Design Research Dissertation: Assignment 1

2.9.2022 - 16.10.2022 (Week 1 - Week 7)
Chung Yi Ki / 0345014 / BDCM
Design Research Dissertation
Assignment 1 / Research Implementation - Draft Dissertation

Lecture

Week 2 / Write a Literature Review

Fig 1.1 Steps in conducting a literature review
Source: Lecture slides

To start a literature review, first search up relevant articles by looking for them in the major databases recommended by your lecturers, and consider your research questions and come up with keywords to quicken your search. It is best if the article is cited a lot and peer reviewed.

Assessing and picking your sources

Read through the article to make sure the abstract is relevant and that the findings are objective with an adequate sample size. Check if the articles are written by scholars.

A useful way to keep track of all your sources is to use reference managing software like Mendely.

Structuring the review

Break up the points in multiple subheadings so that it's easier to navigate.
Consider colour coding important points while reading to easily recall information
Cross reference all the points when writing the review to keep everything connected
Only include essential quotations. Footnotes and comments can be included as well where necessary.
Be sure to write down the bibliography as well as work cited.

Concluding the review

Think about what are the major trends and the main contributors. What gaps are there in the literature and if the review is worth continuing and updating or are you happy that any further research would require a wholly new approach.

Week 3 / Methodology

The methodology section is to explain your research approach and justification and purpose for it, with relevant citations.

Introductory paragraph/section

Link back to the previous section (literature review)
State the purpose of this section
Provide a road map of this section

Concluding paragraph

Summarise the key points
Emphasise on the key message of the section
Link to the next section (Results and findings)

Research design

State the type of study carried out and how it relates to the research question and how it sets up the data collection process.

Data collection

Provide step-by-step of the data collection process, with all the details from context, sampling size to instruments etc. Cite relevant sources to support your decision.

Validity and reliability

State what have you done to make sure the data gathered is trustworthy.

Data analysis

Explain how you will organise the data. From the literature review, work out an analytical strategy. Constant comparison is needed in the analysis process.

Role of the researcher

If you play a role in the research, mention it in the section and state how does your role impact on the research and what have you put in place to mitigate this. Self-reflect on the research process.

Week 4 and 5 / Results and Discussion

Results

Results section

The results section should mention your key findings/results, including any statistical analysis and whether or not the results are significant to the study. Any literature supporting your interpretation of the significance of the data should be cited as well.

The writings in this section should be written in past tense and every results must have a method ser out in the methodology section. If certain result is excluded from the section, make sure to exclude its method in the methodology section as well.

Think of the order of how to present your data. One way is to follow chronological order where it follows the sequence of the methods, or in the order of most to least important in answering your research questions.

Also consider what is best way to present your results, either by tables, figures, graphs or text. Make sure each tables and figures are numbered and labelled accordingly.

Slight discussion is needed in this section, but it should only evaluate the quality of the results and their reliability, and not stray too far into the discussion section.

Discussion

The discussion section have four purposes

Interpret and explain your results
Answer your research question
Justify your approach
Critically evaluate your study

This section needs to follow from your results and related back to your literature review. Make sure everything that is discussed in this section is covered in the results section. Limitations of

your research and implications of your findings for policy and practice should be stated as well. This section should be written in the present tense.

To start of the discussion, refer back to the research questions then discussed your results, and then set them into the context of the literature and then into broader theory.

Mind mapping, preparing an outline or setting out an argument and how your results support it are some good ways to organise your thoughts for this section.

The discussion is likely to be one of the longest sections in the dissertation, so it's a good idea to break down the points into different sub-headings for readers to easily navigate through them.

Compare and contrast your findings with relevant literature review and explain how your results relate or argue with them, and how they answer your research questions.

Conclude this section by summarising the implications of your findings briefly, and explain the importance of them for future researchers and provide suggestions for further work.

Week 6 / Conclusion, Intro & Abstract

Conclusion

Brief summary of your key findings
Significant of the research for future researcher and for practitioners in creative media
Based on the significance, write down the recommendations for future research and practitioner to do from the findings of the research
Final paragraph is the part to round off the dissertation

Introduction

Make full use of what was written in Design Research Methodology. But if you made changes, update it. It aims to let the readers know what the research is about, summary of what's the research problem,

the aim of the research etc. It should not include too many citations.

Abstract

A short summary of the full text of the dissertation. Aims to concisely reports the aims and outcomes of the research so that readers know exactly what the dissertation is about. Usually around 150-300 words.

Table of contents

Table of contents should have headings and subheadings

Acknowledgement

Used to thank relevant parties in helping out with the dissertation

Appendices

Only include relevant evidences in the appendices (can include links). Make sure the numberings are correct in the dissertation writing to the appendices list. Make sure to doble check everything including typing errors, grammatical errors etc. before submission.

Instructions

For this project, we are tasked to write a draft of our dissertation using the information, findings, and what we've wrote in our Design Research Methodology projects last semester.

Section 2 - Literature review

Fig 1.1 Literature matrix

Fig 1.2 Literature review - Draft 1

To start off our dissertation writing, we were tasked to do a literature matrix as a starting point of our literature review section. I wrote my literature matrix based on the articles that I’ve critically reviewed in Design Research Methodology. Then, I wrote the first draft of my literature review based on the matrix and my last semester's critical review.

Fig 1.3 Literature review - Draft 2

After receiving feedbacks from Dr. Hayati, I took down some notes on the changes for my literature review at the side of my literature matrix, which was typed in blue. I then made the necessary title changes to the literature review and added in more compare and contrast points. Some sentence structures are also changed to sound better.

Section 3 - Research Methodology

Fig 2.1 Research Methodology - Draft 1

For section 3 of the draft dissertation, I wrote it according to the format given by Dr. Hayati and the information written in Primary Research assignment back in Design Research Methodology last semester.

Section 4 - Results and findings

Fig 3.1 Results section - Draft 1

In the result section, I written it by revisiting the data analysis done in Primary Research for Design Research Methodology. I mostly copy and pasted what was written previously and made some sentence structural changes here and there. I also quoted some qualitative responses in the qualitative analysis.

Section 5 - Discussion and revision of Section 3

Fig 4.1 Discussion - Draft 1

For the discussion section based on the conclusion section in Primary Research for Design Research Methodology and elaborated on it.

Fig 4.2 Research Methodology - Draft 2

Fig 4.3 Discussion - Draft 2

After receiving feedbacks from Dr. Hayati, I created flowchart framework diagrams for each section in the discussion section and in Section 3.0 to act as a summary for the sections, so that the writings in the paragraphs below them are easier to follow. The framework diagrams were created using the drawing tool in Google Docs.

Abstract, Section 1: Introduction, and Section 7: Project Design Recommendation

Fig 5.1 Abstract and conclusion - Draft 1

Fig 5.2 Abstract, conclusion and project design recommendation - Draft 2

After that, I started writing the conclusion and abstract of my dissertation by rereading what I've written in the other sections. The project design recommendation section was written to according to the findings gathered, limitations discussed in the other sections and what was written in the conclusion.

Complete draft dissertation

Fig 6.1 Draft dissertation

I then re-read the introduction section and rephrased some sentences so that the rationale and problem statement written in the last semester can be put together as one paragraph, as like the introduction in typical journal articles. I also added questionnaire structure screenshots and any relevant information in the appendices. I reformatted the Google Sheet containing the original questionnaire responses from Design Research Methodology a bit so that it's easier for readers to navigate if they click the Google Sheet link in the appendices.

After receiving feedbacks from Dr. Hayati, I changed “data collection” to “primary data collection” in the research methodology framework diagram, and added details on the shows/films analysed under observational studies. I also wrote the acknowledgement and proofread all the other sections to correct some grammar and typing mistakes. All the text is formatted in 1.5 spacing, 12pt font size, though the the spacing for the text in the tables is reduced to minimise the size of the table.

I then copied all the pages to Microsoft Word to set the pagination as Google Document was not able to do it correctly. The correct page numbers were set for every page and the figure label numbers were corrected to match the section numbering. A table of contents and list of tables and figures were also created using the tools in Microsoft Word. I also changed the original writing for project design recommendation to “future research recommendation”, and wrote new paragraphs for the actual project design recommendation as section 8.

After that, I double checked everything to finalise it for submission.

Final draft dissertation

Fig 7.1 Final draft dissertation

Feedbacks

Week 1

General feedback: You’ll need to gather more data for your research if what you have collected last semester isn’t enough. It’s best to gather the additional data within 1 month to write your dissertation.

Week 2

General feedback: Literature review is where you understand what you have read and review it, it has to be written in a sequential way, i.e: a sequential discussion of thoughts. Its purpose is acting as secondary data to support your research topic. Add similarities and differences of the articles in the literature matrix. These can be written in the literature review in an argumentative or integrative way, and it’s best to section the literature review by themes. Make sure critical thinking is applied and any tables or pictures from the article can be included in the review if needed.

Specific feedback: Change “Character Acting” to “Character Expression”, “Believability and Appeal” change to “Believable Characters”, “Degree of Exaggeration” to “Character Exaggeration”, “Timing” to “Plot Timing”, “Cinematography for enhanced emotional deliverance” to “Cinematography for emotional enhancement”, “Introduction” to “Animation overview” and “Conclusion” to “Summary conclusion”. For the animation overview part, it should cover the brief information of the articles that’s been reviewed. Use connecting verbs so that readers will know how you synthesise your thoughts.

Week 4

General feedback: Citation must be provided to justify the choices made for each research approach. Bryman and Creswell's book can be cited to justify qualitative approach if applicable. Don't be vague in your writing, be descriptive. Discussion is not about describing primary research with research objective and questions, but rather it is supposed to be a section that is aimed to answer the research questions but with the utilisation of findings from primary and secondary research (literature review). It cannot be something that is not reflected in the literature review.

Specific feedback: It is fine to cite articles from literature review as justification for a research approach. Online forum discussion as a title is okay to be used. Create a diagram to describe each research methodology since the methods used are different from each other and robust. The diagram should have subtopic numbering from the writing, e.g: Phase 1 observational studies, Phase 2 questionnaire, Phase 3 forum discussion etc. Also make sure that phase 2 and 3 are done concurrently.

Discussion part is about finding common ground within the different opinions and from literature review/scholars, triangulation of data can be considered.

How you tabulate your data is up to you on what you find the easiest, as long as the readers can understand what you are showing and writing.

Make sure to label each table or figure you put in your dissertation and point them out in your writing.

When mentioning anything about amount like "majority" etc., it needs to be able to be evident with number data, unless you mentioned it before and readers can refer to it. So, unless you do that, if you’re doing thematic analysis of qualitative data, you need to have a count on the number of times the similarities or differences are mentioned among respondents.

For observational study, descriptive explanation is fine as long as there's figures to back it up, and don't necessarily need to be recorded in table format.

All of the 88 qualitative responses can be put in the appendix section, and mention that in your writing (can refer to appendix 3 etc.)

Week 5

General feedback: Again, be descriptive and don't be vague in your writing. Remember to not use first person in writing. Numbers have to be spelled unless it's for listing or title purposes. For section 3, describe whether it is random or convenience sampling in methodology and provide justification. Make sure the word count reaches the required number.

Specific feedback: Judge what you wrote as a reader to see what information needs to be added or sentences to be rephrased if you are planning to copy and paste directly from Design Research Methodology work. Readers would easily get lost in the lengthy writing in section 5, so try and include figures to describe the writing, perhaps a triangulation diagram or a framework diagram. Triangulation might not be the method that best describes your analysis, maybe change to other terms such as “review and comparative analysis” or something else.

Week 6

General feedback: Make sure the tenses used are consistent throughout the dissertation writing. In the introduction section, "research rationale" can't be used as a title, should be called as "research

Background" instead. The ability to articulate critical thinking is mostly graded in section 2 and 5. Appendices must have relation to what was written in the content of the dissertation. it cannot stand alone, it needs to be referenced in the writing.

Specific feedback: The conclusion is sufficient as it summarises the findings mentioned in the discussion section. Recommendations stated at the end of the conclusion can be elaborated in detail in the next section (project design recommendation). Review the Introduction section next, the rationale written in last semester would need to be changed to “research background”, and not every content in the rationale is compatible in dissertation writing, so look over it to see which needs to be rephrased and what needs to be taken out. After that, go back to the conclusion and state out clearly how the conclusion relates back to the introduction. The abstract is fine as well as it follows the format given and all the details are there.

Week 7

General feedback: Academic writing is about being able to describe what you have undertaken in your research. The discussion section is about how you use your findings to answer your questions. Future research/project recommendation can be mentioned in the project recommendation section.

Specific feedback: Avoid using informal phrases. Try and utilise your designing skills to get some artworks done based on this topic in your upcoming semester break. Change “data collection” in the research methodology framework diagram to “primary data collection”, and also look into mixed-method methodology frameworks to elaborate more on the observational studies section in the diagram. The label numbering of figures and tables should follow the section numbering. The figures in appendices don’t need to be labelled unless they are mentioned directly in the dissertation writing. If what was written in the project design recommendation section is strictly about future research, then the title needs to be changed accordingly.

Reflection

This project was challenging to say the least. Since back in Design Research Methodology, I get to write more freely without having to stick to a structure, but for this project I had to think of a way to rephrase and write all my points according to a set structure for each sections. Though, having written my critical review and primary research process in detail last semester did make it easier to write the contents for this draft dissertation. Another challenge is that I wanted to meet the recommended word count for each section as stated in the MIB so I had to figure out how to elaborate my points to make them longer and more detailed, especially for section 5. The concept frameworks in section 5 was hard to wrap my head around it at first, but after Dr. Hayati’s explanation on it and my first try in creating it, I eventually got the hang of how to structure it. Other than that, since I did my writing using Google Docs at the start, there isn't enough tools in the web application for me to format my pagination so I had to spend time reformatting all the tables and figures numberings and the section headers to make the pagination tool in Microsoft Word work when I copied all my content into there.

But all in all, I’m glad that I was able to meet the interim deadlines set by Dr. Hayati for each sections so that I could finish the dissertation on time.

Chung Yi Ki (0345014)

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