1. When starting the project you should… Be clear about what you want to find out and why Think about the best way to do it. Common sense first… Make an appointment with your supervisor to discuss what you will do and timescale. Take proposal and comments Remember your supervisor may have a holiday planned … agree when you will meet / email. Usual to send drafts of chapters when completed Remember the deadline and plan back from this. Send your supervisor a draft of the project at least a month before the deadline Project guidelines, ethics form, research methods, etc linked to http://woodm.myweb.port.ac.uk/rm http://woodm.myweb.port.ac.uk/rm Practical guidelines on statistical analysis at http://woodm.myweb.port.ac.uk/stats/statnotes0.pdf http://woodm.myweb.port.ac.uk/stats/statnotes0.pdf

2. Reminders about the project Research aims should be simple, explicit, focussed, motivated, useful Literature review should focus on relevance to your project References should be complete and in alphabetical order Methods should be the best which are feasible. Analysis chapter should show how hard and skilfully you’ve worked, and why readers should believe you. You need to convince a sceptical reader who may want to know details of how your data was obtained – e.g. source of samples, location of interviews (pub or office?), etc, etc – and analyzed. Conclusions and recommendations should summarise what you have found, and clearly meet the research aims. Also discuss limitations. Changing your mind is to be expected – if necessary rewrite aims after doing the research!

3. Analysing data and presenting results Questionnaires and interview plans, and possibly some data, in appendix Graphs and tables and important quotes from interviewees etc in the main text Focus on your research aims, not the questions in your questionnaire Readers want an analysis which shows how your aims are met. They don’t want to know the answers to all the questions in your questionnaire! Use appropriate summaries – e.g. tables of averages, or of main points from interviews

4. More reminders Docs/links at http://woodm.myweb.port.ac.uk/rmhttp://woodm.myweb.port.ac.uk/rm Keep to the word limit. You can get a good mark with 2,000 words less, but not with 2,000 words more. Remember the ethics form – no form, no pass! Be particularly careful about NHS ethics clearance Make use of your supervisor (see Project Guidelines)Project Guidelines Plan the timescale (Gantt chart) – allow time for delays Allow time at the end for your supervisor to read it for you to make any necessary amendments. If it’s good, consider publishing a summary in a journal. Ask your supervisor.