Doing academic research: a practical guide to research methods and analysis

Doing Academic Research is a concise, accessible, and tightly organized overview of the research process in the humanities, social sciences, and business. Conducting effective scholarly research can seem like a frustrating, confusing, and unpleasant experience. Early researchers often have inconsistent knowledge and experience, and can become overwhelmed - reducing their ability to produce high quality work. Rather than a book about research, this is a practical guide to doing research. It guides budding researchers along the process of developing an effective workflow, where to go for help, and how to actually complete the project. The book addresses diversity in abilities, interest, discipline, and ways of knowing by focusing not just on the process of conducting any one method in detail, but also on the ways in which someone might choose a research method and conduct it successfully. Finally, it emphasizes accessibility and approachability through real-world examples, key insights, tips, and tricks from active researchers. This book is a highly useful addition to both content area courses and research methods courses, as well as a practical guide for graduate students and independent scholars interested in publishing their research.

Cover; Half Title; Title; Copyright; Contents; List of figures; Preface: two professors and a librarian walk into a bar . . .; Part I Get the party started right; 1 Learn to love, not dread, research; 2 Where do I start?; 3 Now what do I do? What's a lit review?; 4 Choosing a method; Part II Methodology overviews; 5 Close textual and thematic analysis; 6 Content and discourse analysis; 7 Ethnography, interviews, and focus groups; 8 Surveys; 9 Observational methods in practice (participatory-action research, experimental research, theory, and metasynthesis)

Part III Data analysis and the final push10 Analyzing qualitative data and making sense of detail; 11 Analyzing quantitative data and making sense of numbers; 12 Persuasion, presentation, and publication; Glossary; Index