What have you learned about the processes of designing a sound research study in class? I've learned that designing a sound research study is a very iterative process. It involves continually challenging the starting point of a proposed study and then refining it as more information is discovered or complications arise. What was right yesterday often needs improvement today. My original blog post ideas underwent multiple transformations before I arrived at my current proposal's research questions. I had to pare down from three questions to two. This made sense because of the brevity of the survey. It also demanded a decision to be made for what was "most important" for me to research. There was a lot of reflection involved as I went through the piece repeatedly to see what "made sense" or needed to be addressed. For example, some portions needed to be combined or moved to better suit the needs of the study and/or paper. Other times, different words could b...
Master Plan Part 1 - Literature Review Revise and Arrange I feel like I’ve gotten enough time/distance that I can dive in with my editor’s cap on and revise my Literature Review. Once I’ve cleaned that up, I can take the introduction and slide it up to the first page. After I correct the References page, I can slide that to the back of my outline. Part 2 - Outline Make Choices and Commit I’ve been working on the Outline in-class when time was set aside for it. I’ve created a page for the Cover and a blank page for the Abstract. The bare bones of the draft are there. I have “something” in all of the slots—sometimes as bullets, or simple sentences, or possibilities. I have to make a big decision for Part III. Research Design and Methods: “Describe the Sample.” Right now, I have two routes I can take. If I go with Option 1, I do a sample of convenience using people from our university. However, that means I won’t be using a randomized representative pool of participants (and it...