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Concept Paper: Research Design Assignment
Instructions
Overview
You will
write a 5–8-page paper in current Turabian format explaining your
research design and methodology, including an explanation and theoretical
justification for your selected research method.
Primary research is any type of research that you collect
yourself. Examples include surveys, interviews, observations, and ethnographic
research. A good researcher knows how to use both primary and secondary sources
in their writing and to integrate them in a cohesive fashion.
Many types of primary research exist. This guide is
designed to provide you with an overview of primary research. This is not
a comprehensive list, and your own research question may require a different
design and methodology.
·
Interviews: Interviews
are one-on-one question and answer sessions, and they are structured
or semi-structured. Interviews will provide much information from
a small number of people and are useful when you want to get an expert or
knowledgeable opinion on a subject.
·
Focus Groups:
Are structured small group brainstorming sessions. They require
audio and/or video recording, extensive transcription, multiple coding, and
analytical processes that often accompany qualitative research using focus
groups. They can be conducted online or face-to-face.
·
Open-Ended Surveys: Surveys
are a f

orm of questioning that is more rigid than interviews and that involve
larger groups of people. Surveys will provide a limited amount of information
from a large group of people and are useful when you want to learn what a
larger population thinks.
·
Observations: Observations
involve taking organized notes about occurrences in the world. Observations
provide your insight about specific people, events, or locales and
are useful when you want to learn more about an event without the biased
viewpoint of an interview.
·
Quantitative
Analysis: Analysis involves collecting data and organizing it in some
fashion based on criteria you develop. They are useful when you want to
describe your data or make statistical inferences, or to find
some trend or pattern in the case of time series analysis.
A type of analysis would be to survey local government managers concerning
their leadership style and analyze whether gender roles create a significant
difference.
Instructions
·
The research design
assignment should be 5-8 pages in length.
·
The research design
assignment should be written in current Turabian format.
·
The research
design assignment should cite sources relevant to justifying and defending
the selected research design. There is no set number of sources
required. You should provide enough sources to justify their choice of method
and design.