Research Questions and Plan

1. SGR and RWP Help Research Questions and Plan

2. The Research Plan • Question • Method • Plan • Timeline

3. The Question: Focus • Interest – If you don’t find something that interests you, you won’t invest the time in it, and it won’t be a good project. • Topic – the topic is the general category of thing you are looking at. It’s the landscape. Aristotle’s use has become the cornerstone of the etymology, and it literally means “place.” • Issue – the specific thing you are looking at in the landscape. • Question – A question that is unanswered about the issue. • Significance – Why would anybody care?

4. Formulating a Research Question • Name your topic • I am studying _____________________________ • Formulate a question • Because I want to find out who/what/where/when/why_________________ • State the rationale (significance) • In order to understand/explain________________ adapted from: Booth, Wayne C., Gregory Colomb, and Joseph Williams. The Craft of Research. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1995.

5. Topic

6. Issue

7. Question Or

8. Formulating a Research Question • Name your topic • I am studying the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde • Formulate a question • Because I want to find out what the towers were for • State the rationale (significance) • In order to understand why there was only one tower per dwelling place

9. Method • Once the question has been asked, you have to design a method for answering it: • Do a lot of living people know about X? • Are specialized apparatuses needed or useful for studying about X? • Do only a few living people know about X? • Can I easily observe X in its natural state? • Is there a lot of previous research about X? • Are there written or photographic records around the time/place of X?

10. Quantitative • If a lot of people know about X, then you can conduct a survey (many questions) or poll (one question) then tabulate the responses. • Do you count how many calories you eat in a day? • Do you know how many calories you are supposed to eat in a day? • If you need specialized equipment to measure X, then the measurement will be quantifiable. • How many calories are in this food?

11. Qualitative • If only a few people know about X, then you want to collect as much data from those few people as possible. • Did you see anybody suspicious in the bushes last night? • Did you go to the club on Saturday? • What was it like on the beaches of Normandy? • If you can observe X in a natural setting, then you want to write as many notes as possible. • How do women react differently than men at the grocery store? At a clothing store? • How do chimpanzees react to speed metal?

12. Interpretive • If there is a lot of previous research about X, then you can synthesize multiple sources about X. • If there isn’t previous research about X, then you can look for previous research on V and Y and attempt to triangulate X. • If there isn’t research at all, then you can situate X through other means such as photographs, letters, movies, diaries, novels, toys, technology, clothing, art, and furthermore, absence or abundance of any of these things.

13. Plan • If other research has been done on your topic, what have they failed to find or account for? • This is a good moment to begin writing your introduction. Your introduction rough draft can come when you have determined your research question, why it is important, and why other researchers haven’t answered the research question • How will you go about following your method? • Also in your rough introduction, you want to outline how you will follow your method, when you will study X, how you will study X. • How will you interpret your data? • In qualitative studies, this involves reviewing your observations, formulating interview questions, reviewing the responses to those interview questions, possibly coding the observations/interviews, and looking for patterns. • In quantitative studies, this involves statistical or mathematical modeling against measures of significance.

14. Timeline • A major research project needs a timeline for each step. Successful projects (and students) have a plan with time-on-task measures along the way. I have attempted to insert those into the syllabus, but it is up to you to create a timeline for every step of the way. • Timelines are best start in reverse, from when something is due.

15. Brainstorm… • Working with your SGR groups, begin formulating a research question and plan for your SGR. • Try to get research plan approved from me by end of class.