Collaborate – Think Critically: Learn from researchers who have been in your shoes – use their examples and experiences to explore how their ‘lessons learned’ can improve your own research approach. Take it one step further with additional thought-provoking questions online.

20.1 Your title

Follow Kay, Claire and Tim and experiment with a snappy main title for your project followed by a descriptive subtitle. Now ask a couple of your fellow students whether they understand and like your title.

Would you use a quotation at the start of your title, like Claire? Tim uses the verb ‘accounting’ to suggest the purpose and findings of his study. What verbs could you include in your title?

20.2 Your abstract

Read through Adel’s abstract and then:

• Use it as a starting point for writing your own abstract
• Try out your first abstract draft on a fellow student and revise it according to their comments

Adel starts out by contextualising their research and highlighting why it is an important area to study. They then move on to explain their methodology, theoretical approach, and summarise their argument and key findings. Would you approach your abstract in this way? Do you feel this structure would be effective in communicating what your own research project is about?