rough draft

Guidelines of Writing Analysis Section (5-8 pages)

** The Analysis section of your paper should include details about all the points (#1-3) below. It should be about 5-8 pages of your final paper. Title this section of your paper as “Analysis” OR “Findings”.

When writing your analysis/findings section, remember:

· Keep your research question in front of you as you write your Analysis/Findings so you remember to constantly tie back to your research question.

· To present both the claim (your interpretation) and evidence (data) to back up the claim.

· Therefore, you need to organize the analysis/findings into 3-5 clear themes (sub-topics) that are emerging from your coding which have titles (and are not listed as theme#1, 2 3). Example: “Wanting religious wedding ceremonies”; “Negotiations with Church Leaders”; “Negotiations with Local Parishes”; “Typologies of Wedding Ceremonies”.

· To outline each analysis theme before writing it. See “Model Outline for Analysis Themes” posted in the “Section of Research Paper” folder in the “Course Documents” tab on BB.

1. Being with a brief introduction to the Analysis/Findings section:

i. Introduce your reader to the upcoming analysis/findings section by clearly identifying the 3-5 themes by name. Organize each theme as a separate sub-topic in the paper. The title of each theme should be bold, left-aligned against the margin.

2. Develop 3-5 themes (each theme should be atleast 1-2 pages). Each theme should be developed in the following way:

i. Title of Theme (bold): As the researcher, the title of the theme is something you develop based on your coding of the data. The name of the theme should give the readers a sense of what the content (claims) of the theme will be. Example: Title: “Wanting Religious Ceremonies”; Content/Claims: I will be explaining claims pertaining to my participants desire for a religious wedding ceremony as opposed to a civil one, reasons for that decision, significance of that decision in India

· Ensure that each theme has atleast 2 claims and data from atleast 2 participants: In your analysis you are writing about patterns in your data; therefore, you need to have atleast 2 claims per theme and be discussing atleast 2 participants if not more per theme (the same participant can be mentioned in different themes). Example: in my example above, there are 3 claims for the theme.

· develop every claim that makes up the theme in your writing in the following way. I would recommend starting every claim in a new paragraph:

· State the claim AND explain/develop it in your own words: state the claim (ex: “Religious vs Civil Ceremonies”) and then explain/develop the claim in your own words based on the evidence. This often involves describing the codes that you have given to your data. In developing the claim, you describe the data in your own words. Example: I would explain how my participants distinguish between religious and civil ceremonies, the meaning that the religious ceremony has vs the civil one. Please note: simply quoting your participants is NOT developing the claim; you must explain the claim in your own words.

· Clearly indicate the pattern for every claim in your writing: Pattern can include agreement, disagreement, or both between participants. Pattern can be indicated in any/all these ways: (a) numbers/percentages – Example: “5 of 7 participants noted; 20% of my sample said…”; (b) words that indicate pattern such as majority, minority, some, all, a few, many, a handful etc. – Example: “the majority of my participants noted….”; “a few disagreed to note that….”; “some said….”. Be sure to include majority perspective and account for deviations/minority perspectives. Example, “while most of my participants noted…, some said otherwise….”

· Ensure every claim is backed up by evidence that is cited in any of the formats learned in class: Every claim that you make must be supported by evidence i.e. quotes from the data. There are several ways of citing data we have learned in class. Use any/all. Ensure that there is atleast one quote/evidence per claim; ensure that you have explained the quotes. See “Citing Evidence to Support Analysis Claims” handout in “Sections of Research Paper” folder in the “Course Documents” tab on BB.

· Connect claims to external literature (optional): If you have found external literature (blog posts, statistics, magazine/social media pieces) connected to a claim/theme, include them in your writing and cite them. Example: “The desire for a religious ceremony is the norm among most couples in India as noted by (author) in a blogpost on wedding.com”.

ii. Repeat the same for Themes 2-5

iii. Connect analysis themes as a whole to the literature/theory: Toward the end of the analysis section, write 1-2 paragraphs connecting your analysis themes as a whole to the literature/theory. This can be done by addressing the following:

· How do your findings fill the gaps in the literature/theory? (cite literature/theory)

· How do your findings confirm ideas in the literature or prove/disprove ideas in the theory? (cite literature/theory)

· How do your findings advance the literature/theory? (cite literature/theory)

· Please note: connecting data to literature can be done either in every theme or at the end of all themes.

3. Be attentive to the logical organization of analysis themes:

i. Try and present your analysis themes in a logical order such that one theme progresses to the next one.

ii. Use this same logical progression with your claims in every theme – try and ensure that every claim is logically connected to the next one so that the reader gets a full picture of your data.

iii. To do this, have segue threads connecting ideas/paragraphs to each other and throughout the paper, reminding the reader of what they are reading. Example: once you finish writing about a claim, you can have a brief sentence preparing the reading for the next claim like… “Next, I will be writing about….”

Quantitative Research Projects ONLY

**If you are doing a FULLY QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH PROJECT, the analysis section will be slightly different. You will also have 3 themes, but they will be in the Results section. Cover all the points (#1-3) below:

1. Your analysis section will be divided into 2 sections: (a) Results; (b) Discussion.

2. Present your Results: Title this section, “Results”. In this first section you will present your results organized by themes which includes but is not limited to:

a. Themes: for quantitative projects your themes might be more the variables you are testing against each other; or the hypothesis you are trying to prove.

b. Presenting your statistical analyses – equations, regression tables, cross-tab tables and other figures. Clearly label every cross-tab/regression table and figures to identify which statistical procedure you are using.

c. Explain which variables were used, which controlled for and why and what analyses were run.

d. Please note: inserting tables/figures etc., can increase the page count of this section, which is alright

3. Present your discussion: Title this section, “Discussion”. Interpret your statistical analysis/tables into sentences so the reader understands what you are finding. This includes:

a. Stating and developing what your statistical analyses have found and your interpreting of this.

b. Answering your hypotheses – were they supported or not? Reasons.

c. Connecting your findings to the literature and theory (see point 2(iii) above)

d. Please note: the Discussion should be atleast 2-3 pages long.

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