The Research Journal. Bassot, Barbara
content on
areas that can be difficult to understand initially.
• It guides you through the research process.
• It contains space for your own reflections.
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• It helps you to develop your knowledge in
the area of research generally and in
relation to your chosen topic area.
• It helps you to take control of your
research project.
Of course, none of these aspects of the book
can guarantee you a higher mark, but they
can help you to succeed.
The role of writing in research
and learning
Many tutors and supervisors encourage their
students to keep a reflective journal as part of
the research process, but few give advice on
how to do this effectively to get the most from it.
In higher education, there is growing evidence
of the value of journal writing in aiding students’
development, and here are some of the reasons
why. Journal writing helps us to:
• Gain new insights and develop our
understanding. It is difficult to write about
something well unless we understand what
we are writing about. If we don’t
understand what we have written,
probably no one else will either!
• Slow down and think at a significantly
deeper level. Most of us live life at a fast
pace, and slowing down is important for
developing our critical thinking. We need
to give ourselves time and space to do this.
• Examine where we stand on things as
a researcher. If we have not made our own
position in the research clear, it may open
us up to criticisms of subjectivity and bias
and it will fail to stand up to the academic
rigour of assessment.
• Engage with the research process in a more
transparent way. Any dissertation or research
project needs to be open and transparent in
relation to how it has been carried out, so that
its validity can be assessed.
• Make an accurate record of each aspect
of our research. It is all too easy to think
that we will remember relevant detail,
when, in practice, this doesn’t always
happen. This becomes problematic as
our research progresses, and we need to
look back and write about what we
did and why. In addition, we probably all
remember times when we have been
writing a piece of work and need to refer
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to something that we have read, but don’t
remember where we read it. We then
have to spend lots of time trying to find it
again, often at a time when the deadline
is looming! (Borg, 2001; Ortlipp, 2008;
Bassot, 2016).
The first of these bullet points is particularly
worth noting; we write about things in order
to understand them, rather than because we
already understand them. This helps us to see
why starting to write is often the most difficult
part; it means we need to write when there is
probably a lot that we don’t yet understand.
However, it is the act of writing itself that
helps our understanding and knowledge to
grow, so it is important not to put it off. The
best piece of advice I ever received when
doing my doctoral studies was, ‘Don’t get
it right, get it written!’ At first this advice felt
like turning everything on its head as I felt I
needed to understand things before I could
write about them. But being prepared to take
the advice proved to be an important step
forward because, once I started to write,
things began to get easier and I understood
more. Unlike many of the books you have
used at university so far, The Research
Journal is one that you are asked to write
in – so please do so, as it provides some
ideal steps towards understanding more.
Research terminology
Terminology in research is by its very
nature abstract and, as a result, it can be
difficult to grasp and potentially confusing.
Theme 5 explores some key terms. When
writing this book, some key decisions
were made in relation to its scope and the
terminology used; these are summarised here.
There are regular debates among academic staff
in the social sciences about appropriate content
for research methods modules. These modules
are commonly studied at undergraduate and
postgraduate level. Some academics (but not
all) agree that undergraduate students need
some grasp of methodology at a philosophical
level, often demonstrated through a discussion of
different research paradigms. Others argue that
at this level an understanding of the difference
between quantitative and qualitative research is
sufficient. This is the approach taken by writers
such as Greetham (2019) and Cottrell (2014) as
shown by the content of their publications. These
academics take the stance that postgraduate
students then need more, including a grasp
of areas like constructivism, critical theory,
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ethnography, grounded theory, narrative,
phenomenology