Method
My topic is Learning second language.
In the next section, discuss your research method for this project. Here, you will propose which of the following you plan to use for your project. In the procedures section you will discuss the method for data collection (i.e. Surveys, Interviews, Ethnography, Media or Social media content) and data analysis (i.e. Descriptive Statistics, Content Analysis, Grounded Theory).
The paper has to be in essay format but you may consider these questions for the proposal:
I. First, in one paragraph,
Briefly introduce the topic you are working on
What method do you plan to use to study this topic and why?
What texts (or data) do you plan to collect to study this phenomenon? Why?
Next: You will write the participants section, only IF relevant.
II. Participants (only if you’re doing surveys/interviews or ethnography)
Discuss whom you will survey, interview, observe. Include only those demographics that have an impact on the results of the study (i.e. if race is a factor, you should provide a breakdown by race). The accepted term for describing a person who participates in research studies is a participant not a subject.
Next:
III. Procedure
The procedure includes the step-by-step how of your study. The procedure should include:
Where/how do you plan to recruit participants/informants if you’re using surveys or qualitative interviews? How many participants do you plan to recruit for the study? How many surveys do you plan to distribute?
If you’re doing an ethnography, where do you plan to do it? Do you have access to this location? Are you an insider in the culture you plan to study? Outsider?
What are two sample questions (2 Likert style questions) you hope to ask on your survey?
If you’re doing qualitative interviews, what kind of instrument will you use? (Structured, semi-structured, etc.) What are two questions you will ask during your interview?
Define theoretical concepts or frameworks will you use in your study.
How will you analyze your data? (e.g. Grounded theory, content analysis, Descriptive statistics or SPSS). Use a prior study to discuss how they used this method of data analysis to study a topic similar to yours.
What do you expect to find when you analyze your data/text? (this will become your working thesis/hypothesis)
IV. Ethics
Finally, discuss ethical concerns that you will encounter in this study and how you will minimize them. (Interviews/Ethnography – Privacy, confidentiality, anonymity, voluntariness, harm or risk to participants; Surveys – anonymity, voluntariness; Textual/content analysis of media – Copyright/access to material; Social media content analysis – Access to forums, feeds, anonymity, privacy, etc.)
Your Methods section will change as you begin your senior seminar project. For this class, your paper will be in future tense as it’s a proposal and not the actual Method section.
Points to note:
Your paper will strictly follow APA format and include a Title page, running head, page numbers, etc. Please refer to the OWL at Purdue’s APA formatting guide for acceptable fonts, font size, etc.
You will take a stab at proposing a title for your project. This should be an intuitive and catchy title that previews your project with a hint towards the thesis/results.
Make sure to cite your sources in text as well as provide a references page in APA format.