DESIGN RESEARCH METHODOLOGY - RESEARCH

25/09/18 - 09/10/18 (Week 5 - Week 7)

Yeap Phay Min (0331073)

Design Research Methodology 

Research

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LECTURE NOTES

25/09/18 (Week 5)

This week, Ms Hayati briefed us about critical review as for our second project which is the research, we are required to select relevant journal articles and critically review them. She mentioned that a critical review is when we analyse and evaluation an article with understanding. This includes looking into the strengths and weaknesses. While doing this, we should look at the title of the article, then read the synopsis and lastly the conclusion. When we read, we should also reflect and create questions. Studying the references from the article is helpful as well. Besides that, we need to think about the target audience of the particular article and see if the writing matches it, see if they're stating facts or opinions, and are they clearly supported by evidence and reasons without being bias.

While preparing the outline for the critical review, we should look at what we're intended to achieve (research objective), then gather points to organise them and make sure they're in logical sequence of presenting the ideas.




02/10/18 (Week 6)

Extra documents were also uploaded on TIMES to guide us for this project. Through reading them, I got to have a better understanding on how the essay should be written.

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INSTRUCTIONS

25/09/18 (Week 5)

For this week's task, we would already need to have a selection of relevant publications such as journal articles to be part of our secondary research. We should start reading the articles to evaluate and critic on them. It would also be great if the first draft is completed for the next tutorial session. 

Initially, I was unsure of what to include in the first draft of my critical review. So I started by creating a table in Google Sheets for me to organise and evaluate the contents for each of the article. This included the title, authors, publication year, target audience, purpose, strengths and weaknesses. 

Initial attempt at evaluating/critiquing articles

I also started reading through the slides given on TIMES to further understand about what we have to do. I was still curious/confused about some parts and decided to ask about them in the next class.


02/10/18 (Week 6)

FEEDBACK: In this class, I got to ask Ms Jinchi about what exactly do we need to do for this assignment. Ms Jinchi mentioned that we should only use research papers and not articles, so I had to find papers to review on them again. She also told me to look at the keywords and if it relates to my topic then read the abstract and research methods. I also got to show what I've done in the Google Sheets and she mentioned that it was good that I had decided to list out my points in such way, as it is organised. Now my task is to gather all 10 of my research papers, evaluate/critique them, gather the points and actually write the critical review.

With the feedback received this week, I realised that I had made a mistake as I had selected various articles and reports, and not research papers. Therefore, I had to start over and find my relevant research papers (around 10-12)  to do a critical review on every one of them.

Several documents were also uploaded on TIMES to guide us on this project. which I found to be really useful for this project.

Once I gathered all 10 articles, I started reading through the research papers and while evaluating them I wrote the points down in a Google Sheets, like I did previously with the other 10 articles. This is to help me gather the points I needed, to make the writing process easier for me.

Evaluating/critiquing research papers

While doing this, I noticed that I got confused between the different types of evidence and reasonings therefore I decided to ask about it in the next class. Nonetheless, I still started with writing the critical reviews as I didn't want to rush it all at the last minute. For my essay structure, instead of separating the summary and critical review into different paragraphs, I decided to evaluate the points as I go while summarising about the paper. To my surprise I actually managed to finish all 10 of the essays, but of course I knew I still had to make changes to it (especially the reasonings and evidence part) and maybe add in more of the evaluation after I get to consult with Ms Jinchi, so I can further improve on what I've done.

09/10/18 (Week 7)

FEEDBACK: In this class, I got to have a one-to-one consultation with Ms Jinchi on the critical reviews I've done and clear up the confusion I had. I managed to show her one out of ten of the essays that I've written. She mentioned that is good that I've got most of the work done. For now, I need to focus on critiquing and evaluating the paper even further, instead of just briefly stating them like an overview. Otherwise, my whole essay might just end up sounding like a summary. After asking about the types of reasons and evidence, I realised that I had been explaining some parts incorrectly therefore I needed to make changes to that part of the critical review essay. Hence, some of the information written in the Google Sheets was incorrect. 

For this week's class, we mainly focused on the critical reviews, and it was then mentioned that the due date for this project is on Friday. During class, we each had a one-to-one consultation to show our progress and ask any necessary questions we had.

With the feedback received, I needed to improve on all 10 of my essays by being more critical and evaluate them further with my own opinion/suggestion included.



12/10/18 (Week 7) - SUBMISSION

Here is the PDF of my slides for the critical review essays, with links to each of them.





I've also compiled all the essays into a PDF document.

FEEDBACK: The critical review of the text is thorough, and objective. Covered the necessary sections in the text and the evaluation reflects the in-depth study of the research materials.