Revisions are needed on the paper I submitted for school. I have uploaded a file titled default.pdf which explains. Any section that scored less than a 3 needs to be revised. Please read teachers comments. Aspects B3, B5, C2 - C2f, D1 and D2 require addre

(Not mandatory) – however, I highly recommend you writing this section as it will help you to narrow down your topic and be more focussed in your dissertation research.

This section is all about how you are going to limit the scope of your study. You could do it using the following ways:

· You can focus particularly on a location (e.g. city, region, country, etc.).

· You can limit the scope based on type of organisation/ type of project (e.g. commercial, healthcare, school, government organisation, etc.).

· You can also limit the scope based on the size of organisation (e.g. small, medium or large).

· You can also limit the scope based on the type of stakeholder/s (e.g. contractor, client or consultants, etc.).

· You can also limit the scope according to timespan (e.g. choosing projects that have been initiated after 2007/08 to identify the effects of recession, building conservation techniques during the Victorian era, etc.).

· You can also limit the scope of the research depending on which stage of the project you are focussing on (e.g. barriers that impede sustainable development implementation during design stage of social housing projects, performance of Public Private Partnership projects during the operation stage)

E.g. The dissertation research is particularly focussed on client’s perspective on implementing SD in social housing projects. The main reason for this is that the clients in social housing projects (e.g. social housing associations) play a major role in ensuring the adaptation of sustainable developing in such projects (John, 2007). Without their involvement/encouragement, the implementation of SD could not go ahead. Therefore, it was very much essential to take their views on board to carry out this dissertation research.

* Note: Looking at the above, other than explaining what you have chosen to limit your scope, you have to write ‘WHY’ you have chosen it. It is very important.

Importance of writing the scope and limitation section is:

· It gives better focus for your research, as it identifies exactly what you are looking at.

· It narrows down your topic, so that it becomes more in-depth.

· It gives a better understanding about the research methodology section, e.g. what to look at, who to target, etc.

This is the easiest section to write in the dissertation. The purpose of this section is to show how each chapter/section of the dissertation flows and what each chapter contains. So, you can present it either in a bullet form or paragraph form.

Chapter 1 of the dissertation, as highlighted above, discussed the need for the research on implementing sustainability in social housing projects. The chapter also discussed the aim and objectives to highlight the end-goals of the research.

Chapter 2 highlights the main findings of an extant literature review that has been carried out on identifying the importance of sustainable development in social housing projects.

Chapter 3 details the research methodology adopted in finding the barriers of sustainable development of implementation during design stage of the project. The chapter not only discusses the methodology but also highlights the reasons behind the choices of research methodology/methods.

Chapter 4 of the dissertation discusses main findings of the questionnaire survey adopted as part of the primary data collection. The findings are presented according to the objectives set in chapter 1.

Chapter 5, finally, presents the main conclusions and recommendations.

1

Every chapter will have an ‘introduction to the chapter’ section, except for Chapters 1 (Introduction) and 5 (Conclusion). Introduction to the chapter basically highlights 03 things:

1. The purpose of the chapter

2. What it includes (in different sections)

3. What objective/s it achieves either partially or fully

This doesn’t have to be very long, just one paragraph (less than ½ a page is more than enough).

E.g. This chapter details the findings emerged from the literature review on sustainable development in social housing projects. The discussions on the literature review are presented mainly in 3 sections. Section 1 defines the concept Sustainable Development (SD) and also highlights the brief history of SD. Section 2, separately, defines housing concept and introduces social housing projects. Section 3 explains, in-depth, the importance of adopting SD concept in social housing projects. Overall, this chapter achieves, fully, objective 1 as highlighted in Section 1.3 above.

Some pointers as to what you should be doing and what you should not be doing when writing your dissertation:

Should not be doing:

· Do not use of words such as don’t, doesn’t, won’t, can’t (you have to always write them in full – Do not, Does not, Will not, etc.)

· Do not write in first person’s format (e.g. the use of words such as I, we, you, etc.)

· Presenting graphs/figures but not explaining them in the discussions.

· Do not use footnotes, unless you are doing case laws.

· Do not use end notes as well.

· Use of Appendices but not explaining/introducing them in the main text. This way, the Appendices become stand-alone sections, which does not add value to your discussions.

· Do not use pixelated/dark pictures that are difficult to read (obviously).

Should be doing:

· Use of graphs/figures whenever possible to further explain your points.

· Always write in third person’s format – this is a must (e.g. instead of saying ‘I collected the data using a questionnaire survey’, you say ‘the data was collected using a questionnaire survey’.

Doing your Literature Review:

· Step 1: Keyword search

· Step 2: Identifying ‘key’ (and other important) literature: up-to-date, has identified key authors in the area, lot of peer-reviewed articles (e.g. journals), literature that are very much relevant to your area (you can identify this by using the search facility ‘allintitle:’ in google scholar)

· Step 3: Save the files either in one folder (as a whole) or in different folders – for example, if my title is ‘sustainable development in social housing’, I can have three folders, i.e. sustainable development introduction, social housing types and sustainable development in social housing. Also, VERY IMPORTANT, save the files according to Harvard Referencing format as you cite in a document (e.g. John et al, 2007). This way, it makes it easier for you to find the document, as and when you need it.

· Step 4: Do your Referencing document (either use Word Referencing facility under ‘References’ Citations and Bibliography; or use Endnote or Refworks). The Word Referencing has following disadvantages:

· You can’t include page numbers in the citation automatically (e.g. John et al, 2007; p.11), you have to do it by right clicking the citation and click ‘converting the citation to static source’.

· If you decide to change the dissertation master document to a different one, then the citations you’ve saved in the previous one can’t be transferred.

· You cannot include ONLY the references you used within the text at the end. The list comes as a bibliography. It’s not a big deal – but worth checking with your supervisor, just in case.

· Step 5: You can include the ‘References and Bibliography’ section now itself at the end of the Dissertation master document, once you complete inserting the sources one by one. Only thing you need to do extra is keep adding the new sources you find in the future, and right click the references and ‘update field’.

· Step 6: Now you start your literature review, first by preparing a ‘structure of the literature review’ draft. This needs to be developed using the objectives.

Note to students:

· The difference between ‘page break’ and ‘section break’ and the importance of ‘section break’.

· Page numbering Insert page number Format page number (Title page should not have a page number – click different first page to do that, up to Chapter 1 it’s Roman numerals, After Chapter 1 it should be Arabic numerals starting from 1).

· Formatting the Table of contents

· Updating the Table of contents

Difference between a literature review (critique) and a literature report.

In the lit review, every section comprises of 03 main elements:

1. Presenting lots of literature either direct quotes or paraphrased sentences.

2. Comparing and contrasting: you can use words like ‘agree’, ‘similar’, ‘in contrast’, etc. or you can group references together that talk about the same thing, e.g. (John, 2007; Smith, 2009; Godfaurd et al, 2015).

3. Whilst you are doing the above two, you also have to address the ‘so what’ question.

Have a look at the above example and understand how to write a ‘critique’. It’s all about comparing and contrasting the literature you read and then putting it into your research context.

· The literature review should be written in sections, sub-sections and in paragraph form mostly.

· You can use diagrams, tables and graphs to support the discussions, if and when needed.

· First of all, before writing the literature review, develop a structure for the literature review with sections and sub-sections. The sections and sub-sections of the literature review can be decided by looking at your objectives. Show this to your supervisor and amend it, if necessary.

· Usually, for BSc dissertation (given the word count), you should write about 4000 to 6000 words in the literature review. Don’t forget, literature review gets 30 out of the 100 marks of the dissertation element.

· The discussions throughout the literature review should flow well and there should be ‘continuity’ and ‘flow’. E.g. The previous sections discussed, in-detail, sustainable development in general context, but from next section onwards, as per section 1.4 (scope and limitations), the study will focus will be on the UK context of SD.

· The discussions of the literature review should include minimum of 40 – 50 literature references at least. In-text referencing is very important. Please avoid plagiarism (look at the plagiarism video on blackboard).

Write the whole summary (important points/findings) of the literature review. At the end of the summary, it’ll be good if you can introduce a research questions/hypotheses that will be used for the next stage of the research – i.e. research methodology/investigation. This way, it links chapter 2 with chapter 3 (and 4). In addition, it shows that the next stage has been carried out after getting an idea from the literature review.

E.g.

Overall, Chapter 2 highlighted that there is a great need for implementing sustainable practices in social housing projects. The social housing projects currently are mainly focussing on affordability and economic savings, which might curtail the sustainable issues highlighted in Government’s agenda. To create sustainable social housing, it is very much needed to apply SD concepts from the inception itself. Therefore, the design stage implementation of SD concepts become important. Some literature sources have highlighted the need and the process of application of SD during design stages of a project. However, they are not focused specifically on social housing projects. Therefore, 02 research questions have stemmed from the literature review findings as follows:

1. What is the process of SD during design stage of social housing projects?

2. What are the barriers that could prevent the achievement of SD during design stage of social housing projects?

3. Why these barriers are significant?

These two questions will now be investigated during the next stage of the project. It will also achieve objectives 2 and 3 of the project, as highlighted in Section 1.3.

Research Methodology

2

Introduction

You have to highlight what this chapter contains. For example:

This chapter introduces the methodology chosen for the study. After considering pros and cons of research methodologies available and after considering the research question to be studied, a qualitative methodology was chosen for this research. The justification behind the choice of methodology is given in-depth in this chapter. Also, how the methodology is carried out is discussed as a step-by-step approach within the chapter.

Research Methodologies

(This is not a mandatory section – ask from your supervisor whether this is needed)

1 or less than 1 page of discussions on methodologies available would be fine. Please refer to Blackboard BN3990 Reading List, to help you write this section. Mainly refer to authors such as Fellows, Naoum and Creswell.

Basically you write here something like below:

There are 03 main methodologies available for social science research, i.e. qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods. Qualitative methodology, according to Naoum (2008) is a ………….. Qualitative, by definition, means going in-depth in a study, thus, the data (nature of data) we gather from qualitative are ‘rich’ in context (Creswell, 2004). That can be the main advantage(s) of qualitative data. However, qualitative data, due to it’s subjectivity, is difficult to generalise. This is it’s main disadvantage(s).

Quantitative, on the other hand, means ……………………. (Fellows, 1998). Quantitative data are objective in nature and they are analysed using statistical means (Ref).

Mixed methodology, therefore, appear to be the best available methodology, as it combines both the aforementioned methodologies. Thus, it takes away the disadvantages of each methodology.

Choice of Research Methodology

There are two things you write here – what you chose (easy) and why you chose it (justification – difficult to write). For example:

This study adopted a qualitative methodology. The reason for the choice of this methodology can be given as follows:

1. Your research objectives – this will decide what kind of methodology you want to adopt. For example, if you are identifying factors and their significance – it is more quantitative. If you are identifying opinions and perceptions – it’s more qualitative.

2. Your research questions – If they are more relating to ‘what’ type of questions, they become quantitative. But if they are relating to ‘why’ and ‘how’, e.g. why something is happening, how that is happening, it means that the researcher wants to further probe on the subject, thus it becomes qualitative.

3. What others have chosen – See Table 3.1

4. Pros and cons of other methodology/ies.

Research Methods Adopted

There are few things you need to talk about here:

1. Research method/s used under the chosen methodology.

2. Justification for the use of particular research method/s.

3. Approach as to how you adopted it – I usually use a step-by-step approach to discuss this.

Let’s assume you are using quantitative. In that case, you can write something like below:

Questionnaire survey was chosen as the chosen research method under Quantitative methodology. The following Table 3.2 highlights the available methods under the said methodology and, of the two main methods available, i.e. Questionnaire survey and structured interviews, questionnaire survey seemed to be the best option to achieve the objectives of the study (see Section 1.3). – This fulfils No. 1 above.

Questionnaire survey, according to Creswell (2004), is the most popular method in quantitative methodologies. It has many advantages, as highlighted in Table 3.2. Also, it is the most suitable method, in this research context, due to the fact that many questions to be fulfilled are, as found out in the literature review (See section 2… - Summary), relating to the identification of barriers of sustainable development. Therefore, a questionnaire survey seems very suitable as, the barriers identified from the literature review can be listed in a closed-ended question format in terms of enquiring about their applicability and level of significance in social housing. – This fulfils no. 2 above.

Table 3.2: Research methods under each methodology

Source: Fellows, Naoum and Creswell (include the years you’ve used) and many more

No. 3 can be fulfilled by highlighting a step-by-step approach. For an example:

The questionnaire survey chosen was carried out using the following steps:

Step 1 – Choice of Sample

Step 2 – Development of the Questionnaire

Step 3 – Piloting of the Questionnaire

Step 4 – Data Collection

Step 5 – Response Rate

Step 6 – Recording of Data

Step 7 – Data Analysis

If you have chosen, a qualitative technique, you can adopt the same approach as follows:

Step 1 – Choice of Sample

Step 2 – Development of the research instrument

Step 3 – Piloting of the research instrument

Step 4 – Data collection

Step 5 – Data recording

Step 6 – Data Analysis

Choice of Sample

STEP 1

Development of the Questionnaire

STEP 2

1

2

3

3.1

3.2

3.3

3.4

Step 1 – Choice of Sample

There are three things you need to cover as part of your choice of sample:

1. Who/what will you choose?

2. Why?

3. How many?

For point 1 above, if you are doing a questionnaire survey, not only you need to highlight who you have chosen, but how you have chosen them (i.e. sampling method/strategy).

E.g. For the questionnaire survey on assessing sustainability on social housing projects, both contractors and clients (i.e. managers from council authorities) were chosen. The main reason for choosing the contractors was because they play a major role in implementing sustainability during the project…….. As discussed in the scope (See Section 1.4), since the project is carried out in North West area of England, choosing contractors and managers in council authorities were carried out using purposive sampling strategy. The reason for adopting purposive sampling strategy was to specifically identify contractors and clients who have adopted/implemented sustainability in social housing projects, so that the research can benefit/draw inferences from their experiences.

Please note that the sampling strategy is more important for Quantitative (questionnaire surveys), not for Qualitative techniques.

Altogether 100 participants were chosen for the questionnaire survey taking 50 each from each category.

E.g. For the semi-structured interviews , both contractors and clients (i.e. managers from council authorities) were chosen. The main reason for choosing the contractors was because they play a major role in implementing sustainability during the project…….. As discussed in the scope (See Section 1.4), the project is carried out in North West area of England, therefore, therefore, an initial search criteria was done to choose contractors and clients who have experience and in-depth knowledge on the subject of sustainability in social housing projects. The search criteria involved identification of some social housing projects that have implemented sustainable development, and also willingness to participate in the interviews. Altogether, 4 contractors and 4 clients were chosen for the interviews.

E.g. For the case studies , multiple case study criteria was chosen for the research. According to Naoum (2007), multiple case studies allow comparison between and within case studies, unlike single case studies. Altogether 2 social housing projects that have adopted sustainable development techniques were chosen within North West area of England.

Step 2 – Development of the Research Instrument

Research instrument means what you will use to collect data – Questionnaire, list of questions, etc.

If you are choosing different categories of participants for your survey or interviews, then you need to decide whether you are going to ask same questions from them or whether you are going to have tailor-made questions according to the participant category. I suggest, for ease of analysis, to have moreover the same questions for all categories to allow comparison within and between participants. You can have one or two tailor-made questions, if need be, to make the research more in-depth and valid.

Questionnaire :

Some tips to develop a good questionnaire:

1. A questionnaire will have at least two main sections: 1) generic questions about the participant/project, 2) specific questions on the topic.

2. A questionnaire should start with some instructions and, if possible, with a brief overview of the project. At times, if your topic has some difficult terminologies, it’s advisable to present a definition to given an idea to the participant about the topic you are talking about.

Instructions: deadline, how to respond to the questionnaire, how to send back the questionnaire.

Overview of the project: Make sure you highlight the importance of the study so that you can attract many respondents.

3. Type of questions:

Binary questions – Yes/No (please don’t use these type of questions for the whole of the questionnaire, as it reduces the quality in terms of analysis).

Likert Scale to rate the answers. This can be given from 1 – 3, 1 – 4, 1- 5 or even 1 – 10.

How satisfied are you with the lecture: 1 being very low to 10 being very high

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

It is suggested that 1 – 4 or 1 -5 scale is the most commonly used and best option/s.

How satisfied are you with the lecture:

1 – Very High, 2 – High, 3 – Low, 4 – Very Low

1 – Very High, 2 – High, 3 – Medium, 4 – Low, 5 – Very Low

1 – Very High, 2 – High, 3 – Slightly High, 4 – Low, 5 – Very Low ×

1 – Very High, 2 – High, 3 – Low, 4 – Very Low, 5 – Not applicable/ don’t know ×

Interviews:

Open-ended questions

Minimum you can ask about 10 questions, so that it’ll take about 30 – 45 minutes.

An example as to how to write this section:

Open ended questions were developed during stage 2 of the study. The questions are attached in Appendix ….

Piloting the Research Instrument

Reasons for piloting: Understandability, clarity, validity, to identify how long it takes, to check the ways of analysing

Minimum 03 for the questionnaire – after the pilot, you ask the following questions from the respondents:

· How long did it take for them to fill in the questionnaire?

· Did they understand all questions, if not, which questions did they not understand?

· Were the questions clear?

· Were the answers clear?

· Were the questions valid?

· Were the answers valid?

· Any other comments?

References

References Liyanage, C., John, G. & Pye , C., 2010. Introduction to Facilities Management. Manchester, University of Salford . National Health Service, 2011. Healthcare System. 2 ed. London: Elsevier. Smith, A., John, G. & Davenport, D., 2010. Introuction to Sustainable Development. Sustainability , 2(1), pp. 197-210.

STAGE METHODOLOGY OUTPUT Stage 1 Literature Review Objective 1 Objective 2 Objective 3

STAGEMETHODOLOGYOUTPUTStage 1Literature Review Objective 1Objective 2 Objective 3