This book helps students with the initial phases of their business research project, offering a clear step-by-step approach from defining aims and research questions through to conducting literature reviews and writing a methodology.

Dr Peter Samuels graduated with a first class honours in mathematics from Cambridge University and a PhD in mathematics and cognitive psychology from the University of Reading. He currently works as Senior Lecturer in Research Practice in the Business School of Birmingham City University. He leads undergraduate and master's level dissertation modules with about 1,000 students per year. He is passionate about developing both staff and students into competent academics and researchers. He is a self-taught academic writing tutor and previously set up and led a statistics advisory service at his university. He is involved in project and voluntary work in East Africa where he trains doctoral students in research proposal writing and research methods. He has published widely in mathematics education, research methods and learning development.

PART ONE: Selecting and presenting your topic. 1: Selecting your topic. 2: Writing your front matter. PART TWO: Academic writing. 3: Structuring your proposal. 4: Academic writing style. 5: Using evidence. 6: Paragraph writing. 7: Argumentation. PART THREE: Writing the rest of your proposal. 8: Writing the rest of your introduction. 9: Literature reviews. 10: Conceptual frameworks. 11: Writing your methodology/method section. 12: Producing a schedule. 13: Referencing. PART FOUR: Beyond your proposal. 14: Time and stress management. 15: Your supervisory relationship. 16: Next steps in your research.