Module Identifier TF32410  
Module Title RESEARCH METHODS  
Academic Year 2002/2003  
Co-ordinator Professor Martin J Barker  
Semester Semester 1  
Other staff Dr Mikel Koven  
Pre-Requisite TF10210 , TF31920 , TF30720  
Course delivery Lecture   10 Hours  
  Seminars / Tutorials   10 Hours  
Assessment Semester Assessment   An annotated bibliography designed to develop not only the student`s ability to utilize standard bibliographical templates and to collate a variety of resources, but also to evaluate the relevance of a number of these sources for their relevance to their intended dissertation topic.   30%  
  Semester Assessment   3500 word assignment.   70%  

Learning outcomes

Typically, upon completion of this module, students will be able to:

Understand the differences between research, and other ways of gaining information and understanding.

Recognise the different stages involved in effective research; formulating a question, grounding this in existing research, theories and frameworks, formulating methods, managing the research process, and evaluating findings.

Develop their own dissertation proposal in the light of these, and see how to use an appropriate method or methods to carry this out.

Locate and draw upon a wide range of resources for this purpose.

Aims

The aims of this module are as follows

To develop student research skills to the point where they are prepared to conduct independent research in the development of an undergraduate research dissertation or research project;
To develop student skills at distinguishing between popular and scholarly source materials, using library, web, and other internet resources, using existing methodological frameworks, and textual analysis (of both printed and audio/visual texts);
To address the planning and execution of individual research projects.

Reading Lists

Books
** Essential Reading
Deacon, David et al. (1997) Researching Communications. London: Arnold