Part A
Copy and paste the paper you submitted for the midterm, then make sure to address any feedback you received on your paper. Please let me know if you do not see the annotated document in your midterm submission space.
Your midterm should already have the following sections (the order of sections is not important, but make sure each section is present):
1. Introduction to your topic
2. Identify problem
2a. Purpose of research
3. Reflexivity statement
4. Literature review
5. Research Question
*Important! Your research question and choice of study design must match (for example, recall that experimental designs answer questions like “Does variable A cause changes in variable B scores? How big is this effect?” Grounded Theory answers questions like “Why? and “In what way?” and so forth. Review video lectures and textbook if you need help crafting your research question)
Part B
5. Method
5a. Identify your design (i.e. experimental, correlational, survey, grounded theory, narratives, ethnography, or mixed-method (what type of mixed method?)) and explain why you think it is the best approach for answering your research question.
6. Participants
Describe the criteria you will use for including people in your study; if applicable, explain the exclusion criteria. Make sure your description is not too broad or abstract (i.e. “all females who like to sing”)–it must be relevant to your research question and the context in which you will investigate your research problem.
7. Sampling
7a. Explain what sampling method you will use (it must make sense in the context of your research question and design).
7b. How will you recruit your participants? (Describe your sampling procedure. I am looking for evidence that you understand how participants in your sample will (or will not) provide adequate (and quality) data for answering your question)
8. Data collection methods
Where will your data come from?
Make sure you collect data that can be quantified for experimental, correlational, and mixed-method designs. If you plan to use existing diagnostic tools, make sure to mention them here (i.e. certain scales for measuring depression, personality measures, aptitude tests, etc).
For qualitative designs, consider a variety of data sources and select those that will yield the richest, sufficient data for answering your research question. Make sure to explain why you chose this method(s) over many others. You are not required to include sample interview or survey questions, but including them in the appendix will certainly demonstrate your attention to detail.
9. Limitations. Discuss possible concerns with the integrity of your design and method. For example, recall that you will need to control as many extraneous variables in experimental designs as possible. Identify them and explain how you will address the issue. Also, recall that in Mixed Methods and qualitative designs they may be concerns with establishing rapport with your participants, various barriers to collecting rich, meaningful data, and the interpretation of results (hermeneutic considerations); how will you address these concerns? Another way to think about possible weaknesses of your design is to ask “What can go wrong?”
10. Data analysis
10a. Identify variables if you are using quantitative data.
Identify statistical analysis (optional for experimental or mixed-methods design, mandatory for correlational designs). Do not confuse independent and dependent variables. If you chose a correlational design, identify the appropriate statistical approach, which will depend on whether you are investigating the relationship between two variables, or looking to predict scores. See the textbook for more details.
10b. If you are planning to collect qualitative data, identify appropriate qualitative analysis technique(s). For example, “axial coding,” “thematic analysis,” “content analysis,” or “constant-comparative analysis.” What steps will you take to ensure the integrity of the interpretation of your results?
11. Expectations.
Briefly describe what you think you are going to find.
12. Ethical Considerations
Discuss potential ethical issues and how you plan to address them.
Make sure they are relevant to your study: what can you do to make sure your participants are safe? What about their well-being and privacy? Also, consider whether your study may be (mis)interpreted and how your finding may be (possibly) abused in a greater context.
12. Wrap us with the implications (benefits) of your study.
If you already mentioned this at the beginning of your paper when you explained why your research problem is a problem, simply rephrase what you already said to create a closing statement. If you did not mention the benefits of your research earlier, discuss the implications here in more detail.
13. References
(minimum 5 peer-reviewed articles)
The title page is not part of this assignment – I will be completing this part – Thank you