The methods section comes after the literature review in the proposal. The methods section should include the following information:
1. What research method do you plan to use.
a. Your selection of a research method should correspond to the type of study you plan to conduct. Is the study explanatory or exploratory? Did you state a research question or a hypothesis?
b. If you state a hypothesis you will want to develop a survey. If you state a research question you will most likely develop a set of interview or focus group questions and/or you will develop a plan for field work (participant observation). Your survey, interview schedule, or plan for field work must be included in the proposal as Appendix A.
c. If you plan on conducting observations you will want to indicate where you plan to observe and how/why you selected this site; if you will just observe or also participate; and, how often you plan on making observations in the field.
2. What sampling method will you use? That is, how will you get participants in your study?
a. Identify your sampling strategy (biased/unbiased) and provide details on how you will go about sampling participants. For example, will you purchase a random sample? Will you use a snowball sample? If so, how will you recruit the first few participants?
b. Again, your selection of a sampling method is partly determined by your research purpose and question (i.e., exploratory or explanatory). Who you plan on sampling will also determine which sampling method you will use. In other words, are you studying a hard-to-study group? If yes, what would be the best way to access participants?
c. What is a reasonable sample size? You will want to consider the following before deciding on a sample size:
i. Are you studying a homogeneous population?
ii. Will respondents be easy or hard to access (e.g., a hard-to-study group)?
iii. Will you have time and money to obtain a large random sample?
3. Participants: Who will be in your study? What are the key demographics of participants?
a. Your research topic/question/hypothesis will partly determine this. For example, if you are studying parents who attend college then your participants will need to be college students who are also parents.
b. How important is a diverse sample? In addition to the key characteristics determined by the research question, what other attributes do want participants to have? For example, do you want both men and women in your study? Does age matter? What about race/ethnicity?
4. How will you implement data collection? In other words, if you do a survey, will you administer a phone, mail, or Web survey? If you are conducting interviews, where will they take place? How long will they last? What will you do to make participants feel comfortable?
5. Identify limitations of your research and sampling method.
Attachment:- Assignment.rar