Topic-related Suggestions for Final Paper (TSFP)
Work Ahead: Topic-related Suggestions for Final Paper (TSFP)
It is a good idea to save a copy of the weekly TSFP for future references to help formulate your research proposal.
Since you have a topic now, you should seriously think about what research method/design to be used for your study. There is NO perfect research design; however, there are better ones, depending on what your topic is and what resources you have. That is, there is the best fit between a topic and a method. Our class is a quantitative methods class, so you are asked to consider quantitative methods as the major choices. Among quantitative methods, you may use an experimental method, a self-administered survey, a mailed survey, or a face-to-face survey, etc. Each of the above-mentioned methods prefers different types of sampling procedures, population, question design, and analytical strategies. Our readings have many detailed descriptions and explanations of those methods.
Between the last topic and this topic, there is an important session, Literature Review, that is to examine what the past studies have found related to your research. Your chosen theory/theories can be included in this session to provide some empirical review of how the chosen theory/theories had been supported by past studies. The Literature Review may be ranged from 2 to 5 pages.
2-4 pages of your final paper may come from what you learn from this topic.
After you finish assigned readings, you should find that many conditions are to be considered for your choice of research design. Please answer these questions.
- What research method/design (as described in Harvey’s chapters 3, 6 & 7 and the other two textbooks for the reference as well) will you choose? Please tell the class your reasons and justifications (why are your chosen methods better than the others).
- Please discuss your chosen method/design and analyze its strengths and weakness in your final paper writing. How are you going to take advantage of those strengths and avoid those weaknesses?
- Are there other alternatives you may consider in case your current choice does not work well? At what point you think that it is about time to consider the other alternatives?
