Making Sense Of Research

The word “research” has its origins in old French in the 16th century. The word rechercher meant (and still means) “to search for”. Nowadays we would say that research, and specifically “scientific” or “scholarly” research, is the search for truth, or the pursuit of or quest for credible knowledge. It is precisely because research has become such a complex and multidimensional endeavour that we need to “make sense of” it. Making sense of research thus unpacks research as a technical and methodical process which starts with framing interesting questions and culminates in credible findings.

Making Sense Of Research is designed to take students beyond the messy experiential realm into what actually happens when getting registered, writing proposals, being examined and eventually crossing the stage to be capped.

Contents include the following:

• Academic architecture and why history matters
• How to do it (research)
• Thematic techniques
• Ethnographic, reception, visual and textual methods
• Getting published
• Some words on deconstructing deconstruction
• Getting technically oriented
• Getting conceptually orientated

Making sense of research is aimed at all research students.