Choosing and Implementing a Research Design

1. Choosing and Implementing a Research Design Lauren Garcia-DuPlain The University of Akron English Composition 112

2. Research Design • Choose a research method that will appropriately and validly answer your Research Question. • Here are a few suggestions: • Observations • Interviews • Surveys • Textual Analysis

3. Observations • Choose a demographic. • Include enough observations to find patterns among what you see. • Categorize the patterns and count the instances of each to examine frequency. • Analyze your results.

4. Interviews • Finding interviewees and/or experts: • Check your sources. • Ask friends and instructors. • Check the faculty directory. • Check the Encyclopedia of Associations. • Check the Web.

5. What does it mean to interview a community member? • Part of interviewing a community member involves the systematic collection of a living person’s testimony about their own experiences. • Often the interview will include details and stories that have not been written down before.

6. Interviewing: A Circular Process • A “circular process” means that you may need to ask follow-up questions or do more background research once the interview is over. • Interviewing (like other research) isn’t always a step-by-step, easy process.

7. Choosing an Interviewee • Choose someone from a community that’s of interest to you. • Conduct preliminary research on your interviewee. • Aim high—you have an “in” being a college student, so try asking someone you don’t know or thought you may never have the chance to meet.

8. Formulating Questions • Compile a list of topics or questions. • Do NOT ask questions that can be answered through quick research. • Ask easy questions first. • Ask personal or emotionally demanding questions after developing a rapport. • End with lighter questions. • Be flexible—watch for and pick up on promising topics introduced by the interviewee.

9. Choosing a Format • face-to-face – Speaking with someone is preferable and the best option, because you can hear the tone and watch for nonverbal cues. • email – Email is convenient, because you have a record of the discussion, but you miss out on tone and nonverbal cues. If you choose this method, send an introductory email asking for their participation and consent before sending questions • phone – This is the least preferable form, because archiving and note-taking are difficult while listening (There are also laws about recording telephone conversations.).

10. Contacting Participants • Email, phone, letter, or face-to-face: • Remain professional and formal. • Address your interviewee with a title (Mr., Mrs., Dr., etc.) • Use a formal tone. • If writing, end with a closing remark and sign your name. • It’s a good idea to ask if a follow-up interview is possible.

11. The Interview • Make sure the interviewee understands the purpose of the interview. • Listen actively and intently. • Start with less probing questions. • Limit interviews to one to two hours. • Write a thank-you note or send an email.

12. Remember to Consider:

13. Surveys • Choose a demographic. • Include a random sampling. • Be specific about who you chose and why. • Choose a format. • Open-ended questions. • Multiple-choice questions. • A combination.

14. Survey Design • Ask demographic questions first. • A shorter survey will garner more results. • Format matters. Consider including a cover letter explaining who you are and what you’re doing. • Online • Paper • Medium matters. • Digital distribution • surveymonkey.com, email, listservs • Printed distribution • public locations, schools, malls,

15. Survey Design • Avoid loaded questions. • Loaded: In what ways is texting a valid form of writing? • Assumes that the person already considers texting a valid form of writing, which may not be true. • More neutral: Do you consider texting a form of writing? Please explain. • Avoid vague questions. • Vague: Do you like writing? • Specific: In your profession, what kinds of writing do you do and what kinds, if any, do you find particularly interesting?

16. Survey Design • Using open-ended questions: • Multiple answers. • Analyzing and coding. • No answers from participants. • Using multiple-choice questions: • Limited responses. • Need to provide likely, valid choices and a way for participants to “opt out” (e.g., N/A; I don’t know; none of the above). • More answers from participants.

17. Textual Analysis • Choose a text that you want to analyze. • Novels, Facebook statuses, blogs, Web sites, student essays, movies, lyrics, bumper stickers—be creative! • Gather enough texts (i.e., data) to find patterns in what you see and start counting the frequency of what you find. • Categorize your findings and analyze what your findings suggest.

18. Textual Analysis Jus showin sum luv 2 yo page. AAL Digital English Jus showin yo sum luv 2 page