There
are several options to a researcher when developing strategies for a good dissertation.
According to Saunders (2007) , these options can be limited to the following
strategies , which in fact is very convenient for university level dissertations. The
strategies which are considered for the research are experiments, survey, case study,
action research, grounded theory, ethnography and archival research.
A careful
reading of the descriptions for these strategies usually rule out archival research,
ethnography and grounded theory (never mind these are my personal selections).
Now if you consult with your supervisor you may also drop the case study, but
it is just a personal opinion. However
if you are so convinced about what you are doing go ahead but keep in touch
with your supervisor to design the statement, problem, solution and outcomes
for your case study. Now one of the most popular methods is a survey research,
I reckon you will prepare a survey for one your objectives.
It is recommended
to prepare one or you may find it very difficult to defend your outcomes.
Besides the survey provides brand new data for you which is as good as a new
car rather than a dodgy second hand car. Try to focus your recommendations and
outcomes using the primary data and amount of 'quality' primary data is
directly proportional to the value of your dissertation. (I recommend a reading
on the 'triangulation in research ' which benefit the choice of research
strategies).
It
is also very appropriate for researchers to choose multiple research strategies
since each objective reflects on specific outcomes. The choice of multiple
strategies also improves the acceptability of your research since more than one
strategy exhibit the expertise of the researcher with strategies. There are
several other important points to be followed when choosing your research
strategy since it should follow the choice you have made in the research
philosophy and research approach. Let me summarise the points here in order to
make a quality choice in the research strategies.
1.
make sure you have understood all the strategies and their implications in your
area of your research before making your selection.
2.
Be conscious about the time limit to complete the dissertation and choose
appropriate strategy.
3.
The research strategy must follow your philosophy of the research and the
research approach or else the valuator can stop reading the dissertation at
this point.
4.
Try to include examples for each of the strategy (you should specify all the
strategies and give more explanation to your choice of dissertation in the
later part).
5.
A neat and clear explanation for the choice you have made in this section is
expected which should be around 50% of your content in this section.
6.
Choose more than one strategy which is more preferable and adds value to your expertise.
7.
Specify clearly the tools and techniques to carry out each research strategy
for example the sample size, characteristics of the respondents and methods for
drawing the sample (preferably the simple random sampling).
Out of box:
The case study method is not popular among valuators you better make a through consultation with your supervisor before fixing it (and for your safety I recommend a second opinion) . How you explain implementation of the strategy you have chosen is the most significant point in this section other things can be obtained directly from the text books.
