An Overview of Research Process Nasir Mahmood, PhD Associate Professor and Chairman Department of Research and Evaluation University of the Punjab

Learning Objectives O Provide an orientation to the steps involved in research activity O Appreciate importance of each step O Understand the interrelation of all steps Textbook: Research Methods for Business Students by Saunders (Ch. 1)2

3 Wish to do Research Formulate and Clarify your research topic Critically review the literature Choose your research approach and strategy Negotiate access and address ethical issues Plan your data collection and collect data using one or more of: Sampling Secondary data ObservationSemi- structured and in- depth interviews Questionnaires Analyze your data using one or both of Quantitative methods Qualitative methods Project report and Presentation Forward planning Reflection and revision The Research Process

Formulating and Clarifying Research Topic O Think about broader area of interest within the disciplines of business i.e. L2, Educational Psychology, Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, language acquisition, etc. O Within your selected discipline identify sub-areas of interest e.g. within Role of discourse and understanding, non-native environment and language acquisition, etc. O Concerning role of language discourse it can be initiators leading to reasoning development etc. Textbook: Research Methods for Business Students by Saunders (Ch. 1)4

Formulating and Clarifying Research Topic O Think about the phenomenon in which you are interested like role, relationship, effect, difference, comparison, etc. O Define the subjects of your study O Define the levels of your study O Put all these elements in a meaningful and precise manner to make title of your study. Textbook: Research Methods for Business Students by Saunders (Ch. 1)5

Check your statement A good title informs the reader about; 1. type of study, 2. nature of analysis it asks for, (i). Instruments (ii). Inferential statistics likely to be used 3. variables involved, 4. subjects and 5. levels of study Textbook: Research Methods for Business Students by Saunders (Ch. 1)6

7 Let us state a research problem

Identify elements of research topic A study of the Impacts of the stress management course on the relative stress experienced by the middle level management workers in restaurant industry of metropolitan cities in Punjab Textbook: Research Methods for Business Students by Saunders (Ch. 1)8