Course: Access - Study Skills 20-21

Title: Your research question
Abstract (200 words)tip: write this last
An overview of your whole project, like the bit on the back of a book.
‘This report attempts to investigate which hats are the most popular in both the UK and US by examining how age, gender and socioeconomic background contributes to hat choice. Through my investigation using both primary and secondary research, I was able to conclude that hat choice is often based on social factors more than age gender or socioeconomic status. This allowed me to demonstrate that I was correct in considering that 18-30 year olds preferred to wear baseball caps but incorrect in the statement that older generations prefer to wear beanies or flat caps.’

Introduction (200 words)
What your question is and what you think the answer will be, what you plan to do to answer your question.
‘I plan to investigate which type of hat is the most popular across the UK. I believe that a generational gap divides hat choice selection, with younger people in both countries selecting a baseball cap, while older people prefer the flat cap in the UK or the beanie in the US. In order to investigate whether this is the case, I will be considering gender, age and socioeconomic status and examining how these things influence hat selection decisions. I will use primary research to do this by… and secondary research like… to examine this.’

Methodology (300 words)
Use information from your proposal of methodology (general) to write your methodology (specific).
‘This report will use data gathered from secondary sources. The gale database was used to find journals and articles. Keywords to source information included ‘generation gap’, ‘hat’ and ‘fashion hats’. I decided not to narrow my search results by year to allow for maximum sources to be found. I did however filter on UK results only. A secondary source I used was The Daily Mail. Newspapers in general are useful as they are up to the minute information and are written by professional journalists. However, many newspaper writers have agendas which may make their writing biased. The Daily Mail in particular attempts to target a mainly conservative audience with stories that are written to isolate and villainise particular cultural and social groups. I had to examine the statistics that had been gathered to ensure they were accurate.’
If using primary research you must explain what method of research you used e.g. questionnaire, survey, interview. Say why you choose this method and how you will analyse and present your findings.

Results (700 words)
Put in a quote and explain what the quote says.
‘“98% of Americans prefer to wear trilby hats.” (Ronnie, 2004)
This quote tells me that the trilby hat is the most popular hat in America.”’

Discussion (800 words)
Your argument, where you look at why your evidence supports or does not support your points. This is most similar to an essay. Don’t include an introduction or conclusion as you have one already.
‘Dixon (2016) suggested that the trilby is the most popular hat in America with 98% of those asked giving this as their preference. It could be argued that the trilby is so popular in America due to Frank Sinatra, who wore a trilby at many of his public appearances. However, it is worth considering that Dixon, who carried out this survey for The National Trilby Society, may have been biased in his choice of candidates polled as they were all found through an advert placed in Trilby Monthly. This information helps me to see that hat choice goes beyond the scope of the baseball cap, beanie or flat cap in the US, which may mean that my initial argument is not correct. It is useful to consider however, that the majority of the purchasers of The Trilby Monthly consider themselves to be of a middle or high socioeconomic status, allowing me to consider that financial issues may influence the selection of hat choice.’

Conclusion 300 words
A summary of your argument which outlines whether or not you were correct in your statement in your introduction.
‘To summarise my argument, I have been attempting to suggest that the beanie, baseball cap and flat cap are the most popular type of hats in both the UK. I referred to age, gender differences and socioeconomic status to allow me to group people more easily. Throughout my investigation, I found that I was hampered by false information provided by fan societies and by personal and organisational bias. Overall, I believe that my initial claim that the baseball cap, beanie and flat cap are the most popular type of hats has been proven to be correct within the age range of 18-30 year olds due to media and social influences but that the beanie and flat cap are no longer the most popular hats in the older generations as they now have sociocultural and socioeconomic images associated with them from past generations.’

References (not in word count)
Harvard style end text reference list on new page

Appendices (not in word count)
A blank questionnaire or any results from primary research. Don’t use section if not needed.


Contents

Week 1 - Introduction
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Week 2 - How to use Harvard Referencing in your work
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Week 3 - How to find resources for assignments
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Week 4 - Academic Writing. Essay/Report, structuring your work
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Week 5 - Recap on Harvard Referencing and submitting an assignment. Also a leaflet video guide here.
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Week 6 - How to improve your academic writing, analysing and critiquing
Week 7 - How to improve your academic writing, writing with purpose and accuracy
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Week 8 – Introduction to Speaking and Listening Assignment
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Week 9 – Preparation for Speaking and Listening
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Week 10 – Speaking and Listening
Week 11 – Speaking and Listening Presentations
Week 12 – IAS - Introduction
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Week 13 – IAS – Narrowing down topic selection and starting project log
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Week 14 – IAS - Writing your aims and overview of the Plan
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Week 15 and 16 – IAS - Continuation of Planning document and accessing resources
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Week 17 – IAS – Overview of report writing sections
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Week 18 and 19 – IAS – Introduction section
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Week 20 – IAS – Methodology
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Week 21 – IAS – Results
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Week 22 – IAS – Continue with Results
Week 23 – IAS – Discussion
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Week 24 – IAS – Continue with Discussion
Week 25 - IAS – Conclusion and Abstract
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Week 26 – IAS – Evaluation
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Week 27 – IAS – DUE DATE