Events This Week
At the Library

• Message from the Head Librarian
• Keep Your Library Card Privileges
• Library Lessons : Qualitative Research Designs
  • Lesson 1:  Grounded Theory
  • Lesson 2:  Ethnographic
  • Lesson 3:  Narrative Research
  • Lesson 4: Section IV of your proposal
• Circulation Desk
• Next Week at the Library

A Message from
the Head Librarian

Welcome to your ninth week at the library.  We are closing in on the final weeks of chapter readings in our text.  This week we will discuss 3 qualitative designs and next week we will finish up with mixed methods and action research.

As a general note on my feedback I want to tell you that I do not necessarily note every time you make an error within your draft. My expectation is that if I note it once then it is your responsibility to review your document to insure all cases of such errors are corrected whether it pertain to content, paragraph development, grammar, punctuation, APA style, etc. If all you do is go back through a draft and only look at what I might have highlighted or commented on then your final draft will be partly improved but I would not expect an A. In this same vein, if I provided a suggestion for rewording a sentence (I find myself doing this a lot when you are introducing a study) or suggest rewording or rephrasing an awkward sentence to make the meaning more straightforward or to avoid passive voice then you need to reflect on this and then find other places where you should make this same improvement. As I have said before, I am not your proofreader. I may point out these errors but it is up to you to make sure your entire document is error free. My hope is that you will turn in a document free of technical errors so that I can focus on the content. As it is now I must focus on both to emphasize the importance of both of these aspects of writing so you are not shocked if you receive a poor grade due to some of the more technical aspects of writing. While content is of utmost importance, it is rarely achieved if accompanied by poor writing. Every technical error as well as content error in the final draft will cost you points - you can pay attention to detail now or pay later:-)

As you continue to work on Sections III and IV this week then please review my feedback on the previous sections to insure you are moving in the correct direction. So far I have had a few Section II drafts that seemed to go in a different direction than the Section I turned in. Once you turn in your final draft I would expect that all Sections flow together nicely and are all focused clearly on the same topic - I should almost be able to predict rather accurately what your research questions and purpose are going to be from simply reading Section I. I should also be able to predict what your lit review will cover from reading Section I - this has not always been the case. Some of you have already received feedback but I should be completing the rest in the next day or two.

This week the APA tidbit is a small one that guides the use of brackets and parentheses in your narrative.  In fact, there are only two things to remember: (a) use brackets inside parentheses and (c) reverse when using mathematical material.  See page 86 of the APA manual for specific directions and examples.

Our goals this week are to:

• Describe the different designs for conducting grounded theory research
• Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of grounded theory
• Describe key characteristics of grounded theory designs
• Describe the steps of conducting grounded theory research
• Identify types of ethnographic designs
• Describe key characteristics of ethnographic designs
• Describe the steps in conducting ethnographic research.
• Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of grounded theory
• Identify types of narrative designs
• Describe key characteristics of narrative designs
• Describe the steps in conducting narrative research.
• Work on section IV of your research proposal.

Don't Forget Your
Library Card!

None

Contact the
Library Staff

Need Help?

Have a question but can't find the answer? Here are some options:

• Check the Course FAQ page to see if your question has already been answered.
• Check the Proposal FAQ page to see if your question has already been answered.
• Email the Head Librarian (Dr. Curda)*.
• Email the Assistant Librarian (Melissa)*.
• Check with the other library patrons.

*Remember to include your name and the course name (Educational Research) or number (EDF 6481) in your message.

Go to the Library Lessons for the Week
(Page 2)