Tag Archives: research methods

#readingforwriting: being specific in qualitative research

Posted on July 10, 2017 by pat thomson

Every now and then patter offers a close-up of research writing. This near-sighted exercise is intended to illustrate how ‘reading for the writing’ can be helpful. This particular ‘reading for writing’ post looks at writing qualitative methods in a journal … Continue reading →

Posted in research methods, research plan, research project, research question, vagueness | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

making the familiar strange – two book recommendations

Posted on June 29, 2017 by pat thomson

Today, as this post publishes, I’m giving a talk to postgraduate researchers. One of the things I will talk about is why it’s important for all researchers to practice seeing things differently. We already have ways of describing this imperative … Continue reading →

Posted in creativity, defamiliarisation, reflexivity, research methods, the familiar | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

holiday question 2: Why do we make researching into nouns?

Posted on December 23, 2013 by pat thomson

Every now and then I wonder why it is that we talk about research processes as things. Our research uses interviews, not we interview. Or we opt for surveys rather than we survey. Or there are focus groups, rather than … Continue reading →

Posted in Michael Billig, nominalisation, nouny, participant observation, participating/observing, research methods, thingification | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

#acwrimo work in progress: how to research academic blogging?

Posted on November 8, 2012 by pat thomson

In this post Thesis Whisperer opens up the issues around METHODS – how to actually do the research we need to do on our joint paper on academic blogs. The methods section, especially in a project that includes empirical research, … Continue reading →

Posted in academic blogging, research methods, snowball sample | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

academic travel diary: coping with mess

Posted on June 12, 2012 by pat thomson

So on this trip home to Australia my passport disappeared. I maintain it was stolen in Tullamarine somewhere in the jostle between Customs and the car park. This was almost a disaster because not only did it mean that I … Continue reading →

Posted in mess, research methods, research project | Tagged , , , , | 15 Comments