Remember to keep your language
concise; effective vision statements are
memorable because they are usually
relatively short.
If you find it easier, why not draw a
diagram or picture to illustrate your vision,
or even find a photograph that could
inspire you? You could always print it and
put it here.
Try this
Notes
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Theme 2.2
Starting the
research process
Many students look forward to their
independent study or dissertation because it
gives them an opportunity to delve deeper into
an area of interest that they have identified.
Many courses require students to start with
an introduction to research methods, which
can sometimes feel like a ‘necessary evil’, as
something you have to do before you can
start making progress with your own study.
Universities have protocols to ensure that
research is done in a robust way, can stand up
to scrutiny and is carried out ethically. These
protocols often include the following:
• Sessions – either taught or made available
on the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) –
on the whole research process. These help
you to understand key theory. You will also
cover other key aspects such as research
ethics, confidentiality, gaining informed
consent and subjectivity.
• Preparing a research proposal. This is an
outline of what you are hoping to do,
including your proposed research
questions, the areas of literature that you
will draw upon, some detail regarding how
you intend to carry out the research and
how you will deal with any ethical issues
that could arise. Sometimes your proposal
is submitted as a piece of assessed work.
• Submitting your proposal to an ethics
review panel. Following the panel meeting,
tutors and/or supervisors will offer
feedback and give guidance on anything
that needs to be amended. At this point you
may be asked to submit some revisions
to your proposal before going ahead
with your research, particularly if there
are any ethical issues that are apparent. It
will be important to address these carefully
and quickly, so you don’t lose important
time for carrying out your research project.
All of these steps are important in preparing
you for the research process and will help
you to carry out your research confidently
and well. It is good to remember that your
research proposal is a working document, one
that you can re-visit as your study progresses.
As such, it is worth keeping it to hand, so
that you can refer to it easily and quickly.
This could mean having a copy of it on your
desktop, and on your phone or tablet. Don’t be
afraid to write notes on it during your study, as
these could act as important reminders during
the writing-up phase.
29
Space for your thoughts
30
Theme 2.3
Criticality
'Criticality' is a term that you will have become
familiar with during your time at university and
is often linked with skills such as analysis and
evaluation. However, criticality is also a state
of mind or an approach to academic work
that takes nothing for granted and questions
everything. So, instead of accepting something
as a ‘given’ and describing it, criticality is
about questioning it; often this is done by
asking the question ‘Why?’ Small children with
a thirst for knowledge and understanding are
experts in this. At times they ask this question
constantly, until their tired parent or carer says
something like ‘Because I say so!’
As well as having a deep level of curiosity, a