construct and advance a clear, coherent and logical ‘argument’ that leads to sound or cogent conclusions

The Research Question (RQ) or Aim/Objectives Approaches to Structuring an Activity, Assignment or Dissertation Submission • Critical Analysis: The fundamental requirement of MSc study is for the student to show robust and in-depth critical analysis, which is considered the higher cognitive skill expected at this educational level. In practice, what this means is that the student must show they can o analyse and evaluate research literature (citing appropriate papers); o undertake methodologically sound research that facilitates the critical analysis of a specific issue; o construct and advance a clear, coherent and logical ‘argument’ that leads to sound or cogent conclusions [in academia, an ‘argument’ is any work proffered for assessment or critique, e.g., the whole Assignment or Dissertation]; and o in SRM, apply the analysis in an occupational H&S context. Students have a relatively short period and word count in which to address all the aspects above. A significant problem is usually the need for in-depth critical analysis; students try to cover many factors of potential relevance to their research, which, given the word count constraints, can lead to a superficial analysis of the more significant elements. • Research Questions (RQs) give an idea of the problems a student might be thinking of tackling in their Activity, Assignment or Dissertation (AAD). At the early stage of researching an AAD, think of RQs as being relatively random questions that might need further consideration; they might be amended, re-ordered and changed in the future. The very fact that a student might think about many RQs can lead to a loss of focus, resulting in an incoherent and illogical argument being proffered. An Aim and Objectives approach to structuring submissions tries to avoid this common pitfall. • Social science research can utilise the RQ approach without explaining how the questions fit into the ‘structure’ of the AAD submission. For the MSc in Safety and Risk Management (SRM), the ‘structural’ approach to Assignment and Dissertation work requires the inclusion of an Aim and Objectives (A/Os). Within this A/O-based framework, Research Questions can often confuse students when seeking to structure an AAD in a focussed and coherent academic manner; the difference between an RQ and an Aim or Objective may not be apparent. • Consequently, for SRM purposes, within the Aim and Objective approach, it is considered that Research Questions are NOT required. Research Questions represent issues upon which students might want to focus. This helps them ‘tighten’ the scope of the Aim or Objectives, and students are advised to utilise them in this manner. How to do this will become apparent later (see Literature Mapping in Part 2, s.1). • Thus, students are advised to concentrate on developing a suitable Aim. From the Aim, a set of Objectives will then be derived as a framework for the chronological development of the student’s ‘argument’ (submission) to meet the AAD requirements.