Three Proofing Tips for MS Word
Proofreading is an often forgotten task, and with recent improvements in AI and language technology, we can easily be fooled into thinking itâs no longer required. Proofreading is also usually our final task...
Proofreading is an often forgotten task, and with recent improvements in AI and language technology, we can easily be fooled into thinking itâs no longer required. Proofreading is also usually our final task...
Thematic analysis is a commonly used data analysis approach in various disciplines and for many different data types...
If youâre familiar with the basics of NVivo, this collection of our favourite tips is designed to help ensure your next project is a successful one.
If youâre familiar with the basics of NVivo, this collection of our favourite tips is designed to help ensure your next project is a successful one.
In my last blog post I covered some strategies for dealing with physical or environmental distractions. Here I take a look at mental distractions which can be a little more challenging to resolve.
You might think that youâre reasonably focused when you work, but how often do you stop to check your phone or get interrupted by a notification?
The thesis process is often referred to as an âemotional rollercoasterâ â when things are going well you feel good about your thesis and yourself. Unfortunately the reverse also holds!
While the pandemic brings a wide range of challenges to the research process, many researchers Iâve worked with over the last few months have experienced specific challenges relating to their NVivo coding.
One of the questions Iâm often asked is âDo I really need to use NVivo for my qualitative analysis?â
We know how busy researchers are, so weâve designed a special video series to help you learn some of the basics of NVivo â in a minute!
Writing a thesis is a challenging undertaking at the best of times â keeping up your motivation when thereâs a worldwide pandemic raging around us is particularly difficult!
Thereâs definitely an element of unpredictability in the air, which makes planning difficult and can make us feel like weâve lost all momentum with our research projects.
A wide range of written work comes across our desks at Academic Consulting â journal articles, reports, theses and even books! One common issue they all (usually) have is punctuation errors. Below are five common errors, with tips on how you can find and fix them relatively easily.
Weâre very excited to announce that Academic Consulting is celebrating its 20th anniversary! It started out way back in 1999 â Academic Consultingâs origins were a simple home office in my Ellerslie flat.
If youâre using NVivo for data analysis, chances are that youâre spending a fair amount of time coding â here are a few NVivo shortcuts to help save you some time.
When youâre trying to complete a research project, keeping a to do list becomes a necessity as you frantically try and keep track of the various tasks involved.
In this second part of my research hacks series, Iâm sharing some of my favourite advice to make the writing process as efficient as possible.
This is the first in a series of blog posts that provide hacks for various aspects of the research process, such as data analysis, writing, and using applications such as NVivo, SPSS and Trello.
Check out our 5 super simple resolutions that will help you reach your research-related goals in 2019.
If youâre an NVivo ânewbieâ and/or have taught yourself NVivo, read on for some advice that may save you a lot of time and headaches down the track!
Get a quick rundown of the Pomodoro Technique and how it can help you with your research productivity!
I've been busy putting together resources for our new Thesis Boot Camp, and reflecting on my own productivity and things I could improve on â it never hurts to be reminded! If youâd like to take the opportunity to reflect on your own working habits, hereâs some videos to get you thinking...
If you have a little time up your sleeve before submitting, weâd recommend engaging the services of a professional proofreader â this post focuses on some tips for making the most of these services.
When I teach qualitative writing, itâs usually predictable as to what questions Iâll get asked as people tend to have the same concerns â this post covers some of the most commonly asked questions.
It's that time of year when many of you are in the thick of analysing qualitative data. If youâre feeling a bit lost as to whatâs involved, be assured that youâre likely not the only one!
Mixed methods researchers will have something to be excited about with the latest version of NVivo. A new crosstab feature and support for SPSS data files will really enhance the way qualitative and quantitative data can be integrated within the software...
Weâve all been there â your deadline is looming and youâre desperately trying to proofread your document, but the words are blurry and your attention to detail is long gone...
Here at Academic Consulting, weâre always excited when a new version of one of our favourite research tools is released, but weâre aware that not everyone shares this excitement...
The research is done, youâve written a fantastic piece of work, your formatting and referencing is on point, and your supervisors have approved your final copy.
Itâs the little things that count in life, and this is very much the case with data analysis, where failing to pay attention to small details can result in quite large problems!
Given that confidentiality and anonymity are paramount in the research work we do, pseudonyms in qualitative research are an important consideration, and Iâm often asked about these at my NVivo training courses...
Iâm often asked if software such as NVivo should be used for qualitative data analysis. For me this is an easy choice, as Iâve used what Iâll refer to as âpen and paperâ methods previously, and wouldnât want to return to them. However, there are some who would disagree with me...
The end of winter feels like itâs dragging on this year, and Iâve been feeling a little uninspired as a result. One of the things I love about research is that it involves building on the experiences and knowledge of others. So when I need a burst of inspiration, itâs probably not surprising that I hunt around the Ted Talks archive for some insight from other researchers. If youâre in need of some inspiration yourself, hereâs what Iâve been watchingâŠ
Having just finished analysing and writing up some really interesting interview and focus group data, I thought Iâd stop and reflect on some of the things I learned (or was reminded of) from this recent project. One of the things I love about research is that it doesnât matter how experienced you are as a researcher, each project teaches you something new.
Following on from my last âFavourite Thingsâ post on keeping organised, this month Iâm covering tips for maximising my time. Iâm a big fan of making the most of the time I have as it means I have more time to spend on the things I enjoy. Here are my three favourite strategies for doing just that.
If youâve enrolled in one of Academic Consultingâs upcoming online courses, we recommend you take the time to plan ahead to ensure you get the most out of the session. Weâve compiled some tips to help you do just that.
In case anyone missed our recent research webinar series, I thought Iâd do a rundown of my favourite tips, starting out with what I use to stay on top of the huge pile of information, ideas, literature, and data that comes my way. I think I sometimes give the impression that Iâm a seriously organised and efficient person, but my colleagues will attest to the fact that being organised isn't something that comes naturally to me â I definitely have to work at it, and these are the things in my research toolkit that assist with this.
Weâve used NVivo extensively for coding over the years and have discovered a number of tips and tricks that weâd like to share. Weâre not suggesting that these are the ârightâ way to code (we donât believe there is such a thing), but weâve certainly found that weâve saved ourselves some time, not to mention headaches, by following the suggestions below!
Iâve been pondering the meaning of the term âmasterclassâ. I began thinking about this last November when I caught up with some of my fellow NVivo trainers in Melbourne. One of them had enrolled in a survey masterclass and was rather annoyed to find that it was introductory level. At the time I had just scheduled some masterclasses for our own training programme, so I was left wondering whether I had appropriately described these!
While preparing for one of our Writing up Qualitative Research workshops recently, I began to reminisce about my early research career and the process of writing reports back in the early 90s (yep, that long ago!). These were the days when I had to share a computer with the other junior researcher in the organisation â we mainly hand wrote our reports and passed them over to production staff who would type them up for us. Our manager would then make significant edits via red pen slashes across the page, the material would be sent back to the production team, and so the process would go. Thankfully, technology and work practices have moved on, but it did remind me of the sweat and tears I used to go through to draft a report. I also remember that, while I struggled with writing for a number of years, all of a sudden something just seemed to âclickâ and it has actually now become one of my favourite stages of the research process.
I was an early adopter of EndNote â I hate to show my age, but I started using it when Endnote 2 was around. I was a pretty big fan for years â I think I must have facilitated several hundred EndNote training courses when I worked at The University of Auckland, and I certainly used it for both my master's and PhD theses. Somewhere around EndNote 9 I started to lose enthusiasm due to the combination of technical glitches and seeing so many students use it badly (not a reflection on the students involved, it just wasnât particularly intuitive). On the hunt for a possible replacement I stumbled across Zotero â I still remember how excited I was the day I discovered it (which makes me wonder if I need to get out more!).
Iâve been busy coding survey data in NVivo recently â if you follow me on Twitter you might have noticed me tweeting some #nvivotips as I code. The data relates to studentsâ experience in an online learning environment. When I started developing the coding framework for it, I started out with what Pat Bazeley refers to the âscribble and doodleâ method â I like this approach when itâs a small dataset that Iâm working with. If you havenât come across the technique â itâs nothing fancy â itâs literally making notes and scribbles on a hard copy of the data. Iâve included a photo, just to prove itâs not complicated (in case you think your vision has gone blurry, the actual data is blanked out for confidentiality).
A common problem researchers face when theyâve completed their initial coding in NVivo is knowing what to do next. They know they eventually need to start writing, but theyâre not sure how to get there from their coded nodes. If this applies to you, read on for some tips on moving forward at this stage of the analysis process â some of these are NVivo specific but others require a bit of old-fashioned brain work! For those of you that learn better by seeing things in action and being able to ask questions, weâve also included links to some of our related upcoming online training courses.
I have a confession to make â I didnât use styles and templates in Microsoft Word when I wrote my Masterâs thesis. Those of you who know me will be surprised to hear this as Iâm an ardent promoter of them now. It wasnât that I didnât think they would be helpful â I simply just wasnât aware that they were a possibility.
As researchers, we know that transcribing can be an arduous and challenging task! While some of you may be contracting this work out to professional transcribers, many researchers and students will undertake their own transcription. This may be due to a lack of budget, or because of the benefits it can provide in terms of increased familiarity with your data. Indeed, listening and re-listening to audio recordings can mean that you discern additional insights from what your participants say, and how they say it. If youâre in a position where youâre transcribing your own data, donât view it as a negative â it can be incredibly valuable. To help you out, hereâs some lessons weâve learned over the years â we hope you find them useful.
Those of you who have attended any of my recent NVivo training will be aware that Iâm a huge fan of using NVivo for literature reviews. I also love the fact that as soon as I mention it to other researchers, I can see their eyes light up with the possibilities that the software has to offer. Itâs easy to understand why researchers are making the connection between NVivo and literature reviews. The processes involved are very similar to those involved in qualitative data analysis. In both, we read and reflect on text, make comments, identify key themes, look for great quotes, identify contradictions, and so on.