proposal

ResearchProposalAssignment_COMN2200_Fall22.docx

COMN 2200 Qualitative Research Proposal

Modified from Braun & Clarke’s Chapter 3 research proposal exercise

· For COMN 2000, you are writing a proposal for a small research project – based on an analysis of 3 semi-structured audiotaped and verbatim transcribed interviews.

· Remember that you are writing a proposal for a qualitative research project – so avoid inappropriate (quantitative and experimental) language and concepts such as ‘experiment’, ‘hypotheses’, ‘reliability’ and so on.

· Aim for a pithy and economical writing style. Your proposal should be packed with useful information, and details; it should not be a rambling, waffling narrative about your study, with very few details. One of the most common weaknesses with research proposals is that they do not provide enough detailed information about the proposed methodology – keep this in mind when writing your proposal.

· Grading Rubric: a) Level of details (more details, the better); economical but descriptive writing style; c) full and complete sentences; d) correct grammar, no spelling or punctuation errors; e) effort; f) completeness

1. What is your Research Topic? The object/topic/phenomenon you are studying – the thing you want to understand more about can be conceptual (love, creativity) or more concrete (cancer, eating habits, voluntary childlessness).

2. What is your research question(s)? What are the aims and objectives of your research? Your research question doesn’t have been to be very precise (although it can be) – it is entirely appropriate within qualitative research to start with a rather broad research question that is refined through the process of data collection and analysis. The research question (or aims) is the big over-arching question guiding your research, whereas the objectives are the ‘bite-sized’ chunks of the research question/aims; the smaller goals you intend to fulfil in conducting your research.

3. What is your sampling strategy? Who or what will make up your sample? All students in COMN 2200 will propose to conduct interview-based research with participants. All students will need to recruit three individuals willing to be interviewed for your course project. All students will use a purposive approach to sampling – meaning they select data cases (participants) on the basis that they will be able to provide “information-rich” (Patton, 2002, p. 230) that will allow students to answer their research questions. In this section, detail --Who will (and won’t) be eligible to participate in your research? (inclusion/exclusion criteria) Why this group of people (and not others)? Are you proposing a homogeneous sample? A maximum heterogeneity sample? Are there any potential limitations of your sample? Presenting your sample as having no limitations is unlikely to be convincing, but a balanced and thoughtful appraisal of the potential strengths and weaknesses of your proposed sample will be.

4. How will you get access to your sample? How you are going to find your participants? *Note as detailed in the COMN 2200 participant recruiting script, all COMN 2200 students will offer their interviewees a copy of their anonymized, verbatim transcript as a way of saying “thank you” for participating in your class-based research project.

5. What method(s) of data collection will you use? All COMN 2200 students collect interview data. COMN 2200 students will have the choice, however, of whether to conduct face-to-face or virtual interviews. Drawing upon the materials in CH. 4, SQR, pp. 93- 103, answer- Why have you chosen face-to-face or virtual interviewing? Why is this mode of interviewing most appropriate for the participants you want to talk to? for eliciting interview data that will help you answer your research question? What is your plan for dealing with potential limitations of face-to-face/virtual interviews?

6. What is the procedure for collecting your data? This is where you discuss how you will collect your data, and what materials you will use in the process of data collection (such as participant information sheets and demographic forms). How will you design your interview schedule? Where and when will you interview your participants? How will you negotiate consent with participants? (you can discuss using the oral consent script for course-related research!). Be certain you include the following details with your interview guide:

· 10 main interview questions

· The main interview questions are stated in full sentences – exactly as the student plan to introduce the questions to their interviewees. The interview questions are carefully constructed and worded too well, demonstrating that the student has drafted and redrafted them revising them to make certain they are not too direct, too closed, or too loaded, and has practiced the questions on someone else who provided advice on the level of difficulty and tone.

· prompts and probes for each main interview question

· Prompts and probes are included for each main interview question. The prompts and probes encourage participants to open up, expand on their answers, and provide more detail.

· annotation for each main interview question.

· An annotation is included for each primary interview question. Each annotation:

· identifies the question’s type (e.g., opening, intermediate, closing question),

· the rationale for the sequencing of the question,

· how the question would help the student answer their research question,

· how the student would feel if asked this question, and

· why the question is likely to be meaningful to the student’s interview participants.

7. How will you analyse your data? What method of analysis will you use? Why is this method appropriate? Are there any potential limitations of this method? All COMN 2200 students will use thematic analysis as their method of analysis. Explain here how thematic analysis is appropriate for answering your research questions and explain limitations of thematic analysis. COMN 2200 students may skip this question OR try their hand at answering – you cannot lose points if you answer if you choose to see if you can answer at this point in the quarter!

8. Qualitative researchers are obliged to conduct their research ethically. Think about whether your study raises any particular ethical issues – for example, are you proposing to recruit people from vulnerable groups? Are you proposing to research a particularly sensitive issue? (See the section “Being an Ethical Qualitative Researcher,” Ch 3, SQR.

9. This section invites you to reflect on the reflexive aspects of your research.Will any aspects of your identity be implicated in the recruitment of participants and the processes of data collection and analysis? Do you share experiences in common with your participants? How might this shape the process of recruitment, and data collection and analysis? (Will your ‘insider’ status help you to gain the trust of your participants? Will it help you to ask probing and intimate questions? Will it help you to ‘see’ things in the data that an outsider might not?) Are you going to ‘out’ yourself as an insider to your participants? You should reflect on similar issues if you are not a member of the group you propose to research. If you are an ‘outsider researcher’, or are ‘representing the other’. How will your outsider status shape the research process?

10. The rationale for your study for COMN 2200 is the significance of the project. Your project must be worthwhile for your participants and yourself. Be certain you convey the importance, weightiness –the significance—of this project. As you write this section, be certain you are asking yourself: Is this convincing? Is this justified? Is this appropriate? [Note: some student topics might be particularly timely --meaning they are relevant to pressing social issues (If you go this direction, it’s important to make sure you are up-to-date with the news and current affairs). If your project has a timely aspect to it, be certain you can answer -- why this piece of research now?]