Paying close attention to the following questions will help you in writing the background
information in your research paper:

Are there any theories, concepts, terms, and ideas that may be unfamiliar to the target audience
and will require you to provide any additional explanation?

Any historical data that need to be shared in order to provide context on why the current issue
emerged?

Are there any concepts that may have been borrowed from other disciplines that may be
unfamiliar to the reader and need an explanation?

Types of Information Sources:

Primary

- A primary source provides direct or firsthand evidence about an event, object, person, or
work of art. Primary sources include historical and legal documents, eyewitness accounts,
results of experiments, statistical data, pieces of creative writing, audio and video recordings,
speeches, and art objects. Interviews, surveys, fieldwork, and Internet communications via
email, blogs, and newsgroups are also primary sources.

Secondary

- Secondary sources describe, discuss, interpret, comment upon, analyze, evaluate, summarize,
and process primary sources. Secondary source materials can be articles in newspapers or
popular magazines, book or movie reviews, or articles found in scholarly journals that discuss or
evaluate someone else's original research.

Module 9: Establishing the Background Information (Rationale)

Things to remember:

Introduction This is the first part of Chapter 1, and it consists of the following:

background of the study, statement of the problem, significance of the study, and scope and
delimination of the study.
 Background of the Study This is a brief statement of the origin of the problem. It is an account
describing the circumstances which suggest the research.

Statement of the Problem The definition of the problem is the first main step in writing the
research paper. It should be stated precisely, accurately, and clearly.

Significance of the Study This part states the significance of the study and its result. It covers an
expression of the study’s relevance to fill certain needs.

1. Identify who will benefit from your research

2. Determine how they will benefit from your research paper

Scope and Delimitation of the Study The scope of the study identifies a reasonable area covered
by the study. A specific statement of the study must indicate the subjects, the number, and the
treatment involved in the study.

Definition of Terms An alphabetical list of important terms or acronyms that you define,
particularly ambiguous terms or those used in a special way.

1. Conceptual – defining terms using encyclopedia, dictionaries and the like.

2. Operational – defining terms as to how they were used in your study

Scope - actual place where the study will only be conducted; duration of the conduct of the
study

Limitation anticipated weaknesses or limitations of the study; ways and means to handle
weaknesses and limitations of the study.

Module 12: APA Referencing

Things to remember:

Plagiarism means using someone else’s words or ideas without properly crediting the original
author. Plagiarism includes the following offenses: Copying, quoting, paraphrasing, or
summarizing from any source without giving proper credit; Submitting another's work as your
own, and purchasing or downloading a paper and turning it in as your own work.

A citation is a way of giving credit to individuals for their creative and intellectual
works that you utilized to support your research.

A citation style dictates the information necessary for a citation and how the information are
entered and formatted.

A citation can also be used to locate original sources and combat plagiarism. Typically, a citation
can include the author's name, date, and location of the publishing company, journal title, or DOI
(Digital Object Identifier).
In-text Citation – it refers to a citation in which the author name appears in the sentence itself,
rather than within parentheses. The author name is part of the meaning of the sentence.
Example: Nadeau (2013) stated that dogs make unique eye contact with humans.
 Parenthetical citation – It is one that contains the required citation information within
parentheses.
Example: Dogs make unique eye contact with humans (Nadeau, 2013).

Module 13: Selecting Relevant Literature & Studies

Things to remember:

A related literature is composed of discussions of facts and principles to which the present
study is related.

Five main steps in the process of writing a literature review:

1. Search for relevant literature
2. Evaluate sources
3. Identify themes, debates and gaps
4. Outline the structure
5. Write your literature review

A related study, on the other hand, is a similar study that has direct relationship with your study.
This includes only studies that have been conducted.

Module 14: Constructing the Research Paradigm & Selecting Relevant Theoretical Background

Things to remember:

Conceptual framework

-is the researcher’s idea on how the research problem will have to be explored.

-This is founded on the theoretical framework.

-outlines the input, process and output of the whole investigation

-also called the research paradigm

Theoretical Framework

- theoretical framework dwells on time tested theories that embody the findings of numerous

investigations on how phenomena occur

- provides a general representation of relationships between things in a given phenomenon

A research paradigm is a diagrammatic illustration of the relationship of variables involved in

your study. It usually uses boxes, lines and arrows to indicate the relationship between the
dependent and independent variables in your study.