Hi there, Ollie here. Today I’ll be reviewing a book called Research Methodology by Ranjit Kumar. Specifically, I’ll be looking at the format of the book and reviewing the pros and cons of each feature. I thought I’d take a leaf out of Ranjit’s book (not literally), which makes good use of bullet-points, and write this post in bullet-point style.

• The pages are landscape, rather than the ubiquitous portrait. I don’t have a strong opinion about this, although it’s mildly novel and fun.
• The pages are nice and thick. This makes a nice change from most textbooks whose pages are so thin they crease if you turn a page too vigorously.
• Colour-wise, it’s mostly black and white, apart from the subtitles, tables and figures which are bright pink. I like this; there’s enough colour to keep it engaging, but not so much that it’s distracting. That said, some of the full-page figures are eye-wateringly pink, and could probably be toned down a tad.
• Key words are highlighted and their definitions given at the side of the page, which is very handy.
• The book is very clearly laid out, with every page stating which chapter and sub-section it’s in.
• The book provides an exhaustive view of the fundamentals of the research process. The disadvantage of this is that it doesn’t take a particularly deep dive into some of the processes described. In the research methods modules on my course, we were tested on processing data in much greater detail and complexity than is covered here.
• There are many examples of how a concept may be applied in research, such as examples of questionnaires.
• There’s an online resource, which the reader is frequently encouraged to visit throughout the book. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to access it (it’s ‘coming soon’).
• The end of each chapter presents:
  • A summary of the chapter, which is written concisely and in plain English. This might be my favourite feature of the book because it’s so full of information yet very readable.
  • A checklist which checks the reader’s understanding of the content. Basically a mini test, which would be great for exam preparation.
  • Suggested application of the content to one’s own project. Another great feature.

Overall, I thought the book was great. Its display is engaging without being OTT and its writing is clear and concise.