Three aspects of qualitative writing- Practice, Genre and Audience. Components in qualitative research proposal,- Problem Statement , Focus of Inquiry , Research Design, Methods, Sample (Data collection methods ) , Data Analysis Procedures , Reporting the Outcomes , References, Appendix

1. Components in qualitative research proposal
Three aspects of qualitative writing-
( Practice, Genre and Audience)
Nidhin Chandrasekharan
M.Sc. Applied Psychology
Qualitative Reasearch
Kerala University

2. Components in qualitative research proposal
are
1. Problem Statement
2. Focus of Inquiry
3. Research Design
4. Methods
5. Sample (Data collection methods )
6. Data Analysis Procedures
7. Reporting the Outcomes
8. References
9. Appendix

3. 1. Problem Statement
◦ In a clear and direct way state your
focus of inquiry and provide a rationale
for pursuing this topic.
◦ It is your task to provide a convincing
rationale for why your study needs to
be done.

4. 2.Focus of Inquiry
◦ Provide a clear statement of your focus
of inquiry, presented in the form of a
research(s) question or statement.

5. 3. Research Design
◦ The design of a research study includes the overall approach to be
taken and detailed information about how the study will be carried
out, with whom and where.

6. Specify - emergent or nonemergent
◦ An emergent research design means that you will begin with an initial focus of
inquiry and an initial sample, and refine your focus of inquiry and sampling
strategy as you engage in an ongoing process of data collection and analysis
(Lincoln and Cuba, 1985).
◦ A nonemergent research design means you will pursue your focus of inquiry
with qualitative methods of data collection and data analysis, but that you will
collect data, then analyze it. A nonemergent design is less desirable than one
that is emergent, but it can yield important information and suggest a direction
for subsequent data collection efforts

7. ◦ include- provisions for trustworthiness.
◦ Trustworthiness is the term used by Lincoln and Guba (1985) to refer to the
believability of a researcher’s findings.

8. 4.Methods
There are several componentsthat should be included in the methods section of a qualitative research
proposal:
1. sampling strategy and the people or settings that will make up the sample.
2. data collection procedures and procedures for data analysis.
In an emergent research design, the researcher will not be able to specify exactly what will
happen, but it is possible to present procedural information about the proposed study.

9. Data collection methods (Sub topic of
sample)
◦ In this section you want to describe your sampling strategy
◦ and, if you are using an emergent research design, describe which types of persons or settings
you will initially seek out for your sample.
◦ You may already have obtained permission to interview a few people who meet your criteria, or
have obtained access to a setting you want to observe. (This would be important information to
include in your discussion of the sample.)

10. You will not be able to specify the size of your sample if you are using an emergent
design, but you can describe for the reader your basis for terminating
sampling, for example, reaching the saturation point.

11. 5. Data Analysis Procedures
◦ There are several ways to approach the analysis of qualitative data that vary in the level
of interpretation engaged in by the researcher.
◦ There are also several specific techniques that can be used to search for meaning in the
data.
◦ To accurately describe what has been studied—and one technique for analyzing
qualitative data known as the ‘constant comparative method’.
Whichever data analytic technique you plan to use in your study, explain it to the
reader.

12. Constant comparative method

15. Constant comparative method

16. 6. Reporting the Outcomes
◦ In the last section of the proposal, discuss how you will inform others
of your work. This is often in the form of a written report, but reporting can
also be done through a presentation to the research participants or other
appropriate audiences.

17. References
◦ Submit a complete list of the references cited in the proposal.

18. Appendix
◦ You may have materials that are most appropriately placed in an Appendix,
◦ such as an interview schedule. A copy of the researcher’s resume might also be
included.
◦ Note that each item that appears in the Appendix should also be referred to in
the proposal.

19. Three aspects of qualitative writing
◦ Practice
◦ Genre
◦ Audience

20. 1. Practice (Practice of Writing)
◦ Creativityand technical know-how (accumulated knowledge and experience in any
technical field for doing or executing a particular activity) are not mutually exclusive dimensions of
writing; great ideas, no matter how profound, cannot be expressed without the basic skills of
writing

21. (This example is illustrative of ‘writing
process theory’)
“Fortunately, as my writing and analysis progressed, with the help of my peers and dissertation
director, I focused on another idea that seemed more in synch with the empirical evidence and my
sociological training. In particular, my data seemed to show that the very notion of ‘the homeless’
was problematic. The men and women on the streets and in shelters viewed their circumstances
from many different standpoints. Some thought of their situation as a type of personal freedom
whereas others said they were ‘miserable’. This way of analysing and writing about my fieldwork
became the foundation of my research and was further polished as the writing went on.”

22. Writing process theory
◦ The idea that writing is an on-going activity that embodies the author, his or her audience(s),
and a larger cultural and institutional context. According to this approach:
◦ Writing always has a bidirectional movement, both inner and outer, and contains both
personal and social elements. The act of writing has an inner movement, which results in
nothing less than the construction of self, as well as an outer movement, because the writing
as text exists as a cultural artifact that is meant for others to read. (According to Park, 2005)

23. Should follow
◦ writing over time, in association with others (e.g. mentors, peers and reviewers) and in
specific settings.
◦ Qualitative research texts, in particular, are not written overnight and ‘independently’, but they
emerge in a context and in collaboration with others.
◦ Thinking about writing as an ongoing practice in this way balances the emphasis on technical
know-how (e.g. spelling and grammar)

24. 2.Genre
Common meaning-

25. Genre is range of writing choices/ styles
1. Organization
2. alternative writing practices by focusing on the following three genres:
writing with pictures
writing the story
writing the author

26. Organization
◦ The most widely used mode of writing a research paper
◦ whether qualitative or quantitative, organizes the text into four elements:
1) Introduction: What is the topic of your paper? Have there been previous studies on this topic?
2) Methods: What was the size of the sample for the study? How and where was the sample
collected? How is the data to be analysed? Or ‘Why should the readers believe the study?’ (James
Holstein, personal correspondence, 20 July 2015).
3) Analysis: What is the empirical evidence for this study? What social processes are revealed by the
data? How does it support the researcher’s claims about a particular sociological topic or
process?
4) Conclusion: How is the study of interest to ordinary people or policy-makers? In what ways could
it be improved or expanded (i.e. the proverbial call for ‘further research’)?

27. Writing with pictures
◦ (1) writing about pictures
◦ (2) writing with pictures

28. Erving Goffman analyzed how gender roles and expectations are reflected in
magazine ads. Using over 500 photos, he critiqued the taken-for-granted nature
of gender relations in Western societies.

29. Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead’s Balinese Character: A Photographic Analysis
(1942) juxtaposes text and the visual in a complementary way so that one would
enhance the meaning of other.
As Douglas Harper (2005) notes, emerging computer technologies have facilitated
the use of visual material in social research.
CAN YOU FEEL PICTURES ?

30. Writing the story
◦ the researchers narrate the characters and the ‘scenes’ in which the
data was collected.
◦ Additionally, the author’s reflections and the roles he or she
assumed in the study can become part of the story.

31. For example, Carolyn Ellis and Arthur Bochner’s (1992) personal
experience with abortion is told using the following familiar narrative
headings:
◦ The Story
◦ Scene 1: The Pregnancy Test and the Test of Pregnancy
◦ Scene 2: Making the Decision
◦ Scene 3: Dealing with the Decision
◦ Scene 4: The Preabortion Procedure
◦ Scene 5: The Abortion
◦ Epilogue
◦ (adapted from Ellis and Bochner, 1992: 79–101)

32. Writing the author

33. Writing the author into the field notes, or autoethnography, is
another genre of representing qualitative research
◦ Autoethnographic texts explicitly aim to include the author and embed his or
her experiences in a broader social context
self-reflexive account of social experience

34. WARNING on Aesthetics of writing
◦ Genre writing warn against the wholesale acceptance of aesthetic criteria in
the reconstruction of social life.

35. Audience

36. books and articles allow for different treatments of topics under
analysis and they allow researchers to reach different audiences.
◦ James Holstein offers two additional types of reviewers:
◦ 1) ‘generous reviewer – willing to let everyone have his/her say, and let the
reader decide’
◦ 2) ‘the gatekeeper or the guardian of the discipline, who doesn’t want
anything to enter the canon unless it is first rate’ (personal correspondence, 20
July 2015).

37. ◦ Reviewers and editors and eventually the readership of the journal as a
whole

38. Research role
◦ David Silverman (2006: 351–9) suggests that researchers can assume one of three roles in this context.
◦ First, there is the position of the ‘scholar’. In this capacity, the researcher is interested in science for
the sake of science.
◦ The second research role is that of a ‘state counsellor’. Here, the goal is to work closely with
interested policy-makers. In this role, sociologists might be viewed as social engineers who assist state
bureaucrats in a joint effort to create a ‘better’ society.
◦ Finally, there is the ‘partisan’ role, where the sociologist sides with a particular group.

39. Janet Zepernick offers this useful list of audience-
related problems that plague novice writers:
◦ •insufficient understanding of the audience’s expectations,
◦ •inability to predict the kinds of claims the audience will be prepared to
accept, and
◦ •unwillingness (or inability) to subordinate aspects of the work that the writer
personally finds most interesting or most difficult to the interests and
informational requirements of the audience.

41. Online Publishing
◦ Practice-writing and publishing online allows greater flexibility for editing and revising
the text.
◦ Genre-widest range of possibilities. Photographs, videos and audio-clips can all be
included in the context of online publishing.
◦ Audience-Peer review, articles and books, and citation are still very much the currency
of academic life, and that is overwhelmingly likely to remain the case for the
foreseeable future
◦ the success of an article is always going to be dependent on whether or not it is well
articulated, original, and rigorous. It is hard to imagine a future for the academy where
this isn’t the case.

42. SUMMARY
◦ RECALLING COMPONENTS OF QUALITATIVE PROPOSAL.
◦ RECALLING THREE ASPECTS OF QUALITATIVE WRITING.

43. Reference
◦ Morehouse, R., & Maykut, P. (1994). Beginning Qualitative Research: A Philosophical and Practical
Guide (Teachers’Library) (1st ed.). Routledge.
◦ Silverman, D. (2016). Qualitative Research (4th ed.). SAGE Publications Ltd.

44. A BIG THANKYOU