Short essays

Short essays For this assessment, you are expected to select two out of the six essays listed below and write a short essay of approximately 1000 words per essay (-/+ 10%). You should select one essay from each section.

• The essays need to draw on the relevant course materials, such as textbooks, articles, lecture content, tutorial exercises, or additional readings.

• It also needs to include relevant illustrative examples. Those might include the examples of different studies discussed in the textbook or in the course lectures, or – if relevant – can be based on your experiences of designing your own projects for this course.

• Finally, the essays will need to be referenced according to normal academic procedures using Harvard referencing conventions. Please note that the list of references does not count towards the overall word limit. You are required to submit your answers to the below questions as two separate essays. Each essay needs to be included in a separate single file with the chosen question clearly identified. The file should be in MS Word or RTF format (no PDF please) and should use the following formatting requirements: font 12, using double space.

Essay Writing
Section A

Select one essay from this section :

Question 01 For as long as people have been interested in studying the social world around them, observation has served as a bedrock source for human knowledge. Outline what you consider the essential features of observation, discussing the methodological issues, strengths and weaknesses in its practice.

Question 02 Many accounts of qualitative data analysis demonstrate that there are multiple, iterative sets of tactics at play. In this sense we can speak of ‘thematic analysis’ as a widely used qualitative analytic method, which offers an accessible and flexible approach to analysing qualitative data. Outline what thematic analysis is and identify the clear phases of conducting a thematic analysis.

Question 03 There are two main research approaches: deduction and induction. With deduction a theory and hypothesis (or hypotheses) are developed, and a research strategy designed to test the hypothesis. With induction, data are collected, and a theory developed as a result of the data analysis. Propose an alternative to these two main approaches. Outline the characteristics and differences between the various research approaches, highlighting their limitations.

Section Two

Select one essay from this section:

Question 04 You are planning a research project to explore the effects of remote work arrangements on employee work-life balance in the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic. You are considering a quantitative research approach in this project. However, you are aware of several key concerns involving quantitative research. Discuss in detail at least three key concerns of quantitative research with examples relevant to the above scenario.

Question 05 Most universities in the UK moved all teaching and learning activities to virtual classrooms in the early part of 2020. This was an unexpected change for many academics and students. Considering these recent changes, the senior management of a certain UK university want to determine the effectiveness of virtual learning technologies used in that academic term. Imagine that you are part of the research team investigating the above. Discuss how you can use methodological triangulation (i.e. using more than one method to gather data) to increase the credibility and validity of your research findings. Discuss specific data collection methods that are appropriate in this scenario with relevant examples. Also, indicate your target audience and justification for selecting the said sample for each data collection method to be used in methodological triangulation.

Question 06 ASKING questions and getting answers is a much harder task than it may seem at first. Yet, interviewing is one of the most common and most powerful ways we use to try to understand our fellow human beings. Discuss the major types of interviewing and indicate the uses of interviews. What are the key issues to consider when planning interviews? What are the key areas of competence that you need to develop in order to conduct an interview successfully?