RAJIV GANDHI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF

LAW

PROJECT:
WRITING REPORTS IN SOCIAL SCIENCE
RESEARCH

SUBMITTED BY- SUBMITTED TO-

Bhava Sharma Mrs. Pamalpreet Kelly

2ND year B.A LLB (Hons) Professor of Sociology

Section-B

Roll no-17108

0
 Table of Contents

1. Man as a Social Science ......................................................... 4

2. Art of writing a Report? ........................................................ 5

2.1 Formulation of a Research Design ................................... 5
2.2 Choosing a Research Problem .......................................... 6
2.3 Literature Review ............................................................. 8
2.3.1 Types of Literature Reviews ........................................ 10

3. Adopting a Methodology ..................................................... 12

4. Findings (sometimes called Results) ................................... 14

5. CONCLUSION ..................................................................... 15

1
 ACKOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my gratitude to my teacher Mrs. Pamalpreet Kelly for playing
an instrumental role in my project and guiding me in times of difficulties. This project
helped me a lot in knowing the nuances of doing research with keeping objectivity in
my mind and the various problems it faces due to various interpretations.

I would also like to thank the library staff who assisted me in finding the appropriate
books for my project and also in collecting the relevant data that was vital for my
project.

Bhava Sharma

(17108)

2
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the Project Titled: The Relevance of Religious Beliefs: Debate on
Marx and Weber as been prepared and well researched upon by the bona fide student
Bhava Sharma, 2nd year B.A LLB (Hons) of Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law
under my supervision .

___________________

Mrs. Pamalpreet Kelly

3
 INTRODUCTION

1. Man as a Social Science

"Man is by nature a social animal; an individual who is unsocial naturally and not
accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human. Society is something that
precedes the individual. Anyone who either cannot lead the common life or is so self-
sufficient as not to need to, and therefore does not partake of society, is either a beast
or a god." ~ by Aristotle

There are a certain question that need to be addressed before we venture further into
the depths of Social Science research which is a Pandora’s box and various aspects
make it difficult to be summarized briefly and I will try to bring a multi-faceted
phenomenon like this into a more categorized form for the convenience of the reader.

Man is a social animal and that, he loves to live in society with other human beings, is
a general conception about his basic behavioural pattern. Almost all sociological
thinkers agree that there is a very close relation between the individual and the society.
Whether any particular individual could have been nurtured under conditions in which
there did not exist any society is a different question; but the fact remains that without
a social environment, be it his home, his community or his state, no stability would be
brought to his status as an individual.1

One would almost conclude from the foregoing statement that the individual is a
product of society. Instantly, other thinkers would raise a hue and cry that the truth is
just the contrary, that is, the society is the product of an individual and another.

As McIver says, it may be pointless to enter into the controversy as to whether the
individual came before the society, or the society came before the individual, one
should rather concentrate attention on the causes of the growth of the society and the
role of the individual in it.

1
Isaac Loos, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Sage Publications,
Inc. in association with the American Academy of Political and Social Science,Vol. 10 (Nov., 1897), pp.
1-21.

4
There are certain scientific approaches that have consequently been devised by humans
to further gain insight in the development of the evolution of mankind from brute and
fractured societies to that of a globally connect world with everyone in touch with the
press of a button. Thus, it is the need of the hour that there are more breakthroughs and
accomplishments

2. Art of writing a Report?

A report is written for a clear purpose and to a particular audience. Specific

information and evidence are presented, analyzed and applied to a particular problem
or issue.

2.1 Formulation of a Research Design

The utility or the function of a research design is to at the best possible way ensure that
the evidence or data that is found in support is obtained enables the researcher to
effectively and efficiently address the research problem logically and as
unambiguously as possible in the relevant context. 2

In social sciences research, obtaining information relevant to the research problem

generally entails specifying the type of evidence needed to test a theory, to evaluate a
program, or to accurately describe and assess meaning related to an observable
phenomenon.3

The length and complexity of describing research designs in your paper can vary
considerably, but any well-developed design will achieve the following:4

1) Identify the research problem clearly and justify its selection, particularly in relation
to any valid alternative designs that could have been used,

2) Review and synthesize previously published literature associated with the research
problem,

3) Clearly and explicitly specify hypotheses [i.e., research questions] central to the
problem,

2
Available at: http://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/researchdesigns, last accessed:4th August 2018.
3
Ibid.
4
Supra 2.

5
4) Effectively describe the data which will be necessary for an adequate testing of the
hypotheses and explain how such data will be obtained, and

5) Describe the methods of analysis to be applied to the data in determining whether or

not the hypotheses are true or false.

2.2 Choosing a Research Problem

Stage 1: Identify ideas and terms that put forth up the subject expression. For instance,
your teacher needs the class to center around the accompanying exploration issue: "Is
the European Union a trustworthy security performing artist with the ability to add to
facing worldwide fear based oppression?" The primary ideas is this issue are:
European Union, worldwide psychological oppression, validity.5

Step 2: Review related writing to help refine how you will approach inspecting the
subject and figuring out how to examine it. You can start by doing any or the majority
of the accompanying: perusing foundation data from materials recorded in your course
syllabus; seeking the USC Libraries Catalog to locate an ongoing book on the theme
and, if proper, more particular works about the point; directing a fundamental audit of
the exploration writing utilizing multidisciplinary library databases such as SCCOnline
or Manupatra in the Indian Context or subject-particular databases found here.6

Utilize the principle idea terms you created in Step 1 and their equivalent words to
recover important articles. This will enable you to refine and outline the extent of the
examination issue. Try not to be shocked in the event that you have to do this few

times previously you settle how to approach expounding on the topic.
 7


NOTE: Always survey the references from your most significant research comes about
refered to by the creators in commentaries, endnotes, or a book index to find related
research on your subject. This is a decent procedure for recognizing critical earlier
research about the theme since titles that are more than once refered to show their
hugeness in establishing a framework for understanding the issue. In any case, in case

5
Ibid.
6
Supra 2.
7
Ibid.

6
you're experiencing difficulty now finding significant research literature, ask a
custodian for help!

ANOTHER NOTE: If you discover an article from a diary that is especially useful,
put cites around the title of the article and glue it into Google Scholar. In the event that
the article record shows up, search for a "refered to by" reference taken after by a
number. This connection demonstrates how often different analysts have thusly refered
to that article since it was first distributed. This is a brilliant system for recognizing
more flow, related research on your subject. Finding extra refered to by references
from your unique rundown of refered to by references encourages you explore through
the writing and, by so doing, comprehend the advancement of thought around a
8
specific research problem.



 Step 3: Since sociology inquire about papers are for the most part intended to

motivate you to build up your own thoughts and arguments, look for sources that can
help expand, adjust, or fortify your underlying contemplations and arguments [for
case, on the off chance that you choose to contend that the European Union is poorly
arranged to go up against duties regarding more extensive worldwide security on
account of the obligation emergency in numerous EU nations, at that point center
around distinguishing sources that support as well as refute this position]. 9

There are minimum four suitable parts your related writing plays in helping you define
how to start your examination:

Wellsprings of criticism: regularly, you'll end up perusing materials that are applicable
to your picked theme, however you can't help contradicting the creator's position.
Along these lines, one way that you can utilize a source is to depict the counter-
contention, give prove from your survey of the writing in the matter of why the
common contention is unacceptable, and to talk about how your own view is more
fitting in light of your elucidation of the proof.

Wellsprings of new ideas: while a general objective in composing school explore

papers in the sociologies is to approach an examination issue with some essential

8
Supra 2.
9
Ibid.

7
thought of what position you'd get a kick out of the chance to take and what grounds
you'd get a kick out of the chance to remain upon, it is unquestionably worthy [and
frequently encouraged] to peruse the writing and expand, alter, and refine your own
situation in light of the thoughts proposed by others. Simply ensure that you cite the
sources!

Hotspots for chronicled context: another part your related writing plays in helping you
plan how to start your investigation is to put issues and occasions in legitimate
authentic setting. This can exhibit recognition with advancements in applicable grant
about your subject, give a method for looking at recorded versus contemporary issues
and occasions, and recognizing key individuals, spots, and things that had an
imperative part identified with the examination issue.

Wellsprings of interdisciplinary insight: leverage of utilizing databases

like ProQuest to start investigating your subject is that it covers distributions from a
wide range of controls. Another approach to plan how to examine the theme is to take
a gander at it from various disciplinary points of view. In the event that the theme
concerns migration change, for instance, ask yourself, how do contemplates from
sociological diaries found via searching ProQuest vary in their examination from those
in law diaries. An objective in looking into related writing is to give a method for
moving toward a theme from various points of view instead of the viewpoint offered
from only one aspect.

2.3 Literature Review

A literature review surveys books, scholarly articles, and any other sources relevant to
a particular issue, area of research, or theory, and by so doing, provides a description,
summary, and critical evaluation of these works in relation to the research problem
being investigated. Literature reviews are designed to provide an overview of sources
you have explored while researching a particular topic and to demonstrate to your
readers how your research fits within a larger field of study.10

10
Fink, Arlene. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper. Fourth edition.
Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2014.

8
A Literature review may comprise of basically an outline of key sources, yet in the
sociologies, a writing survey for the most part has an authoritative example and joins
both rundown and combination, frequently inside particular reasonable classifications.
A synopsis is a recap of the essential data of the source, however a combination is a re-
association, or a reshuffling, of that data in a way that educates how you are intending
to explore an exploration issue. The diagnostic highlights of a writing survey may: 11

Give another elucidation of old material or join new with old understandings,

Follow the scholarly movement of the field, including real discussions,

Contingent upon the circumstance, assess the sources and exhort the peruser on the
most germane or important research, or

As a rule in the determination of a writing audit, distinguish where holes exist in how
an issue has been explored to date.

The reason for a writing survey is to: 12

 Place each work with regards to its commitment to understanding the

exploration issue being considered.

 Portray the relationship of each work to the others under thought.

 Recognize better approaches to decipher earlier research.

 Uncover any holes that exist in the writing.

 Resolve clashes among apparently conflicting past investigations.

 Recognize territories of earlier grant to avoid duplication of exertion.

11
Ibid.
12
Supra 10.

9
  Point the path in satisfying a requirement for extra research.

 Find your own particular research inside the setting of existing writing [very
important].

2.3.1 Types of Literature Reviews

Argumentative Review

This shape examines literature selectively to be able to guide or refute an issue, deeply
imbedded assumption, or philosophical problem already established in the literature.
The purpose is to develop a frame of literature that establishes a contrarian perspective.
Given the price-weighted down nature of a few social technological know-how
research [e.G., educational reform; immigration control], argumentative strategies to
analyzing the literature can be a legitimate and essential shape of discourse. However,
note that they also can introduce problems of bias while they are used to make precis
claims of the type observed in systematic opinions [see below].13

Integrative Review

Considered a shape of research that evaluations, opinions, and synthesizes

representative literature on a topic in an integrated way such that new frameworks and
perspectives on the subject are generated. The frame of literature includes all research
that address related or identical hypotheses or research problems. A nicely-achieved
integrative evaluate meets the equal standards as number one studies in regard to
clarity, rigor, and replication. This is the maximum common shape of assessment
inside the social sciences.14

Historical Review
Few things rest in isolation from ancient precedent. Historical literature evaluations
consciousness on analyzing research all through a time period, regularly beginning

13
Available at: http://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/researchdesigns, last accessed:4th August 2018.
14
Ibid.

10
with the primary time an trouble, idea, principle, phenomena emerged inside the
literature, then tracing its evolution within the scholarship of a field. The cause is to
location studies in a ancient context to show familiarity with latest trends and to
discover the possibly instructions for destiny research.15

Methodological Review

A assessment does now not always awareness on what someone stated [findings],
however how they occurred pronouncing what they say [method of analysis].
Reviewing methods of evaluation offers a framework of understanding at
extraordinary stages [i.E. Those of theory, substantive fields, research approaches, and
data collection and analysis techniques], how researchers draw upon a wide type of
understanding starting from the conceptual stage to realistic documents to be used in
fieldwork inside the areas of ontological and epistemological attention, quantitative
and qualitative integration, sampling, interviewing, records series, and records
analysis. This method allows highlight ethical problems that you have to be aware of
and take into account as you go through your personal study.

Systematic Review

This shape includes a top level view of current evidence pertinent to a actually
formulated research question, which uses pre-particular and standardized techniques to
perceive and seriously appraise applicable research, and to accumulate, document, and
examine information from the research which can be included within the evaluation.
The goal is to deliberately document, critically evaluate, and summarize scientifically
all of the studies about a genuinely described research problem. Typically it makes a
speciality of a very specific empirical query, regularly posed in a reason-and-impact
form, along with "To what volume does A make a contribution to B?" This kind of
literature overview is by and large applied to inspecting earlier studies studies in
medical medicine and allied health fields, however it is increasingly getting used
within the social sciences.

15
Supra 13.

11
Theoretical Review

The motive of this form is to examine the corpus of theory that has accumulated in
regard to an problem, concept, concept, phenomena. The theoretical literature
overview facilitates to set up what theories exist already, the relationships among
them, to what diploma the prevailing theories were investigated, and to increase new
hypotheses to be examined. Often this shape is used to help set up a lack of appropriate
theories or reveal that contemporary theories are insufficient for explaining new or
rising research troubles. The unit of analysis can awareness on a theoretical idea or an
entire concept or framework.

3. Adopting a Methodology

The methods section describes actions to be taken to investigate a research problem

and the rationale for the application of specific procedures or techniques used to
identify, select, process, and analyze information applied to understanding the
problem, thereby, allowing the reader to critically evaluate a study’s overall validity
and reliability. The methodology section of a research paper answers two main
questions: How was the data collected or generated? And, how was it analyzed? The
writing should be direct and precise and always written in the past tense.16

The methodology section should explain what you did in your research so that anyone
who reads it can replicate your exact process. Preciseness and detail are essential. You
must describe your methods for choosing subjects, collecting data or measurements,
and conducting analysis as specifically as possible. 17
Here are primary corporations of research techniques within the social sciences:18

1) The empirical-analytical group methods the take a look at of social sciences in a

comparable manner that researchers look at the natural sciences. This type of studies
specializes in goal know-how, studies questions that can be answered yes or no, and

16
Kallet, Richard H. "How to Write the Methods Section of a Research Paper." Respiratory Care 49
(October 2004): 1229-1232.

17
Available.at:https://www.una.edu/writingcenter/docs/WritingResources/Writing%20in%20the%20Soci
al%20Science%20Format.pdf, Last Accessed: 5th August 2018.
18
Ibid.

12
operational definitions of variables to be measured. The empirical-analytical institution
employs deductive reasoning that uses present concept as a foundation for formulating
hypotheses that want to be tested. This technique is centered on rationalization.

2) The interpretative organization of strategies is targeted on information phenomenon

in a comprehensive, holistic manner. Interpretive strategies cognizance on analytically
disclosing the that means-making practices of human subjects [the why, how, or by
what means people do what they do], while showing how the ones practices set up so
that it can be used to generate observable effects. Interpretive methods can help you
recognize your connection to the phenomena below research. However, the
interpretative group calls for cautious exam of variables because it focuses more on
subjective knowledge.

The introduction for your methodology section need to begin via restating the studies
problem and underlying assumptions underpinning your observe. This is accompanied
with the aid of situating the techniques you'll use to collect, analyze, and procedure
statistics in the normal “culture” of your field of look at and within the unique studies
layout you've got chosen to have a look at the problem. If the method you pick lies out
of doors of the way of life of your discipline [i.E., your review of the literature
demonstrates that the method is not commonly used], offer a justification for the way
your desire of strategies specially addresses the research problem in approaches that
have not been applied in earlier research.19

The the rest of your method segment must describe the following:20

 Decisions made in choosing the facts you've got analyzed or, inside the case of
qualitative studies, the topics and studies setting you have tested,
 Tools and strategies used to discover and collect statistics, and the way you
diagnosed applicable variables,
 The ways in which you processed the data and the tactics you used to
investigate that information, and

19
Supra 17.
20
Ibid.

13
  The particular research gear or strategies which you utilized to study the
underlying hypothesis and studies questions.

4. Findings (sometimes called Results)

These are the answers that your research produced. This is not a presentation of
raw data, but a presentation of the numbers or facts determined from the analysis.
If you are using a hypothesis, this is where you state whether you accept or reject
that hypothesis. Properly formatted tables and charts can make this a very short but
very effective section. It is not always necessary to repeat in paragraphs what you
show in a chart. Text should lead the reader to the chart or table, not repeat what
can already be seen.

When formulating the effects phase, it is critical to understand that the

consequences of a observe do not prove something. Findings can only verify or
reject the speculation underpinning your look at. However, the act of articulating
the effects helps you to recognize the trouble from within, to break it into portions,
and to view the studies hassle from diverse views.21

The web page duration of this phase is ready through the amount and kinds of
information to be reported. Be concise, using non-textual elements appropriately,
such as figures and tables, to offer results greater effectively. In deciding what
information to describe on your results section, you have to actually distinguish
statistics that might typically be covered in a research paper from any uncooked
facts or different content material that would be blanketed as an appendix. In
preferred, raw information that has now not been summarized ought to not be
blanketed inside the important textual content of your paper until requested to
accomplish that through your professor.22

21
Bavdekar, Sandeep B. and Sneha Chandak. "Results: Unraveling the Findings." Journal of the
Association of Physicians of India 63 (September 2015

22
Ibid.

14
 Avoid providing data that isn't always vital to answering the studies query. The
background records you defined inside the introduction phase ought to provide the
reader with any additional context or explanation needed to apprehend the results.
A suitable method is to usually re-study the heritage segment of your paper after
you have got written up your consequences to ensure that the reader has sufficient
context to recognize the effects [and, later, how you interpreted the results in the
discussion section of your paper].

5. CONCLUSION

A nicely-written end affords you with important possibilities to demonstrate to the

reader your information of the research trouble. These encompass:

Presenting the closing phrase at the problems you raised for your paper. Just as the
introduction offers a first influence to your reader, the belief gives a chance to go away
an enduring affect. Do this, for example, with the aid of highlighting key findings in
your analysis or result section or by way of noting essential or sudden implications
applied to practice.

Summarizing your mind and conveying the larger importance of your look at. The end
is an possibility to succinctly answer [or in some cases, to re-emphasize] the "So
What?" query by means of placing the examine inside the context of the way your
studies advances past research about the subject.

Identifying how an opening within the literature has been addressed. The conclusion
may be wherein you describe how a formerly recognized gap within the literature
[described in your literature review section] has been filled with the aid of your
studies.

Demonstrating the importance of your thoughts. Don't be shy. The conclusion gives
you the opportunity to complex on the impact and significance of your findings.

Introducing feasible new or accelerated approaches of considering the studies trouble.

This does not discuss with introducing new information [which should be avoided],
however to provide new perception and creative tactics for framing or contextualizing
the studies trouble primarily based at the outcomes of your have a look at.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Articles

 Kenneth D. Bailey, “ Methods of Social Research”, Simon and

Schuster, ISBN 978-0-02-901279-6.

Books

 Haralambos & Holborn. Sociology: Themes and perspectives (2004) 6th ed,
Collins Educational. ISBN 978-0-00-715447-0. Chapter 14: Methods
 Brown, D., Pountney, L. and Maric, T. (2015). AQA Sociology for A Level,
Book 1. Hachette UK, p.16.
 Crossman, A. (2014). The History Behind Sociology.About.com
Education.Available at: http://sociology.about.com/od/Sociology101/a/History-
Of-Sociology.htm [Accessed 7 Jan. 2016].

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