Techniques for Personal Research

knowledge is what we understand in separate, or in a series of concepts. 

knowledge is justified, it is a true belief, but it should be justified!! Knowledge is not an assumption, it is rather a justified belief. 

knowledge is shared by the audience, and evaluated, it is not simply believed. 

Contribution: the buzz word is 'impact' 

Contribution: advancement of knowledge, the importance of knowledge. It is related to how researchers intervened in their subjects. It is a recontextualisation of theory/ data. By contributing to knowledge, you can expand on an existing model in a substantial way; move a model to a new area, create a new design, and show how your methods moved a specific idea. 

You can also combine two ideas to create a new idea, by making your research interdisciplinary.

Originality: must demonstrate the contribution of new knowledge.  

In your thesis you can write it as follows: 

My original contribution to knowledge is .....

This sentence should appear in: the abstract, the introduction, the discussion, and the conclusion. 

It is not an insertion of a sentence, it is a demonstration throughout your literature review that you have established a sufficient understanding of the existing literature. Your question through writing your literature review is: Where is literature now?

Count how many times you have mentioned the word 'contribution' in your thesis.

Significance: 4 strategies, for some the significance is the implications.

S1: The importance of the research questions: why the research is worth doing?

S2: Significance of the findings: why do they matter?

S3: Explain how your research transforms theory.

S4: Explain generalisability or lack or generalizability. 

For further explanation check: Tara Brabazon