Customer Reviews

Practical Research: Planning and Design

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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This would be a very useful book for anyone who is interested in the philosophy of research, or who is writing a research proposal, or simply trying to work out what to do for their research project. Chapter 1 includes "What research is" and "What research is not" - a good start! Other chapters look at the tools of research, how to choose a problem, reviewing related literature, statistical techniques for looking at data and so on. A particularly useful section looks at common reasons for project bids to be rejected (Ch 6). There's plenty of good advice throughout the book.

I found the computer prompts less useful. They covered things like email, newsgroups and the internet which I already use extensively. However, for a student just starting out they would be useful pointers.

Since the book is not specific to any level or subject of research there are bound to be parts that are not relevant to the individual reader. But I feel there is something for everyone.

Overall, I think this would be a useful book for a research group leader to have on their bookshelf.

I have been trying to organize my thoughts for my thesis for quite sometime. One of my advisors suggested this book to help jump start things. The book outlines the literature review, abstract, etc and gives great examples as it goes. This book helped save my sanity during such a hectic time. The discussions about email and the internet are very outdated, however for those new to computers and internet research, it is a great intro.

I wish the author realizes not everything must be put in the form of an analogy! Apart from that the book is a good review of how to go about a research paper, giving valuable advice on how to avoid pitfalls. As somebody mentioned, the Computer Prompts really are very basic.