There are different ways of breaking down the research process. Two approaches are considered here. The first consists of six key stages:
Figure 1 shows a second approach to the research process. It divides the process into three stages: outcomes, research activities and enabling processes. The top flow diagram shows the outcomes of the research process, namely public, private and personal knowledge. The middle flow diagram shows the research activities. The bottom flow diagram identifies the process through which the research activities are enabled or facilitated.
The difference between public and private knowledge is that public knowledge is commercially published and therefore available to all, whereas private knowledge is restricted to the organisation or institution that commissioned the research. As such, it becomes ‘grey literature’ where the purpose of generating the knowledge is not primarily for publication.
This overview of the research process makes it seem quite straightforward. In reality it is likely to feel chaotic at times and possibly more stressful than the overview suggests. At the beginning you can feel confused, tentative and sometimes unsettled. It is important to have faith in yourself and believe that your research question or aim will become clearer the more focused work you do and the more critical decisions you take; this is normal. It is also something that should be captured explicitly in your research diary; how you interrogated this source and honed that concept (the use of a research diary is discussed in Section 2). This helps you to understand the debates that underpinned your research and the struggles with critical decisions that you took along the way; in turn, it enables you to communicate this when writing your research project. It also demonstrates the logic of what has been done and how it has been concluded.
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