Research Seminar "Qualitative Methods"

2025/2026

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

12

ECTS credits

Category 'Best Course for Career Development'

Category 'Best Course for Broadening Horizons and Diversity of Knowledge and Skills'

Category 'Best Course for New Knowledge and Skills'

Delivered at:

School of Sociology

Course type:

Elective course

When:

2 year, 1-3 module

Instructors

Roy Chowdhury, Arnab

Fabrykant, Marharyta

Shams, Safi

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The course on master thesis writing is designed to provide students with a thoughtful understanding of what are the main steps and procedures of social research and how they are linked to the different parts of master thesis.

Learning Objectives

• To have practical skills in conducting social research and writing master thesis

Expected Learning Outcomes

• be able to conduct analysis according to research questing
• be able to find and review papers on the subject of MA thesis
• be able to interpret data and draw conclusions
• be able to provide a nice visualization
• have skills in writing research papers and master thesis
• know basic principles of academic writing
• know the basic principles of academic ethics
• know the rules of writing master thesis
• to be able to put forward correct research question and identify the novelty of the MA thesis
• to improve formulations of theses' topics
• to to develop research design
• to improve thesis synopsis based on feedback
• to improve the introduction section of the thesis
• to improve the literature review section
• to improve the data and methods section of the thesis
• to improve preliminary researech results
• to get feedback to the draft thesis

Course Contents

• Structure of the master thesis
• Introduction
• Literature review
• Data and methods
• Results
• Discussion and conclusion
• Visualization
• Group discussion of topics
• Design of research
• Synopsis defence
• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Data and methods
• Preliminary results
• Pre-defence

Assessment Elements

• In-class activity
  Students should actively participate in discussing their own and their classmates' work in progress during seminars.
• Thesis pre-defence
  Students should pre-defend their MA theses.
• Thesis presentation
  Students should give in-class presentation of their theses.
• In-class activity
• Draft thesis
  Studentsshould submit complete drafts of their theses.
• In-class activity
  Students should actively participate in discussing their own and their classmates' work in progress.

Interim Assessment

• 2025/2026 3rd module
  0.05 * In-class activity + 0.1 * Draft thesis + 0.1 * In-class activity + 0.3 * Thesis presentation + 0.05 * In-class activity + 0.4 * Thesis pre-defence

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Berg, B. L. . (DE-588)140800271, (DE-576)165756063. (2009). Qualitative research methods for the social sciences / Bruce L. Berg. Allyn and Bacon.
• Commentary for academic writing for graduate students : essential tasks and skills, Swales, J. M., 2020
• Contemporary academic writing. A comprehensive course for students in higher education : Course book, Sowton, C., 2016
• How to fix your academic writing trouble : a practical guide, Mewburn, I., 2019
• How to write a lot : a practical guide to productive academic writing, Silvia, P. J., 2019
• Paul J. Silvia. (2019). How to Write a Lot : A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing: Vol. Second edition. APA LifeTools.
• Qualitative research methods for the social sciences, Berg, B. L., 2012
• Seductive academic writing, Freeman, D., 2018
• Taylor, S. J., DeVault, M. L., & Bogdan, R. (2016). Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods : A Guidebook and Resource (Vol. 4th edition). Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1061324
• The SAGE encyclopedia of qualitative research methods. Vol.1: ., , 2008
• Write Here, Right Now : An Interactive Introduction to Academic Writing and Research. (2018). Place of publication not identified: publisher not identified. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsotl&AN=edsotl.OTLid0000681
• Writing research papers from essay to research paper : student book, Zemach, D. E., 2011
• Слуднева, Л. В. The Basics of Academic Writing : учебное пособие / Л. В. Слуднева. — Иркутск : ИрГУПС, 2022. — 88 с. — Текст : электронный // Лань : электронно-библиотечная система. — URL: https://e.lanbook.com/book/342107 (дата обращения: 00.00.0000). — Режим доступа: для авториз. пользователей.

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Core concepts in data analysis: summarization, correlation and visualization, Mirkin, B., 2011
• Rahlf, T. (2017). Data Visualisation with R : 100 Examples. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1377904
• Yuk, M., & Diamond, S. (2014). Data Visualization For Dummies. Hoboken, NJ: For Dummies. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=685381

Authors

• Almakaeva Anna Mikhailovna
• DESIATOVA MARIIA IVANOVNA
• Fabrikant Margarita Saulovna
• Frelikh KRISTIAN
• Shams Safi
• Di Puppo Lili
• Roi Choudkhuri ARNAB