HOW TO WRITE A RESEARCH DISSERTATION

Frank Rennie & Keith Smyth

Chapter 13 – Graphics in research

All the content relating to the chapter above is below

Having considered in previous in chapters how to think about structuring your research, and how to organise your research results, our attention now turns to ways in which to present your data. We look at a comprehensive range of visual data representations, including various types of charts and graphs, and discuss when it is appropriate to use them. We also consider how to deal with graphical representations, including images, charts and maps, which you have sourced from elsewhere.

Coverall – intro, design, data, presenting… An online handbook produced by the University of Surrey to give students an introduction to research.

A link to an extensive set of notes from the University of Surrey dealing with the whole process of documenting research. It starts with a consideration of why we do research, works through a range of planning issues that need to be considered, and concludes with a section on how research result might be utilised. Contains some embedded links.

The contents are well-defined and easy to read, in short, informative sub-sections. Not all of the sections will be appropriate to every research project, so students will need to use their own judegement, but taken as a whole, the document gives a good overview of the kinds of issues which students need to consider when preparing a research dissertation.

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university of surrey importance pilot studies - Introduction to research - handbook

A set of short dissertation writing videos from Massey University with resources for students.

These are helpfully broken-up into separate tasks, such as preparing a proposal, writing a report, editing, and so on. Each video clip gives a general overview and some guidance for students to help manage the selected task.

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massey university dissertation videos - Dissertation videos from Massey University

This links to an assemblage of video clips relating to various aspects of research and the preparation of research reports.

Individual videos deal with different forms of research, evaluation, and project planning. The clips range from 30 minutes to an hour each, so you may wish to watch them in stages, or allow time to watch, pause, and take notes. Different videos will be appropriate to different subject matter, so you may want to discuss your initial options with your supervisor before you invest time learning a research method which is not suitable for the topic of your study.

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Educational Videos YouTube - Research and the preparation of research reports (by Dr Sam Fiala)

Valuable ‘Guide to Presenting your Research’ by the GISS Institute on Climate and Planets at NASA.

This detailed short guide contains some excellent practical pointers on what to include in a research report.

  • Suggested Guidelines
  • Introduction
  • Methods or Research Approach
  • Results
  • Discussion

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NASA presenting your research data 150x150 - Guide to presenting your research (NASA)