WHERE'S THE DIFFERENCE??? ... PART 11

HOW IS A POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH DIFFERENT FROM A DOCTORAL RESEARCH?

A frequently-asked-question (FAQ) that students bug me all the time. In short, it is a continuation of knowledge enquiry, the first to establish and confirm the significance of the research issue, while the later is to finally develop a tested, proven and novel solution/ knowledge.

No matter what, both requires:-

LITERATURE REVIEW

a) Describe the background work of other researcher in the area, to
establish the 'state-of-the-art' prior to the author's research effort, and

b) To appraise critically previous work undertaken and to put that work in
perspective in relation to its importance



POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Clearly state:

a) WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM?
(I don't know yet but it is about gaining more knowledge)
b) WHAT DID YOU DO?
(Consolidate and synthesis knowledge in a novel way)
c) WHAT DID YOU FIND OUT?
(A new classification of processes, new typology of terms, a new
morphology and a new set of rules that could be applied when teaching
this subject)
d) WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF YOUR FINDINGS?
(Professional: increase profitability, improve designs
Educational: new course structure, advice to the profession)


PHD. RESEARCH

A PhD. is said to occur as a result of RIGOUR and SCHOLARSHIP and is usually concerned with:

STUDIES: Analysis, Synthesis, Design, Formal Methods of statistical
analysis, Case studies, Model changes in the target population)

EXPERIMENTATION: Validation of results, Interaction with experts

CONCLUSION: Intellectual property, New knowledge, New insight, New
Rules, Original outcome, Contribution to knowledge, and
applying the results of your research to reality.