Becoming a Researcher

This innovative book combines what most books separate: research as practical activity and research as intellectual engagement. It clarifies and makes explicit the methodological issues that underlie the journey from initial research idea to the finished report and beyond. The text moves the researcher logically through the research process and provides insights into methodology through an in-depth discussion of methods. It presents the research process as an engagement with text. This theme moves through the construction of text in the form of data and the deconstruction of text in analysis. Finally the focus moves to the reconstruction of text through the re-presentation of the research in the report. Following through each of these stages in turn, the chapters consider either a practical issue or a group of methods and interrogate the associated methodological concerns. In addition, the book also addresses the rarely explored issues of the researcher as writer and researcher identity as core elements of the research process. The book provides a range of insights and original perspectives. These successfully combine practical guidance with the invitation to consider the problematic nature of research as social practice. It is an ideal reference for those embarking on research for the first time and provides a new methodological agenda for established researchers.

ISBN 0335213952   Pages 208 ISBN13 9780335213955 (What's this?)   Volumes 001 Publisher Open University Press   Weight (grammes) 419 Imprint Open University Press   Published in Milton Keynes Format Hardback   Height (mm) 238 Publication date 01 Jul 2005   Width (mm) 160 Library of Congress LB   Spine width (mm) 17 DEWEY 300.72   Academic level Professional / Scholarly DEWEY edition DC22

1		Introduction		1
2		The logic of enquiry		11
3		Talking with people - interviewing		27
4		Knowing with numbers - questionnaires		41
5		Being there - observation		55
6		Breaking down data - routes to interpretation		75
7		Worrying at words - discourse analysis		92
8		Pulverizing policy - deconstructing documents		110
9		Writing research - authoring text		129
10		The selfish text - research and identity		147
11		Methods and methodology		162

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