LASER OCNSER Access to nursing: Independent Research Project Guidelines

July 2013

Dissemination Project: Guidelines for Access to Nursing

Writing a Dissemination Project: What is it?
A dissemination project offers the opportunity to undertake independent
research on a topic of your choice within the field of health & social care/ social
science/ access to nursing. It enables you to explore a topic in more depth than
an assignment essay. As it is your piece of work you have to have an idea for an
area of research identify your research questions decide how to undertake the
research analyse and write up the data critically
An independent research project is approximately 4,000 6,000 words in length,
including references but not appendices. Writing an independent research project
is good preparation for an undergraduate degree
Your project should:

Be enjoyable to carry out

Be organised into chapters and with a contents page, references and

bibliography
Often, but not always, based on your own personal experience
Often, but not always, linking theory with practice.
Contain some observed or practical research in your project. This may be
modest in scale but first hand research will lift the overall quality of your
project and enable you to conclude, perhaps in a very qualified way, that
your findings support, contradict, or modify the literature on the problem
you have investigated.

Project Objectives
On completion of your dissemination you should be able to demonstrate the
ability to conduct a major piece of social science inquiry by using research
approaches and secondary data acquired in order to demonstrate academic
written skills through an extended piece of writing and via oral presentation to a
small group of your peers
Structure
A project should be a sustained argument. This means that it should draw upon
the results of your reading, thinking and information-gathering in such a way that
it could persuade readers to accept your understanding of the topic. In other
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words, the main aim is to use a selection of concepts, theoretical ideas,
observations, statistical findings and your own faculties of criticism and
imagination in an attempt to reach defensible conclusions about a topic which
interests, challenges or puzzles you.
A project should not be:

A class essay which has grown to 4,000 - 6,000 words

A project that will require years of activity or an army of researchers in

order to be completed
Much too short or much too long implies that there was insufficient work
on defining the project

The Structure of the Module

The project module is different to other modules as you are working on your own.
Once you have identified a research topic you will be asked to complete a form
outlining your topic of research, your research questions and how you are going
to undertake the research
It is not the responsibility of your supervisor to chase you as this is an
independent piece of work. Your supervisor will offer guidance and support in
relation to your research questions, methodology, analysis and literature through
tutorial sessions. Sarah can be contacted on SRogers@esc.ac.uk or at the
Caring Services staff room.
Topic
The topic should be not only broad enough to make connections with current
debates in health & social care/ social sciences/ access to nursing but also
sufficiently narrow in focus to enable you to deal with questions in depth.
Topics are initially best framed as questions which force you into investigative
and enquiring mode rather than being merely descriptive. Current issues in
mental health provision would be much too broad and unfocussed, but Factors
that exclude men from accessing mental health services would be acceptable.
Your choice of project topic also needs to take into account the resources and
time available to you.
Getting Started: Defining the Project

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Try to write just one or two sentences defining your project. This will provide a
good test for you. I want to research and write a project about .....................
Do not be too ambitious about the project. Many projects start off by being far
too ambitious in scope and have to be reduced in scale - a shorter time-span, a
smaller number of case-studies, fewer aspects of the problem to be researched,
etc. You may need to redefine the project after you have started.
Getting Started: Outcome and Process
It is unlikely that your research will produce a new theory in the world of health &
social care/ social sciences/ access to nursing, or completely revise the way we
understand the value of, for example, mental health provision. But you will
contribute to understanding if your project is well organised and has a realistic
element which gives some outcome or findings, however modest. Your project is
also of interest as a record of a research process. Telling the story of the research
may be as interesting as what you find out. One way to ensure you do this is to
keep a research journal or diary in which you record what you do and how it
goes.
Getting Started: Write it Down
Write it down! References, dates, articles you see in newspapers. You won't
remember and it will take hours to chase up half-forgotten facts in six months
time.
Getting Started: Time-Management
The beginning of May seems a long way off now but it will come round quickly so
start writing early on. See your supervisor frequently. Don't put off writing or
making appointments.
What to expect from Supervision
Your tutor will read your project chapters and offer guidance and suggestions for
improvement. It is, therefore, important to send any work for reading in advance
of a 1:1 meeting.
Managing Your Project
As this is independent study without weekly sessions, you need to be disciplined
in terms of time management. Once you have identified a research area and
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your supervisor has approved it you need to make a work plan. You will not be
chased regarding this piece of work and you need to take responsibility for its
management!
You will be required to take notes on each and every meeting/ discussion that is
held with your supervisor on the appropriate form. You will need to get your
supervisor to sign this to confirm that this is an accurate record of your
discussion. This will need to be submitted as part of your final piece of work in
the appendices section
What Type of Research?
A dissemination can involve the following types of research: fieldwork such as a
questionnaire survey, interviews, life history/biographical interviews, or a
combination of these a critical discussion of theory use of secondary data such
as literature, diaries, existing data sets policy analysis
Writing Your Project:
The following is a guideline for your work:
Title Page

Contents Page (include a word count)

Chapter 1: Introduction

A brief outline of the topic and how you came to choose it; what you
wanted to find out; how you tackled it, and perhaps how your results fit
into the broader picture. It is also the place to include a brief description of

the background, context and setting in which the study has taken place.
Approximately 500 words plus.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

A review of the literature you have found on your subject, with particular
emphasis on theories and debates on the subject. This will place your
project into a broader academic context and may give you a theory or

hypothesis that you wish to test in your empirical research.

Approximately 1,000 words.

Chapter 3: Methodology
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A review of the methods you used to carry out your research with a
discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the approach you followed

and the approaches you rejected

A discussion of any ethical issues raises by the research
Approximately 500 words

Chapter 4: Results

An account of what you found from your study

Approximately 1,000 words

Chapter 5: Discussion

A more critical analysis of the results in which you discuss the results in

the context of your original aims, the literature review

Approximately 1,000 words

Chapter 6: Conclusion and, if appropriate, recommendations for action.

Approximately 500 words

References

Using Harvard Reference System

Appendices

Supplementary information that supports your work but is not a critical

part of the project

This could include copies of questionnaires & notes from supervision
meetings

When writing your project it is important to remember that you will not get your
chapters right first time. They will be drafts which you need to read, revise and
improve upon. Once you have an approved topic you can start to write your
introductory chapter. This will outline why you have chosen this particular topic this can be related to your own biography and experiences. You also need to
state what you are researching, your key research questions and how you will
carry out your research. While you are conducting your fieldwork you can begin
to write your literature review.
Some simple hints for beginners:

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Sub-headings within chapters may be helpful. It is useful to state clearly what
you are going to say at the beginning of each chapter and then summarise at the
end of each chapter as this helps to keep your reader fully informed of where the
project is going. You must write in paragraphs, not in bullet points or in
sentences that appear on the page as if they were paragraphs. A paragraph will
normally have about 150 words and convey one important stage of the
argument.
Searching for Information
Use Google Scholar or ebrary (available via ESC Ezone page) for relevant books,
journal articles, etc.
It is important to keep a record of all books, journal articles, etc, you have read
as these need to be included in your references. You need to use the Harvard
Referencing System
If you think that an extract from the literature you read will be useful as a quote
you need to make a note of the page number and year of publication.
In the text of the essay the author/s name/s have to be quoted together with the
date of publication in brackets, for example:
Appendices in Projects
Appendices can be attached to projects and these are not included in the word
count. Appendices offer supporting evidence of your work. You, therefore, need
to assess whether or not this is the case rather than putting a large amount in
the appendices.
Relevant appendices include: Evidence of research instruments used such as a
questionnaire or interview schedule, letters to participants, research logs, etc.
Research data such as interview transcripts, statistical tables. However these
should not appear only in the appendices. You need to integrate interview quotes
or statistical tables into the project text. Technical information relating to
sources, for example, access to research sites, limitations of secondary data
sets. Brief policy documents of organisations studied.
Ethical Issues

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All social science research is guided by a code of ethics. Please familiarise
yourself with the websites listed in the Further Guidance section and follow any
recommendations if they are appropriate to your work. This will need to be
detailed in the Methodology section
Useful References for Writing a Project
Some of the following sources may be useful:
Bell, J (2005) Doing your Research Project: a Guide for First-Time Researchers in
Education, Health and Social Science, 4th edn, Buckingham, Open University
Press entire text available online via Google Scholar
Burnett, J (2009) Doing Your Social Science Project, London, Sage
Glatthorn, A & Joyner, R (2005) Writing the Winning Thesis or Project, London,
Sage
Wyse, D (2006) The Good Writing Guide for Education Students, London, Sage
Hunt, A (2005) Your Research Project: How to Manage It, London, Routledge
Allison, B & Race, P (2004) The Students Guide to Preparing Projects and Theses,
London, Routledge
Adamson, A (1990) A Students Guide for Assignments, Projects and Research,
Oxford, Thamesman
Berry, R (2004) The Research Project: How to Write It, London, Routledge
Walliman, N (2001) Your Research Project: A step-by-step Guide for the First-time
Researcher, London, Sage
References on Research Methods (General):
Bryman, A (2008) Social Research Methods, Oxford: Oxford University Press
comes with a companion web site
Gilbert, N (ed) (2005) Researching Social Life, London, Sage
Gray, D E (2004) Doing Research in the Real World, London, Sage
Hammersley, M (ed) (1993) Social Research, London, Sage

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May, T (2001) Social Research: Issues, methods and process, Buckingham, Open
University Press
Plagiarism
East Surrey College and LASER OCNSER regards plagiarism as a very serious
issue. In submitting assessed written work it is important to beware of
plagiarism, which is the unacknowledged use of other peoples material. Both
the college and awarding body, regard this as cheating and it can have serious
consequences, even if it is unintentional. To avoid any misunderstanding, always
put quotations from other authors within quotation marks and give full
references to every source you use, even if you are not quoting directly from it.
Extensions
Extensions will only be granted in extenuating circumstances such as ill health or
severe personal problems. You need to contact your supervisor if you require an
extension.
Marking
Projects are marked by your supervisor and may be assessed by an internal and/
or external verifier. The same marking criteria applies as assignments. Your
project may be looked at by an External Examiner.
Further Guidance
The British Sociological Associations Statement of Ethical Practice:
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/info/ethguide.html
Research Ethics for Projects Involving Data Collection with Human Participants
http://www.socscidiss.bham.ac.uk/s8.html
British Educational Research Association (BERA)
http://www.bera.ac.uk (in publications section)
Presentation of your work
Your piece of work

will need to word processed

presented in Calibri or Time New Roman, font size 12
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will need to double line spaced

will need your name and page number on every page

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