In this coursework, you need to choose a single research topic and then develop two research proposals (that are both based on the same topic). Then you should develop a critical evaluation in order to propose the most suitable approach (which might be quantitative or qualitative, or indeed a combination (ie. mixed methods) depending on what you decide is most suitable). Assume the timescales for the proposed research are the same as a fulltime MSc dissertation (ie. c.15 weeks).

Choosing a research topic for your coursework

You will soon need to start thinking about your dissertation. You are therefore strongly advised to base this coursework on your forthcoming dissertation topic. However, if you really can’t choose a dissertation topic at this stage, then you should use the following topic for this coursework:

“An investigation into student satisfaction with the University of Southampton’s catering outlets”

For this coursework, the actual choice of topic is rather arbitrary – the most important thing is to show us how much you have learnt about a range of possible approaches for conducting research and your ability to critically evaluate. So, the choice of research topic for this coursework is yours and yours alone. If you have any questions or doubts about which topic to choose, then please just use the one stated above. We are not able to discuss the suitability of possible topics for your dissertation; you will be discussing this with your dissertation supervisor later on in the year.

Having chosen a single research topic, you should complete the following parts:

Part 1 – Introduction (this should be common to both proposals and so only need be presented once)

Provide a title for your research

Background context: give an overview of the topic or problem, draw on key topic-related literature (correctly referenced), and explain why researching the topic or problem is important.

Part 2 – A ‘quantitative’ research proposal

Design a succinct research proposal for your chosen topic, including:

• Overall research question: state what your overall research question is. This should be clear, succinct and specific.

• Research aim(s) and objective(s): List your aims and objectives relating to the research question(s). You may include a hypothesis (or hypotheses) here. State any key theories that you may be using or testing.
• Explain which quantitative research strategy you have chosen.
• Explain and justify the sampling method.
• Design a way of collecting suitable quantitative data (include it as an Appendix) and explain how you would administer it. NB. If you are proposing to use secondary data instead, clearly show how the data were originally collected and discuss their relevance and quality.
• Explain how the data will be analysed and presented in order to address the research question, aim(s) and objective(s).

Part 3 – A ‘qualitative’ research proposal

Design a succinct research proposal for the same topic, but this time using a ‘qualitative’, inductive approach. Your question, aim(s) and objective(s) may need to change from those in Part 2.

• Overall research question: state what your overall research question is. This should be clear, succinct and specific.

• Research aim(s) and objective(s): List your aims and objectives relating to the research question(s). If appropriate, state any key theories that you may be using.
• Explain which qualitative research strategy you have chosen.
• Explain and justify the sampling method.
• Design a way of collecting suitable qualitative data (include a list of questions as an Appendix) and explain how you would administer it. NB. If you are proposing to use secondary data instead, clearly show how the data were originally collected and discuss their relevance and quality.
• Explain how the data will be analysed and presented in order to address the research question, aim(s) and objective(s).

Part 4 – Critical evaluation

Going down through each layer of Saunders et al.’s (2016, or earlier) ‘Research Onion’, write a critical evaluation of your two research proposals developed in parts 2 and 3 (drawing on a wide range of research methodology literature to support your argument). As a result, you should conclude by stating what would be, based on your critique, the most suitable approach for your chosen research topic and why. This may be a quantitative or qualitative approach, or indeed a mixture of the two – you must decide and defend your choice.

Important note: you must NOT actually collect or analyse any data for this coursework – this is just the proposal stage where you set out how you plan to collect and analyse the data.

The general guidelines for marking this piece are given below – this will give you an indication of the weighting applied to each part (which will also guide you in terms of the word count for each part).

There are penalties for late submission. In the extremely rare event of an extension being required (for certified medical reasons for instance), you should follow the extension/special considerations process – your MANG6392 lecturers are not able to grant extensions.