Introduction; How to start; Framing a research proposal; Preparing the research proposal; Literature review: accessing online resources and databases, possible ways of structuring a literature review, evaluating the literature, article critique, critical reading, effective reading, effective note-taking from written text; Structure of a research paper/thesis: abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion and conclusion; Writing tools; Types of research: descriptive, analytical, applied, fundamental, quantitative, qualitative, conceptual, empirical; Research design: explorative, descriptive, explanatory, evaluative, predictive, historical; Features of a good research design; Important concepts relating to research design: dependent and independent variables, extraneous variable, control, confounded relationship, research hypothesis, experimental and nonexperimental hypothesis testing research, experimental and control groups, treatments, experiment; Data collection and analysis: primary data, secondary data, interpolating and extrapolating data; Data analysis through graphs and tables: mean, median, mode and range, graph interpretation; Formulating and testing the hypothesis: null and alternative hypothesis; Research ethics.

Suggested Text:

  1. Research Methodology by Chris Welman, Fanie Kruger, and Bruce Mitchell
  2. The Craft of Research by W. Booth, G. Colomb G, and J. William
  3. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Method Approaches by J.W. Creswell
  4. Research Methodology by Wayne Gooddard and Stuart Melville
  5. Research Methodology by C. Rajendra Kumar