Developing a Critical Research Proposal in Aesthetic Practice APR602

Front Cover Page

• The front cover of the document should include the UCB logo, correct module code (1779) and module name (Critical Approach to Research Method in Aesthetic Practice).


• The front should be professional in


• No names should be included as the submission should be

Contents Page

• Ensure font is accurate and in line with the HE guide


• Consider using a chart to ensure information is aligned; remove the borders before you hand in for a professional finish


• Ensure to include concise heading names and full range of page numbers per


• Contents page must be on a separate page within the report

Title

• This should be concise and to the


• This is not the aim of study, think of it as a book title.

Project Aim

• Your aim is essentially the overall purpose of the In one short, concise sentence, you should clearly and specifically identify your intended outcome.

The more specific your aim is, the more achievable it is. You should avoid using the word and in your aim as this broadens the aim into two separate outcomes. Keep your aim as simple and specific as possible.

• Mind mapping is an excellent way to narrow down a subject area into a more specific topic within that area.


• Clearly state what you intend to research


• Avoid ambiguous language


• Ensure to include your target demographic

Project Objectives

• Your objectives are typically the steps that needs to be taken in order to achieve the aim. In terms of the small-scale research project that you will be undertaking, your objectives should reflect the stages of the research process.


• These should be clear and logical


• These should be in the order the research project will take


• Ensure to avoid bias language


• The first objective should relate to the relevant themes and theory that will be explored in your secondary literature.


• The second objective should relate to the collection of secondary data, the presentation of your data and discussion through comparative analysis with the secondary literature themes and theory.

• Your final objective should relate to the conclusion of the findings and

Introduction

• This section should provide a robust overview of your selected


• In your introduction you will need to provide some background information on the topic choice and contextualise theory, therefore the more reading you do and literature you collect early on, the easier it will be for you. You need to provide a range of highly credible evidence to support the introduction of research.


• Ensure to use literature to support your


• Clearly outline the intentions of the research project and the themes/theory that will be explored.


• It is recommended not to start with the introduction as there is a chance you may repeat information.

Rationale

• The rationale is the reasoning for your


• In your rationale, you will need to be able to justify how your specific research title is different from others and, therefore, may provide new and worthwhile evidence.


• You need to provide a range of highly credible evidence to support the rationale of the research. Particularly when justifying the topic choice in the rationale, briefly discuss the other studies to demonstrate the differences with your own.


• You should identify the gaps you have found in existing literature and discuss why your topic needs to be explored.


• Why is the topic important and what value will it add to the existing knowledge on your topic?


• A robust justification should be presented with links to


• You may wish to make reference to existing secondary research. Why is this important or connected to your intended study?

Approaches to sourcing literature

• What methods did you use of find your literature? Why?


• Did you use a particular technique? Why?


• What does research suggest is best practice?


• Did you use an inclusion or exclusion criterion? Why? What was the impact of this?


• What types of sources did you use? Why?

Theoretical Framework

• The theoretical framework needs to be well structured


• It needs to display the aim and the themes you plan to research to try and answer your aim.


• The framework should demonstrate an understanding of theories and concepts that are relevant to the topic of your research paper and that relate to the broader areas of knowledge being considered.

Methodology

• Your methodology is essentially the justification of the way in which you intend to carry out your research and why this is the best research design to achieve the results.


• The first decision you need to make is what type of research instrument are you going to use to collect your data and what kind of data do you want to collect to get the answers you need to achieve your aim.


• Will you be collecting mainly quantitative data, qualitative data or a mixture of the two?


• In order to really understand what type of data and therefore the type of instrument to use to collect this data, you will need to thoroughly research this and evidence this research when you justify why these choices are most suitable.


• Construction of method- What is your secondary data constructed from? Have you taken dates into consideration, are you constructing a literature matrix and why?


• Is there an inclusion and exclusion criteria? How do you plan to analysis your data? Does your secondary research align to the theoretical framework?

Data Analysis

• When you come to discuss your secondary data, in order to give it meaning and context in the wider research field, you must comparatively analyse your findings from all of the secondary literature you have collated.


• You must consider the meaning of your findings objectively and present balanced arguments, all the time keeping it in mind that you have a specific aim that you are trying to achieve.


• Avoid including irrelevant statistics and discussion that does not support the completion of the aim.


• Remember also to consider your theoretical discussion and how this may or may not be relevant depending on the findings of the secondary data.


• There should be visual cues in the form of graphs and charts to illustrate your findings and therefore a table of figures included in your contents page.


• Visit the Higher Education Handbook for guidance on accurate presentation of charts and graphs.


• You may also have collected qualitative data that needs to be condensed and coded to identify the themes that emerge from this data. You may find that there are relationships between the themes that emerge from the qualitative data, which could be communicated in the form of a diagram alongside your discussion to visually illustrate how these relationships work.


• It is important that you do not simply describe your results without discussing the meaning of them.


• Reading the results sections of academic journal articles should give you a really good idea about how to present your findings and the type of discussion that comes from data analysis.


• You will present your secondar research findings within this


• Always ensure you use your aim to keep


• Ensure discussions are supported with


• Cross examine secondary


• Create


• Use clearly labelled graphs and charts to support key


• Use literature themes and theory to frame and support the narrative of this


• Be selective and only present the most important findings; small-

Conclusions

• Once you have presented all of your objective, balanced arguments through comparing your secondary literature, you then need to formulate your conclusion.


• Your conclusion should summarise your findings and therefore there should not be any new information or citations included in this part of the You should only be concluding on the evidence you provide in your analysis section. It is absolutely fine to make mistakes in the design and execution of this research so long as you demonstrate that you understand why these errors happened and can support this with evidence. It is in your evaluation and recommendations that you will do just that.


• Have you achieved your aim?


• If yes, why and how?


• If no, why not?


• This should be a very clear and concise


• Reiterate themes and the most significant

Evaluation and recommendations

• Your evaluation should be a critical reflection of the research you have carried out. You need to carefully consider what worked well and why, as well as what was less successful and why. There should be further evidence of research to support your evaluation and recommendations for improvement to the study.


• Reflect upon the research process


• What would you do differently? Why? What would this impact?


• Is your data valid?


• Is your data reliable?


• What recommendations can you make to improve the study?


• What new areas of research have you found?

Reference list

The reference list must be on a separate page from the report

• Ensure to use the referencing guide for accuracy when formulating


• This should be extensive and contain credible academic


• Avoid the over use of internet based

Appendices

Appendices must be on a separate page within the project

This should include supplementary information to demonstrate your ability to conduct the research process.

• You must include -


• Literature matrix


• You could include -


• Overview of data collection


• Excel screen grabs


• Diagrams


• Additional charts and tables to support the data analysis