Category Archives: mess

a little Romantic messiness

Posted on October 2, 2014 by

A post for National Poetry Day. It is pretty common for research methods courses and books to suggest that qualitative researchers read through their data – such as interview transcripts – several times. Reading through happens before you get down … Continue reading →

Posted in data, interview transcripts, John Keats, mess, negative capability | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

analysing blogs is messy, but that’s OK. #acwrimo work in progress

Posted on November 22, 2012 by

This post is from Inger, Thesis Whisperer, about the process of researching academic blogs. Here she discusses making decisions about method, and provides a glimpse, via a link to her google doc, of actual data analysis happening in real time. … Continue reading →

Posted in academic blogging, acwrimo, data, epistemology, grounded theory, mess, qualitative data, spread sheet | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

can you write about mess in your thesis, and if so, how? part one

Posted on July 13, 2012 by

This post is written by Dr Peter Matthews who works in the School of the Built Environment at Herriott Watt. Peter’s blog is Urbanity…History and he tweets as @urbaneprofessor. I asked him to show and tell how he talked about … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, interview, mess, PhD, reflection, research methods, thesis | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

doctoral training and the messiness of research

Posted on July 9, 2012 by

This post is written by Simon Bailey, a Research Fellow in the Business School at the University of Manchester. As a unique contribution to knowledge, doctorates are by definition very individual things. Though planning is very important, plans must be … Continue reading →

Posted in doctoral education, learning, mess, PhD, research methods, research project, scholarly identity | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

messy research – the benefits of following your nose

Posted on June 29, 2012 by

One of the problems with research plans is that they set up expectations. The plan is it. Once it’s down on paper in a Gantt chart or a timetable, that’s your guide to action. Apart from the obvious fact that … Continue reading →

Posted in healthy schools, mess, research plan | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

why mess in a PhD can be a good thing

Posted on June 25, 2012 by

This guest post is by Dr Ben Kraal, who is a Research Fellow in the School of Design at Queensland University of Technology. At the moment he mostly works on the Human Systems part of the Airports of the Future … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Computer Interaction, mess, PhD, research plan, research project, voice recognition software | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

messy research: the ethics of recruiting participants

Posted on June 15, 2012 by

This guest blog by Dr Simon Bailey, a research fellow at the Manchester Business School, addresses a very messy area in research – that of the basis on which we recruit people to our projects. WHAT’VE THE RESEARCHERS EVER DONE … Continue reading →

Posted in ADHD, ethics, mess, research methods, research plan, rules of engagement | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments