Tips, Tricks and Tools

When I was a postgraduate student (back in my younger days), I was thrown into the deep end with research in a holistic manner. Through experience, I have learned a couple of tips, tricks and tools - allowing me to develop content to make life a bit easier for other current and/or prospective Internal Auditing postgraduate students.

Tips

Keep the reader in mind

When you are writing, keep your reader in mind. Always assume that your reader knows very little (if anything) about what you are writing on. If you can convince a non-expert with your writing, chances are good that you will convince an expert with your writing.

Tell your story

Always tell a clear story using logic and reason. The story that you tell should have a natural flow to it - making sense to the reader throughout, without any confusion.

Quality trumps quantity

Do not submit non-quality work for reviewing ... first impressions are lasting ones. Ensure that you set the correct tone at the top. If the work you want to submit is not your best, do not submit it until it becomes your best effort.

Be ready for change

Postgraduate studies are not merely about obtaining a degree, but more about developing as a person within a discipline of study. It is unavoidable - you will undergo change with regard to the manner how you think (especially critical thinking).

Tricks

From time to time, I write LinkedIn articles. Below, I share LinkedIn articles that are relevant to tricks in research (some of these articles may have been shared in previous pages):

The best way to start writing a research paper (according to me)More often than not, researchers become consumed by their research. They tend to live, breathe, eat, drink, sleep, dream, and talk “research” on a constant basis.

How to approach and possibly secure a supervisor for postgraduate studiesConsidering the importance of continuing professional development, many people have made the decision to enrol for Master’s degrees (or Doctoral degrees). Regardless of the composition of the Master’s degree (i.

Tricks I use to write research articles for publicationProbably one of the most daunting tasks in academia is to write a research article for publication. This is particularly the case as one research paper requires a person to have, inter alia, sufficient: Reading time [80% composition].

Research skills: Data analysisResearch skills are becoming more and more important on a daily basis. A key element of these skills relates to data analysis.

Research skills: Data collectionResearch skills are becoming more and more critical with every passing day. For this LinkedIn article, I decided to place the focus on the concept of “data collection”.

Research skills: Research writingWith every passing day, research skills are becoming more important. One of these skills (as identified in a LinkedIn poll) is research writing skills.

Bettering the odds to get your research paper publishedPossibly one of the most popular axioms in research is that one that goes: “publish or perish”. As a researcher, one constantly needs to publish for various reasons, which includes better academic visibility, improving citation counts, and contractual obligations, among other.

Clarifying research assumptionsPrior to completing my most recent postgraduate qualification, I did not truly grasp the importance of “research assumptions”. A research assumption is a lens(es) through which a researcher views a research study and it allows the reader to put himself/herself in the shoes of the researcher.

Four things I learned from my research journey (thus far)When it comes to research, a saying that is often used is “publish or perish”. In my younger years, I was inspired by this saying, but as I became more experienced in research, I realised: Quality in research is more important than quantity in research When I was younger, I played a “research game”

Two cool literature review shortcutsWhen I started as a novice researcher, I was constantly advised to read, read and read some more. The thing with reading in an academic dispensation is that one does not read for pleasure .

Academic Research: How to find a sound Topic, Title and ProblemFor more than a decade, I have taught final-year university students how to do "research". In fundamental nature, the process of doing research is fairly constant but there is one thing that remains a big issue .

Tools

Over the years, I was introduced to a couple of helpful tools along the way. Below are the tools I use and/or have used when doing research studies of my own:

Grammarly
For grammar checking of written content

Academia.edu
Academic literature source sharing site

Google forms
Online survey development and hosting

Mendeley
Reference management programme

Google scholar
Academic search engine

Research Gate
Academic literature source sharing site

Survey monkey
Online survey development and hosting

Disclaimer, it should be noted that the links on this page is strongly related to Accounting Sciences.

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