How to do your Social Research Project or Dissertation

• 1: Introduction


• 2: The research process


• 3: Getting started


• 4: Developing a research idea


• 5: Conducting a literature search


• 6: Reviewing the literature


• 7: Building your project


• 8: Ethics


• 9: Writing a research proposal


• 10: Sampling


• 11: Collecting quantitative data


• 12: Collecting qualitative data


• 13: Analyzing quantitative data


• 14: Analyzing qualitative data


• 15: Working with documents


• 16: Evaluating your project


• 17: Writing up your research

Dr Tom Clark is a Lecturer in Research Methods at the University of Sheffield, UK. He is interested in all aspects of method and methodology, particularly with respect to learning and teaching. His other interests have variously focussed on the sociology of evil, student experiences of higher education, and football fandom. Tom's work has been published in a wide variety of journals, including, Sociology, Qualitative Research, Social Policy and Administration, Teaching in Higher Education, the Journal of Education and Work, and Qualitative Social Work.


Dr Liam Foster is a Senior Lecturer in Social Policy and Social Work at the University of Sheffield, UK, who specializes in pensions and theories of ageing. Liam also has a longstanding interest in methods and has published widely in this area, including Beginning Statistics for Social Scientists (with Sir Ian Diamond and Dr Julie Jefferies). He has been an invited speaker at the Department for Education, Department for Work and Pensions, the European Parliament in Brussels, the House of Lords and the UN in New York, as a world leading expert on ageing. Liam is a member of the UK Social Policy Association Executive Committee. He is also the Managing Editor of Social Policy and Society.


Alan Bryman was Professor of Organizational and Social Research at the University of Leicester from 2005 to 2017. Prior to this he was Professor of Social Research at Loughborough University for thirty-one years. His main research interests were in leadership, especially in higher education, research methods (particularly mixed methods research), and the 'Disneyization' and 'McDonaldization' of modern society. Alan was also the author of the bestselling textbook Social Research Methods (Oxford University Press, 2015) as well as contributing to a range of leading journals: he was an extraordinarily well-cited and internationally renowned social scientist.

Something I wish I had when I started my dissertation! I liked that the first chapter emphasized why social research is so important and why it is necessary - I found this quite motivating as it highlights something that is quite easy to forget when in the middle of the project. Furthermore, I like that each chapter has a specific topic and objective. Although some of the information is already in my module handbook, it is really useful to have a book like this that has everything in one place and makes it easy to find answers to any questions students might be having. Overall I think it will be a very helpful book to future students. Vilde Bye Dale, Student of Modern History and Politics, University of Essex