Graduate Research School

Approach

1. Think about your title

Choose a title for your project that reflects your research question in one succinct phrase. The title should be less than 20 words. It can be revised during the project.

Poor titles are ambiguous and do not provide an adequate degree of focus for the reader. For example, it may lead the reader to assume the scope of the research is too broad.

Examples of good titles:

• The importance of religion to psychiatric patients: do religious clients relapse more or less often than non-religious clients?
• The role of the bull in Mionoan-Mycenaean religion and its survival into Greek religion

Examples of poor titles:

• The impact of twelve hour shifts in the workplace
• Factors in the successful performance of strategic alliances

2. Clearly state originality

This section only applies to those enrolled in the doctoral program.

Explicitly state how your research will contribute something substantial and original to the existing scholarship in the field.

Clearly communicate this to the reader using phrases such as:

• “This study takes the next logical step in integrating……”
• “This study will extend…”
• “Until now it has not been possible to…., however ….”
• “Until now ……has not been understood, however….”
• “…..has been overlooked in previous studies of…”
• “Previous work was limited by ……, I propose to…”
• “It has been suggested by previous research that …..will be investigated further”

3. Define originality

Philips (1992) has listed different definitions of originality that might be useful:

• Carrying out empirical work that hasn't been done before.
• Making a synthesis that hasn't been done before.
• Using already known material but with a new interpretation.
• Trying out something in this or another country that has only previously been undertaken in other places.
• Taking a particular technique and applying it to a new area.
• Bringing new evidence to bear on an old issue.
• Being cross-disciplinary and using different methodologies.
• Looking at areas that people in the discipline haven't looked at before.
• Adding to knowledge in a way that hasn't been done before.
• Setting down a major piece of new information in writing for the first time.
• Continuing (extending) a previously original piece of work.
• Providing a single original technique, observation, or result in an otherwise unoriginal but competent piece of research.

Phillips, E.M. (1992) ‘The PhD: Assessing quality at different stages of its development’, in O. Zuber-Skerritt (ed.) Supervising Beginning Researchers, Brisbane, tertiary Education Institute, University of Queensland.

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