Research Methodologies (for undergraduate dissertation in Design)

Students of the final year of an under-graduate course in Design (Architecture, Interior Design) often face for the very first time in their five years, the prospect of intensive reading, thinking, logical/analytical thinking and arriving at a topic for research. It is not easy at any time, and more so, as all the consequent effort is guided by the initial line of thinking. This is compounded by the fact that one cannot be assigned guides without a tentative topic and some write-up, while thesis coordinating faculty are not experts in all the possible areas. Constrained by time and load, both guides and coordinating faculty also demand work, rather than offer help, discuss and refine.

This is a full module in regular course format on inputs and assignments, for upto 30 students: 16 sessions of 3 hours each. There is also a compressed version with 12 sessions of 2 hours each. Both have emphasis on assignments to develop reading, paraphrasing and writing skills.

The module has weekly lecture-plan with inputs on research methodologies (particularly social science research), short exercises / assignments, rough proposals, short discussions to refine the topic and leading arguments to develop research questions, with references to other works