Now that you’ve read about the three main qualitative methods (participant observation, qualitative interviewing, social text analysis) from the corresponding Chapters 13, 14, and 15, choose one and decide how you might collect and analyze a few imagined (anticipated) findings. Briefly describe your topic and method for conducting a qualitative study on the COMMUNICATION topic of your choice (with my expressed permission). No group work!
Specific guidelines
Do not simply “find an existing study” with this essay. That was all that you had to do for Module 7. I expect more for the essay: Even if you keep the same topic as the study you found for Module 7, you must imagine a different or expanded set of findings, one that you could analyze using qualitative methods.
Topic approval is necessary. Email your idea (or just keep your previous topic from the project). Do not send an article link, just a topic idea.
Failure to walk me through all the steps on pp. 366-370 (or leaving out any of the steps) will lose you points. images are provided below
Failure to include at least one imagined exemplar in the form of a direct statement in the imagined words of an imaginary participant will also cost you points. Use quotation marks for imagined exemplars. SPECIAL NOTE: An exemplar is not a whole series of transcribed or imagined exchanges in an interview but instead a specific, isolated, verbatim imaginary quote (carefully chosen from everything imaginary participants might have said but not the whole verbal exchange) to illustrate some anticipated meaning you anticipated or to reinforce the themes or patterns you expected to find.
Do not identify imagined participants by first and/or last name. In a recent semester, students told me that’s what they saw in another COMM course, but it’s wrong in this course (even if the names are imaginary) and will cost you points. Use “Person A” or “Person B” instead for the identity of exemplars but remember that the people are not the exemplars: An exemplar is what the people say or do. Use quotation marks to signify an imagined verbatim response that adds to the credibility of your finding.
Including DRS or GTD or anything else between pp. 371-378 is strictly forbidden. Those frameworks are indeed accurate and useful in a different COMM course but including either of them in this assignment will lose you points.
A review of the literature is not necessary unless you choose to refer to another qualitative study.
General guidelines
It’s an essay, so there is no formatting. APA section headings are allowed if you want but much less critical in this informal essay than for your previous (very formal) project in this course. Stay with APA citation style if you decide to include optional references. Do not cite the textbook. Never cite a dictionary.
Identify the method you chose (from the Chapter 13-14-15 readings). You only need one method. You can propose to use more than one but I would expect more detail (which would not add to your grade. The primary goal of this essay is to convince me you know how to perform a qualitative study, even though you lack the time to complete one. Walk me through the analytic guidelines on pp. 366-370 from Chapter 16. the methods i chose is qualitative interviewing.
3. Length is at least 750 words (or more) with spell/grammar checking (no last-minute rough drafts). Overexplaining the method will appear as padding to me. Focus on the steps in Chapter 16. This essay should not be so much about “how” you would gather findings, but about “what” you expect to find and “why” your imagined interpretation is systematic (justified by all of the steps on pp. 366-370).
Any qualitative study related to your topic (which may also be the topic from the quantitative project, or not) could serve as a general pattern for your qualitative assignment. But don’t go beyond a general pattern. There are no real findings to be uncovered, so you can be creative and anticipate imagined findings. Qualitative reports typically explore ONE aspect of communication without reference to an independent variable. Also, avoid words like “variable” (see special note below).
Special note: Avoid jargon from quantitative studies! You are not testing theory so there are no hypotheses. Words like “survey” and “experiment” are unwelcome in the world of qualitative research. “Data” is still an accepted word. Call your prospective participants “informants” or simply “participants” (unless you’re doing textual analysis, in which case you need no participants at all, but include the text you identify). Drastically limit anything that makes it seem that you’re counting or quantitatively measuring. Find analytic tools in Chapter 16 (pp. 366-370) to bolster your credibility, because your subjective findings are your own view of social regularities, patterns, and themes. Keep it interpretive and interested in deep meanings. Imagine underlying meanings that you might analyze in findings if you only had time to do it for real. Again, avoid pp. 371-378 for this particular assignment.
Do not collect new findings for this assignment, but be sure to describe potential exemplars (direct, imaginary quotations from imaginary participants) that would have served as evidence of your findings (had you completed the study). Dig deep to explain potential interpretations of whatever communication phenomena you are studying. Identify and support with anticipated-but-imaginary evidence any recurring themes or communicative rules that you might have found, depending on your topic, had you actually had the time to mount a full study.
More than a couple of past students have wondered why I do not post an example of what I want. It’s simple: Although a quantitative report is an extremely boilerplate format (they all look pretty much alike), a qualitative report is different, which is a point I made in one of the videos from the first or second module. I posted a study by Dr. Abetz to show you what it might look like if you had time to do more than a mere essay on a proposed study, but invent your own format without parroting her style. Qualitative research is meant to be flexible.
