How to do your Social Research Project or Dissertation

Good book, I have another book from the same author, they’re the best! Just trying to remind Amazon please make sure the books are not folded when packing to customers. Nowadays, the people who still prefers holding paper book in hands, I guess mainly because of the feeling of the paper when touch it. The folded or damaged pages, although they won’t affect reading the contents, it may disappoint readers’ expectations…

This was one of the books I used to assist in writing my Master's Dissertation this year, for which I was awarded a Merit. It gave me a greater understanding, supplemented with its online materials, in areas which my knowledge lacked e.g - the key components of the literature review and how this should be structured. Other areas I found useful include the chapter on sampling (i certainly felt more confident about my use of convenience sampling and what I needed to do to justify this). I also found the distinct chapters on analysing quantitative and qualitative data useful. They don't give in-depth information on how to carry this out - you'll need to get this information from other books, although that was not the purpose for such a book like this, as it includes references to other books to 'delve deeper', rather, it just breaks down data analysis options with examples on how this can be displayed. Where i think this book lacked is information on what would be the discussion chapter of the dissertation. The authors state, 'a discussion of your data is crucial to the final mark your dissertation will achieve'. Thus, i think there should have been greater information about how this could be structured and possibly with an example.

This book has helped me so much in my final year at uni, it has made what seems like the most daunting part of university seem simple by breaking down and explaining what each part of a dissertation/ research project should contain and providing examples of what each section should look like. If you're struggling to start your dissertation/ research project I highly recommend this book.

Really helpful when writing a research proposal. The best of several books on the subject. Would recommend.

This item arrived safe and well packaged.A very well laid out book that is clearly highly influenced by students - those actually carrying out research and writing dissertations have had a huge impact on the writing here. That makes this a very useful book to read!If you're a final year student, or want to find out what you've got ahead of you later on, then this book is a fantastic resource well worth reading.I highly recommend this product.

This is a useful book from Oxford University Press which provides a generic guide for University students about to start a year two or year three dissertation or similar piece of work.The book offers almost a once-stop-shop for developing a project from working on a research proposal through literature reviews to working with data - from qualitative information to quantitative data. Whilst it does not offer detailed advice the overview is worthwhile.Four stars.

This is a superb book for anyone starting out on, or currently working on a social research based dissertation. It is detailed, comprehensive, practical and emotionally intelligent. The authors are clearly every experienced and have a clear understanding not only of the practical and academic issues that need to be addressed as part of the process, but also the various sources of stress and worry that generally come with the whole process of producing a dissertation. It provides you with a list of what you need to think about and to do at every step of the process. I particularly like the depth of advice given on designing questionnaires as it is the one thing that is most likely to be badly done, and it is crucial to producing worthwhile data. Outstanding book.

I wish I had had this book when I did my sociology dissertation as it may have prevented me from becoming a gibbering wreck! The book takes you through the entire process from coming up with an idea, research, writing and finally evaluating your work. This book can be used for those tackling a dissertation or any lengthy piece of research. The book is very detailed but is also written in a clear and easy-to-understand way. The bulk of it concentrates on the different kinds of research, including some more obscure methods, and how to carry them out. There is a lot of useful information on how to make sure your research is as accurate and unbiased as can be. I really liked the section on how to write up your findings or how to write your dissertation. My university taught us a lot about research methods but almost nothing about writing skills and I feel that I could have written a much better dissertation if I had had a book like this. I think this is an excellent book that you will refer to again and again.