A Practical Guide to

Dissertation and
Thesis Writing
A Practical Guide to
Dissertation and
Thesis Writing
By

Mark Stephan Felix and Ian Smith

A Practical Guide to Dissertation and Thesis Writing

By Mark Stephan Felix and Ian Smith

This book first published 2019

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright © 2019 by Mark Stephan Felix and Ian Smith

All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN (10): 1-5275-3681-5

ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-3681-4
To my students, past, present and future – this one is for all of you.
—Mark Stephan Felix

To my beloved children, Andrew and Margot.

—Ian David Smith
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword ................................................................................................... ix

Preface ........................................................................................................ x

Acknowledgements ................................................................................... xi

Chapter 1 .................................................................................................... 1
Getting started: Topics, problems, definitions and making a good start

Chapter 2 .................................................................................................. 24
How do you choose a research topic?

Chapter 3 .................................................................................................. 41
Reading, reading, reading: Background to your literature review

Chapter 4 .................................................................................................. 53
Let’s start with the big “so what?”: Writing your introduction

Chapter 5 .................................................................................................. 74
Backing up your claims: Writing your literature review

Chapter 6 .................................................................................................. 92
What is research methodology?

Chapter 7 ................................................................................................ 127

Defending your proposal

Chapter 8 ................................................................................................ 137

Getting the fieldwork done

Chapter 9 ................................................................................................ 146

Sifting through the information: Your results or findings

Chapter 10 .............................................................................................. 161

Your voice: Presenting your discussion
viii Table of Contents

Chapter 11 .............................................................................................. 178

The conclusion

Chapter 12 .............................................................................................. 186

Writing the abstract

References .............................................................................................. 196

Index ....................................................................................................... 200

 FOREWORD

As far as forewords go, we’d like to keep it to a minimum. There

are enough words in this book for you to read and there are enough words
for you to ponder and digest as you walk through your PhD journey. Suffice
to say, this book was born out of an intense passion to share, educate, guide
and assist students.
We’ve walked the same journey you’re about to embark on (or
have already embarked on). Having learned much from that journey we’d
like to shed a little light on the path that you’re on. It’s a privilege if you
allow us to do so. We wish you the best of luck in this undertaking.
 PREFACE

Writing a PhD dissertation or thesis is probably the most challenging

task that a young scholar attempts to do. We have traveled this journey
ourselves and helped numerous students to achieve their goal of
successfully completing a PhD. If you are about to embark on your own
journey, you will want to start at the beginning of this book and work your
way through the chapters which are structured in the order of most
dissertation guidelines at most universities. If, however, you have already
begun your journey, feel free to go straight to the chapter that best represents
where you have reached.
There is no formula for writing a dissertation. Each one is
customized to suit the problem that is being researched, the particular
university guidelines and the individual creativity of the student. It is your
baby and you want it to be the best outcome that achieves your goal of
becoming a freshly minted Doctor of Philosophy. We urge you to read our
chapters with a critical mind, ever thoughtful that you are creating a unique
piece of writing that will not only satisfy your examiners, but also your own
standard of excellence.
Good luck from us both!
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to say a hearty “thank you” to all the many people
who have contributed to our book. There are too many to name, because
they represent the combined talents of our teachers, students and friends
who have helped us nurture this project through to its conclusion.
Nevertheless, there are a few people who deserve special mention.
Firstly, Mark would like to acknowledge the stimulating support
of his PhD supervisory team, Professor Dr. Ismail Baba, Associate
Professor Dr. Sundramoorthy Pathmanathan and Associate Professor Dr.
Azrina Husin of University Sains Malaysia. He would also thank his
students in Mahidol University, KDU College Penang Campus and Sunway
University. Since graduating, he has received unstinting support from his
colleagues at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities and the
Department of Society and Health at Mahidol University for which he
wishes express sincere gratitude. He would especially like to record his
thanks to Dr. Juan Carlos Olmos Alcoy for his unwavering encouragement
and Mr. Richard Bartley Dudrow for his generosity with resources and
sound advice.
Ian would like to sincerely thank his Stanford University
supervisors, Professors Lee Cronbach, Pauline Sears and Robert Hess, from
whom he learned so much. He would also like to acknowledge the generous
friendship of his friend and fellow Stanford student, Emeritus Professor
Richard Shavelson. The many Thai colleagues at Burapha University and
Mahidol University who have broadened his perspective on learning and
living are also acknowledged. To his 15 Thai PhD students, he offers this
work as the culmination of many hours of patient teaching and learning.
Being a PhD advisor entails both teaching and learning on the part of the
supervisor and he gives credit to his students for teaching him many things
about Thai culture, as well as about their research topics.
We both thank the efforts of Cambridge Scholars Publishers for
their careful efforts in ensuring that the editing and publishing process has
been thorough and smooth.
In conclusion, we gratefully acknowledge the Thai people for
teaching us tolerance, patience and love.

Mark Stephan Felix and Ian David Smith, June, 2019

 CHAPTER 1

GETTING STARTED:
TOPICS, PROBLEMS, DEFINITIONS
AND MAKING A GOOD START

Expected learning outcomes of this Chapter

At the end of this Chapter you will be able to:

 Use seven active steps to state the social science issue you wish to
study for your dissertation/thesis as a research problem.
 Actively ask critical questions that will build a solid base for the
development of your dissertation/thesis.
 Critically assess the significance of your research problem.
 Avoid common mistakes made by students when expressing their
social science issue as a research problem.

If you are reading this, you have begun an academic adventure. We

say “academic adventure” because there will be discovery, tense moments
and a great reward at the end of the journey. We want also to congratulate
you on beginning this academic adventure that so few want to begin and
fewer still complete.

This book is more a “how-to-do-it” manual than a piece of

scholarly, academic work. Both of us wish to guide and assist you in this
endeavor based on our experiences as researchers and as teachers over many
years. We are providing you with exercises, tips and tools that will make
your journey smoother and help you to anticipate some of the issues you
will encounter along the way. Thank you for allowing us to be part of your
academic adventure.
2 Chapter 1

What is a dissertation or a thesis?

Many academics and even more students like to use the terms
“dissertation” and “thesis” to describe the research work they are doing to
meet university requirements for being conferred a Masters or Doctoral
degree. The fact is these terms are often interchangeable and their use
depends upon the country, discipline, faculty and even the department of
the university where a student is enrolled for the Doctor of Philosophy
(PhD) degree (Mauch & Park, 2003; Pyrczak, 2016; Swales & Feak, 2012).

The first PhDs were awarded by German universities in the

Nineteenth Century. In those days, a university’s Department of Philosophy
included the teaching of science, social science and liberal arts, as well as
the study of philosophy. This is the reason why the term “Doctor of
Philosophy” is still applied across most disciplines for an advanced degree
beyond the Masters degree.

A dissertation is a piece of original research, undertaken as a part

of a program of study. In German and US universities, research training
courses were introduced to prepare their students for undertaking research
and the writing up of the research findings in the form of an extended report,
and, if they successfully defended their dissertation before a committee of
examiners, they were awarded the research Masters or PhD degree. Through
this academic route, students take a series of courses in the social sciences
or any field for a specified time, and then are given a block of time to
complete a piece of research that is closely supervised by a committee of
academics from their academic department. A student’s completion of a
degree via a dissertation is dependent on grades from the classes, as well as
the successful examination of the research by a committee of examiners.

In the British university tradition, on the other hand, a research

degree by thesis requires no courses and the candidate does a lot of self-
study to build a base of knowledge from the ground up on their own with
occasional help from a supervisor. The degree is awarded solely on the
quality of the original research, as reported in a thesis. This tradition has
been eroded in recent years, as the knowledge explosion and complexity of
the scientific methods employed to investigate many research topics have
grown. Statistical knowledge, experimental knowledge and other forms of
specialized knowledge are now considered so central to the study of many
research topics that universities around the world are requiring certain
coursework to be successfully completed before allowing their research
Masters and PhD students to develop a research proposal and complete an
 Getting started 3

original research study for the award of the degree. Once their research topic
and proposal have been approved by an academic committee, students
develop their research ideas with the assistance and guidance of their
supervisor. Their completion of the degree is totally dependent on the
successful examination of the research thesis, often by expert examiners
from other universities than the one where the student is enrolled. Usually,
the examiners recommend changes, some minor and possibly major
changes, to be made by the student before the thesis is acceptable for the
award of the PhD degree.

Other differences between a dissertation and a thesis include its

length, depth and breadth. In the British and German tradition, a thesis is
longer in number of words, has deeper utilization of theoretical applications,
as well as analysis, and is wider in its breadth of research and implications,
than in the United States tradition. The difference in length is due to the
candidate having to share with the examiners more details in the research
(e.g., history of the field of research, background of the study, findings,
interpretation of the findings and discussing the findings in greater detail in
respect to theory and concepts). Differences in depth occur when thesis
students are expected to express a deeper understanding of theories in their
field of research, be able to grasp implications of the theories and to apply
these theories to their area of research. The difference in breadth is because
thesis students are expected to study more widely than dissertation students
and are also expected to see wider implications of their field of research and
to be able to make recommendations that have wider implications than
dissertation students. In some theses, two original empirical studies may be
necessary to propose and test a hypothesis.

However, both dissertations and theses are expected to meet the

same standard of originality, approaching a new area of study and
contributing significantly to the universal body of knowledge (Athanasou et
al., 2012). Originality is a key issue in both dissertation and thesis
development and writing (Bailey, 2014; Ferguson, 2009). The ideas, the
subject and the method of approaching a piece of research cannot be
identical to another piece of research (especially published research) if it is
to be acceptable to a committee of examiners. Identical research is
considered to be a replication of previous research, or even worse,
plagiarism, which is a serious offence in academia. By approaching an area
of research with an open mind, and by doing the necessary background
reading, your thesis or dissertation will contribute significantly to the body
of universal knowledge - a vital part of being a scholar (Beglar & Murray,
2009; Biber & Gray, 2009; Murray, 2011).
4 Chapter 1

So, you should study carefully the requirements of the university

Masters or PhD program that you have enrolled in to ensure that you are
clear about the criteria for the evaluation of your research and courses.
Successful meeting of those criteria will allow you to graduate in the
minimum time period permitted by the university’s requirements. If you are
confused about any of the requirements, please consult with the admissions
administrators for university requirements and with your appointed
supervisor for academic requirements.

So, what’s the problem?

When we approach the social sciences as a whole, we see that the
common denominator is people. Chances are very high that, as a student of
the social sciences, you are concerned with issues that affect the everyday
lives of people. For example, you may be concerned with the basic human
rights of migrants, the health of sex workers or the political climate of a
country that affects people who live on the margins of society. Asian culture
places a lot of emphasis on the human values of community, sharing and
harmony. We dare to say that seeking out answers to help others through
studies in the social sciences is part of our culture.

However, a common pitfall in being so influenced by the Asian

culture is that we tend to get emotional and passionate about the issues that
are important to us. We do not use the terms “emotional” and “passionate”
in a pejorative sense, as you need to be able to understand emotions and be
passionate about your studies in order to complete your academic endeavor.
But, being overly emotional or caught up in the passion of setting right
social wrongs can cloud your judgment and objectivity when approaching
the issue that you wish to deal with. What is important is to go to the heart
of the problem and to understand the different facets and implications of the
problem as a social scientist (Evans, Gruba & Zobel, 2011). Let us give you
a scenario:

While eating your lunch in a park, you are approached by a beggar

who asks you for some money. You give her or him a few coins and wonder
why, in such a prosperous world, there are still people who go hungry. You
become emotionally charged with the inequality and inequity that many
people face. Your emotion fires you up and you declare that you want to
study the issues surrounding hunger, and you rush into your supervisor’s
office declaring that you want to study hunger. You provide no further
details. Your supervisor, hopefully, will look at you admiringly, state that
 Getting started 5

you are coming along well as a student and then ask you to think more about
the social scientific value of studying hunger. You are stunned. You are
angry. Most of all, you are confused. This supervisor of yours is supposed
to immediately see that hunger is an important issue and that your research
has great academic value. You give in to the internal monologue of what a
decrepit, inhumane and (frankly) incompetent person your supervisor is.
You stew in your indignation and begin thinking of looking for another
supervisor, another department or another faculty. You may even go hard
on yourself and think that perhaps you are not cut out for academic pursuits.

Now stop and take a deep breath. Your supervisor is merely doing
her or his job. You have been all fired up by your encounter with the beggar
and want to help those who are hungry. However, what you have missed out
is the critical thought process that your supervisor needs to see in your
academic work (Dunleavy, 2003; Gillet, Hammond & Martala, 2013). Ask
yourself:

SO WHAT?
This is the hardest part, and will continue to be the hardest
part of the rest of your dissertation and thesis writing. This will lead to
you being able to problematize the issue you wish to study.
“Problematize” means being able to state a problem that is
researchable. Idealistic and altruistic reasons aside, any graduate or
postgraduate student must problematize the issue they wish to study
when asserting the significance of their area of research. Logic and
reason should weigh more heavily than emotional responses (Alvesson
& Sandberg, 2011).

So, what do you do? Let’s take it step by step to give you a firm grounding
for your dissertation or thesis writing.

Problematizing the issue that you are interested in

studying1
The first step in problematization is to identify the present
characteristics of the issue you want to study. It is almost impossible for a

1Please note: While the authors have a basis in other texts for this suggested pattern
of problematization, the suggestions put forward here are mainly from the
experiences of the authors.
6 Chapter 1

single thesis to address and answer all the characteristics of a problem. Ask
yourself:

 Is hunger a huge problem in your home nation? If your answer is

“Yes”, how do you judge it as being a huge problem? Do statistics
in your country show that many of your fellow citizens go hungry
each day? If the answer is “No”, do not think you have faced a
dead-end in your questioning. There is the possibility that you may
look at the issue of hunger within small, but specific populations
in your nation.
 Is there statistical or empirical evidence to confirm that hunger is
a condition faced by a significant number of your fellow citizens?
 If hunger is an issue, what are the national policies that are in place
to curb hunger within the nation? Are there Government
Organizations, Non-government Organizations or Civil Society
Organizations that deal directly with the issue of hunger?

The second step in problematization is to identify the barriers and

the positive characteristics of the issue:

 You need to read widely from several reliable sources in order to

identify barriers in your home nation.
 Seek out information regarding food distribution policies,
economic policies and social barriers that exacerbate and alleviate
hunger in your home nation.
 It is important to be objective when weighing all positives and
negatives that are involved in the issue. Logic and reason must
take precedence over emotion.

The third step in problematization is to seek out the social scientific

implications of the issue:

 If hunger is not curbed, what would be the implications for society?

Would hunger lead to involvement in activities such as stealing,
sex work or drug trafficking?
 If hunger is an issue, would physical, mental and emotional health
be important social issues? How would deficiencies in this area
affect the society you live in?
 If hunger is not curbed would it be an issue of economics, politics
or education? Would it be an issue of socio-cultural factors or is
hunger more an issue along the lines of ethnic divides?
 Getting started 7

The fourth step in problematization is pulling the relevant

information from all these questions into a cohesive whole. Let us say,
hypothetically, from each of the three steps you have been able to logically
and justifiably state that:

1. Empirical evidence shows that “X” % of the population of your

home nation lives along the margins of poverty. Poverty is defined
in your home nation as any household where the cumulative
income of all persons in the household is below “Y” amount, which
is insufficient to provide for adequate food, housing, clothing and
health. Empirical data shows that for these individuals, food and
shelter are necessities that are not met on a daily basis. Empirical
evidence also shows that “Z” % of those who fall below the
poverty line beg in order to seek food and/or shelter. At present,
the Government Organizations and Non-Government Organizations
provide welfare for citizens who qualify for such aid, but Civil
Society Organizations do not participate heavily in this exercise.
2. Policies show that food and provisions are distributed through
various Government agencies and that Non-Government
Organizations are co-opted into the effort. Few Civil Society
Organizations in your home nation provide food for the hungry.
Barriers to this food distribution include lack of transportation of
food to rural areas, collection of food by individuals who are
ineligible due to fraud and a lack of systems to track cases of fraud,
and a growing number of the population who are falling below the
poverty line. Objectively, efforts are made to curb hunger in your
home nation, but demand for assistance is larger than the supply
that is provided.
3. The implications, based on extensive reading, suggest that theft is
a likely result of hunger. Statistics demonstrate that petty theft and
burglaries have risen in your home nation progressively in the last
five years. Past research also suggests that involvement in sex
work may be an implication of hunger, and that physical, mental
and emotional health is affected by hunger. Therefore, hunger has
economic and socio-cultural dimensions.

As a consequence, you may problematize the issue of hunger by

stating that hunger is a problem in your home nation and, despite attempts
to curb hunger, it remains an issue that has yet to be solved. You should also
state that, if the problem of hunger is not solved, it will have implications
for society in the economic and socio-cultural dimensions. Social scientists
8 Chapter 1

in many countries have studied hunger in terms of the larger issue of poverty
and how to minimize it.

At this point you may be tempted to, once again, run into your
supervisor’s office with a look of smugness on your face. Please do not do
this. We are far from over in this process of stating your problem in
researchable terms. You have managed to problematize the issue, but there
are several steps to putting forward a persuasive research argument that will
gain the approval/support of your supervisor and will lead to a research
proposal that is accepted by your committee (Becker, 2010).

Now stop, take a deep breath and ask yourself the following
questions:

1. Are you interested in researching the economic or the socio-

cultural dimensions of hunger? Do not think they are one and the
same. It is important to choose one area and one area only.
Otherwise, your supervisor may comment that he/she believes
your topic is too broad.
2. What are socio-cultural and economic factors? How are socio-
cultural and economic factors defined? Who has proposed these
definitions? Have these definitions been accepted by the academic
community? Please understand that your definitions of socio-
cultural factors and economic factors need to be supported by the
published work of other experts and researchers who have
conducted recent research in this field.
3. Of the many socio-cultural and economic factors that you find,
which one factor, when studied empirically, will give you an
answer to the problem of hunger in your home nation? The answer
to this question is crucial, as it will shape the entire direction of
your research.

From these questions you will be able to choose one specific area
of research, be able to further define your area of research and be able to
pinpoint possible answers for the problem at hand.

It is not yet time to make that all-anticipated trip to your

supervisor’s office. You need to look at the issue you want to research
through the structure of a conceptual framework and the lens of a
theoretical framework.
 Getting started 9

A few quick words on conceptual frameworks and

theoretical frameworks
A conceptual framework allows you to clearly define what you
mean when you say “hunger”, “poverty” and “the hungry”. Remember that
in the social sciences we throw around a lot of concepts that are very
subjective. A strong conceptual framework will allow you to clearly define
what you mean when you use such terms. A theoretical framework, on the
other hand, will give you a lens through which you will analyze your
findings on hunger and poverty, to explain your findings in terms of
previous research and theories, and allow you to make a significant
contribution to knowledge. These ideas will be discussed in more detail in
future chapters.

Getting back to asking “So What?”: The significance of

the research
It is time to take a step back and ask a series of questions that begin
with “SO WHAT?”. So what if hunger is a problem in your home nation?
So what if present Government Organizations and Non-Government
Organizations work towards curbing hunger? So what if Civil Society
Organizations are hardly involved in the same effort? So what if there are
socio-cultural implications of hunger? So what is so different and ground-
breaking about your research? So what if you have a conceptual framework
and a theoretical framework?

The whole idea behind this line of questioning is to filter through

the details to be able to clearly state the significance of the problem (Li &
Vandermensbrugghe, 2011). Any piece of academic work must have strong
significance to national, regional and universal knowledge. If it does not,
then it is not worth pursuing (Fulwiler, 2002). So, spend time pondering the
significance of the issue you wish to study.

Once you are convinced that your problem is significant, you may
want to do one more check to ensure that you have avoided the following
common mistakes made by students:

1. Proposing a philosophical problem instead of an empirical one.

Please take note that in the social sciences we try to solve problems
where the findings may be implemented through solid action, for
example, through policy change, advocacy or recommendations to
10 Chapter 1

a government organization that deals directly with the affected

populations. Do not fall into the trap of philosophizing about a
social problem, where the solution is a change in human values or
social priorities. Rather, focus on a problem that needs empirical
research to solve the problem and then recommend specific social
changes based on your findings.
2. Proposing a topic that is too narrow or too broad in scope. For
example, wanting to solve the issue of hunger in the whole of your
home nation is too broad a scope, while wanting to solve the issue
of hunger on one street in your home nation is too narrow a scope.
Find a balance, where your academic endeavor has academic
significance by approaching hunger within a well-populated town
or city of your home nation.
3. Adding a new population to past research that has been conducted
and considering it “new” and “original”. Let us say that you have
found that hunger has been studied in your home nation. You have
a lot of data from these past studies. Focusing your research on a
new population of teenagers between the ages of 14 and 16 does
not add significant new knowledge to the field. However,
questioning what are the health needs of teenagers between the
ages of 14 and 16 who face chronic hunger, questioning what are
the mental health needs of teenagers between the ages of 14 and
16 who face chronic hunger, or questioning what are the coping
mechanisms of teenagers between the ages of 14 and 16 who face
chronic hunger may be new areas of research for you to pursue.
The whole idea is to make your research original and to make a
worthwhile contribution to solving the complex issue of poverty.
4. Adding on new variables to an old problem and presenting it as
“new” or “original”. Again, let us say that, in the past, research has
been done extensively on the area of poverty and the elderly in
your home nation. Do not add on “with no children” to the
variables of poverty and the elderly and pass it off as new research.
Is there significance to that issue? If not, then it is best to leave it
alone.
5. Repeating past research. Replicating past research is not original.
If you are the researcher of the original research and you are doing
longitudinal research then it is fine, but if you are replicating
research by someone else, then it is not original work.
6. Proposing research where the problem has already been solved.
This mistake speaks for itself – why bother solving a problem when
it has already been solved?
 Getting started 11

Let us say that you have taken all these hints and tips to heart. You
have gone through the processes we have described above and you are able
to see the bigger picture of the issue you are interested in, you are able to
problematize the issue, you have been able to find a focus for the issue and
you have been able to avoid the common mistakes made by most students.
Now is the time to pool together your logical thoughts and present them to
your supervisor. Let us revisit the scenario again, but with many added
changes.

Another look at the scenario

While eating your lunch in a park, you are approached by a beggar
who asks you for some money. You give her or him a few coins and wonder
why, in such a prosperous world, there are still people who go hungry. You
stop. You take a deep breath and ask yourself “SO WHAT”? You take
another deep breath. You challenge yourself to do intensive background
research on the issue of hunger in your home nation. In other words, you
begin to problematize the issue.

You scour academic journals, reports from international

organizations like the World Health Organization and UNICEF for
information. You talk to Officers in the relevant Ministry in your home
nation. Your research shows that hunger is a problem in your home nation
for 35% of the population. Your findings also show you that while
Government Organizations work towards alleviating the issue, support
from Non-Government Organizations and Civil Society Organizations is
scarce. Statistically, you have also found that those who face daily hunger
are those who have come from rural areas to find better employment
opportunities in major cities in your home nation. You stop. Take a deep
breath.

You remember that the second step in problematization is to seek

out barriers to solving the issue. You discover that the barriers to alleviate
hunger include lack of financial savings, lack of food distribution centers to
the destitute and lack of volunteer personnel to ensure that the destitute
receive the necessary food that they need. Also, you discover that the rate
of unemployment has gone up in your home nation by 12% in the last three
financial years.

You take the third step of problematization. You ask yourself what
the implications of such barriers would be. You again turn to the necessary
reading in academic journals and official reports to find out the effects of
12 Chapter 1

hunger in urban areas. You discover that theft, turning to the sale of
narcotics in order to make a living as well as narcotics use, coercion into
sex work and damaged physical and mental well-being are some of the
implications that have been found in other studies conducted in your home
nation.

Next, you take the fourth step of problematization. You can now
say, with the necessary evidence to back you up, that despite the state of
prosperity of your home nation, 35% of your fellow countrymen go hungry
and that the bulk of this percentage are those who travel from rural to urban
areas to seek better employment opportunities. You can also say that despite
the efforts of Governmental Organizations to alleviate this issue, there is a
lack of assistance from other quarters. Barriers to feeding the hungry who
come from rural areas to seek employment in urban areas include financial
difficulties, a lack of employment opportunities, inadequate avenues for
food distribution, as well as the necessary personnel to carry out the task.
The implications of hunger have wide ranging social effects, such as
narcotics, theft, sex work and psychological well-being.

Now stop and take a deep breath.

Your reading has shown you that there are many socio-cultural
and economic factors that influence and impact hunger. Draw up a list of
these socio-cultural and economic factors. Take your time when doing so.
When you have finished this task, you look at these factors and ask yourself,
which one of these factors do you think would be most interesting for you to
study? Let us say, for example, you decide that you want to focus on socio-
cultural factors that influence and impact hunger. These factors include
educational qualifications, language proficiency, skill-sets, religion,
ethnicity, geographic origin, materialism and consumerism. Again, for
example, let us say you have found in your reading that there exists a
cultural bias in your home nation against people of certain ethnicities. They
may share your nationality, but be from a different ethnicity. Your reading
shows that while hunger is uncommon in your ethnicity, it is common in
other ethnicities in your home nation. Again, stop. Take a deep breath.

You deepen your reading and this time you specifically look for
research done on hunger in a particular ethnicity in your home nation. You
not only look in academic journals, but also in dissertations and thesis
databases in your university. If your university has a national archive or
database of dissertations and thesis, so much the better. If you find that
another scholar has done the exact same research as you have had in mind,
 Getting started 13

you must drop the idea, as it will be merely a repetition or replication of

previous research. However, if you search and find that no such research
has been done then you have hit upon something significant.

Just to be sure, ask yourself “SO WHAT?”. If you can honestly say
that the research you have planned on ethnicities and hunger in your home
nation will answer the question of why hunger is still an issue in your home
nation, then you have taken the first and most challenging step towards
completing a significant dissertation.

Now you make an appointment with your supervisor. You sit down
with her or him and after the usual pleasantries you tell her or him that you
would like to study the socio-cultural impact on the issue of poverty from
the angle of ethnicity. You share with your supervisor that you have done
the background work and that the issue of hunger affects 35% of the
population of your country and the bulk of those who go hungry belong to
a particular ethnicity in your home country. This hunger continues despite
Government intervention. The people from this particular ethnicity come
from rural areas of your country to more urban settings in search of
employment opportunities but face hunger when they do so. The implication
is that, although the people from this ethnicity come to urban settings to
seek honest employment, due to the cultural bias against their ethnicity they
face difficulties in seeking employment. In order to make ends meet and to
stave off starvation, they are likely to turn to activities, such as theft, sex
work or peddling narcotics. Based on the conceptual framework you have
mapped out and also the theoretical framework you have decided upon, you
would like to begin more intensive work in developing your idea into a
working proposal that you can use for writing a dissertation or thesis. You
ask for the help of your supervisor in developing this idea further,
strengthening your basic argument, as well as your conceptual and
theoretical frameworks of your topic. Finally, you ask your supervisor for
help in refining a research question, research objectives and a research
design that will assist you in providing an answer to the question of ethnicity
on hunger in your home nation.

We will not draw this scenario out further by imagining what your
supervisor’s exact reaction will be, but when you compare the first scenario
with the second scenario, what do you realize? Instead of going with an
immediate emotional response, you took logical steps to research,
problematize and scrutinize the issue at hand. You provided many details
that are necessary to understanding the issue and problematizing it. You also
realize that in order to fully understand the issue at hand you have to read
14 Chapter 1

widely from different sources who are experts on this issue. Additionally,
you have to start thinking like a social scientist, and not as a layperson. This
is necessary in the social sciences, just as it is in many other disciplines.
Please also understand that this process will take a lot of time. So be patient
with yourself.

In Summary
What this book will help you do is to take those steps to refine your
ideas into a cohesive whole for the completion of, first, your dissertation
proposal and, then, your final dissertation or thesis. To assist you in this
process, at the end of each Chapter there are exercises, as well as reflection
and discussion activities to guide you along. Take your time to read each
Chapter carefully. Do not rush. Trust us, anything worth accomplishing in
academia takes time.
 Getting started 15

Exercise 1.1: Problematization of the Issue

Step 1: Identifying the important characteristics of the issue.

 Is the issue a problem in your home nation? Assess the current

situation using statistics, available data and reports. Write down
the main statistics/data/information you have found in the
following box.

_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________

Box 1.1 Identifying the important characteristics of the issue

 Following that, write down the populations, sub-populations or

communities who are potentially affected by the issue. Identify
four of these populations, sub-populations or communities in the
box below:

1. __________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
2. __________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
3. __________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
4. __________________________________________________
__________________________________________________

Box 1.2 Populations, sub-populations or communities who are potentially

affected by the issue
16 Chapter 1

 Identify the major stakeholders or groups of people involved in the

issue that you wish to study. While six spaces are included below,
identify as many as are relevant to the issue you wish to study.

1. __________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
2. __________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
3. __________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
4. __________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
5. __________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
6. __________________________________________________
__________________________________________________

Box 1.3 Major stakeholders

Step 2: Identify the positive characteristics and barriers of the issue

 Identify three positive aspects of the issue. This will assist you in
ensuring you do not research an issue that has already been
thoroughly investigated or one that does not warrant further
research, because it is trivial. Write these positive characteristics
in Box 1.4 below.

 Positive characteristic 1:
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
 Positive characteristic 2:
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
 Positive characteristic 3:
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________

Box 1.4 Positive characteristics

 Getting started 17

Identify what are the barriers that prevent the problem from being solved.
Challenge yourself to identify at least three barriers to the solution of the
problem. Then, identify in your opinion and the opinion of your supervisor,
the main barrier to solving the problem. Please note that the main barrier
may be a combination of all three of the barriers, but we would suggest you
stick to one barrier to clearly define the scope of your research. Please use
Box 1.5 below to assist you in this exercise.

 Barrier 1:
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
 Barrier 2:
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
 Barrier 3:
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
 Main Barrier:
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________

Box 1.5 Barriers

Step 3: Identify the social scientific implications of the issue.

 This area of writing requires you to be as specific as possible. This

part of problematization of the issue may take you the longest time
to complete, but it is well worth investing the necessary time.
 First, identify the implications of the issue from a general
perspective.
18 Chapter 1

 If the issue is not solved, what is the implication for society as

a whole?
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
 Does the issue have mental, physical or emotional implications
for society?
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
 Does the issue have an economic, political, educational, health
or environmental implications for society?
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
________________
Box 1.6 Social scientific implications of the issue
 Next, give an assessment of the issue with relevant implications if
the issue is not studied and the relevant recommendations are not
made.
 It is best to stick to one main assessment with two or three
implications that are directly tied to the main implication. List
these down based on the model provided in Box 1.7 below.

 Main assessment:
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
 Implication 1:
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________