Your research project will develop your ability to demonstrate independent advanced investigation.

Projects can take many forms:

• practical or theoretical
• based in a laboratory
• in the field
• in a studio
• in a workplace
• at home

Projects can make use of experiments, field or laboratory observations, case studies, artistic creativity, or data from secondary sources. They can cover broad or narrow research; they can involve the researcher as an objective individual or as a participant. The choice for your research project is endless and choosing a research topic is a crucial decision. You will need to spend some time getting it right.

It is generally accepted that postgraduate research projects must adhere to certain criteria: they must include a degree of analysis and a degree of originality.

The analysis can be based on:

• experimental or observational data
• field-work
• creative work
• database(s)
• archives
• surveys
• information in the literature

Data analysis essentially means finding relationships between different items of information and may be quantitative or qualitative.

The next section describes the types of research.