Portfolio: Social Science Enquiry, Academic Writing, and Research

This portfolio assignment explores social science enquiry, focusing on academic writing styles, research methodologies, and philosophical underpinnings. It begins with an introduction to social science and the importance of research, followed by a discussion of different types of academic writing including descriptive, analytical, persuasive, and critical writing. The assignment emphasizes the importance of academic writing styles for university purposes. A research topic on the gender pay gap in the UK's private sector is proposed to illustrate how research is used for social enquiry. The paper then delves into the philosophical underpinnings of positivism and interpretivism, detailing their approaches to research and data analysis. The positivist approach emphasizes objectivity and empirical evidence, while the interpretivist approach focuses on subjective understanding and the viewpoints of scholars. The assignment concludes by summarizing the key concepts and their relevance to understanding social phenomena, such as gender discrimination and pay gaps. References are included to support the arguments presented. The assignment is a part of a portfolio evidencing academic and study skills acquired by reflection and demonstration of learning on how research is used for social enquiry.

Running head: SOCIAL SCIENCE ENQUIRY
Social science enquiry
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Types of academic writing...............................................................................................................2
Importance of academic writing styles for university purposes......................................................3
Research topic..................................................................................................................................4
How research is used for social enquiry..........................................................................................4
Philosophical underpinnings of positivism......................................................................................5
Philosophical underpinnings of interpretivism................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The field of social science is dynamic in nature in the sense that every new occurrence in
the human society leads to a change in the way the community is perceived. As a consequence of
this, social science requires constant research and social enquiry which would help us to
understand the human lives in a better manner. Such social enquiry can take various forms such
as that of a positivist research or an interpretivist research (Panhwar, Ansari and Shah 2017).
There are different kinds of collection of data also such as that of qualitative data collection and
quantitative data collection. The data once collected is analyzed in the context of the research
philosophy as mentioned before. This is turn, helps the researcher to get a holistic understanding
of the topic which is being researched upon (Ang, Tan and He 2017). The purpose of this paper
is to explore the field of academic writing and determine the different kinds of academic writing
which are used for university purposes. Furthermore, the paper also makes reference to a
research topic and tries to understand how this topic would be explored in the context of the
research philosophical underpinnings.
Types of academic writing
Academic writing is different from a normal essay writing on the grounds that academic
writing tries to discuss on an important issue (Ang, Tan and He 2017). Educational institutions
have the main objective of ensuring the impartation of knowledge to the students which can be
used for improving their standard of living (Dirgeyasa and Hum 2017). In this context, four
kinds of academic writings can be determined.
The first is that of descriptive writing. The purpose of such kind of writing is to provide
factual knowledge to the people who would be reading the paper (Davidson 2019).

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The second kind of writing is that of analytical writing. This refers to the organization of
the descriptive writing in to facts, groups and categories so that the relationship amongst the
information provided can be understood (Ang, Tan and He 2017).
Persuasive writing refers to the provision of one’s own opinion within the writing (Ang,
Tan and He 2017). This enables the readers to understand the point of view of the scholar who
has written the assignment.
Critical writing is the most favored kind of academic writing within the field of social
science (Ang, Tan and He 2017). Critical writing includes the rationalization of the information
which is being accumulated in the assignment. Such information is then analyzed with the aid of
various theoretical frameworks which helps to make practical sense of the information provided.
Importance of academic writing styles for university purposes
Academic writing is essential for the universities and various educational institutions
because of the way they are organized and presented. Every piece of writing contains certain
information (Panhwar, Ansari and Shah 2017). However, the unique characterizing feature of
academic writing is that it presents the information in a logical flow and there is considerable
usage of theoretical frame work. The use of established theories helps to impart validity to the
writing. Furthermore, such academic writings use empirical evidences to substantiate their
assignment which, in turn, ensures reliability to the paper.
In this regard, it can be seen that academic writing has the purpose to impart educational
information to the readers. They are written with a resolution to contribute to the growth of the
available literature in the concerned field of study.

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Research topic
In order to understand the importance of academic writing, a research topic in being
proposed in this paper. The research topic selected is that of understanding the gender pay gap
which is noticed in the private employment sector within the United Kingdom. This research
topic would be analyzed with the aid of various methodologies which would help the readers to
understand the significance of social enquiry and how it is done.
How research is used for social enquiry
Research refers to the situation whereby an individual focuses on a particular field of
interest (Siponen and Tsohou 2018). He or she then tries to collect information related to that
field of study by looking in to the different sources of available literature which have already
talked about the particular issue. The collected information is then analyzed with a help of the
different research philosophies and theoretical lenses. In this regard, there are two kinds of
research analysis technique which enables the researcher to either take on a subjective
understanding or a objective point of view to the research study (Panhwar, Ansari and Shah
2017).
The importance of enquiry in the field of social science lies in the fact that it helps to
impart a degree of rationality to a subjective field. Social science deals with many aspects of the
human society which are difficult to rationalize or be observed through a practical lens. In this
respect, the use of the various methods and methodologies would help the researcher to organize
the information which has been collected and analyze it with the aid of various lenses and
philosophies (Saltman 2019). This helps to standardize the field of social science and give it an
objective character.

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Philosophical underpinnings of positivism
Positivism refers to a philosophical understanding of any research work. The term
positivism was first coined by Auguste Comte in the nineteenth century (Berkovich 2018). In the
field of social science, the research philosophy of positivism signifies a scientific approach to the
research study under focus. In other words, the research topic makes considerable use of
statistics and empirical evidences in order to collect the necessary data for research execution.
Comte was of the idea that the different established theories in the human realm would be
utilized and improved upon in order to provide solutions to the different problems faced by the
human society (Shapiro 2017).
In the context of the research topic, the positivist philosophy can be used to understand
the gender pay gap as observed in the society. The purpose of the research is to analyze the
meaning of gender discrimination by reflecting upon the pay gap which exists between the two
genders in the region of the United Kingdom.
While talking about the philosophical underpinnings of positivism, it is important to note
the concept of Verstehen. According to Martin (2018), Verstehen signifies reconstructing the
experience of the individual who has talked about a particular incident, in order to understand
how that individual reached the particular conclusion. Verstehen is therefore considered to be a
measure of verification.
However, as argued by Bonell et al. (2018), it can be seen that the positivist research
philosophy lays emphasis on the objectivity of the research study. The researcher tries to isolate
the facts and the statistics which is used in the course of the research work. It is such information
which is used for understanding the research work.

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As stated by Kankam (2019), one of the main objectives of the positivist research
philosophy is to analyze the research study under consideration in a rational and practical
manner. In the proposed research study, the researcher would attempt to understand the issue of
existing gender pay gap as stemming from the problem of gender discrimination. In this regard,
the individuals who would be surveyed would be required to provide objective answers to the
questions posed to them. As a result, there is no scope of subjective analysis within the research
work.
Philosophical underpinnings of interpretivism
Another important research philosophy which is used in the execution of any social
science research work is that of interpretivism (Pulla and Carter 2018). The interpretivist
research philosophy signifies the use of the opinions and the views provided by the scholars who
have already worked in the concerned field of study. In other words, a subjective understanding
of the opinions of the scholars are taken and they are sought to be applied in the given research
work so as to reach a plausible conclusion (O'Donoghue 2018).
The research topic which has been selected for the understanding of social enquiry and
how it is done is that of understanding the pay gap. Gender discrimination has been present in the
society since times immemorial. In the contemporary societal structure, one significant aspect of
gender discrimination has manifested itself in the form of gender pay gap. In this respect, it can
be seen that the male working members are provided with a higher salary structure as opposed to
their female counter parts. The proposed research seeks to understand this gender pay gap on the
context of the United Kingdom by undertaking an interpretivist form of research study.

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In this respect, as stated by Hasan (2016), it can be seen that the employment of wither a
qualitative study or a quantitative study is dependent on the kind of research paradigm or
research philosophy which is being used in the research work. In this respect, the relation of the
work to that of epistemology, ontology and methodology is sought to be analyzed. Hasan (2016)
opines that qualitative research tries to understand that there are multiple realities which exists in
the society. The changing nature of the realities are subjective in nature and open to
interpretation by the scholars who are involved in this field. In the event that participants are
used for collecting the data, the researcher needs to be competent enough to distance himself
from all objectivities associated with the research and enter in to the realm of subjective
understanding. In this regard, the use of interpretivist research philosophy assumes significance
as the view points and the theories of the earlier scholars are taken in to consideration for the
effective execution of the paper (Panhwar, Ansari and Shah 2017).
However, as argued by Dean (2018), it can be seen that the philosophical underpinnings
of the interpretivist approach is dependent on the analysis of available historical arguments. ()
has opined that the new social science researches ignore the philosophical paradigms which are
present within the field of research. As a result of this, there is no emphasis on the subjective
nature of the paper whereby the various sources of literature are utilized for understanding the
research topic under focus.
As opined by Ryan (2018), it can be seen that interpretivist research philosophy allows
the researcher to take a comprehensive and subjective analysis of the research topic which is
under consideration. In the proposed research topic of gender gaps, the employment of the
interpretivist research philosophy would mean that the issue of gender discrimination would be
examined. The historical trend of employment services and the manner in which the women of

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the society have always been discriminated against would also be taken in to consideration.
Furthermore, the various sociological underpinnings which lead to the rise of gender pay gap
would also be mentioned in the paper. In other words, a subjective lens would be applied for the
execution of the research topic.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be observed that the field of social science is concerned with the
investigation of the society and the prevailing relationships observed amongst the individuals
living in such societies. The field is an umbrella term which includes the study of social
relationships, anthropology, political science, psychology, demographics and even that of
commerce. In this regard, it needs to be noted that the social science researchers try to
understand the field of cyber security and how they impact the human society, the cultures and
their influence in the activities of the people and also how the politics of the nations have an
impact on the working of the people. The researches which are carried out in this field have the
primary aim of providing authentic information to the readers. The use of scientific and logical
data assures that the people can rely on the information which is being provided in such social
science research work. One of the most significant feature of such social science researches is
that it provides the readers with plausible recommendations and solutions which would aid them
to resolve the noted problem in the society.

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References:
Ang, L.H., Tan, K.H. and He, M., 2017. A corpus-based collocational analysis of noun
premodification types in academic writing. 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature®, 23(1).
Berkovich, I., 2018. Beyond qualitative/quantitative structuralism: the positivist qualitative
research and the paradigmatic disclaimer. Quality & Quantity, 52(5), pp.2063-2077.
Bonell, C., Moore, G., Warren, E. and Moore, L., 2018. Are randomised controlled trials
positivist? Reviewing the social science and philosophy literature to assess positivist tendencies
of trials of social interventions in public health and health services. Trials, 19(1), p.238.
Davidson, P., 2019. What is Academic Writing?. Edited by: Wafa Zoghbor, Suhair Al Alami, &
Thomaï Alexiou, 12.
Dean, B.A., 2018. The interpretivist and the learner. International Journal of Doctoral
Studies, 13, pp.1-8.
Dirgeyasa, I.W. and Hum, M., 2017. College Academic Writing A Genre-Based Perspective.
Prenada Media.
Hasan, M.N., 2016. Positivism: to what extent does it aid our understanding of the contemporary
social world?. Quality & Quantity, 50(1), pp.317-325.
Kankam, P.K., 2019. The use of paradigms in information research. Library & Information
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Martin, M., 2018. Verstehen: The uses of understanding in the social sciences. Routledge.

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O'Donoghue, T., 2018. Planning your qualitative research thesis and project: An introduction to
interpretivist research in education and the social sciences. Routledge.
Panhwar, A.H., Ansari, S. and Shah, A.A., 2017. Post-positivism: an effective paradigm for
social and educational research. International Research Journal of Arts & Humanities
(IRJAH), 45(45).
Pulla, V. and Carter, E., 2018. Employing Interpretivism in Social Work Research. International
Journal of Social Work and Human Services Practice, 6(1), pp.9-14.
Ryan, G., 2018. Introduction to positivism, interpretivism and critical theory. Nurse
researcher, 25(4), pp.41-49.
Saltman, K.J., 2019. Antitheory, Positivism, and Critical Pedagogy. What’s Wrong with
Antitheory?, p.73.
Shapiro, T., 2017. Positivism. The International Encyclopedia of Communication Research
Methods, pp.1-10.
Siponen, M. and Tsohou, A., 2018. Demystifying the influential IS legends of
positivism. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 19(7).