Methods Of Social Investigation

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Term Paper Title	Methods Of Social Investigation
# of Words	1665
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	6.66

Methods of Social Investigation

Methods of Social Investigation

Emma Woodmansee

'Describe how you would plan and undertake an investigation into why some of
this College's students do not complete their degree courses.' (You have been
given only 100 to finance the study; and one term's sabbatical.)

Define the variables in the given title

After a Research Statement has been formulated it is very important that the
researcher defines any variables within it. A variable is any word whose meaning
may be ambiguous or which could have several different meanings. This is a
crucial stage in the planning process as a vague title renders any results at
the end of the research without true meaning.

In this case, the Research Statement is the given title ‘Describe how you would
plan and undertake an investigation into why some of this College's students do
not complete their degree courses.' Within this Research Statement there are
several variables : ‘college's', ‘students', ‘complete' and ‘degree courses'.
These variables will be defined as follows:

`College's'             We will take this to mean students at Royal Holloway
                            and Bedford New College, University of London.

`Students'              Undergraduates on a first degree (excluding post
                            graduates and so on).

`Complete'              Graduate

`Degree courses'        The course for which the student originally registered.

By defining the variables above there can be no confusion as to the meaning of
the Research Statement. This process also helps the researcher to focus on the
group of people that he wishes to study.

Decide on the purpose of the research

Having defined the variables in the Research Statement, the researcher now needs
to focus his attention on the purpose of the research, and consequently lay down
the Research Objectives. This part of the planning process allows the researcher
time to consider what he hopes to achieve from the research and ensures that the
research represents his objectives.

The purpose of our research is to identify the reasons for students failing to
complete the degree course for which they were originally admitted (variables
already identified). The results of the research would allow the college to take
action to encourage students to continue their studies and could even be used to
aid the selection process and perhaps prevent problems from the outset. This is
the final purpose of the research.

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