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hi guys i am doing my masters programme on environmental and public health, in uni of salford, so in my 1st
class on research method we are told to write a 5 thousand word group research
of 1 thousand word each , in a any particular topic,. dont even knw how to go
abt it, wether to write a quantitative or qualitative research pls opinion and
usefull websites will be welcomed , even a topic suggestion thanks,
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people keep on viewing without any suggestion,is this what this forum is all about?

No, it's a helpful forum, but there are people from a wide range of disciplines, some of whom might not have the right subject knowledge or experience to help. Also, if you post a question at 9.30 in the evening there's no point in stressing when your question hasn't been answered in 2 hours. You're more likely to get support here if you don't get snarky.

I can help you but it's late. I'll reply properly in the morning. In the mean time I suggest you at least come up with some ideas for a broad topic area (air pollution? radiation? climate change?) Defining a research question is an important skill you will learn through your masters.

thank you bro, i aprreciate

Hi Emily

The first thing I would suggest is getting your hands on a good introductory epidemiology book as this will help you appreciate the relevant issues in study design and interpretation
As for your current project (which seems a bit full on for the start of the year!) I’d suggest going through a process like the one I will outline below. I’ll give a (silly) example and then you can figure out how your own idea fits.

1. Identify a general topic (e.g. effect of weather on health)
2. Identify a more specific question within that (e.g. Does exposure to rain cause respiratory infections?)
3. Identify the ‘outcome’ you want to measure (e.g. frequency of respiratory infections over a 12 month period) and how you want to measure it (e.g. self-report by survey at 12 months? GP records? Hospital admissions?)
4. Figure out how to measure your ‘exposure’ (rain exposure). Direct or indirect measurement?
5. Identify other factors which may mediate the relationship between the exposure and outcome (‘effect modifiers’) or provide an alternative explanation for some or all of any association you might detect (‘confounders’). In the example I’ve given these might be things like: umbrella ownership, primary mode of transport, person’s surface area. Work out how/when to measure these.
6. In terms of study design… this will be determined by what is already known on a topic. If the link between rain exposure and catching a cold is not well established, you might do a cohort study (follow a bunch of people for a year, measuring their rain exposure and illness frequency), or a case control study (identify people with respiratory infections and retrospectively determine their rain exposure, in comparison with people who don’t have respiratory infections). Or if the link is well established, you might design a public health intervention and do a trial of it (e.g. giving free umbrellas to half the households in a city and seeing whether their infection incidence is lower than the control group). All study designs have their strengths and limitations and you need to address these.
7. Whether you do quantitative or qualitative analysis will depend on the outcome you’ve chosen and how you measure it. For example, if you want to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention above, you might count the number of days lost due to ill health (quantitative) or run a focus group to find out why people didn’t use the free umbrella you gave them (qualitative).

Good luck

nice one thanks alot

i can actually use your examples as it is a very good one

ok but what am actually confused about is how 5 people will join hands to make this research not like it going to be individual research,or is it like one person writes the introduction , the other does the data collection etc all amounting to 5 thousand words . pls a little bit help is needed, well maybe cos the standard of education here is a bit high compared to nigeria where i come from, cos my B.Sc project was topic was choosed for(effect of pepper fruit consumption on pain in mice). this M.sc is reallay making me scared, i pray i make it, with ur good advice , thanks

Learning to work in a team is another important skill you will get develop during your masters.

I've talked you through the process of going from a general topic to choosing a study design. The first thing you should do is meet with your group to come up with a topic and discuss how you're going to approach the work in the time allowed. Hopefully within your group you will have people with a range of experience and knowledge, which you can bring together and make a stronger project than as individuals.

Do you have a personal tutor/course director? If so, you might like to talk with him/her about any general study concerns you have and get some guidance. Librarians can also be very helpful at teaching you how to find the information you're looking for. You should also ask the person who set the assignment for more guidance if you are confused.

Good luck.

thank you, will do that tomorrow, i will always let you knw too how it goes , ure a true friend