RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 320 (RHP 320) 2024
The contents of this study guide may be amended as the semester progresses.
Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................. 1
2. ATTENDANCE OF ALL LECTURES; MONITORING OF ATTENDANCE ......................................................... 1
3. CLICKUP ULTRA; MODULE'S CONTENT................................................................................................. 2
4. CHOOSE A SUPERVISOR ON CLICKUP................................................................................................... 3
5. HOW TO OBTAIN CREDITS FOR RHP 320? ............................................................................................ 4
6. COMMUNICATION AND CONTACT WITH YOUR SUPERVISOR ............................................................... 4
7. FORMAT OF THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL ............................................................................................... 5
8. LAW LIBRARY RESOURCES .................................................................................................................. 5
9. "TURNITIN PLAGIARISM CHECK"; HOW TO AVOID PLAGIARISM ........................................................... 6
10. ADMINISTRATIVE QUERIES ............................................................................................................. 9
1. Introduction
The aim of the module RHP 320 in 2024 is to prepare students for the ESS 400 (previously SKY) research
essay that must be finalised and submitted towards the end of lectures in the second semester of
2025 in your final year. The outcome of RHP 320 is to attend all the contact lectures to assist you in
formulating a research proposal, and to select a supervisor for your ESS module. The assumption is
that students who are able to, and have sufficient access to online academic (or scholarly) sources,
will start to work on their research proposals during the summer recess before the 2025 lectures
commence. For students who do not have this luxury, there should be more than sufficient time to
complete your research proposal in the first quarter of 2025, as you will have until after the easter
break in 2025 to complete your research proposal.
2. Attendance of all lectures; monitoring of attendance
The lectures for RHP 320 will be "live" contact lectures during the second semester of 2024. All of the
materials you will need to show you how to draft the research proposal, are available on clickUP Ultra
on the RHP 320 site. The lectures are presented on Tuesdays, 15:30, AE du Toit Auditorium, by (prof)
Anton Kok. Anton may call on guest lecturer(s) to present some of the lectures.
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Attendance will be taken at every lecture by way of an in-class online quiz on clickUP Ultra.1 Bring a
device (laptop or cell phone) to class with which you can access clickUP.
3. ClickUP Ultra; module's content
RHP 320 is located in clickUP Ultra. Some or most of your third year modules probably still run in the
"old" clickUP. You may be unfamiliar with the layout of clickUP Ultra. When you open RHP 320 in
clickUP Ultra, you should see the following:
This is not the full page. Where you see a "down arrow" (for example on the right hand side of the
item "Study guide; orientation; law library") next to an item, it means you can click on the down arrow
to open more items. All the course materials appear on the main page, and they follow sequentially.
Use the "Discussions" tab at the top of the page to ask me anything you may be unsure about. I have
set the discussions so that you can select the box to post anonymously, so there will be no shame in
asking so-called "stupid" questions. You have never written a 40-page research essay, and there may
1The method to be used during the semester to monitor attendance may change, depending on the RHP
students' behaviour and the lecturer's circumstances.
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be many issues you are unsure about - so, there are no "stupid questions" for RHP. Do not abuse the
anonymous setting to post inappropriate comments.
Use the "Gradebook" tab at the top of the page to track your progress through the course. You will
see the mark for each of the quizzes that you have completed in the module. Do not use the
"Attendance" tab at the left of the page to track your attendance.
You will use the "Groups" tab at the top of the page to select your supervisor later in the semester.
There is a quiz to complete in the "Study guide; orientation; law library" item. You must obtain 12/12
for the quiz to unlock your study materials for RHP 320. You have unlimited opportunities to complete
the quiz.
Once you have completed the quiz, a list of items, all with "down arrows" next to them, will become
available. One of the items is "The research proposal". You will find an example of a research proposal
and a completed research essay here, to give you some idea of what you are working towards.
4. Choose a supervisor on clickUP
The item "List of available supervisors 2024/5" is visible even before you have completed the quiz. I
will announce when the list will be posted here. There is detailed information available under this
item on how you will select your supervisor for your ESS 400 essay. Study the information carefully
and let me know if anything is unclear.
The list of supervisors lists all of the available ESS 400 supervisors and their research fields. When you
sign up with a particular supervisor, you commit to completing your research proposal and your ESS
essay in one of their indicated research fields. Your research proposal becomes the first chapter
(“Introduction”) of the ESS research essay.
Before the "Groups" tab becomes active to select a supervisor (see below), study the list of available
supervisors, identify possible topics for your research proposal, and if you are in doubt, email the
relevant supervisors or consult with them in person to test the viability of your proposed topics.
Identify a few possible topics in case you do not secure a slot with your first choice supervisor.
You will have to choose your supervisor on clickUP. On an announced date and time (it will be a
Tuesday at 15:30), the "Groups" tab will list all the available supervisors. This list will remain open for
the full semester for you to select a supervisor.
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You select your supervisor on a “first come, first served” basis. Some supervisors and some research
fields are more popular than others and these options fill up very quickly – sometimes within seconds
of the groups becoming available. You should therefore have a “plan B” and “plan C” as well, should
you be unable to secure a spot with your first choice supervisor.
The cap ("quota") per supervisor will depend on the number of RHP students and the number of
available supervisors. Some supervisors have limited capacity and will take a smaller number of
students.
Once the groups open on clickUP, check carefully that you select the correct supervisor. If you made
a mistake, clickUP Ultra allows you to join another group instead. If despite your best efforts you do
not manage to undo your mistake, email me at [Link]@[Link] to assist you.
Click on the "down arrow" next to "List of available supervisors 2024/5" and then click on the item
"List of available supervisors 2024/5 and the process to select a supervisor". Study the information
that is contained there very carefully and make sure you understand the process of selecting a
supervisor. Ask me if anything is unclear.
5. How to obtain credits for RHP 320?
A student can only continue with ESS 400 in 2025 if they have been credited for RHP 320 in 2024.
Students will be credited for RHP 320 if they have attended all the contact lectures. Attendance will
be taken in each class.
6. Communication and contact with your supervisor
Once you have selected a supervisor, regular contact with your supervisor is essential. Please make
sure that you read your tuks email or if you use an alternative email address that your tuks messages
are automatically forwarded to that address. Supervisors rely on the email addresses as shown on
the system (RHP 320 clickUP) to contact the students in their group. It is the responsibility of students
to make initial contact and have regular contact with supervisors and to send draft versions of the
research proposal before final submission. Supervisors should assist students by suggesting sources,
assisting with the formulation of the research problem and research questions and commenting on
drafts, and marking the final research proposal.
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7. Format of the research proposal
The contact lectures, and all the notes and additional information posted on clickUP will assist you in
understanding what each of the prescribed headings below entail, and how you should go about
populating each of the headings with the relevant information.
1. Research problem
2. Research questions
3. Motivation / rationale
4. Overview of literature (to be structured according to your three to four research
questions; in the final ESS essay each of the research questions will be a complete chapter)
4.1 Research question 1 (discuss literature related to the question)
4.2 Research question 2 (discuss literature related to the question)
4.3 Research question 3 (discuss literature related to the question)
4.4 Research question 4 (discuss literature related to the question)
5. Methodology and approach
6. Limitations and delineations
7. Structure / outline (chapters)
8. Timeline / workplan (schedule)
9. Preliminary bibliography (books and articles, case law, legislation, etc.)
You will have until after the easter break in 2025 to finalise your research proposal for ESS 400. Aim
for roughly five to eight pages. You should have more than enough time, if you work on the proposal
consistently. After finalising your research proposal, you then have the rest of the 2025 academic year
to complete the ESS research essay. The final mark for ESS 400 is calculated as follows:
Research proposal 20%
Final essay 70%
Oral seminar 10%
8. Law library resources
See this link for helpful resources on how best to use the databases to find relevant sources to draft
your research proposal and research essay:
[Link]
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9. "Turnitin self-check for plagiarism "; how to avoid plagiarism
A “Turnitin self-check for plagiarism” resource is available on the RHP 320 site and will be available on
your ESS 400 site in 2025 on clickUP, to allow you to submit your draft research proposals and chapters
of your essay, as often as you wish, to confirm that you are not committing plagiarism.
The "Turnitin self-check for plagiarism " resource is available under the "Additional resources" folder
on clickUP for RHP 320. (Remember to complete the quiz to open this folder and the other course
material folders.)
From time to time we receive queries about the turnitin percentage and how to know if you are on
safe ground. The guidelines below are intended to reduce your anxiety, not add to it. You have
sufficient time to finalise your research proposal. Use the "turnitin plagiarism check" as often as you
wish; and liaise with your supervisor to make sure that you do not commit plagiarism. This "how to
avoid plagiarism" note is not intended to scare you; it is meant as a resource to remind you of what
good writing consists of. The turnitin percentage on its own does not indicate that plagiarism was
committed or not. In each case, the turnitin report must be interpreted to identify the text that was
highlighted and whether these highlighted texts amount to plagiarism or not.
See this note that explains the basics again:
Brief note on what constitutes plagiarism
Assume you find this source and want to rely on a passage from this article as authority for an
argument you are making in your essay. The full article is Emile Zitzke “A decolonial critique of private
law and human rights” (2018) 34 South African Journal on Human Rights 492-516; this is page 494.
You want to rely on the highlighted passage as authority in your essay:
the uncritical acceptance of the transformative conjugation of human rights and private law as the
solution to all of private law’s problems. In other words, transformation is by no means a perfect
approach to the study of private law. If we want to approach private law radically differently and more
critically than we have been doing, we would need to think beyond transformation. One way of doing
this, I argue in Part 4, is to work towards decolonising private law. The term decolonisation, as I use it
here, refers to a commitment to ‘Africanisation’ through ‘conceptual decolonisation’. 6 At the risk of
oversimplification, I would briefly explain this project as the critical study of private-law concepts
through African philosophy, not limited to the narrow study of the constitutionally recognised sources
of private law. I by no means intend to suggest that I hold the monopoly over what decolonisation
means or should mean. As an exploratory exercise, I am simply interested in thinking about how
Africanisation through conceptual decolonisation targets the colonial problem of private law in a more
disruptive manner than transformation. The approach that I propose here is a transitory preface to a
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much bigger task that lies ahead for those of us who are committed to levelling a decolonial critique
against private law and human rights.
2. Private-law purism
2.1. The ideology of purism
As already noted, private-law purism is concerned with isolating dominant private law from everything
that private-law scholars do not regard as proper private law. Dominant private law, as we know it in
South Africa today, is said to be predominantly found in the source of law known as ‘common law’.
Common law, as first-year students are taught, is the uncodified source of SA law that has its roots in
the writings of the prominent seventeenth-century Roman-Dutch authors, sometimes adapted by
English law, ultimately developed by SA courts over time.7 It is crucial to understand that when we
speak about purism in private law, we are zooming in on dominant private law and not, for example,
African customary private law. In an earlier historical and political exploration on this issue, I argued
that purism has taken on two forms in SA legal history.8 In its classical form, purism involved cleansing
the common law from English influences.
6 See eg K Wiredu ‘Towards decolonizing African philosophy and religion’ (1998) 1 African
Studies Quarterly 17.
7 See eg DG Kleyn & F Viljoen Beginner’s Guide for Law Students 4 ed (2010) 82ff.
8 E Zitzke ‘The history and politics of contemporary common-law purism’ (2017) 23 Fundamina
185.
Doing any of the following would be plagiarism:
1. Copying word-for-word and not acknowledging the source:
Common law, as first-year students are taught, is the uncodified source of SA law that has its roots in
the writings of the prominent seventeenth-century Roman-Dutch authors, sometimes adapted by
English law, ultimately developed by SA courts over time.
2. Copying word-for-word and acknowledging the source:
Common law, as first-year students are taught, is the uncodified source of SA law that has its roots in
the writings of the prominent seventeenth-century Roman-Dutch authors, sometimes adapted by
English law, ultimately developed by SA courts over time. 1
1 Zitzke (2018) 34 SAJHR 492 494.
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3. Almost copying every word; changing a word here and there and not acknowledging the
source:
Common law, as law students are taught, is the uncodified source of South African law that has its
roots in the books of important seventeenth-century Roman-Dutch scholars, from time to time
adapted by English law, finally developed by South African courts over time.
4. Almost copying every word; changing a word here and there and acknowledging the source:
Common law, as law students are taught, is the uncodified source of South African law that has its
roots in the books of important seventeenth-century Roman-Dutch scholars, from time to time
adapted by English law, finally developed by South African courts over time.1
1 Zitzke (2018) 34 SAJHR 492 494.
If you copy word-for-word, indicate that you are quoting and acknowledge the source in a footnote.
Long quotes are indented, no quotation marks, and use a smaller letter size:
Zitzke defines the common law as follows:1
[T]he uncodified source of SA law that has its roots in the writings of the prominent seventeenth-
century Roman-Dutch authors, sometimes adapted by English law, ultimately developed by SA courts
over time.
1 Zitzke (2018) 34 SAJHR 492 494.
Every single sentence in your essay that is not your own insight and that is not common knowledge
gets a footnote, citing the source you are relying on for the argument in the main text. If an entire
paragraph in your essay relies on one source, then every sentence in that paragraph gets a footnote,
every time citing that same source. This is not good research – try to find a couple of sources and
integrate their arguments into a coherent paragraph; citing various sources in the footnotes as you go
along.
Avoid quotations as far as possible. Summarise and paraphrase as far as possible. Whether you quote,
summarise or paraphrase, use a footnote citing the source.
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A low percentage on Turnitin does not on its own indicate that no plagiarism occurred and a high
percentage on Turnitin does not indicate on its own that plagiarism occurred.
A low percentage on Turnitin could indicate that you cleverly changed words in a “copy and paste”
exercise – still plagiarism.
A high percentage on Turnitin could indicate that you used many quotations – not plagiarism (but poor
writing). A high percentage could also indicate that you have a high number of sources that you cited
in footnotes and that shows up as “copied” text – not plagiarism and good research.
In each instance the Turnitin report must be interpreted. There is no magic percentage that indicates
“no plagiarism”.
So, what to do to avoid plagiarism?
If you come across a source that you wish to rely on in your essay:
1. Read the text carefully until you are sure you comprehend it.
2. Close the text - else there is the temptation to keep referring back to the text and use that
author's words instead of your own way of explaining the argument.
3. Imagine you have to explain the text to an intelligent lay person. Do so by using your own
style; your own way of explaining.
4. Write this explanation down – your own way of explaining what the author explained in the
text.
5. Cite the source in a footnote.
6. If in any doubt, ask your supervisor for guidance.
10. Administrative queries
Course coordinator: Anton Kok, [Link]@[Link], office 2-24, Department of Jurisprudence
Consultation hours: On the notice board at the entrance to the Department of Jurisprudence, 2nd
floor, Law Building
Cellular phone number: 082 340 6248 (only for extreme emergencies please)
