I had a very interesting discussion with my friend the other day, about what she should write for her MA dissertation. On thinking through what we talked about, I realised it highlighted the pressures of any research situation—the battle to balance three key criteria:
- What the researcher is interested in,
- What the key stakeholders are interested in,
- What is achievable with the available resources.
For my friend, the title of her dissertation at the start of her MA year was very much what she is interested in, it’s a question she really wants to find an answer for and is passionate about. It perfectly fulfils the first criteria.
Unfortunately, on talking with her supervisors, she realised that this title wouldn’t be easy to achieve within the time and funding available, and also isn’t the sort of title that would satisfy the examiners. It fell short on the other two criteria.
After long discussions and thought processes, she came up with another title. This was much more achievable and would be acceptable for an MA dissertation. It seemed to be fine in satisfying the other two criteria. But as I spoke with her about it, it became clear that it was so far from the original title that she no longer really cared about the answer! It would be possible to do this dissertation and probably pass it, but she would find no joy in it, be much less motivated, and be no closer to finding the answers she is looking for in long-term research.
In the end, we managed to find a compromise that seems to satisfy all three criteria, although none of them perfectly! She sees this as the starting-point for further research, perhaps a PhD, and the scope of the investigation is about right for an MA.
In all kinds of research, there are going to be various stakeholders, and their interests are going to clash to some extent with the researchers’ primary aim. Also, questions of time and money limit what is achievable in meeting any of these aims. It seems to me that balancing these three issues is vital in producing the best type of research possible.
Have I missed anything out? I’d love to hear in the comments.