This final report on your original research has 3 Parts, which are intended to be reflective and comparative. Please pay close attention to the recommended minimum number of paragraphs for each Part of the assignment, and please organize your post divided up by Part 1, 2 and 3 subheadings, with your name placed at the very top. Please include all of the applied research assignments, data and coding, to write this final report.  You are encourage to share and provide one another with feedback.

Individual‘s working independently throughout the course will submit a single-authored report.

The final report is 7 or more pages (single-spaced) and should be organized by the required sections and lengths below. 

Please follow these requirements.

Due: February 27, Tuesday 11:59pm.

Please post this into the discussion board and attach the assignment as a word document (using Zotero for citations and reference page).

Part 1: Research Design and Analysis

This final report requires you to synthesize the various parts of the applied project work throughout the course.  One goal of this assignment if for you to develop clear connections (or alignments) between your original research question(s), the data you analyzed, and your research design and analysis (including your coding schemes, cases studies, case comparisons, and analysis).  Another goal is for your to clearly articulate key takeaways or insights for your reader to walk away with (think of this as your elevator pitch).

Important Time Saving Note:

If you are quoting text (from news articles, etc) from MAXQDA, you are welcome to copy and paste the text from the software to Word.  MAXQDA will automatically provide a document ID citation at the end of your copied text.  You can use this for citing the orginal data.  There is no need to formally cite each news article or document from MAXQDA. 

All secondary sources should be properly cited (ideally using Zotero).

Assignment: For Part 1 of this final report assignment, please address all of the bullet points below:

Research Design Summary (recommended: 4-5 paragraphs)

Please describe your primary research question(s), your sources of data, and how your approaches and methods. 

Everyone was required to conceptualize case studies and design a comparison of these cases.  Please include this into your research design summary.

Please include how you used MaxQDA, AntConc, Tableau, and other tools. 

Alignment and evolution of the research design: Please consider discussing how your project evolved, how you narrowed or broadened your focus, how you changed your research question to fit the datasets, the limitations of the datasets to address certain kinds of research questions, as well as the opportunity that the datasets opened for asking new research questions you might not have thought of before. 

, complete the following (recommended: 5 or more paragraphs):

Analysis:

Explain at least one original insight or finding from your project.

Unpack the analysis of your comparative case studies (assigned in Modules 4 and 5).  This may be related to or separate from the one insights you identify above. 

Highlight how your research design and case studies helped to structure your analysis for the research question(s) that guide your project.

Tips for what to include:

Visuals will not be counted towards your 5-10 pages of text, but they will benefit and enhance your report.  I strongly encourage adding images from Tableau and other visuals that you used to structure and analyze parts of your project.

Qualitative examples (e.g., quoting text from the news articles) is highly encouraged and will certainly enhance your report.

Tables or descriptive statistics from your codes (including your coding scheme) will also benefit your analysis and report.

Lastly, you might find that these things are more helpful to provide in the research design requirement above, or here in the analysis section.  This is your choice.  You can also place them into an appendix at the end of your report, and simply reference them in the report.

• Future Research:
• If you had more time and resources (to conduct fieldwork or other forms of research), explain 1 or 2 ways that you would continue building your research and analysis, and contrast this with the research design, approaches, and analysis you were able to complete during the course.

For example:

Would you conduct original interviews or a survey of government agencies or non-profit organizations?  Why?  And how would this allow you to address your primary research questions differently than the event transcripts, social media posts and news articles?

Part 2: Methodological Reflections

• Recommended: 5 or more paragraphs:

Identify 2 or 3 similar methods or approaches covered in our courses readings and explain how each relate to your original project.  The goal of Part 2 of this assignment is for you to clearly explain well established methods or approaches, their relative value (strengths and weaknesses), and then connect each to your original research.  Why is what you’ve done similar?  Why is it different?  How might you develop your research to embrace and employ the methods or approaches you’ve chosen from the course learning materials?  These are some ways that you can build up the connections between what we’ve read and what you have begun to build as original research. 

Part 3: Contribution & Value of Your Research

Recommended:  2-5 paragraphs:

Explain how your research contributes to academic debates or current activism relevant to your research problem(s) and question(s).  Please be specific.  Cite to scholarship or to activism.  Connect your research to gaps or opportunities in either academia or activism.  Explain why your research can contribute and be impactful, and why it is worth investing in (e.g., applying for grants).  Please Note: You can choose to address only academia or only activism, or you can address both.  However, your answer should primarily focus on elaborating on the value of your research, not summarizing academia or activism that it connects to.  In other words, cite to others efficiently and only so that you can situate the value your work brings within a particular community/space.

• Part 4: Reflection on Research

Recommended: 1-3 paragraphs:

Explain on what excites you most about your research and findings and why.  This is open ended.