Dissertation’s topic is about “gender and development in HR field and in China”, you should narrow this topic and make it not very broad and then to write this assignment.
In no more than 2500 words, prepare a dissertation research outline. Your outline should contain the following elements:
- Background to your dissertation research: This is a broad explanation of your research topic and outlines what is to be done in the dissertation, and why it should be done (i.e. why this is an important area to investigate) from an academic and/or organisational point of view. This section should include reference to relevant literature, and should describe what other research has been done in this area before, and how your dissertation fits in relation to what has gone before.
- Research Question: This section states what the dissertation will deal with and what it is trying to achieve. This statement may be in the form of a problem that will be addressed (or solved) and – ideally – a single sentence question that the dissertation will ultimately answer. It should be clear and focused and indicate that the research is doable in the timespan of an MSc dissertation. If relevant (i.e. yours is to be a quantitative piece of research), you might add one or more hypotheses that the dissertation will test, or, if you are doing a qualitative piece of research, outline sub-questions that address different aspects of the main research question.
Time and consideration should be devoted to this section as a well-phrased research question makes the rest of the dissertation that much easier to complete. Logistically speaking, think of the question being SMART: Specific, Measurable (in the broadest sense not necessarily quantitatively), Achievable, Realistic, Timely (referring here to some sense of originality, or of the research being current/up-to-date, or that it seeks to contribute in some way to a bigger picture).
- Overall Research Approach: For this section you should ask: ‘what research approach (or approaches) will best provide me with the data to answer my research question?’ Think, here, of the bigger research picture within your dissertation, the aim is to show how the parts of the dissertation link together and build your ‘argument’: from initial research question(s), or hypotheses, to your literature review to your data collection and analysis. This section describes your overall research ‘argument’.
- Methods and Data Analysis: Present here an explanation and justification of the actual research methods that you will use (e.g. surveys or interviews or secondary document analysis or action research or focus groups, etc.) in order to complete the dissertation. You should also describe the types and sources of data that you will require to answer your research question. Try to be as detailed as you can be in this area – for example, specify what data will you seek to use (e.g. if you intend sourcing some documents then name some of the actual documents, state why you are using them, and say how you will access them; if quantitative research is being conducted then state what databases or other sources of numerical data will be used and how will you access these).
- Chapter Outline. Indicate the likely number of dissertation chapters and their contents. Ideally this should indicate how each chapter contributes to the overall argument of the dissertation, enabling you to answer the question: “Why is this chapter included in my dissertation?” It should also avoid stating the obvious (e.g. “the research methods chapter contains the methods I will use to answer my research questions”).
Feasibility must also be acknowledged here, in other words, demonstrate that your research is doable within the resources and time available to you over the course of the dissertation process. You should include references to relevant literature from Research Methods literature here.
Some overall advice:
Give your research a Title (for the purposes of this assignment at least). This helps frame the research and indicates to the reader/examiner what to expect as they read through your work. It looks more considered and professional too. Use the suggestions for how to phrase a research question to help phrase your research title.
Aim to use recent sources and literature in your assignment – avoid using dated sources unless such use is justified or relevant to your research topic (e.g. some academic literature, while old chronologically-speaking, is still considered quite influential, but its use would need to be explained in your outline).
For the purposes of this assignment, try and be as specific/detailed as you can.
Take care in how you begin this assignment – write a clear introductory section (i.e. the first few paragraphs) that summarises the assignment, puts your research into its context (e.g. why this research is being done and where), and describes very briefly what form your research will take. Then follow this by expanding and elaborating on these points in the rest of the assignment.
Assignments should be word processed: 12pt font size, with 1.5 line spacing.
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