this essay is a critical reflection on understanding research in social science
• The overall aim of the essay is to critically reflect on and assess 2 pieces of research. An assessment of research can take many different elements into consideration, as the list of criteria on Page 3 of this document illustrates. Rather than holding the selected papers against a long list of rating scales or tick boxes, you are encouraged to develop an integrated account of the papers that is focused on a particular methodological topic.
• A good way to start is to ask yourself, how do the papers connect? How do they work together to form a good discussion – e.g. do they illustrate contrasting perspectives on research, or different ways of addressing a similar research question, or different ways of dealing with ethical dilemmas?
• You can choose to include 2 papers should normally give you sufficient materials to work with.
• The total number of words should be between 4,500 , excluding references.