Research Design
GEO-361-A
Fall 2002
Department of Geography and Meteorology
Valparaiso University

Assignment for Tuesday 9/24/02

Thinking back to my own experiences with research design, just figuring out what to do was the most frustrating part. It isn't a simple, neat, and linear process and it takes quite a bit of work. I hope that you got something out of talking about each other's research in class like we did today. The danger is that we let this whole process get too drawn out. You have to make a decision some time. That time with regard to your research question and topic is next Tuesday.

So this is what I would like you to do for next Tuesday:

1. I would like you to do some free-writing on your research topic. What are you interested in and why and what exactly is it that you want to research? What makes it original? What would be really cool to do. Basically you're brainstorming. Then move from that in your free-writing to talk about research questions. Try out some different variations. I'd like to be able to see the evolution of your question. This may be done in whatever way is most comfortable for you--written out with pen and ink, writing on a word processor, or perhaps you want to try the e-mail trick I mentioned (I came up with some of my best ideas just composing e-mails to my dissertation advisor or to other people).

2. Move from the free-writing to actually produce a formal statement of your research problem and your research question. What is the problem you are going to research? Why is it important? (That is why is it a problem worth researching? What contribution do you think the research can make to a better understanding of Porter County? What contribution do you think the research can make to the wider body of geographical understanding/theory?) You might re-read some of chapter 2 in the textbook for help on this part. This should be a formal typed up statement and should probably be 3-5 pages in length. You will probably want to cite some literature or a newspaper article or other source of inspiration in this statement somewhere.

3. Find at least one (more is better) good article or book that relates generally to your research topic and that might provide you with some theories or concepts that you can use to frame your research. For example if you are going to research the wisdom of building houses on sand, then find a good article or book that provides an overview of the field of hazards research or something that directly addresses the hazards of beach erosion. Provide a bibliographic listing and a short explanation of how the book or article might apply to your research. I'll be happy with one, but you are going to need to provide much more than that eventually.

If you are having any trouble at all, or even if you aren't having trouble, come and see me and we can talk. I would like you all to have a pretty firm idea about what you are going to do by Tuesday so bringing what you have to me on Monday for comment will help us get the kinks out earlier. Sitting in my office by myself all day is pretty boring so I'm happy to talk to you most anytime. You may also post ideas to the class e-mail list at any time during the process and ask for comments. Remember research is a social process.

In class on Tuesday we will work on linking your research questions to some specific strategies for answering the questions.

My goal is that by next Thursday you will have a firm research question, a firm idea about why you are researching that question, and a basic idea about how you are going to answer the question. Then we can work simultaneously on getting a literature review together and on designing the research project itself. Time is of the essence, in particular because any of you who are planning to interview people will have to get your proposal approved by the University's human subject committee. I have no idea at this point how long that takes.

 

Homework for Thursday 9/19/02

Write a response paper. How can you answer your research question? Keep in mind that I would like you to use a combination of quantitative, qualitative, and spatial analysis techniques.

When you've got your plan, go ahead and cut and paste it to an e-mail message and send it to the class e-mail list. GEO-361-A-l@valpo.edu. Bring a printed copy to class on Thursday

Note: we haven't gone over data collection techniques or analysis techniques, so you may need to do some skimming ahead in your book for some ideas. It is not necessary for you to have a fully fleshed out plan now; we will work on that next week. The idea is that this will get you started.