Doing A Successful Research Project Using

Qualitative Or Quantitative Methods 2nd Edition

Martin Davies download

https://ebookbell.com/product/doing-a-successful-research-
project-using-qualitative-or-quantitative-methods-2nd-edition-
martin-davies-43024740

Explore and download more ebooks at ebookbell.com

Here are some recommended products that we believe you will be
interested in. You can click the link to download.

Doing A Successful Research Project Using Qualitative Or Quantitative

Methods Martin Brett Davies

https://ebookbell.com/product/doing-a-successful-research-project-
using-qualitative-or-quantitative-methods-martin-brett-davies-46242380

Am I Doing This Right Foundations For A Successful Career And A

Fulfilling Life Tony D Thelen

https://ebookbell.com/product/am-i-doing-this-right-foundations-for-a-
successful-career-and-a-fulfilling-life-tony-d-thelen-46734314

Am I Doing This Right Foundations For A Successful Career And A

Fulfilling Life Tony D Thelen

https://ebookbell.com/product/am-i-doing-this-right-foundations-for-a-
successful-career-and-a-fulfilling-life-tony-d-thelen-46781148

The 30day Carnivore Bootcamp A Beginners Guide To Successfully Doing

An Allmeat Lifestyle Jacie Gregory

https://ebookbell.com/product/the-30day-carnivore-bootcamp-a-
beginners-guide-to-successfully-doing-an-allmeat-lifestyle-jacie-
gregory-220211740
Doing A Phd In The Social Sciences A Students Guide To Postgraduate
Research And Writing 1st Edition Francis Jegede

https://ebookbell.com/product/doing-a-phd-in-the-social-sciences-a-
students-guide-to-postgraduate-research-and-writing-1st-edition-
francis-jegede-34812978

Doing A Literature Search A Comprehensive Guide For The Social

Sciences First Edition Chris Hart

https://ebookbell.com/product/doing-a-literature-search-a-
comprehensive-guide-for-the-social-sciences-first-edition-chris-
hart-37452850

Doing A Literature Review In Health And Social Care A Practical Guide

3rd Edition Aveyard

https://ebookbell.com/product/doing-a-literature-review-in-health-and-
social-care-a-practical-guide-3rd-edition-aveyard-5673738

Doing A Systematic Review A Students Guide Angela Boland

https://ebookbell.com/product/doing-a-systematic-review-a-students-
guide-angela-boland-46774110

Doing A Systematic Review A Students Guide Angela Boland Gemma Cherry

Rumona Dickson Boland

https://ebookbell.com/product/doing-a-systematic-review-a-students-
guide-angela-boland-gemma-cherry-rumona-dickson-boland-23775116
DOING A SUCCESSFUL
RESEARCH
PROJECT
USING QUALITATIVE OR QUANTITATIVE METHODS
MARTIN DAVIES & NATHAN HUGHES
DOING A SUCCESSFUL
RESEARCH
PROJECT
DOING A SUCCESSFUL
RESEARCH
PROJECT
USING QUALITATIVE OR QUANTITATIVE METHODS
MARTIN DAVIES AND NATHAN HUGHES

SECOND EDITION
© Martin Davies and Nathan Hughes 2014,
under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2019
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this
work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2014 by
RED GLOBE PRESS
Red Globe Press in the UK is an imprint of Springer Nature Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of 4 Crinan Street,
London, N1 9XW.
Red Globe Press® is a registered trademark in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978–1–137–30642–5 ISBN 978–1–137–30650–0 (eBook)
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations
of the country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
CONTENTS

Preface ix
Acknowledgements x

PART 1 PLANNING YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT 1

1 SO YOU’RE GOING TO DO A RESEARCH PROJECT 3
The dominance of research findings in our lives 3
Becoming a researcher 5
The basic rules 7
Qualitative and quantitative research methods 8
Are you ready to be a good project manager? 11
Are you on message? 13
The nature of research 15

2 LET’S MAKE A START 17

Choosing a topic and turning it into a question 17
Practicalities 20
Selecting your methodology 23
Fourteen ways of ‘doing research’ 26
Conclusion 33

3 PREPARING FOR A SUCCESSFUL RESEARCH PROJECT 35

Clarify your own ideas 35
Make time for an exploratory stage 36
Find out how people will react to your method 37
Do a literature review 37
Consider issues of ethics and access 42
Prepare a final draft of your research instrument 48
Carry out a pilot study 48
Put it all together in a timed road map 49

v
vi CONTENTS

PART 2 QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH 53

4 THE PRINCIPLES OF SAMPLING 55
Types of sample 57
Probability samples 63
Non-probability samples 64
Representativeness and bias 65
When you come to write your report … 69

5 CARRYING OUT YOUR SURVEY 71

Twenty quality questions for carrying out a
successful survey 72
An exercise 77

6 QUESTIONNAIRES 82
Questionnaires are driven by the researcher’s
own agenda 82
The researcher has a professional obligation to
maintain high standards 83
A note on surveying online 93

7 THE ART AND SCIENCE OF SURVEY INTERVIEWING 99

The initial encounter 100
Interviews should give respondents freedom to
use their own words 100
The principles of good practice 101
The design of interview schedules 103
Examples drawn from six classes of interview data 104
Preparing your interview schedule 106
Some useful terms explained 108

8 ANALYSING YOUR SURVEY DATA 111

Step 1: Think design, think analysis 114
Step 2: Living with your data 115
Step 3: Data entry using SPSS 116
Step 4: Don’t despise your frequency distributions 118
Step 5: Consider your options for further analysis 119
Step 6: Cross-tabulations 120
Step 7: Third variable analysis 122
Step 8: Comparing numerical values: measures
of central tendency 123
 CONTENTS vii

Step 9: Comparing numerical values: correlations

and rank order 125
Step 10: Probability 127
Step 11: Dealing with open-ended questions 128
Step 12: Drawing your analysis to a close 129

9 TESTING FOR STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE: INTO MORE

COMPLEX TERRITORY 130
Eight useful ways of testing for statistical significance 133
Testing for significance in cross-tabs 135
Comparing differences between means 139
Comparing pairs of scores in matched samples 142
Testing for significance in correlations 145

10 A QUANTITATIVE RESEARCHER’S BRIEFING SHEET 149

A concise glossary for quantitative researchers 151

PART 3 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH 163

11 STUDYING A SMALL SAMPLE 167
Why study a small sample? 167
Identifying your research question 168
Qualitative research is dynamic and interactive 170
Strategic sampling 171
Gathering your core sample 173
Factors to take into account in gathering your sample 175
The strategic approach to research planning 177

12 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH INTERVIEWING 179

How will you present yourself? 180
Having a base 182
Unstructured or semi-structured interviewing
with a small sample 183
The impact of the research interviewer 184
What kinds of questions are suitable for use
with a small sample? 187
Recording your interview 189
Interviewing online 191
Some of the ideas on offer 193
viii CONTENTS

13 THERE IS MORE TO QUALITATIVE RESEARCH THAN

INTERVIEWING 197
Ethnography and the anthropological tradition 197
Participant observation 199
Insider research 201
Non-participant observation 203
Focus groups 206
Content analysis 209
Case studies 212
N = 1 explorations 214

14 ANALYSING QUALITATIVE DATA 216

Content analysis of the answers to open-ended
questions 217
Interpretive content analysis of complete interviews 218
Observation 225
Focus groups 229
Case studies 231
Triangulation and multiple (or mixed) methods 232
NUD*IST, NVivo and computer analyses 233

15 A QUALITATIVE RESEARCHER’S BRIEFING SHEET 235

The language of qualitative research 236
A concise glossary for qualitative researchers 237
A cautionary view 246

PART 4 THE LAST LAP 249

16 WRITING YOUR REPORT 251
How to produce a successful report 251
Presenting your findings in a quantitative
research study 258
Presenting your findings in a qualitative
research study 264
Postscript: Over to you 268

Bibliography 269
Name index 273
Subject index 275
PREFACE

This book has a simple aim: to help you, the reader, undertake a research
project successfully, carry it to a satisfactory conclusion on schedule,
and do it to the highest standard of which you are capable. There are
other volumes on bookshop and library shelves that may engage you in
more theoretical or intellectual discussion. This book has an unasham-
edly practical bias – all we want is for you to succeed in your project.
If you eventually become fascinated by ‘research methodology’ as a
subject in its own right, you’ll be able, like Hercule Poirot, to exercise
your little grey cells to your heart’s content. But, in this book, we assume
that you have a particular task to pursue within the framework of a
course of study, and that you’ve been given a time limit by which you
must complete your work and submit a dissertation or research report.
Whether you plan to use qualitative methods, quantitative methods
or a mixture of the two, if you follow our guidelines carefully, you will
succeed. Don’t make the mistake of despising the simple approach:
‘keeping it simple’ is the key to the clever handling of complex research
data. You won’t know exactly what we mean by that until you’ve learned
it for yourself, but in the course of completing your first project, you’ll
begin to get a sense of the relevance of our advice. Never make your
project more complicated than it needs to be. Social and psychological
reality is quite complex enough without the researcher making it worse
by trying to cover too much ground in too little time.
Good luck, but always remember – the best researchers make their
own luck!

ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

From Martin:

Over the years, I have learned many things about research methods
from teachers, supervisors, colleagues and students, and I am for ever
indebted to them; much of what they taught me is deeply embedded in
the pages that follow. I would especially like to place on record my grati-
tude to Marie Jahoda at Brunel University and Ian Sinclair when we were
Home Office colleagues.
I am grateful to the following for specific help with aspects of this book:
Joanna Austin, Rose Barton, Susan Clark, Abigail Cooke, Louisa Doggett,
Emily Edwards, Jane Edwards, Nick Gould, Catherine Gray, David Howe,
Jo Kensit, Georgina Key, Helen Macdonald, Maresa Malhotra, Jamie
Murdock, Caitlin Notley, Ali Pickard, Emily Salz, Gill Schofield, Jeanne
Schofield, Natalie Start, Clare Symms, Emma Tarrington, Emma Tipple-
Gooch, Liz Trinder, Kay Verdon, Kate Wallis and Fiona Watts.
Thank you, too, to Palgrave Macmillan’s anonymous peer reviewers
whose critical comments have greatly improved the quality of the final
manuscript.
And a special thank you to Holly for foot-warming companionship.

From Nathan:

With thanks to Nicki Ward for teaching me how to teach this material. I
hope I haven’t inadvertently absorbed too many of your ideas into this
text, Nicki.
And special thanks to my wonderful wife Anna, for putting up with
the extra workload and keeping me smiling through it, as always.

x
 PLANNING
YOUR
RESEARCH PROJECT

1
1
SO YOU’RE GOING TO DO A RESEARCH
PROJECT

The dominance of research findings in our lives

Look at news coverage online or in the pages of your newspaper any day
of the week and you will find stories or snippets that draw on the find-
ings of research projects. Some will report the outcome of large-scale
controlled experiments into the use of pharmaceutical products and
their value for a variety of health conditions; others will present the
results of surveys into public opinion; and yet others will be descriptive
accounts of what people say or do of the ‘Isn’t that interesting?’ genre.

1 Three days sleep lost to arguments. According to a study of 2,000

couples, carried out by hotel chain Travelodge, a quarter of British
couples argue three times a week while in bed. Common reasons for
these arguments include fidgeting, snoring, not wanting to have sex and
sleeping with pets. For these five million couples, this results in 90
minutes of lost sleep per week, amounting to three full days of lost sleep
over a year.
From the Eastern Daily Press, 4 March 2013

2 Britons are biggest online shoppers. In 2012, communications regu-

lator Ofcom reported that British people spent an average of £1,083
while shopping on the internet; the highest average expenditure of any
country surveyed. Australians were the second highest spenders at £842
per person, with Sweden third with £747 per person.
From The Metro, 13 December 2012

3
4 PLANNING YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT

3 Who’s the happiest? As part of the Annual Population Survey carried

out by the UK’s Office for National Statistics, 165,000 people were asked
to rate their ‘life satisfaction’ or ‘happiness’. The survey found that
teenagers and retired people were the happiest, with those aged between
16 and 19 and 65 and 79 reporting ‘life satisfaction’ levels considerably
higher than the UK average. Married people, those who own their own
home and those of ‘Indian’ ethnicity were also found to be happier
than average.
From BBC News online, 24 July 2012

4 Men prefer their wives to football. Research sponsored by Puma

and carried out at the University of Bristol suggests that Newcastle
United fans have more affection for their wives than their football
team. Measuring stress levels when cutting up pictures of their favour-
ite footballers and their wives, researchers found that physical indica-
tors of stress levels were five times higher when destroying a picture of
their partner.
From The Telegraph, 12 August 2012

5 More people believe in aliens than in God. An online survey of

1,359 adults suggests that more than 33 million UK citizens believe in
aliens, compared to around 27 million who believe in God. One in 10
respondents claimed to have seen a UFO, with men 25% more likely to
make this claim. More than half the respondents believe that evidence
of UFOs is being ‘covered up’ by governments, with 20% of respondents
believing that a UFO has landed on earth.
From The Huffington Post, 18 October 2012

6 Support for same-sex marriage is increasing. A series of surveys

carried out in the USA in early 2013 suggest that support for same-sex
marriage now exceeds opposition to it. Taken together, the surveys
suggest that 51% approve of same-sex marriage, and 43% are opposed.
However, variations within the surveys mean that it is uncertain whether
a majority of people now support same-sex marriage, with percentages
in favour ranging from 46% to 58%.
From the New York Times, 26 March 2013

7 Married people live longer. A study of more than 4,800 people born
in the 1940s has shown that those with permanent partners or spouses
 SO YOU’RE GOING TO DO A RESEARCH PROJECT 5

have a decreased risk of dying early. According to researchers at Duke

University, after controlling for variations in socioeconomic status,
personality and healthy behaviours, those who never married were more
than twice as likely to suffer premature death during midlife years than
those in a stable relationship.
From The Huffington Post 10 January, 2013

Many of the studies reported in the media are health related, partly
because of the sheer volume of research that is funded and carried out in
clinical settings, but also because almost everybody takes a keen interest
in their own fitness and wellbeing.
Published accounts of research are often about what we eat and drink,
the way we work, how we spend our leisure time, the goods we buy and
the shape and contents of the homes we live in. Research is used by
political parties and pressure groups to help further their cause. And if
influential organizations find that their researchers have come up with
conclusions that conflict with their established interests, the findings
may be partially or wholly suppressed – or the resulting press release
issued on Christmas Eve.

Becoming a researcher
This book is designed to guide first-time researchers faced with the job of
preparing a report or dissertation based on an empirical investigation.
By ‘doing research’ in your project, you will become, however
modestly, a member of the scientific or policy development commu-
nity – aiming to measure, to understand, perhaps to evaluate. Whether
you had realized it or not, this draws you into a circle of professional
people with developed expertise and places an obligation on you to do it
to a high standard.
We shall draw on, describe and suggest how you can use research
methodologies derived from social science and psychology. Social
research (in some contexts, called ‘psychosocial’ research) is a mature
and broad subject area, with its origins and development stretching over
more than a century. It embraces the whole of empirical sociology and
anthropology, together with the ‘social’ end of economics, geography
and psychology. It has both pure and applied dimensions: some have
used research tools to try and explain or understand the nature of
human behaviour in its social context, while others have sought to
6 PLANNING YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT

deliver findings that will have an impact on political, commercial or

administrative practice.
Different disciplines use different research emphases, and there is
much variation within each discipline. For example, much mainstream
psychology research relies heavily on often quite complex statistical
procedures; in some strands of sociology, the student may have to take
on board epistemological arguments to the effect, for example, that
‘there is no such thing as facts’ – everything is contingent on who is
perceiving it; in management or business studies, sociology and psychol-
ogy operate alongside economics, accountancy and organization theory,
with a particular focus on sales, efficiency and staff relations; and in
political science and social administration, policy development and
programme evaluation are often the target.
Your subject-specific lecturers and your own course reading will have
prepared the ground for you to fit your research and its objectives into a
relevant framework. Research can be concerned with theory develop-
ment, the exploration of psychological or social reality, obtaining the
answer to a stated question, the provision of policy-related information,
or the evaluation or audit of an aspect of current practice. No matter
what its aim, the rules governing research design and methodology are
much the same, and this book will provide you with a generally applica-
ble guide to the things you need to take into account.
Social research methods are drawn on by academics, managers and
practitioners, students and career researchers in many fields of enquiry
and employment. Here are twelve examples of the sort of questions to
which answers might be sought:

1 Architecture, planning and housing design: What things do people look

for when they are buying a house? What do they like and dislike 12
months after moving in?
2 Childcare: What are the patterns of (a) violent behaviour and (b)
collaborative behaviour in a playgroup for the under-fives?
3 Consumer attitudes: What different factors influence men and women
in their choice of a car?
4 Crime and the penal system: To what extent have people in different
residential areas been the victims of a crime? To what extent do they
admit to having committed a crime?
 SO YOU’RE GOING TO DO A RESEARCH PROJECT 7

5 Diversity training: What is the difference between expressed

prejudice, unexpressed prejudice and discriminatory behaviour in
any named professional group?
6 The environment: What factors encourage and discourage people from
recycling practices? How do people’s practices change over time?
7 Information management: How do students organize their literature
surveys when preparing an essay? If they are given guidance, does
this improve their performance?
8 Healthcare: What do nurses, doctors, therapists and social workers
each think about the attitudes and professional practices of the
other professions?
9 Political opinion: How do people’s political opinions vary according
to their age, gender, employment and financial position?
10 School teaching: Twelve months after qualifying, what do school
teachers say about their first year in post?
11 Sports science: What kinds of training regimes are preferred by sports
players? What kinds of training regimes have the most positive
impact on their performance?
12 The travel industry: What do people most like or dislike about air
travel? Or about a named hotel or package holiday?

As we shall see, some of these questions are easier to answer than others.
Some are much more difficult than may appear to be the case at first
sight. Taken together, they would be likely to involve the use of all the
various methods we will describe. In each of these questions, we can
readily identify the issue, topic or factor that we seek to explain through
the research, known in research terminology as the ‘dependent variable’.
In considering the topic, we can also consider a range of potential expla-
nations we might seek to explore through the research, known as ‘inde-
pendent’ or ‘explanatory variables’. A research project typically seeks to
identify cause and effect – the effect on the independent variable caused
by the explanatory variables.

The basic rules

Sadly, despite the growing number of students who learn about social
research methods and carry out a project under supervision, the quality
of the finished product is often a disappointment. Students know, at the
end of the process, how much time and effort have gone into it and
8 PLANNING YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT

they find it hard to understand why the project’s findings are not all
that they had hoped for. This is sometimes caused by the student’s own
overambitious expectations, but is also often a result of the researcher
not recognizing that every part of the research task involves tricks of the
trade that have to be learned and patiently acted on.
We will introduce you to some of these as we work through each
chapter. Even more fundamentally, though, it is the primary argument
of this book that there are some basic rules that must be followed if
students are to emerge with a high-quality and successful report:

‐ Above all, keep it simple. Too many students are encouraged to

believe that the best work involves complex methodological
theories. It does not.
‐ Don’t try and do too much. Entry-level students often want to explore
too many questions at once. Be realistic about the scale of what you
can do in the time available and the conclusions you can draw from
the data you have gathered.
‐ Good research requires an acceptance of the fact that, at every stage,
there are good and bad ways of proceeding. Furthermore, every
decision affects every subsequent decision, therefore the cardinal virtue
is patience. You can’t and mustn’t rush it or try to take shortcuts.
‐ Planning is crucial. You must plan each step carefully if you want
your project to be carried out to the highest standard of which you
are capable.

Qualitative and quantitative research methods

No matter what field of study you are working in, if you are carrying out
research into people’s opinions, feelings, experiences or behaviour, you
will be following one of two distinct paths. One owes its identity to the
scientific tradition, the second is reflective or experiential in nature.
Both paths use some of the same research skills although not always in
the same order. Both deliver useful and informative results when they
are well done, but each serves a rather different purpose. They are
usually referred to as ‘quantitative research’ and ‘qualitative research’.
The choice of method can be thought of as an algorithm for evaluat-
ing how well the research decision process fits together. The way in
which the research problem is defined and understood will lead to
particular choices regarding whether to use a qualitative, quantitative,
 SO YOU’RE GOING TO DO A RESEARCH PROJECT 9

or mixed methods design. Two quotations pinpoint the differences of

ethos that characterize the two methodological approaches.
In respect of quantitative research:

The purpose of research is to discover answers to questions

through the application of scientific procedures. These procedures
have been developed in order to increase the likelihood that the
information gathered will be relevant to the question asked and
will be reliable and unbiased. To be sure, there is no guarantee that
any given research undertaking actually will produce relevant,
reliable and unbiased information. But scientific research proce-
dures are more likely to do so than any other method. (Selltiz et
al., 1965, p. 2)

In respect of qualitative research:

Qualitative research is a situated activity that locates the observer

in the world. Qualitative research consists of a set of interpretive,
material practices that make the world visible. These practices
transform the world. They turn the world into a series of represen-
tations, including field notes, interviews, conversations, photo-
graphs, recordings and memos to the self. At this level, qualitative
research involves an interpretive, naturalistic approach to the
world. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their
natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or to interpret,
phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them.
(Denzin and Lincoln, 2012, pp. 6–7)

The distinction between quantitative and qualitative methods has

been the subject of extensive discussion in academic circles. Some schol-
ars say that it isn’t so much a question of the researcher deciding which
route to go down, but what kind of knowledge they are seeking to make,
uncover or construct. Other theorists have suggested that the distinction
is misleading and should be avoided. In practice, however, the labels are
common currency in most social research circles.
The two approaches differ from each other in their style, language
and stated objectives. Both are supported by a large and complex litera-
ture employing contrasting systems of terminology and analytical
sophistication. Both have inspired the development of dedicated
computer software programs. We will describe them in some detail in
Parts 2 and 3.
10 PLANNING YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT

Deciding which of the two research methods to use in a student

project is often partly determined by the ethos of a particular course and
the preference of its lecturer. Students, too, may have an inclination.
Some are drawn to the qualitative research approach by practical consid-
erations: they see it as smaller scale, more manageable in a limited time
frame, and offering the temptation of ‘doing research’ without having to
‘do sums’ or learn about statistics. Ideologically, there is an undeniable
tendency for qualitative methods to be perceived as more human and
even, perhaps, more in tune with contemporary social thinking.
On the other hand, quantitative research employs the same scientific
principles and techniques that have made the modern world what it is,
and it offers the tempting idea that its findings have a certain ‘definite-
ness’ about them, which make it possible for conclusions to be drawn to
a specifiable level of probability. There is a satisfying neatness about
quantitatively derived results that allows the author to feel that a
rounded task has been completed.
The debate between the respective advocates of the two methodolo-
gies mirrors long-standing discussions in philosophy about the nature of
knowledge. Is there such a thing as objective truth? Is all knowledge
relative to the person through whose eyes it is perceived?
The primary task for the student researcher is to decide which route to
go down, and, having chosen it, to be clear what conclusions can and
cannot be drawn from the findings obtained. The two routes are not
mutually exclusive; mixed methods can be employed, and students are
often tempted by the roundedness of such an approach. You should,
however, take account of the fact that there are workload and timescale
implications in such a choice.

If you asked us to recommend three books on

general research methodology from a sociological perspective,
they would be:
‐ Bryman, A (2012)
Social Research Methods, 4th edn, Oxford, Oxford University Press
‐ May, T (2011)
Social Research: Issues, Methods and Research, 3rd edn, Maidenhead,
Open University Press
‐ Robson, C (2002)
Real World Research, 2nd edn, Oxford, Blackwell
 SO YOU’RE GOING TO DO A RESEARCH PROJECT 11

Are you ready to be a good project manager?

Managing a research project from start to finish is very different from
writing an essay. Even though your first project will probably be modest
in scale, it will still have a number of different strands to it, and, for a
successful end result, you will need to handle each of them compe-
tently. It’s what experienced researchers mean when they talk about
their work being like that of a juggler – keeping several balls in the air at
the same time.
It’s not that any of the elements present insuperable difficulties. It’s
just that you need to be clear about each one of them in advance. They
overlap in time terms – that’s the juggling bit – but they are separately
identifiable, and the researcher’s skill consists of being able to manage
each of them in an efficient and effective manner.

ten steps to get you off to a good start

1 You need a supervisor

Even professional researchers with years of experience find that their work
benefits from access to another person who can challenge and encourage
their thinking. For students or beginning researchers, the absence of a good
supervisor, providing face-to-face, one-to-one feedback is a major handicap.
In busy university departments, you may need to use your initiative to secure
guidance specific to your needs. Even a 10-minute conversation in the
corridor with an experienced researcher can make all the difference –
provided you’ve identified beforehand the issues to focus on.
2 You should expect to talk things over with your peers
Talking to your peers can be done either in an organized class group or
informally and is an excellent way of improving your performance. Some
groups of students, enthused by the research process, organize their own
get-togethers with each other so they can share their experiences and offer
supportive criticism. Doing this takes you across the divide from ‘being a
student’ into something close to the working world of the professional
researcher.
3 Accept that criticism may be useful
In discussion with your supervisor or with colleagues, you should be prepared
to invite not just appreciative remarks, but tough observations, critical
reactions and awkward questions. You may not find it easy to hear negative
comments (even when you’ve invited others to give you an opinion), but such
12 PLANNING YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT

responses may warn you either that your research question isn’t as sharp
and as focused as it might be or that the design lacks tightness and
discipline. At the planning stage, you must learn to tolerate and value bracing
remarks and resist being too defensive in response. Of course, you don’t
have to accept or act on what other people suggest, but you should always
think carefully about it before you reject their thoughts out of hand.
4 Start out with a clear understanding of resource issues
‐ How much time are you realistically going to be able to devote to your
project?
‐ Are there likely to be any costs involved, and can you meet them?
‐ Limitations of time, money and logistics mean that you will be restricted so
far as geography is concerned: you must reconcile yourself to the fact that
your study will be specific to a particular time and place – and your design
and the conclusions you draw will need to take account of that.
5 Don’t firm up your project plan too soon
In the early stages of planning, don’t commit yourself precipitately to the
nature, shape or title of your project. Before you’ve even begun, you may
well have some ideas of what you want to do. But it is wrong to have too
fixed a commitment to a particular way forward. It’s fine to have an idea (and
much better than not having one), but you must leave some flexibility for
thinking it through in practice during the planning, preparatory, exploratory
and pilot stages.
6 But you do need to settle on a research topic
If you have absolutely no idea what you might do, then you should begin to
think about topics that could motivate you. Many students tend to choose
subjects either close to their hearts, typically, for example, with gender,
age-related or ethnic identity implications, or they look to the course tutor for
guidance. Certainly, this is what they are there for, and, if you are really stuck,
you may need to press your claims for some personal attention. Alternatively,
you could set up an informal brainstorming group session with colleagues.
7 You should pre-plan your working systems
You can do this pre-planning gradually while you are settling on your topic
and methodology:
‐ Some researchers advocate the value of keeping a detailed research diary
in which to note everything that occurs in chronological order; if you like
that idea, you should start it right away.
‐ Others recommend the use of a flexible wall chart, which maps out the
progress of your study so far and outlines the timing of future stages. You
can use a blackboard, whiteboard, flip chart or computer file. Again, it is
 SO YOU’RE GOING TO DO A RESEARCH PROJECT 13

perfectly feasible to start this before you know where you will end up;
indeed, it will help your thinking process from the beginning.
‐ If your project is going to involve the use of hardware of various kinds –
audio recorders with free-standing microphones, video equipment or
significant quantities of stationery – you need to be sure that these will be
available when you need them.
8 Make sure you stick to the requirements of your course
Different courses employ different styles of research methods teaching. This
book tries to cover the full range, but it is important that you aim to plan your
research project in such a way that it conforms to the methodological
approaches you have been taught. They may be highly specific, requiring
you, for example, to gather data that will require statistical analysis or to
deliver detailed transcripts from three focus groups that present problems of
linguistic content analysis for you to solve. It would be a brave or foolhardy
student who ignored such specific requirements.
9 Stay in touch with your favourite textbooks
Even with the help of this book, there will be times during your project when
you will need to refer to other relevant textbooks – either in your discipline or
in research methodology. Make sure you have them easily to hand. They will
give you ideas about topic, method and procedure, and they will work
creatively with you as you move through the various stages of your project.

10 Plan your timetable

You should draw up a project timetable as soon as possible; you can always
adapt and update it as you go along. It should allow for all the various stages
that are outlined in this book. It isn’t just your own time that you need to take
into account. You will find that the process of gaining access and obtaining
permission for your work can take far longer than you might initially have
anticipated, and those elements should be built into your timetable.

Are you on message?

Doing research is different from any other kind of student exercise. In
order to assume the mantle of a successful researcher, there are certain
operational principles you must embrace.
One of the hardest lessons to learn will be that, whatever method you
use, you are not going to make a ground-breaking contribution to the
subject. Not because you are not clever, but because that isn’t how
research – whether scientific or reflective – works. Naturally, the work
you do will have originality – partly because of the way you have
14 PLANNING YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT

designed it, and partly because, by definition, the doing of research

means that you will be gathering original data. The way you analyse it
and write it up will also be unique.
The aim of the exercise is to enable you to demonstrate that you have:

1 Learned how to plan a research project

2 Organized it from beginning to end
3 Successfully gathered data
4 Analysed that data
5 Produced a good quality report based on your data.

This is what ‘doing research’ requires and if you do it all in style, your
lecturer will give you a good mark.
Students are often disappointed at what they think is the ‘obvious-
ness’ of their findings. They have lived with their work for three, six or
twelve months, and feel that their conclusions don’t measure up propor-
tionately to the effort they have put into it. But if you absorb the lessons
taught in this book, you will become mentally tuned in to the idea that
a successful research project is equivalent to a single brick in the wall of
knowledge and understanding. As long as the brick is the right shape,
contains all the right ingredients, has been properly baked and expertly
laid, you should feel pride, not disappointment, in a job well done.
It is commonplace for novice researchers to be overambitious. We
certainly were, and so are many of our students. Such ambition can
mean that our work is not as good as it should be. Attempting to under-
take a complex research design, incorporating various methods, such as
focus groups, interviews and mail questionnaires, all within a short
timescale can mean an end result that is submitted late and is of poor
quality, leading to a deep sense of disappointment for the researcher.
How can this be avoided? There are two linked imperatives we think
would have helped students in the planning stage and while doing the
main body of work:

1 Aim for specificity of focus: Research is not about the totality of life. It
requires you to detach one element from reality, gather evidence
about it (whether scientifically or reflectively) and describe what you
have found. When you first identify a topic, you will find that your
mind goes off in all directions. That’s entirely natural and is initially
helpful, but, once you are embarked on your project, you need to
aim for a clear-cut sense of direction. In a single, time-limited
 SO YOU’RE GOING TO DO A RESEARCH PROJECT 15

project, you can’t cover all aspects of everything. Keep the focus
tight. Don’t let it drift. Get a clear idea of where the evidence is
leading you.
2 Ask a good question: One of the best ways of achieving specificity of
focus is to ask a good question. In scientific research, you should
organize things so that you get to the starting block with ‘a good
question’ clearly in your mind; in a reflective or exploratory study,
the ‘good question’ that you start with may evolve and take on a
different shape in the course of your project.

The nature of research

A true understanding of the nature of research can only come from
doing it. Research is like playing a musical instrument, being a plumber
or making a speech: you can’t really get good at it just by reading books.
Definitions of research are legion, but three can be employed to
embrace most projects that will involve student researchers:

1 Research is a process of gathering data in a strictly organized manner. It is

roughly equivalent to a newspaper editor saying to a journalist: ‘Go
away and research it.’ The end product of the data-gathering process
may vary along a continuum from simple description to reflection
and interpretation. The emphasis is on structured investigation,
exploration or discovery. In some contexts, theoretical constructs
mean that the process is far from simple.
2 Research is a process of testing a stated idea or assertion (the hypothesis)
to see if the evidence supports it or not. This may involve putting in
place experimental practices and comparing them with other
controlled or current practices, but it can also employ simple
data-gathering procedures.
3 Research is a process of engaging in planned or unplanned interactions
with, or interventions in, parts of the real world, and reporting on what
happens and what they seem to mean. Field trials are one example of
this approach, ‘action research’ is another.

One of these definitions should match what you expect to be doing. If

you can link your chosen approach with a commitment to specificity of
focus and the identification of a good question, you will be well on your
way to success. Because research is incremental, it only works – or only
works successfully – if the researcher thinks clearly about the task being
16 PLANNING YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT

embarked on, engages in relevant prior reading and makes a commit-

ment to careful planning.

exercise
The approach outlined in this book will encourage you at the outset to think
about and acknowledge the complexity of even the simplest of questions,
such as:
‐ Why do people like to drive cars?
‐ Why do people become vegetarians?
‐ Why do people spray walls with graffiti?
‐ When (and why) do people decide to move home/have a baby/change
jobs/emigrate?
‐ How often do people have sex?
Questions like these are all inherently interesting, but they are fraught with
methodological problems. If, right now, you pause and think about those
problems and how, or whether, you could overcome them, you will learn
valuable lessons relevant to your own research planning task.

Often, in organizational settings, a senior manager will ask a profes-

sional researcher to come up with the answer to questions like:

‐ Why is this product not selling?

‐ Do people look at (or read) this advertising leaflet?
‐ Are the workers in this office happy?
‐ Are they efficient?
‐ Why are people filling in this form badly?

The researcher’s task is to recast such questions into a format that leads
to useful answers.
Your aim, as an aspirant researcher venturing forth in pursuit of a
successful project report, must be to settle on a question that is realisti-
cally answerable and will enable you to make a modest contribution to
your discipline’s knowledge base. You will have learned a valuable lesson
about the incremental nature of research activity, and, no less important,
you will have passed an important part of your course with flying colours.
2
LET’S MAKE A START

To complete a successful research project, you must prepare yourself,

metaphorically speaking, to practise the art of juggling with several balls
in the air at the same time. The art of achieving this is to keep clearly in
your mind (or preferably on paper) the full sequence of events you will
be responsible for. As we suggested at the end of Chapter 1, the mantras
of asking a good question and achieving specificity of focus are the
magic keys that will make it all possible.

Choosing a topic and turning it into a question

One of the reasons why ‘doing a project’ is so exciting is because the
exercise is personal to you. It is very different from being given an essay
title or an exam question designed to test your knowledge in a predeter-
mined area. Even if your course tutor suggests an acceptable topic, there
will be plenty of scope for you to introduce your own ideas and stamp
your identity on it.
To some, it can seem almost like a personal voyage of exploration.
You may well have been thinking about a suitable research field during
earlier stages of your course and while you’ve been learning about
research methods, but it is wise not to close down any options until you
are ready to begin. Commonly, students are inspired by their experience
of a particular taught unit or an admired lecturer or by a new interest
that has been stimulated by the degree programme.

17
18 PLANNING YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT

What do you do if you can’t think of a topic that appeals to you?

If you can’t think of a topic that appeals to you, talk it over with a
lecturer. Share your anxieties with fellow students or friends. Browse
through your textbooks and lecture notes. Find out what previous years’
students have done and see if one of their titles gives you an idea.
Approach the problem logically by thinking about:

The subject matter of your degree programme

̺
An interesting course unit
̺
An attractive field within that unit
̺
A topic that interests you

You may be trying to be too clever, aiming to come up with a topic

unique in the history of the universe, something that will have people
swooning with admiration at your originality and intellectual preco-
ciousness. Don’t do it. It’s safer – and likely to lead to a better mark – to
settle on an ordinary, middle-of-the-road topic that will lend itself to a
nicely organized process of project management. That’s the clever way
of proceeding and I’ve often noticed that the top-of-the-class students
tend to recognize this fact only too well. You can always let your clever-
ness shine through during the stages of design, analysis and write-up.
Don’t make things more difficult for yourself than they need to be.

What do you do if you have a string of possible topics, each of which seems
tempting?
It is a common problem to have a string of possible topics, each of
which seems tempting, but your own motivation and the practicality of
your choice should be the determining factors. In supervision class, in
weeks 1 and 2 when sat in a circle with students and inviting them to
discuss their topic ideas, a supervisor might inwardly groan when one of
them insists on spelling out five or six possibilities. There is no quick
solution to this, and students tend to resist it if the lecturer tries to
decide for them. Although we talk about it in class, time constraints
(and the interests of the other students) press upon us, and ‘come and
see me afterwards’ is all we can say. Together, we then try to assess which
 LET’S MAKE A START 19

topic will sustain the student’s interest the most (motivation) and which
one will present the fewest problems (practicalities).

How do you move from a topic to a question?

Moving from a topic to a question is a crucial stage in the development
of your research-mindedness, and it marks the beginning of the logical
process of thought that enables you to emerge at the end with present-
able findings. The process has two stages. The first is straightforward:
you just turn your topic into question format. We saw some examples of
this in Chapter 1. It’s the next stage that is trickier.

How do you move from your first idea of a question to a feasible research
question?
You need to get moving from your first idea of a question to a feasible
research question right, because it counteracts any tendency towards too
broad a focus and sets your agenda within manageable limits. The best
way of succeeding is to subject your proposed research question to a
rigorous process of interrogation. A good supervisor will do it for you,
but, with the following checklist, you can perfectly well do it yourself:

‐ Is your question too general for a small, time-limited study?

‐ Is it more suitable for a doctoral thesis, or even a book?
‐ Have you achieved specificity of focus?
‐ Is it possible that your question is more complex than it looks?
‐ If you are intending to carry out an ‘evaluation’ or gauge the
‘effectiveness’ of something, is that a realistic goal?
‐ Is it a question that lends itself to a predetermined structure (even,
perhaps, enabling you to use an existing research instrument or
measuring scale) or does it require exploratory/reflective analysis?
‐ Does the question fall within the agenda of the course?
‐ Have you thought about the likely cost to you?
‐ Might there be any problems of access to your research population?
‐ Will your project need the agreement of an ethics or governance
committee? If so, is it likely that they will approve your choice?
‐ Do you need permission to use an intended research instrument?

How specific does the ‘specificity of focus’ need to be?

One of the things that a career researcher will tell you is that the more
20 PLANNING YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT

you research a subject, the more intrigued you become by specific aspects
of it, and this leads you naturally to ask highly focused questions.
But at the beginning stage, the degree of specificity may vary from
discipline to discipline, from methodology to methodology and from
lecturer to lecturer. The focus is often tightest in those subjects that are
close to the natural sciences – psychology, geography, environmental
science and subjects allied to medicine, for example. It is less so in
sociology, social administration and related fields.
But, no matter what the subject, we recommend the value of adopting
the principle of ‘specificity of focus’ for two reasons:

1 Most undergraduate or Masters-level student projects have to be

completed within a short time frame or alongside other course units.
It is simply not possible for a student researcher to handle diffuse
material within broadly defined boundaries in a way that leads to
high-quality results.
2 However bright you are, however good you have become at essay-
writing, and whatever teaching you have received in research
methods, you still need to learn the art and craft of real-world
research, step by step. By achieving specificity of focus, you will be
able to practise and demonstrate your abilities at every stage of the
project without losing sight of your goal.

Practicalities
Let’s assume you have jumped the first hurdle and have a question that
feels doable and has been approved by your supervisor. The next step is
to work out how best to find an answer to your question.
First, you must take account of some of the practical realities that will
determine how you might proceed.

The value of your project for your degree and career

The most important thing to bear in mind is that your completed
project report will contribute significantly to your degree or diploma
grade. It will tend to get mentioned in academic references that are
written about you and may well be discussed by prospective employers
when they interview you for a job. A student’s research-based disserta-
tion is widely recognized as something special in the educational process
and three things follow from that:
 LET’S MAKE A START 21

1 You would be wise to follow the methodological ethos of your

course; don’t be too stubborn or bloody-minded about ‘doing your
own thing’ if it is in blatant conflict with what your course tutor
recommends.
2 Do the very best you can – and that means giving the task your full
concentration throughout the period of time that is allowed.
3 Recognize that the research project task in itself may be relevant to
your future career. People know you can write essays (all students
can – more or less), but your dissertation will give you the
opportunity to learn and demonstrate skills in project-planning,
negotiation, interviewing strangers, data analysis (perhaps including
statistical manipulation), software usage including spreadsheets and
databases, and the presentation of numerical findings or analytical
interpretations within a carefully constructed report.

Your own preference

Subject to whatever guidance you are given by course tutors, your own
feeling for a preferred methodology may come into play. You should be
wary, however, of allowing this to override your professional and
academic judgement in determining the right methodology to use in
order to get an appropriate answer to your research question.

Time constraints
You must be realistic about the time constraints. You would be well
advised, for example, not to plan to use a lengthy interview schedule
with 500 school children even if you have ease of access because you are
working in a classroom. One hundred 5-minute structured survey inter-
views or twelve 45-minute reflective conversations will be more realistic
and, provided they have been well designed, they will give you more
than enough material to demonstrate your skills as a research analyst.
For ease of access, you could plan to base your study on encounters with
students on campus or with members of the public in the city centre or
in an airport lounge where people are ‘killing time’ and are often only
too pleased to talk to someone. A common shock for students doing a
qualitative research study is the discovery that having collected (let us
say) twelve 70-minute recordings of one-to-one interviews, the time
needed just to listen to them will be 14 hours non-stop, while the time
needed to transcribe and subject them to detailed analysis will extend to
many hundreds of hours. It is essential that you think about this before-
22 PLANNING YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT

hand rather than halfway through your project when submission dead-
lines are looming.

Resource issues
The resource issues may simply be a matter of money: for example,
imagine that you have committed yourself to carry out a study in ten
garden centres or six tourist resorts; you’ve got to get there, perhaps on a
number of occasions, and you will need to budget for it. Logistics can be
problematic. For example, one of our students aimed to interview shop-
pers using the all-night supermarket; she wanted to find out why they
were there in the middle of the night; but only after she’d set about the
business of data collection did she realize that she hadn’t the means of
getting there at 2 o’clock in the morning because of her reliance on
friends’ transport and concerns about her own personal safety. So she
had to settle for doing the study between 11 o’clock and midnight,
which was fine as a research exercise in its own right, but not what she
had originally hoped to achieve and almost certainly meaning that she
was interviewing a different kind of sample.

Pitch it at a level appropriate to your expertise

If this is the first time you have done a research project, don’t be over-
ambitious. Keep your objectives modest and your focus tight, and you
won’t go far wrong. Many beginning researchers try to cover too much
ground in too short a time – and if you are guilty of that, your project
report will not be as good as you would like it to be.

When you’ve given some thought to these practical matters, you may
find that you want to make changes to your original idea – even to the
question you thought you had settled on. This is not a sign of half-baked
thinking or bad planning on your part. On the contrary, it shows that
you are learning that the process of ‘doing research’ is not linear but
dynamic; it evolves, and in the course of its development, you may well
have ideas that take you up blind alleys from which you have to retreat.
The greatest intellectual assets for the researcher in any discipline are
flexibility, an open mind and curiosity – and this is so just as much at
the pre-planning stage as it is later on.
 LET’S MAKE A START 23

If you asked us to recommend three books on

general research methodology,
they would be:
‐ Bryman, A (2012)
Social Research Methods, 4th edn, Oxford, Oxford University Press
‐ Breakwell, G, Smith, JA and Wright, GB (eds) (2012)
Research Methods in Psychology, 2nd edn, London, Sage
‐ Kumar, R (2012)
Research Methodology: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners, 3rd edn,
London, Sage

Selecting your methodology

Having identified a research question, you face a critical decision. Once
you have decided which methodological route to go down and have
embarked on the process of preparing for data collection, your course
will be set. It is important for you to feel confident that you have made
the right choice.
There are two principal options open to you:

1 You can choose quantitative research methods, using the traditions

of science.
2 You can opt for qualitative research, employing a more reflective or
exploratory approach.

The distinction between the two is not as clear-cut as is sometimes

assumed, and indeed a third option is open to you: a mixed methods
approach that combines aspects of quantitative and qualitative research.
Career researchers may make use of both methods at different times (or
even at the same time) depending on the nature of the question they are
seeking to answer. In large-scale projects, investigators may use a circular
sequence, in which exploration is followed by measurement which is in
turn followed by a qualitatively analytical phase in order to throw more
light on aspects of the scientific findings.
It will, however, become clear in Parts 2 and 3 that there are marked
differences between the two methods – both in the objectives they
pursue, and in the sequential pattern of research activity they require
and the timescale relative to the different elements that are involved.
24 PLANNING YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT

Both methods present challenges to the researcher. To put it rather

simplistically:

‐ Quantitative research requires imagination, patience and discipline at

the planning and design stages; data collection may present technical
problems and requires tenacity but is often straightforward; the tasks
of data analysis and write-up are largely, although not entirely,
determined by the way the project was set up.
‐ Qualitative research requires careful thought at the outset; it demands
mental agility, flexibility and alertness during data collection; it calls
for advanced skills in data management and text-driven creativity
during the analysis and write-up.

This book will provide detailed guidance for both routes.

In deciding how to answer your research question, it will be helpful to
get clear in your mind which of various research objectives your ques-
tion seems to be pointing towards.
Will your project be aiming to:

‐ Describe, monitor or investigate: Both qualitative and quantitative

research can deliver this, but they will produce different kinds of
descriptions.
‐ Explore: It depends on the nature of the exploration, but both
quantitative and qualitative research can be used: quantitative
methods may use a survey of some kind, while qualitative methods
often rely on interviews or observation. Again, the nature of the
exploratory material produced is significantly different in each case.
‐ Interpret: Qualitative research is especially strong in this area,
although advanced methods of survey analysis can be effective in a
rather different way.
‐ Look behind the surface: Much qualitative research aims to do just that:
to reflect on the feelings and experiences relative to the research
question, to explore the nature of the relationship between person
and situation, and to take account of the effect of the research
analyst’s own background and role.
‐ Evaluate: Independent, detached and replicable evaluation (as distinct
from user or customer opinion, which can be based on either
methodology) is almost wholly dependent on quantitative research,
generally using an experimental model. Evaluation of a kind that
allows for variations of perspective between the different parties
 LET’S MAKE A START 25

involved, for example doctors and patients, management and

workers, may make some use of qualitative methods.
‐ Explain: Both methodologies can be used to deliver explanations and
may well be employed in tandem, but a significant factor is to be
found in the intellectual agility of the researcher. No method is more
than a tool, requiring the skills of an expert craftsperson if it is to lead
to an explanatory conclusion. Judgements about the legitimacy of
the explanatory focus may, in either case, be subject to dispute,
unless the conclusion is supported by corroborating evidence from a
different perspective or source.
‐ Prove: ‘Proof’, as traditionally understood, is essentially a scientific
concept that depends on findings being tested to breaking point.
Examples can be found in psychology, economics, marketing and
advertising, but they are noticeably rare in mainstream social science
or social policy, much to the chagrin of politicians and managers.
The delivery of ‘proof’ tends to rely on experiments or quasi-
experiments, but it can also draw on simple observation or a survey;
the best example of this lies in the refutation of the assertion that ‘all
swans are white’ that comes with the sighting of a single black swan.

It is clear, then, that qualitative and quantitative methods enable

researchers to address very different research aims. Each has its
strengths and its limitations. Your choice of methods should be guided
by an appreciation of these strengths and weaknesses, and Parts 2 and
3 are designed to support this. However, your choice of methods might
also be guided by your philosophical views on the world. In other
words, your approach to your research may be determined by your
perspective on, and assumptions about, the social world, how it is
organized and how it can be understood. This is typically expressed in
terms of the ‘ontology’ and ‘epistemology’ associated with different
types of methods.
In short, ontology refers to how you view and perceive the social
world, its rules and its structures, and epistemology relates to how you
know what you know: what constitutes knowledge and how knowledge
can be developed. While this philosophical research terminology is not
essential understanding for a student research project, reflecting on
these concepts can help you to question your approach. The concepts
and their value will make more sense through two examples: positivism
and interpretivism.
26 PLANNING YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT

Positivism as an approach to social science develops from the tradi-

tions of the natural sciences. It is based on an ontological assumption
that the world is governed by a series of rules and laws and an associated
epistemological position that these rules can be tested and understood
through experiments. Such a position therefore favours quantitative
methods, as these are seen to be objective, and the results generalizable.
In contrast, interpretivism – or anti-positivism, as it is sometimes
called – is based on an ontological assumption that there is no objective
reality – no singular way of understanding the world. Instead, reality is
seen to be subjective, with people having varied experiences and
perspectives, and thus interpretations of the social world. In order to
understand the social world, we therefore need to understand and
explain these varying experiences and perspectives. It follows, then, that
we should adopt qualitative methods so as to understand the rich and
complex lives and opinions of the people we are researching.
It is a simplification to present such a dichotomy of positions centred
on qualitative and quantitative methods; instead, it is better to conceive
of a continuum of different views and approaches. However, under-
standing positivism and interpretivism as distinct polar opposites of this
continuum will enable you to reflect on and perhaps question your own
inherent preferences or, dare we say, biases. Throughout this book, we
argue that the specific research aims should guide the choice of
approach, but it is undeniable that, in many instances, a researcher’s
ontology and epistemology predetermines the choice of research objec-
tives and methods.

Fourteen ways of ‘doing research’

What, then, are the various research techniques available to you? How
do they relate to the question you have identified?
We begin with the models that are most frequently employed in
student research, which lead to the production of largely descriptive or
exploratory reports; then come the experimental methods; and finally a
small group that use mixed methods. Remember that the models are not
mutually exclusive; none of them can be identified as being superior to
any or all of the others. The right choice for you will depend entirely on
the nature of your research question, coupled with your personal prefer-
ence and the constraints imposed on you by the course.
 LET’S MAKE A START 27

You can interview people using closed questions

Interviewing people using closed questions is probably the method of
social research most familiar to laypeople. An interviewer approaches
you in the pedestrian precinct or calls at your door and asks if you are
willing to answer some questions. If you agree, you find that the ques-
tions tend to be highly structured, inviting tick box answers that you
may or may not feel accurately reflect your view. You may be asked to
look at some pictures and answer questions about them.
The purpose of this method is often descriptive or exploratory, collect-
ing simple categorical and numeric data. The researcher may want to
know some facts about you and your behaviour (what kind of car you
own or would like to own, what TV adverts you can remember) for a
commercial company. Or it may be that you are the subject of an
enquiry that will result in the preparation of a student research report
similar to that you hope to produce.

You can ask people structured questions by sending them a letter and
questionnaire through the mail
With the passage of time, the value of mailed questionnaires has come to
be seriously questioned. When research studies were a rarity, it was not
impossible to persuade people, particularly professionals in a working
context (school teachers, probation officers, car sales personnel), to
respond cooperatively to a well-designed questionnaire sent through the
post – especially if it was accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope.
The form of questions would generally be quite structured, and the
quality of the design and layout would have a major influence on
whether targeted recipients would resist the temptation to bin it.
Still today, the key to a successful mailed questionnaire enquiry lies in
the quality of the preparation that has gone into it, the extent to which
it links in with the interests of the recipients, the courtesy of the
approach (perhaps including a prior or follow-up phone call and the
enclosure of a stamped addressed envelope) and the achievement of
brevity and tightness of focus.

You can use email or the internet to deliver questionnaires and receive replies
There is something tempting about using one’s PC as a medium for
gathering data from a research sample. You create a structured question-
naire in exactly the same way as you would if you were preparing for an
28 PLANNING YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT

interview or sending a mailed questionnaire to a targeted body of recipi-

ents. You then mail it electronically or construct and host it on an
online survey tool website. It can include click button response opportu-
nities and incorporate pictures, diagrams or sounds.
You will need access to the email or web addresses of an appropriate
population, or you could access potential respondents through social
media sites or relevant internet message boards.
With luck, the method can shorten the period of data collection
considerably, but, outside the framework of a closed organization, such
as a church, workplace or leisure group to which the researcher belongs,
where the level of interest and cooperation may be high, there is likely
to be a disappointing response rate.

You can conduct semi-structured reflective interviews

In the student context, conducting semi-structured reflective interviews
might involve a sample ranging between six and twenty. The basic tool
will be an interview prompt sheet containing a carefully selected list of
topics. The questions should not be of a kind that invite simple yes/no
or similarly closed answers. Your aim is to stimulate reflection and
exploration.
The approach is often concerned with people’s feelings, for example
about being divorced, living under the flight path of a planned new
airport runway, having a terminal illness or having spent time in a
mental hospital. At its best, the method can lead to significant advances
in our theoretical understanding of social reality; more routinely, it is
particularly good at enabling the researcher to learn, at first hand, about
people’s perspectives on the subject chosen as the project focus.
Typically, such interviews take place in person, although where this
restricts the range of participants, they might also be carried out over
the phone. Indeed, increasingly researchers are making use of software
that allows voice calls over the internet, such as Skype, or undertaking
interviews using live, text-based discussions. While not without their
challenges, such methods have the potential to significantly broaden
the range of people who can be interviewed.

You can conduct group interviews

Partly because of the widely publicized use of focus groups by political
parties in their attempt to identify trends of thought and feeling among
voters, the idea of group interviewing has caught the imagination of
 LET’S MAKE A START 29

students. The ideal number of group members is six, seven or eight.

Depending on the nature of the exercise, the project should aim to
obtain data from at least five or six groups.
The researcher needs a topic guide and the setting should be comfort-
able and convenient. Care must be taken to ensure that all shades of
opinion in the group are heard. The researcher’s own views should never
become obvious, and the flow of ideas emerging from the group must
not be constrained by the researcher’s own perspective.
The group sessions will be audio-recorded (video-recording is typically
too intrusive), and the analysis requires contextual interpretation rather
than any suspicion of quantitative counting.

You can observe people in action

Observation is the classic territory of the anthropologist and the zoolo-
gist, but in psychological and social sciences it can take many forms:

‐ Participant observation: in which the researcher lives or works with the

subjects of study. Ethnographic research is a form of participant
observation in which the emphasis is on the recording of details
about the object of study in its cultural setting.
‐ Covert observation: a form of participant observation in which the
researcher’s purpose and identity are concealed. Currently, ethical
requirements make it difficult to carry out covert observation, but it
has been used by investigative journalists from newspaper and
television companies to infiltrate organizations and report abuses.
‐ Non-participant observation: in which the researcher remains ‘outside’
the focus of study but ‘looks on’ and records activities, verbal and
nonverbal interactions and consequential happenings just as a
work-study analyst does in the factory or office. A video camera can
be used. Such methods might also be employed in observing online
interactions, such as on internet message boards.

Although much observation analysis is qualitative, the researcher can

build numerical structures into the data collection process.

You can analyse the written or spoken word

There are a number of different research methods concerned with the
analysis of verbal or written material. Historical research is heavily
dependent on archival research, but the method can be employed
contemporaneously. It tends to require a high level of theoretical under-
30 PLANNING YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT

standing, and where that is missing, the results are often disappointing.
Three such methods are:

1 Content analysis: the study of published or other written material

such as diaries, archives, transcriptions of broadcasts or film scripts,
committee minutes, financial records or newspaper articles; this is
the bread-and-butter territory of the historian, but it can be difficult
for the untutored student to match the standards that should be
aspired to.
2 Thematic analysis: the study of the social meaning of recorded
conversations – either naturally conducted or in an encounter with a
research interviewer.
3 Linguistic analysis or ethnomethodology: the study of how people use
words, sentences, pauses, silences, grunts, laughter. The method
focuses on the verbal and situational nature of the material rather
than its explicit meaning.

You can test a hypothesis

One way to begin designing a research project is to consider a hypothe-
sis to be tested. A hypothesis is a statement, an assertion, often indicat-
ing a claimed pattern of cause and effect. For example, research might
seek to test whether:

‐ Travelling abroad increases the risk of you catching (a named disease)

‐ Recycling domestic waste saves money
‐ Sub-zero temperatures lead to an increase in car accidents.

Alternatively, the assertion can involve making comparisons between

two groups or classes. For example:

‐ Women are more emotionally sensitive than men

‐ 20-year-olds have sex more frequently than 50-year-olds
‐ People who use computers get more headaches than people who don’t.

The task for the researcher is to find a way of testing the chosen state-
ment. As you will realize if you think about these examples, this may
not be easy and could involve a range of different research methods.

You can carry out an experiment by doing a randomized controlled trial (RCT)
Experiments usually begin with a testable hypothesis: for example,
‘following a particular diet for a specified period is effective in achieving
 LET’S MAKE A START 31

weight reduction’. In order to see whether the hypothesis is true or false,

the experimental researcher artificially does ‘something’ to one group of
subjects (persuades them to follow the diet), and does not do it or does
something else to a control group.
Randomized controlled trials are often said to represent the gold stan-
dard of experimental research. The findings from RCTs have a higher
level of validity than those from any other method of comparing the
impact of an intervention.
With respect to the diet hypothesis, you need to have access to a
willing population big enough to give a reasonable chance of obtaining
measurable results. You randomly allocate each person into the experi-
mental (E) group or control (C) group. Only those in the E group follow
the diet plan. You do not need to control for age, gender or body shape:
provided your sample is big enough, the variations will be randomly
reflected in both groups. The E group will be expected to obey your
instructions, and, after an agreed period of time, their corporate weight
loss (or gain) will be assessed and compared with the comparative
weights in the C group.
The classic territory for RCTs has been in agriculture (comparing the
relative merits of different kinds of fertilizers or animal feed), the phar-
maceutical industry (comparing the effects of medicines) and in labora-
tories, but they are notoriously difficult to operationalize in the real-life
social world. For example, if, in another experiment, you had hypothe-
sized that the provision of a counselling service is likely to benefit
redundant employees, you would make the necessary arrangements to
have an E and C group; but if the C group hears about the selective
provision of a ‘supportive’ counselling service, they or their trade union
might clamour for equality of provision, thus blowing the experiment
out of the water.

You can devise a quasi-experiment

Randomness makes for a ‘true’ experiment, but there are other ways of
organizing two groups of people for comparative purposes. Quasi-
experiments use the experimental model as an ideal but fall short of
the standard set by RCTs because they take into account the practical
and ethical problems of experimentation in the real world. They are
much commoner in the social sciences than ‘true’ experiments.
Quasi-experiments compare groups that cannot be assumed to be
strictly equivalent, although it is open to researchers to take steps to
32 PLANNING YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT

increase the level of equivalence between the E and C groups: most

commonly, they can match pairs by age, gender, experience or other
variables relevant to the experiment. They can also take measures
pre-test and post-test in both groups to improve the quality of the
research by increasing the level of internal validity.
In our redundancy counselling project, in order to avoid the risk of
resentment and rebellion, a quasi-experiment might locate the E and C
groups in different parts of the country (where C people wouldn’t hear
what was going on in the E group). But you would need to achieve good
matches for the people involved (their age, gender and skill level), the
type of work from which they’d been made redundant, and the state of
the local economy in terms of the availability of alternative employ-
ment – none of which would be easy.

You can undertake some secondary analysis of data

There are two kinds of secondary analysis:

1 The first involves gaining access to data that other people have
collected – perhaps through one of the data banks available or
through a lecturer or researcher with gathered material already on
file. This may be data of any kind across the quantitative–qualitative
spectrum, and, when used imaginatively, can produce quite fresh
perspectives.
2 The second is based on the analysis of available statistics, either from
government or commercial sources. The clear advantage of these
databases is their size: they include a large volume of cases, far more
than is possible from the average research project. There are
numerous such datasets available and accessible through your
university affiliation, and they cover a wide range of topics. This
type of project can be effective, particularly when the reanalysis
focuses on geographical variations or seeks to trace change over time
by combining datasets. But the end result can never be better than
the quality of the original data permits. A particularly clever research
skill is to conduct quasi-experiments within an existing body of data
and without the need for any social intervention; for example, by
interrogating the records of criminal courts to identify differences in
sentencing patterns – perhaps by comparing urban and rural areas or
identifying the ethnic background or age of defendants.
 LET’S MAKE A START 33

These methods deny you the full experience of project design and
contact with the subjects of your study. Educationally, therefore, their
value may be seen as being more limited.

You can do action research

The idea of action research reached its peak with the community devel-
opment movement and feminist activism in the second half of the
twentieth century. Radical campaigners built research elements into
their programmes, with the aim of achieving a fruitful interaction
between the accumulation of evidence (usually about poverty, discrimi-
nation or oppression) and the implementation of funded projects. The
argument is that, once researchers have identified areas of need, change
will be more easily achievable.
The model can be a useful one, even though, by definition, it is not
value-neutral in the way that classical research methods are supposed to
be. Problems can arise if the researcher doesn’t deliver the results that
conform to or confirm the activists’ desired policy.

You can write a case study

The case study approach offers an attractive way of using a variety of
research methods to produce a rounded portrayal of an identified
subject. It might be a working environment, a small community, a
family, a marriage or other intimate relationship, an individual with a
medical or psychological condition of some specified kind, a youth
group, an office environment or a local political party.

You can use a triangulated approach

The metaphor of triangulation is drawn from the world of surveying. In
social research, it is based on the idea of using two or three different
methods to explore the same subject. The scheme tends to be popular
with students, and it can be used to good effect. However, with limited
time at your disposal, it may be preferable to use one method and get it
spot-on rather than risk delivering second-rate material in two or more
different methods.

Conclusion
In practice, most beginning social researchers will expect to use some
form of interview, questionnaire, observation or document analysis. You
34 PLANNING YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT

should only venture into complex theoretical territory (using, for

example, ethnomethodology) if you have been prepared for it through
course teaching and reading. Depending on the nature and subject
matter of your programme, you can build in to your objectives an
element of hypothesis-testing or an emphasis on exploration – whether
reflective, interpretive or descriptive.
When you have finished your project, you will have demonstrated
your understanding of and your ability to handle efficiently all the
various stages of the research process. It is the aim of this book to enable
you to do just that.
3
PREPARING FOR A SUCCESSFUL
RESEARCH PROJECT

Once you have settled on a research question and decided on your

preferred methodology, you are in a position to plan a successful
research project. There are several steps that will take you to the starting
line for data collection and this chapter will provide you with a template
by which to get there, although you will need to make appropriate
adjustments to reflect the unique circumstances – methodological and
substantive – attaching to your study.
The steps include considering your ideas in more depth, accessing and
reviewing the existing literature on your topic, considering ethical
issues, designing and piloting your research instruments, and develop-
ing a personal project road map or timeline. Most steps overlap with
each other chronologically – the first four foundation-laying steps in
particular are interwoven – but it will improve the standard of your work
if you are able to reach the conclusion that you have dealt successfully
with each of them in turn.

Clarify your own ideas

The first step is one that all experienced researchers recognize as import-
ant and worth spending time on. It is this: you must explore the topic,
not just in the literature but by means of a range of conversations – with
friends and relatives, other students, your supervisor, even people at the
bus stop or other casual acquaintances. What you are doing is partly
tapping into other people’s opinions, feelings, knowledge and wisdom,
but also gradually clarifying and firming up in your own mind crucial
aspects relevant to your starting point.

35
36 PLANNING YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT

By various means, you aim to rehearse the way in which your research
question can be expressed. In this way, you become clearer in your
thinking and less tentative, although still open-minded, in your
approach to it. The process begins to give you a degree of confidence as
you embark on the journey of ‘becoming an expert’ on your chosen
subject. By the time you get to the end of your project, you will know
more about your findings and how you reached them than anybody
else, and you will have learned a great deal about other aspects of the
same topic; to that extent, you will be a mini-expert in your own right.

Make time for an exploratory stage

Built into the thought-clarifying process will be an organized attempt
on your part to approach and secure conversations with a small
number of subject ‘experts’. By that, we don’t necessarily mean
‘academic experts’, but people who are not strangers to the topic you
plan to research. For example, in the unlikely event of you carrying
out a research study that began with the question ‘What is the nature
of the relationship between the cat owner and the cat, as perceived
by the owner?’, an ‘expert’ would be a cat owner, and good explor-
atory planning would lead to you engaging in unstructured or lightly
structured conversation with four or five cat owners in order to iden-
tify the draft questions that might be used in a questionnaire or to
pinpoint the best topics to concentrate on in a semi-structured reflec-
tive enquiry.
Please note, you mustn’t call this a pilot study – we shall come to that
shortly. It can be called a ‘pre-pilot study’, but a better term is ‘explor-
atory study’. Interestingly, as you will realize, it is a good illustration of
how, even when you are committed to carrying out a structured survey,
you start off with an approach that is tantamount to the modest use of a
qualitative method: you are exploring the ground in a very open-
minded, reflective way, and you want people to tell you their ‘story’.
This stage is a process of self-education – and it is an essential step
towards good research design even if you think you know the subject
well yourself (in this example, even if you are yourself a cat owner).
Indeed, it is even more essential to spend some time on this stage if you
are familiar with the topic, because there is a real danger of you having
preconceptions and biases that will affect not just the results but the
very design of your study in the first place.
 PREPARING FOR A SUCCESSFUL RESEARCH PROJECT 37

Make sure you carry out an exploratory study, write it up carefully,

and indicate in your records how it influenced you as you moved
towards the design stage.

Find out how people will react to your method

A quite separate element in the exploratory stage will be for you to find
out how people might respond to whatever methodology you are think-
ing of using. For example, if it is your idea to bring together some people
to form a focus group, you shouldn’t just rely on the fact that the
methods literature indicates its feasibility. Ask your exploratory contacts
what they would think of the idea. Would they come, if asked? What
might persuade them to come? Do they have views on where it might
best be held? How long would they be prepared to give to the occasion?
What do they think would encourage them to be either reticent or
forthcoming in such a setting? How would they react to the use of an
audio system to record the discussion?
For you as a novice researcher, this kind of preliminary conversation
is useful, not just to help you with your planning process; it also eases
you into the project management role by teaching you about people’s
attitudes and feelings at first hand.

Do a literature review
A review of the existing literature on your topic is key to the process of
planning your research and positioning it in the context of existing
knowledge, including previous research studies. By doing so, you can
ensure that your project, however small, builds on and contributes to
the existing evidence base.
From the moment you start thinking about your project, you will
probably spend time exploring the literature. You will read books and
articles as you settle on a research question and decide your method-
ological approach. Once embarked on the planning stage, though, the
literature review proper can begin: reading accounts of what others have
had to say on your topic or on closely related topics, and, in particular,
tracking down and reading as many research reports as you can find on
the subject.
The timing and nature of a literature review can vary: some courses
expect students to write as much as 10,000 words on it, and demands
38 PLANNING YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT

for 20,000 or 30,000 words are not unknown. Literature reviews of this
length are designed to demonstrate that students have gained significant
and substantial knowledge independently of their own research project.
Other courses require students to report relevant background material in
a length of text proportionate to the size of the project report as a whole
(perhaps contributing one-third of the text), and that is the model
normally found in published research papers. In either case, although it
is important for the researcher to learn as much as possible about the
subject before finalizing their own research design, the reality is that the
‘literature review’ as such will extend throughout the period of the
project, with a probable further burst of reading activity towards the
end, during the writing-up phase.
By the time you come to do a research project as a part of your course,
you will have had a lot of experience in the use of libraries and in
reading books and articles for the purpose of writing essays. In some
ways, a literature review is only a kind of essay, and, of all the research
tasks you are about to embark on, it ought to be the one that worries
you least. However, there are certain guidelines that need to be spelt out.

How can you make it a good quality piece of writing?

The literature review should make an interesting read in its own right. It
should be elegantly and professionally written. Give it a good overall
structure, with headed sections and subsections; aim at good paragraph
construction and good sentence construction; let it flow naturally
through the topics covered; and make sure that you conclude with a
section that indicates your own judgement on the messages that have
emerged from your reading of the literature. In particular, you ought to
discuss whether there are aspects of the subject dealt with by other
authors that particularly interest you and that you might want to return
to when you report your own results. In this way you are using the exist-
ing evidence base to frame and inform your own research design.

What tools will you use?

What constitutes ‘literature’ will vary from study to study. In all
instances, it is highly likely that academic research will be key, and
therefore searching for relevant academic books, research reports and
journal articles is a core component of most literature reviews. A range
of other types of literature may also be of relevance though. For example,
government documents may be useful if your research is focused on
 PREPARING FOR A SUCCESSFUL RESEARCH PROJECT 39

policy or practice, while newspaper articles and other media reports may
be of value if you are exploring political views and opinions. A compre-
hensive search strategy is therefore needed to ensure that each type of
source is effectively sought and found.
The use of libraries, together with academic journal databases (such as
ASSIA, Web of Science or Ingenta) and internet search engines are your
main instruments when you set about tracking down the relevant litera-
ture. An effective search of any of these sources is dependent on the use
of appropriate search terms. Most people are now skilled at such
searches, having significant experience of searching the web. A search
for research literature is no different: you must use appropriate terms to
find appropriate sources. In the context of your research project, this
means identifying the key concepts within your research topic or ques-
tion, considering synonyms or alternative words that sources might use
in place of these key concepts, and then combining those terms in your
searches so as to identify the sources of most relevance.
In addition, snowballing as a technique is standard practice: that is,
find one useful article or book, and it is virtually certain that scanning
the references or the bibliography will lead you to others, then do it
again with each of them. Browsing – whether on the library shelves or in
front of a computer screen – is always a fruitful way of proceeding.
A few further pointers might help you to undertake an effective review:

1 When you are carrying out a search of the internet – which will
lead you in all manner of directions – be sure to make notes of the
interesting and useful items and sites that you come across. You
can use a Word file to do so, but while you’re actively internet-
searching, you may find it more efficient to make handwritten
notes and references.
2 When you come across quotable items that you might want to
include in your report, copy and paste them to a file straightaway.
Ensure you always keep an accurate record of the source from which
a particular quote is taken. This is crucial in preventing plagiarism,
as well as avoiding having to track these sources down again at a
later date. More on this below.
3 Save any good websites that you come across to your Favourites.
4 Remember that there is a lot of rubbish on the internet. When you are
using a search engine, make sure that what comes up is useful,
accurate and reliable. Be discriminating and selective in your choices.
40 PLANNING YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT

5 If you are stuck, your academic library will have information

specialists who are there to guide you in your internet searches.
Make sure you can tell them just what it is you are seeking, and be
prepared to listen to their advice.

Swamped by too much material?

You may find yourself feeling overwhelmed. For example, if your research
topic is in a subject like the ‘social psychology of aggression’ or ‘the envi-
ronmental impact of recycling’, you will probably discover a vast body of
writing. What this suggests is either that you are casting your literature
search net too widely, or that you need to reduce the focus of your
research question or topic so that you can narrow the target of your liter-
ature trawl, focusing on only a part of the broader topic.
It is also important to focus your reading on the most relevant and
important sources. It is easy to get distracted by interesting material that
is of only tangential relevance to your precise topic. For example, a focus
on the relationship between learning difficulties and criminality is likely
to lead to sources that discuss a wide range of ‘risk factors’, many of
which will be irrelevant to your work. Consider whether you need to
read all of a source, or whether you can skim through some of it and
focus in on the most relevant sections.

If you asked us to recommend three books on

the literature review,
they would be:
‐ Aveyard, H (2010)
Doing a Literature Review in Health and Social Care: A Practical Guide,
2nd edn, Maidenhead, Open University Press
‐ Hart, C (1998)
Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research
Imagination, London, Sage
‐ Ridley, D (2008)
The Literature Review: A Step-by-Step Guide for Students, London, Sage

Can’t find anything relevant?

The opposite problem is often greater in the student’s mind than in
reality: the fear that nobody has ever written anything about the chosen
topic. There may conceivably be occasions when this might be true, but
this fear is rarely justified. If you set about your literature search thor-
 PREPARING FOR A SUCCESSFUL RESEARCH PROJECT 41

oughly and are prepared, if necessary, to venture away from familiar

academic tracks, you will almost always find relevant writing and
research. There are not many contemporary topics that somebody some-
where in the English-speaking world hasn’t written about – either in a
government document, a doctoral thesis, a popular magazine, an
academic journal, a newspaper or a non-fiction book. On those rare
occasions where there is no research on the precise, specific topic you
are exploring, you can guarantee that there will be literature on aspects
of it. Your job might be to explore the overlap between literatures that
have not yet been combined – an exciting endeavour. Remember that if
you are used to occupying one professional world – say, nursing or the
criminal justice system – there will almost certainly be relevant material
in the journals published for professions different from yours, so don’t
be too insular in your search. Use your imagination. Keep asking for
advice and suggestions. Persevere.

Recording and referencing

From the moment you begin exploring the literature, however tentatively,
make sure that you have a good system for keeping a record of your
sources and an accurate copy of quotations that strike you as interesting
and usable in your review. You can use a card index, sheets of paper or a
notebook, or you can carefully enter all your material in computer files.
Various methods of referencing are used by academic authors and
your university will advise you which system you are required to use.
Perhaps the most commonly used system is the Harvard method. If
using this method, in the text, when you are referring to a literature
source or inserting a quotation, you put the author’s name, year and
page number in brackets, and then in the list of references at the end of
the report (not at the end of each chapter), you include all those that
you’ve drawn on, laid out alphabetically, with the first named author’s
surname determining where each reference goes. The general rule is that
the major title of the book or journal appears in italics; if the source is
an article or paper within a volume or journal, the title of the paper is
given inverted commas.
The following illustration covers most eventualities. However, if you
are unsure about how to reference any particular type of source, Anglia
Ruskin University have developed an excellent webpage with clear and
detailed guidance on the Harvard system: http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/
referencing/harvard.htm.
 Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
Of course it hasn't been easy to call it to heel."
"You think it's all silly imaginings, then?"
"Alwynne," he said. "You've got to listen to this, just this. You say
I'm not to talk about your friend, that I don't know her—that I'm
unjust. But listen, at least, to this. I won't be unfair. I'll grant you
that she was fond of the little girl, and meant no harm, no more
than you did. But you say yourself that she was miserable till you
relieved her mind by taking all the blame on yourself. Can't you
conceive that in so doing you did assume a burden, a very real one?
Don't you think that her fears, her terrors, may have haunted you as
well as your own? I believe in the powers of thought. I believe that
fear—remorse—regret—may materialise into a very ghost at your
elbow. Do you remember Macbeth and Banquo? Do you believe that
a something really physical sat that night in the king's seat? Do you
think it was the man from his grave? I think it was Macbeth's
thoughts incarnate. He thought too much, that man. But let's leave
all that. Let's argue it out from a common-sense point of view. You
said you believed in God?"
"Yes," she said.
"And the devil?"
"I suppose so."
"Well—I'm not so sure that I do," he remarked meditatively. "But if I
do—I must say I cannot see the point of a God who wouldn't be
more than a match for him: and a God who'd leave a baby in his
clutches to expiate in fire and brimstone and all the rest of the
beastliness——Well, is it common sense?" he appealed to her.
"If you put it like that——" she admitted.
"My dear, would you let Louise frizzle if it were in your hands? Why,
you've driven yourself half crazy with fear for her, as it is. Can't you
give God credit for a little common humanity? I'm not much of a
Bible reader, but I seem to remember something about a sparrow
falling to the ground——Now follow it up," he went on urgently. "If
Louise's life was so little worth living that she threw it away—doesn't
it prove she had her hell down here? If you insist on a hell. And
when she was dead, poor baby, can't you trust God to have taken
charge of her? And if He has—as He must have—do you think that
child—that happy child, Alwynne, for if God exists at all, He must
exist as the very source and essence of peace and love—that that
child would or could wrench itself apart from God, from its
happiness, in order to return to torment you? Is it possible? Is it
probable? In any way feasible?"
Alwynne caught her breath.
"How you believe in God! I wish I could!"
Roger flushed suddenly like an embarrassed boy.
"You know, it's queer," he confided, subsiding naïvely, "till I began to
talk to you, I didn't know I did. I never bother about church and
things. You know——"
But Alwynne was not attending.
"Of course—I see what you mean," she murmured. "It applies to
Louise too. Why, Roger, she was really fond of me—not as she was
of Clare—of course—but quite fond of me. She never would have
hurt me. Hurt? Poor mite! She never hurt any one in all her life."
"I wonder you didn't think of that before," remarked Roger severely.
"I hope you see what an idiot you've been?"
"Yes," said Alwynne meekly. She did not flash out at him as he had
hoped she would: but her manner had grown calm, and her eyes
were peaceful.
"Poor little Louise!" said Alwynne slowly. "So we needn't think about
her any more? She's to be dead, and buried, and forgotten. It
sounds harsh, doesn't it? But she is dead—and I've only been
keeping her alive in my mind all this year. Is that what you mean?"
"Yes," he said. "And if it were not as I think it is, sheer imagination—
if your grieving and fear really kept a fraction of her personality with
you, to torment you both—let her go now, Alwynne. Say good-bye to
her kindly, and let her go home."
She looked at him gravely for a moment. Then she turned from him
to the empty house of flowers.
"Good-bye, Louise!" said Alwynne, simply as a child.
About them was the evening silence. The sun, sinking over the edge
of the world, was a blinding glory.
Out of the flowers rose the butterfly, found an open pane and
fluttered out on the evening air, straight into the heart of the
sunlight.
They watched it with dazzled eyes.
 CHAPTER XXXVI
Alwynne had gone to bed early. She confessed to being tired, as she
bade her cousins good-night, and, indeed, she had dark rings about
her eyes; but her colour was brilliant as she waited at the foot of the
stairs for her candle. Roger had followed her into the hall and was
lighting it. The thin flame flickered between them, kindling odd lights
in their eyes.
"Good-night," said Alwynne, and went up a shallow step or two.
"Good-night," said Roger, without moving.
She turned suddenly and bent down to him over the poppy-head of
the balustrade.
"Good-night," said Alwynne once more, and put out her hand.
"You're to sleep well, you know," he said authoritatively.
She nodded. Then, with a rush—
"Roger, I do thank you. I do thank you very much."
"That's all right," said Roger awkwardly.
Alwynne went upstairs.
He watched her disappear in the shadows of the landing, and took a
meditative turn up and down the long hall before he returned to the
drawing-room.
He felt oddly responsible for the girl; wished that he had some one
to consult about her.... His aunts? Dears, of course, but ... Alicia,
possibly.... Certainly not Jean.... Nothing against them ... dearest
women alive ... but hardly capable of understanding Alwynne, were
they? Without at all realising it he had already arrived at the
conviction that no one understood Alwynne but himself.
He caught her name as he re-entered the room.
"Ever so much better! A different creature! Don't you think so,
Roger?"
"Think what?"
"That Alwynne's a new girl? It's the air. Nothing like Dene air. But, of
course, you didn't see her when she first came. A poor white thing!
She'd worked herself to a shadow. How Elsbeth allowed it——"
Jean caught her up.
"Overwork! Fiddlesticks! It wasn't that. I'm convinced in my own
mind that there's something behind it. A girl doesn't go to pieces like
that from a little extra work. Look at your Compton women at the
end of a term. Bursting with energy still, I will say that for them. No
—I'm inclined to agree with Parker. I told you what she said to me?
'She must have been crossed in love, poor young lady, the way she
fiddle-faddles with her food!'"
Alicia laughed.
"When you and Parker get together there's not a reputation safe in
the three Denes. If there had been anything of the kind, Elsbeth
would have given me a hint."
"I should have thought Elsbeth would be the last person——" Jean
broke off significantly.
Roger glanced at her, eyebrows lifted.
"What's she driving at, Aunt Alice?"
"Lord knows!" said Alicia shortly.
Jean grew huffed.
"It's all very well, Alicia, to take that tone. You know what I mean
perfectly well. Considering how reticent Elsbeth was over her own
affairs to us—she wouldn't be likely to confide anything about
Alwynne. But Elsbeth always imagined no one had any eyes."
Alicia moved uneasily in her chair.
"Jean, will you never let that foolish gossip be? It wasn't your
business thirty years ago—at least let it alone now."
Jean flushed.
"It's all very well to be superior, Alicia, but you know you agreed
with me at the time."
Roger chuckled.
"What are you two driving at? Let's have it."
Alicia answered him.
"My dear boy, you know what Jean is. Elsbeth stayed with us a good
deal when we were all girls together—and because she and your
dear father were very good friends——"
"Inseparable!" snapped Jean. She was annoyed that the telling of
the story was taken from her.
"Oh, they had tastes in common. But we all liked him. I'm quite
certain Elsbeth was perfectly heart-whole. Only Jean has the
servant-girl habit of pairing off all her friends and acquaintances. I
don't say, of course, that if John had never met your dear mother—
but she came home from her French school—she'd been away two
years, you know—and turned everybody's head. Ravishing she was.
I remember her coming-out dance. She wore the first short dress
we'd seen—every one wore trains in those days—white gauze and
forget-me-nots. She looked like a fairy. All the gentlemen wanted to
dance with her, she was so light-footed. Your father fell head over
ears! They were engaged in a fortnight. And nobody, in her quiet
way, was more pleased than Elsbeth, I'm sure. Why, she was one of
the bridesmaids!"
"She never came to stay with them afterwards," said Jean
obstinately, "always had an excuse."
"Considering she had to nurse her father, with her mother an invalid
already——" Alicia was indignant. "Ten years of sick-nursing that
poor girl had!"
"Anyhow, she never came to Dene again till after John died. Then
she came, once. When she heard we were all going out to Italy.
Stayed a week."
"I remember," said Roger unexpectedly.
"You! You were only five," cried Jean. The clock struck as she spoke.
She jumped up. "Alicia! It's ten o'clock! Where's Parker? Why hasn't
Parker brought the biscuits? You really might speak to her! She's
always late!"
She flurried out of the room.
Roger drew in his chair.
"Aunt Alice, I say—how much of that is just—Aunt Jean?"
Alicia sighed.
"My dear boy! How should I know? It's all such a long while ago.
Jean's no respecter of privacy. I never noticed anything—hate prying
—always did."
"She never married?"
"She was over thirty before her mother died. She aged quickly—
faded somehow. At that visit Jean spoke of—I shall never forget the
change in her. She was only twenty-six, two years older than your
mother, but Rosemary was a girl beside her, in spite of you and her
widow's weeds. And then Alwynne was left on her hands and she
absorbed herself in her. She's one of those self-effacing women—But
there—she's quite contented, I think. She adores Alwynne. Her
letters are cheerful enough. I always kept up with her. I'd like to see
her again."
"Why didn't you ask her with Alwynne?"
"I did. She wouldn't come. Spring-cleaning, and one of her
whimsies. Wanted the child to have a change from her. That's
Elsbeth all over. She was always painfully humble. I imagine she'd
sell her immortal soul for Alwynne."
"Well—and so would you for me," said Roger, with a twinkle.
"Don't you flatter yourself," retorted Alicia with spirit. Then she
laughed and kissed him, and lumbered off to scold Jean up to bed.
Roger sat late, staring into the fire, and reviewing the day's
happenings.
There was Alwynne to be considered.... Alwynne in the wood....
Alwynne in the daffodil house.... Alwynne hanging over the
bannisters, a candle in her hand.... And Elsbeth.... Elsbeth had
become something more than a name.... Elsbeth had known his
mother—had been "pals" with his father.... He chuckled at the
recollection of Jean's speculations.... Poor old Jean! She hadn't
altered much.... He remembered her first horror at Compton and its
boys and girls.... But Elsbeth was evidently a good sort ...
appreciated Alwynne.... He would like to have a talk with Elsbeth....
He would like to have her version of that disastrous summer; have
her views on Alwynne and this school of hers ... and that woman ...
what was her name?... Hartill! Clare Hartill! Yes, he must certainly
get to know Alwynne's Elsbeth.... In the meantime....
He hesitated, fidgeting at his desk; spoiled a sheet or two; shrugged
his shoulders; began again; and finally, with a laugh at his own
uncertainty, settled down to the writing of a long letter to his second
cousin Elsbeth.
Elsbeth, opening a boot-boxful of daffodils on the following evening,
had no leisure for any other letter till Alwynne's was read.

I hope they'll arrive fresh. Roger packed them for me

himself. He's frightfully clever with flowers, you know; you
should just see his greenhouses! But he goes in chiefly for
roses; he's going to teach me pruning and all that, he
says, later on. The Dears were out all day, but he looked
after me. He's really awfully nice when you get to know
him. One of those sensible people. I'm sure you would like
him, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

Elsbeth smiled over her daffodils. She had to put them in water, and
arrange them, and re-arrange them, and admire them for a full half-
hour before she had time for the rest of her post, for her two
circulars and the letter in the unfamiliar handwriting.
But when, at last, it was opened, she had no more eyes for
daffodils; and though she spent her evening letter-writing, Alwynne
got no thanks for them next day.
"Not even a note!" declaimed Alwynne indignantly. "She might at
least have sent me a note! It isn't as if she had any one else to write
to!"
Roger was most sympathetic.
 CHAPTER XXXVII
Alwynne's visit had been prolonged in turn by Alicia, Jean and
Roger; and Elsbeth had acquiesced—her sedate letters never
betrayed how eagerly—in each delay.
Alicia was flatteringly in need of her help for the Easter church
decorations, and how could Alwynne refuse? Jean was in the thick of
preparations for the bazaar: Alwynne's quick wits and clever fingers
were not to be dispensed with. Alwynne wondered what Clare would
say to her interest in a bazaar and a mothers' meeting, and was a
little nervous that it would be considered anything but a reasonable
excuse for yet another delay. Clare's letters were getting impatient—
Clare was wanting her back. Clare was finding her holidays dull. Yet
Alwynne, longing to return to her, was persuaded to linger—for a
bazaar—a village bazaar! That a bazaar of all things should tempt
Alwynne from Clare! She felt the absurdity of it as fully as ever Clare
could do. Yet she stayed. After all, The Dears had been very good to
her.... She should be glad to make some small return by being useful
when she could....
And Alwynne was pleasantly conscious that she was uncommonly
useful. A fair is a many-sided gaiety. There are tableaux—Alwynne's
suggestions were invaluable. Side-shows—Alwynne, in a witch's hat,
told the entire village its fortunes with precision and point. Alwynne's
well-drilled school-babies were pretty enough in their country dances
and nursery rhymes; and the stall draperies were a credit to
Alwynne's taste. Alwynne's posters lined the walls; and her lightning
portraits—fourpence each, married couples sixpence—were the
success of the evening. The village notabilities were congratulatory:
The Dears beamed: it was all very pleasant.
Her pleasure in her own popularity was innocent enough.
Nevertheless she glanced uneasily in the direction of Roger Lumsden
more than once during the evening. He was very big and busy in his
corner helping his aunts, but she felt herself under observation. She
had an odd idea that he was amused at her. She thought he might
have enquired if she needed help during the long evening, when the
little Parish Hall was grown crowded. Once, indeed, she signed to
him across the room to come and talk to her, but he laughed and
shook his head, and turned again to an old mother, absorbed in a
pile of flannel petticoats. Alwynne was not pleased.
But when the sale had come to its triumphant end, and the stall-
holders stood about in little groups, counting coppers and comparing
gains—it was Roger who discovered Alwynne, laughing a trifle
mechanically at the jokes of the ancient rector, and came to her
rescue.
She found herself in the cool outer air, hat and scarf miraculously in
place.
"Jean and Alicia are driving, they won't be long after us. I thought
you'd rather walk. That room was a furnace," said Roger, with
solicitude.
She drew a deep breath.
"It was worth it to get this. Isn't it cool and quiet? I like this black
and white road. Doesn't the night smell delicious?"
"It's the cottage gardens," he said.
"Wallflowers and briar and old man. Better than all your acres of
glass, after all," she insinuated mischievously. Then, with a change
of tone, "Oh, dear, I am tired."
"You'd better hang on to my arm," said Roger promptly. "That's
better. Of course you're tired. If you insist on running the entire
show——"
"Then you did think that?" Alwynne gave instant battle. "I knew you
did. I saw you laugh. I can walk by myself, thank you."
But her dignity edged her into a cart-rut, for Roger did not deviate
from the middle of the lane.
He laughed.
"You're a consistent young woman—I'm as sure of a rise——You'd
better take my arm. Alwynne! You're not to say 'Damn.'" A puddle
shone blackly, and Alwynne, nose in air, had stepped squarely into it.
She ignored his comments.
"I wasn't interfering. I had to help where I could. They asked me to.
Besides—I liked it."
"Of course you did."
She looked up quickly.
"Did I really do anything wrong? Did I push myself forward?"
"You made the whole thing go," he said seriously. "A triumph,
Alwynne. The rector's your friend for life."
"Then why do you grudge it?" She was hurt.
"Do I?"
"You laugh at me."
"Because I was pleased."
"With me?"
"With my thoughts. You've enjoyed yourself, haven't you?"
She nodded.
"I never dreamed it would be such fun." She laughed shyly. "I like
people to like me."
"Now, come," he said. "Wasn't it quite as amusing as a prize-giving?"
She looked up at him, puzzled. He was switching with his stick at the
parsley-blooms, white against the shadows of the hedge.
"I suppose your goal is a head mistress-ship?" he suggested off-
handedly.
"Why?" began Alwynne, wondering. Then, taking the bait: "Not for
myself—I couldn't. I haven't been to college, you know. But if Clare
got one—I could be her secretary, and run things for her, like Miss
Vigers did for Miss Marsham. We've often planned it."
"Ah, that's a prospect indeed," he remarked. "I suppose it would be
more attractive, for instance, than to be Lady Bountiful to a village?"
"Oh, yes," said Alwynne, with conviction. "More scope, you know.
And, besides, Clare hates the country."
"Ah!" said Roger.
They walked awhile in silence.
But before they reached home, Roger had grown talkative again. He
had heard from his aunts that she was planning to go back to
Utterbridge on the following Saturday—a bare three days ahead.
Roger thought that a pity. The bazaar was barely over—had Alwynne
any idea of the clearing up there would be to do? Accounts—calls—
congratulations. Surely Alwynne would not desert his aunts till peace
reigned once more. And the first of his roses would be out in
another week; Alwynne ought to see them; they were a sight. Surely
Alwynne could spare another week.
Alwynne had a lot to say about Elsbeth. And Clare. Especially Clare.
Alwynne did not think it would be kind to either of them to stay
away any longer. It would look at last as if she didn't want to go
home. Elsbeth would be hurt. And Clare. Especially Clare.
But the lane had been dark and the hedges had been high, high
enough to shut out all the world save Roger and his plausibilities. By
the time they reached the garden gate Alwynne's hand was on
Roger's arm—Alwynne was tired—and Alwynne had promised to stay
yet another week at Dene. On the following day, labouring over her
letters of explanation, she wondered what had possessed her.
Wondered, between a chuckle of mischief and a genuine shiver,
what on earth Clare would say.
But if Roger had gained his point, he gained little beside it. The
week passed pleasantly, but some obscure instinct tied Alwynne to
his aunts' apron-strings. He saw less of her in those last days than in
all the weeks of her visit. He had assured her that The Dears would
need help, and she took him at his word. She absorbed herself in
their concerns, and in seven long days found time but twice to visit
Roger's roses.
Yet who so pleasant as Alwynne when she was with him? Roger
should have appreciated her whim of civility. It is on record that she
agreed with him one dinner-time, on five consecutive subjects. On
record, too, that in that last week there arose between them no
quarrel worthy of the name. Yet Roger was not in the easiest of
moods, as his gardeners knew, and his coachman, and his aunts.
The gardeners grumbled. The coachman went so far as to think of
talking of giving notice. Alicia said it was the spring. Jean thought he
needed a tonic—or a change. Roger, cautiously consulted, surprised
her by agreeing. He said it was a good idea. He might very well take
a few days off, say in a fortnight, or three weeks....
Only Alwynne, very busy over the finishing touches of Clare's
birthday present, paid no attention to the state of Roger's temper.
She was entirely content. The anticipation of her reunion with Clare
accentuated the delights of her protracted absence. Indeed, it was
not until the last morning of her visit that she noticed any change in
him. That last morning, she thought resentfully, as later she
considered matters in the train, he had certainly managed to spoil.
Roger, her even-minded, tranquil Roger—Roger, prime sympathiser
and confederate—Roger, the entirely dependable—had failed her.
She did not know what had come over him.
For Roger had been in a bad temper, a rotten bad temper, and
heaven knew why.... Alwynne didn't.... She had been in such a jolly
frame of mind herself.... She had got her packing done early, and
had dashed down to breakfast, beautifully punctual—and then it all
began.... She re-lived it indignantly, as the telegraph poles shot by.
The bacon had sizzled pleasantly in the chafing-dish. She was
standing at the window, crumbling bread to the birds.
"Hulloa! You're early!" remarked Roger, entering.
"Done all my packing already! Isn't that virtue?" Alwynne was intent
on her pensioners. "Oh, Roger—look! There's a cuckoo. I'm sure it's
a cuckoo. Jean says they come right on to the lawn sometimes. I've
always wanted to see one. Look! The big dark blue one."
"Starling," said Roger shortly, and sat himself down. "First day I've
known you punctual," he continued sourly.
"I'm going home," cried Alwynne. "I'm going home! Do you know
I've been away seven weeks? It's queer that I haven't been
homesick, isn't it?"
"Is it?" said Roger blankly.
"So, of course, I'm awfully excited," she continued, coming to the
table. "Oh, Roger! In six hours I shall see Clare!"
"Congratulations!" He gulped down some coffee.
Alwynne looked at him, mildly surprised at his taciturnity.
"I've had a lovely time," she remarked wistfully. "You've all been so
good to me."
Roger brightened.
"The Dears are such dears," continued Alwynne with enthusiasm.
"I've never had such a glorious time. It only wanted Clare to make it
quite perfect. And Elsbeth, of course."
"Of course," said Roger.
"So often I've thought," she went on: "'Now if only Clare and Elsbeth
could be coming down the road to meet us——'" she paused
effectively. "I do so like my friends to know each other, don't you?"
Roger was cutting bread—stale bread, to judge by his efforts. His
face was growing red.
"Because then I can talk about them to them," concluded Alwynne
lucidly.
"Jolly for them!" he commented indistinctly.
Alwynne looked up.
"What, Roger?"
"I said, 'Jolly for them!'"
"Oh!" Alwynne glanced at him in some uncertainty. Then, with a
frown—
"Have you finished—already?"
"Yes, thank you."
"I haven't," remarked Alwynne, with sufficient point. Roger rose.
"You'll excuse me, won't you? I've a busy morning ahead of me."
He got up. But in spite of his protestations of haste he still stood at
the table, fidgeting over his pile of circulars and seed catalogues,
while he coughed the preliminary cough of a man who has
something to say, and no idea of how to say it.
Alwynne, meanwhile, had discovered the two letters that her napkin
had hidden, and had neither ears nor eyes for him and his
hesitations.
Roger watched her gloomily as she opened the envelopes. The first
enclosure was read and tossed aside quickly enough, but the other
was evidently absorbing. He shrugged his shoulders at last, and,
crossing the room, took his warmed boots from the hearth. The
supporting tongs fell with a crash.
Alwynne jumped.
"Oh, Roger, you are noisy!"
"Sorry," said Roger, but without conviction.
She looked across at him with a hint of perturbation in her manner.
She distrusted laconics.
"I say—is anything the matter?"
"Nothing whatever!" he assured her. "Why?" He bent over his boots.
"I don't know. You're rather glum to-day, aren't you?"
"Not at all," said Roger, with a dignity that was marred by the
sudden bursting of his over-tugged bootlace. His ensuing
exclamation was vigorous and not inaudible. Alwynne giggled. It is
not easy to tie a knot in four-sided leather laces. She watched his
struggles without excessive sympathy. Presently a neat twist of
twine flicked through space and fell beside him.
"'Just a little bit of string,'" murmured Alwynne flippantly. But getting
no thanks, she returned to her letter. Roger fumbled in silence.
"The Dears are late," remarked Alwynne at last, as she folded her
sheets.
"No—it's we who are early. I got down early on purpose. I thought
you might be, too. I wanted——" he broke off abruptly.
"Yes, I always wake up at daybreak when I'm excited," she said
joyously. "Oh, Roger! How I'm looking forward to getting home!
Clare says she may meet me—if she feels like it," she beamed.
"Oh!" said Roger.
Alwynne tapped her foot angrily.
"What's the matter with you?" she demanded. "Why on earth do you
sit there and grunt at me like that? Why won't you talk? You're an
absolute wet blanket—on my last morning. I wish The Dears would
come down."
"I think I hear them moving," he said, and stared at the ceiling.
"I hope you do." Alwynne flounced from the table and picked up a
paper.
He stood looking at her—between vexation and amusement, and
another sensation less easily defined.
"Well, I must be off," he said at last.
He got no answer.
"Good-bye, Alwynne. Pleasant journey."
Alwynne turned in a flash.
"Good-bye? Aren't you coming to see me off?" she demanded
blankly.
He hesitated, looking back at her from the open window, one foot
already on the terrace.
"I'm awfully busy. It's market-day, you know—and the new stuff's
coming in. The Dears will see you off."
"Oh, all right." Alwynne was suddenly subdued. She held out a limp
hand.
He disregarded it.
"Do you want me to come?" He spoke more cheerfully.
"One always likes one's friends to see one off," she remarked
sedately.
"And meet one?" He glanced at the letter in her hand.
"And meet one. Certainly." Her chin went up. "I hadn't to ask Clare.
But you needn't come. Good-bye!"
"Oh, I'm coming—now," he assured her, smiling.
Alwynne's eyebrows went up.
"But it's market-day, you know——"
"Yes."
"You're awfully busy."
"Yes."
"The new stuff's coming in."
"Yes."
"Are you coming, Roger?"
"Yes, Alwynne."
"Then, Roger dear—if you are coming, and it's no bother, and you
can spare them, would you bring me a tiny bunch of your roses? Not
for me—for Clare. She does love them so. Do, Roger!"
"I'm hanged if I do," cried Roger, and went his wrathful way.
But he did. A big bunch. More than enough for Clare.
 CHAPTER XXXVIII
Alwynne was out of the train a dangerous quarter minute before it
came to a standstill, and making for the bunch of violets that
bloomed perennially in Elsbeth's bonnet. There followed a sufficiency
of kissing. It was like a holiday home-coming, thought Alwynne, of
not so very long ago. But not so long ago she would have been
exclusively occupied with Elsbeth, and her luggage, and her
forgotten compartment; would not have turned impatiently from her
aunt to scan the length of the platform. Not a sign of Clare? And
Clare had promised to meet her....
She prolonged as long as she might her business with porters and
ticket collectors and outside-men, but Clare did not appear; and she
left the station at last, at her aunt's side, sedately enough, with the
edge off the pleasure of her home-coming.
A telegram on the hall stand, however, contented her. Clare was
sorry; Clare was delayed; would be away another four days; was
writing. Alwynne shook off her black dog, and the meeting with
Clare still delightfully ahead of her, was able to devote herself
altogether to Elsbeth. Elsbeth spent a gay four days with an Alwynne
grown rosy and cheerful, affectionate and satisfyingly garrulous
again; found it very pleasant to have Alwynne to herself, her own
property, even for four days. Elsbeth might know that she was
second fiddle still, but though it cost her something to realise that
she could never be first fiddle again, she could be content to give
place to Roger Lumsden. She shook her head over her inconsistency.
She could school herself, rather than lose the girl's confidence, to
accept Clare Hartill as the main theme of Alwynne's conversation, till
she was weary of the name, but she could not hear enough of
Roger. All that Alwynne let fall of incident, description, or approval—
Roger, Elsbeth discovered, had, in common with Clare, no faults
whatever—she stored up to compare, when Alwynne had gone to
bed, with letters, half-a-dozen by this time, that she kept locked up,
with certain other, older letters, in the absurd little secret drawer of
her desk. And she would patter across into Alwynne's room at last,
to tuck in a sheet or twitch back a coverlet or merely to pretend to
herself that Alwynne was a baby still, and so, with a smile and a
sigh, to her own room, to make her plain toilet and to say her
selfless prayers to God and her counterpane. Happy days and nights
—four happy days and nights for Elsbeth.
Then Clare came back.
It was natural that Alwynne should meet her and go home with her,
portmanteau in hand, to spend a night or two.... Elsbeth agreed that
it was natural.... Three nights or even four.... But when a week
passed, with no sign from Alwynne but a meagre, apologetic
postcard, Elsbeth thought that she had good cause for anger. Not, of
course, with Alwynne ... never, be it understood, with Alwynne ...
but most certainly with Clare Hartill. Alwynne was so fatally good-
natured.... Clare, she supposed, had kept the child by a great show
of needing her help.... Of course, school was beginning, had begun
already.... Clare would find Alwynne useful enough.... No doubt it
was pleasant to have some one at her beck and call again in these
busy first days of term.... Possibly—probably—oh, she conceded the
"probably"—Clare had missed Alwynne badly.... Had not Elsbeth, too,
missed Alwynne?
But she answered Alwynne's postcard affectionately as usual. If
Alwynne were happier with Clare, Elsbeth would given no hint of
loneliness. A hint, she knew, would suffice. Alwynne had a sense of
duty. But she wanted free-will offering from Alwynne, not tribute.
In spite of herself, however, something of bitterness crept into her
next note to Roger Lumsden, who had inveigled her, she hardly
knew how, into regular correspondence. Her remark that Alwynne
has been away ten days now, was set down baldly, with no veiling
sub-sentences of explanation or excuse.
Had she but known it, however, she was not altogether just to
Alwynne. The first hours of reunion did certainly drive her aunt out
of Alwynne's mind, but after a couple of days she was ready to
remind herself and Clare that Elsbeth, too, had some claim on her
time. It is possible, however, that had she been happier, she would
have been less readily scrupulous. Clare had certainly been glad to
see her, had, for an hour or two, been entirely delightful. But with
the resumption of their mutual life Clare was not long in falling back
into her old bad ways, and in revenge for her two months' boredom,
in sheer teasing high spirits at Alwynne's return, as well as in
unreasoning, petulant jealousy, led Alwynne a pretty enough dance.
For Clare was jealous, jealous of these eight weeks of Alwynne's
youth that did not belong to her, and between her jealousy and her
own contempt for her jealousy, was in one of the moods that she
and Alwynne alike dreaded.
The mornings at the school came as a relief to them both, but no
sooner were they together again than Clare's pricking devil must
out. Scenes were incessant—wanton, childish scenes. Yet Alwynne,
sore and bewildered as she was by Clare's waxing unreasonableness,
was yet not proof against the sudden surrenders that always
contrived to put her in the wrong. She would repeat to herself that it
must be she who was unreasonable, that she should be flattered
rather than distressed, for instance, that Clare would not let her go
home.... She would rather be with Clare than Elsbeth, wouldn't she?
Of course! well, then!... Nevertheless she could not help wondering
if any letters had come for her; if Elsbeth, expecting her daily, would
bother to send them on.... Roger had promised to write.... She
thought that really she ought to go home.
But Clare would not hear of her leaving. Elsbeth wanted Alwynne?
So did she. Didn't Elsbeth always have Alwynne? Surely Alwynne was
old enough to be away from Elsbeth for a fortnight, without leave
granted! Really, with all due respect to her, Alwynne's aunt was a
regular Old Man of the Sea.
"Clare!" Alwynne's tone had a hint of remonstrance.
"Oh, I said 'with all respect.' But if she were not your aunt I should
really be tempted to get rid of her—have you here altogether. You
would like that, Alwynne, eh?"
Alwynne refused to nod, but she laughed.
"'Get rid'? Clare, don't be absurd."
Clare looked at her, smiling, eyes narrowed in the old way.
"Do you think I couldn't get rid of her if I wanted to? I always do
what I set out to do. Look at Henrietta Vigers."
Alwynne sat bolt upright.
"Miss Vigers? But she resigned! She had been meaning to leave! She
told us so! Do you mean that she didn't want to leave? Do you mean
that she had to?"
"Have you ever seen a liner launched? You press an electric button,
you know—just a touch—it's awfully simple——" She paused, eyes
dancing.
But Alwynne had no answering twinkle.
"I wouldn't have believed it," she said slowly. Then, distractedly, "But
why, Clare, why? What possessed you?"
"She got in my way," said Clare indolently.
Alwynne turned on her, eyes blazing.
"You mean to say—you deliberately did that poor old thing out of her
job? If you did——But I don't believe it. If you did——Clare, excuse
me—but I think it was beastly."
"Demon! With the highest respect to you——" quoted Clare, tongue
in cheek.
But Alwynne was not to be pacified.
"Clare—you didn't, did you?"
"My dear, she was in the way. She worried you and you worried me.
I don't like being worried."
Alwynne shivered.
"Don't, Clare! I hate you to talk like that—even in fun. It's—it's so
cold-blooded."
"In fun!" Clare laughed lightly. Alwynne's youthful severity amused
her. But she had gone, she perceived, a trifle too far. "Well, then, in
earnest—joking apart——"
Alwynne's face relaxed. Of course, she had known all along that
Clare was in fun....
"Joking apart—it was time for Miss Vigers to go. I admit saying what
I thought to Miss Marsham. I am quite ready to take responsibility.
She was too old—too fussy—too intolerant—I can't stand
intolerance. She had to go."
Alwynne looked wicked.
"Clare, you remind me of a man I met, down at Compton. You ought
to get on together. He's great on tolerance too. So tolerant that five
hundred years ago he'd have burned every one who wasn't as
tolerant as he. As it is, he shrugs them out of existence, à la
Podsnap. Just as you did Miss Vigers just now."
"Who was he?"
"Don't know—only met him once. But he tickled me awfully. He
hadn't the faintest idea how funny he was."
"Did he shrug you out of existence?"
"My dear Clare—could any one snub me? You might as well snub a
rubber ball."
"Yes, you're pretty thick-skinned." Clare paid her back reflectively.
Alwynne winced.
"Am I? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be. How, just now?"
Clare yawned.
"Well, for one thing, you needn't flavour your conversation
exclusively with Denes. They bore me worse than if they had an 'a'
in them."
"I'm sorry." Alwynne paused. Then she plucked up courage. "Clare, I
stayed there two months. The Dene people are my friends, my great
friends. I don't think you need sneer at them."
Clare yawned again.
"I wonder you ever came back, if they're so absorbing. What is the
particular attraction there, by the way? The old women or the young
men?"
Alwynne's lips quivered.
"Clare, what has happened? What is the matter with you nowadays?
Why are you grown so different? Why are you always saying unkind
things?"
Clare shrugged her shoulders.
"Really, Alwynne, I am not accustomed to be cross-examined. Such
a bore, giving reasons. Besides, I haven't got any. Oh, don't look
such a martyr."
"I think I'll go home," said Alwynne in a low voice. "I don't think you
want me."
"But Elsbeth does, doesn't she?"
Clare settled herself more comfortably in the comfortable
Chesterfield as she watched Alwynne out of the room. She lay like a
sleepy cat, listening to the muffled sounds of Alwynne's packing; let
her get ready to her hat and her gloves and the lacing of her boots,
before she called her back, and played with her, and forgave her at
the last. Yet she found Alwynne less pliable than usual: convicted of
sin, she was yet resolved on departure, if not to-day—no, of course
she would not go to-day, after behaving so ill to her Clare—then, the
day following. That would be Friday—a completed fortnight—and
Saturday was Clare's birthday—had Clare forgotten? Alwynne hadn't,
anyhow. Oh, she must come for Saturday, and what would Elsbeth
say to that? There must be one evening, at least, given to Elsbeth in
between. After all, it was jolly dull for Elsbeth all by herself.
Clare, good-tempered for the first time that afternoon, supposed it
was, rather.
But on that particular day, Alwynne's qualms of conscience were
unnecessary. Elsbeth was not at all dull. Elsbeth, on the contrary,
was tremendously excited. And Elsbeth had forgotten all about
Alwynne, was not missing her in the least. Elsbeth had received a
letter from Dene that morning, and was expecting Roger Lumsden to
supper.
 CHAPTER XXXIX
Elsbeth spent her day in that meticulous and unnecessary
arrangement and re-arrangement of her house and person, with
which woman, since time was, has delighted to honour man, and
which he, the unaccountable, has as inevitably failed to notice. The
clean cretonnes had arrived in time and were tied and smoothed into
place; the vases new-filled; and the fire, though spring-cleaning had
been, sprawled opulently in a brickless grate. The matches, with the
fifty cigarettes Elsbeth had bought that forenoon, hesitating and all
too reliant upon the bored tobacconist, lay, aliens unmistakable, near
Roger's probable seat, and the knowledge of the supper laid out in
the next room fortified Elsbeth as, years ago, a new frock might
have done. Alwynne, in every age and stage, dotted the piano and
occasional tables, and a photograph that even Alwynne had never
seen was placed on the mantelshelf, that Roger, greeting Elsbeth,
might see it and forget to be shy.
But it was Elsbeth that was shy, when Roger, very punctual, arrived
amid the chimes of the evening service. Yet Elsbeth had been ready
since five. They greeted each other in dumb show and sat a
moment, smiling and taking stock, while the clamour swelled,
insisted, ebbed and died away.
Roger, still silent, began to fumble at a case he carried, while Elsbeth
found herself apologetically and for the thousandth time wondering
to her guest why she had taken root so near a church, while within
herself a hard voice cried exultantly, "He's his father, his father over
again! Nothing of Rosemary there!" and she tasted a little strange
flash of triumph over the dead woman she had been too gentle to
hate.
Welcome to our website – the perfect destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. We believe that every book holds a new world,
offering opportunities for learning, discovery, and personal growth.
That’s why we are dedicated to bringing you a diverse collection of
books, ranging from classic literature and specialized publications to
self-development guides and children's books.

More than just a book-buying platform, we strive to be a bridge

connecting you with timeless cultural and intellectual values. With an
elegant, user-friendly interface and a smart search system, you can
quickly find the books that best suit your interests. Additionally,
our special promotions and home delivery services help you save time
and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Join us on a journey of knowledge exploration, passion nurturing, and

personal growth every day!

ebookbell.com