BS4289 Research Methods SEM1 Assessment Brief | RGU

About This Brief

• Develop critical thinking and writing skills, creativity, and original thought in argument development.
• Develop research skills in accessing and disseminating high quality, peer reviewed academic literature resources to develop ideas and arguments for critical writing activities.
• Develop project management skills relating to time management, communication, collaboration, research project planning and task prioritisation.
• Explore and understand the research process and the steps necessary to develop the research proposal into an undergraduate thesis project.

Learning Outcomes

• Demonstrate research attitudes, knowledge, valuations, and skills of utility to professional practice.
• Identify relevant and feasible areas of research in relation to professional practice and for the purpose of individual investigation.
• Identify major research approaches and methodologies and their relevance and appropriateness to research in a professional context.
• Select a topic from the course and/or their own experience which will provide suitable scope for research in the thesis.
• Critically apply research approaches and methods, and project management techniques, in the design and planning of a research programme approved for research in the Honours thesis.

Write a 3000-word Research Proposal, that identifies and examines your chosen research topic, related to your course of study. Your research proposal must critically evaluate and plan your chosen research topic, identification of literature topics, proposed methodology and research plan. 

The purpose of this coursework is to enable you to: 

• Identify and examine the scope for research in a topic area of relevance to your course of study.
• Critically evaluate and plan research approaches and methods, and project management techniques, in the design of a research programme approved for research in the Honours thesis.

The research proposal is the starting point of a research study that will be conducted in the future (i.e., your Honours Thesis), which follows this module. There are three key purposes of a research proposal: 

• To present the research problem/issue.
• To relate the proposed research to other "key" research in the field.
• To present a clear rationale and plan (e.g., research methodology, necessary