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Tackling the Research Question

Tackling the Research Question. USP Senior Sequence fall 2011. Your A.O.C. First Step—Find your area of concentration How many have decided on the AOC?. Let’s Start with the Pieces. Effect or Outcome of Interest Main Focus of Study When and Where are you Looking?

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Tackling the Research Question

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  1. Tackling the Research Question USP Senior Sequence fall 2011

  2. Your A.O.C. • First Step—Find your area of concentration • How many have decided on the AOC?

  3. Let’s Start with the Pieces • Effect or Outcome of Interest • Main Focus of Study • When and Where are you Looking? • How are you using the Literature? • Why Should People Care about this Topic? • What’s Your Hunch? • What are some other Theories? • What information will you gather and how will you use it? • Thinking of all of the above, what is your question??

  4. Effect or Outcome of Interest • Figure out your effect or outcome of interest • If your AOC is Transportation, are you interested in: • More efficient transportation? • Encouraging the use of bikes? • If your AOC is Public Health, Safety and Welfare, are you interested in • Better access to organic food?

  5. The Main Focus of Study • So, what or who will you be looking at, in particular?

  6. The Main Focus of Study • So, what or who will you be looking at, in particular?

  7. Why Should We Care?

  8. Why Should We Care?

  9. Getting to Your Theory

  10. Getting to Your Theory

  11. Alternative Theories

  12. Alternative Theories

  13. How I use the Literature…

  14. How I use the Literature…

  15. When & Where?

  16. When & Where?

  17. What Information Will I Use?

  18. What Information Will I Use?

  19. So…What’s My Question?

  20. So…What’s My Question?

  21. Do I Need a Question Mark? • Best to begin with a true question…with a question mark… • Why? Because then you will be more aware of the knowledge gap your project seeks to fill • But…as your research progresses, you can formulate your question without a question mark, for example…

  22. Examples of Other Kinds of Questions • “This study examines how healthcare workers adapt their behavior to facilitate communication and make medical encounters less threatening to Hmong immigrants.” • “This study seeks to determine how housing markets of ‘bedroom communities’ continue to grow with investors inflating housing prices which ultimately undermine the very principle of bedroom communities.”

  23. First Assignment • DUE: October 18th • Includes: Introduction, Lit Review, Research Design Proposal and Conclusion

  24. Introduction to Research Design • You already have certain pieces from the development of your question: • Effect or Outcome of interest (i.e. a dependent variable) • Main Focus (or unit of analysis) • When and Where (your case study or case studies) • Your Hunch (i.e. an independent/explanatory variable) • The information collected (your data)

  25. Case Selection • If you only have one case • Be clear about why there is only one case • You may only gather information on 1 case but will you be comparing it to other cases? • How to Work with More than 1 case • What is a Control group? • What makes a good comparison case?

  26. Methods for Data Collection • Use your books! • Robson, Part III • Surveys/Questionnaires • Interviews • Tests and Scales • Observational Methods • Content Analysis • Data Archives • Document Analysis • Remember to take note of pros and cons of each method and address them in your research paper

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