SECTION 1: General Guideline There are two steps to this assignment: 1. You will write a 5-7 page paper in which you discuss your objective(s) and your topic. 2. Based on your objective, you will develop a questionnaire with a maximum of 10 questions (excluding 2 warm-up questions)
The purpose of this assignment is to get you to start thinking about research, to develop your research ideas and for you to reflect on research data.
Students must include at least 1 outside scholarly source for this assignment.
SECTION 2: Detailed Instruction for 5-7 page paper – 20%
Your paper must consist of Five sections. Do not hesitate to use subtitles.
- Your Topic: Choose a topic related to gender, sexuality or women’s/men’s lives. Clearly discuss the focus of your research. The challenge: students usually choose a very broad topic. Make sure the scope of your research is reasonable and doable. The other challenge is clarity: do not be wordy; be clear and concise.
- Justify Your Topic: Discuss why you chose your topic and show its relevance to the lives of a wider population. Here you can also discuss its connection to the course. The Challenge: In the real world, no one will fund your research if you don’t demonstrate the significant of your topic. In this course, you don’t receive funding, but you do earn a grade. Think out of the box; how does your research impact others?
- Your Preliminary Findings Discuss what you have learned from researching and reading on your topic. What are the most important theoretical arguments on the issue? Have there been other studies on your topic? If so, what have they found out? What solutions are offered by the researchers? Did the readings make you change and/or modify your research instrument (the Questionnaire)? If so, how? The Challenge: First, do not let the title “your Preliminary Findings” scare you! I have chosen this title to give your writing an official aura! You are not doing a “proper” research; therefore, you will not have any findings. This section serves as a miniliterature review, where you discuss the findings of other scholars, and hopefully, contribute to the discussion by adding your informed reflection on, and critical analysis of the topic. Second, often students forget this is a good place to use their sources (both the course materials and the ONE outside source). If read carefully, they could help situate your topic within the larger framework of what has been done before. Use your sources.
- Limitations and/or challenges that you encountered: This pertains to both your research on the topic and the construction of your questionnaire. What difficulties or challenges did you face? Which questions did you found the most difficult to construct? The Challenge: Leave writing this section for the last. Use your draft notes to write this section. Here, you need reflect on the process you went through. Students who write their assignment the night before the deadline often can’t reflect on their journey effectively.
- What you would need to do if you were to develop this into a full-scale study. This section is meant to encourage you to think beyond the scope of this assignment. You may want to start thinking about other methods which would be suitable for conducting your research, as well as other sources which could supplement and enrich your present findings. The Challenge: In this section, you need to think ahead. Go back and look at the first workshop
Rubrics for this Section: Research Topic- 10 marks Appropriateness of topic, justification/rationale for topic, statement of your topic, and analysis of findings (No. 1,2&3 above)
Discussion-5 marks Discussion of limitations and changes you would make to your research instrument, and thinking ahead (No. 3&4 above).
References & Bibliography – 5 marks Consistent use of either APA or MLA style of referencing
SECTION 3: The Questionnaire – 10%
You will develop a questionnaire with a maximum of 10 questions (excluding 2 warm-up questions)
The steps required to design a questionnaire include:
- Defining the Objective(s) of your research:
The importance of well-defined objectives cannot be over emphasized.
A questionnaire that is written without a clear goal and purpose is inevitably going to overlook important issues and waste participants’ time by asking useless questions. In other words, how would it be possible to expect correct answers to your questions if you don’t actually know what you are looking for or planning to observe?
A good rule of thumb is that if you are finding it difficult to write the questions, then you haven’t spent enough time defining the objectives of your research. Go back and do read your topic (the objective of your research) again. The questions should follow quite naturally from the objective(s).
The Challenge: Tip Number 1: Try to come up with one or two meta-questions as your own questions. Ask yourself what is it you want to find out. As the researcher, what are your questions?
Tip Number 2: Break down your objective into different aspects and formulate one or two questions for each aspect.
- Writing the Questions:
When writing your questions, pay attention to the followings:
Clarity: Questions must be clear, succinct, and unambiguous. The goal is to eliminate the chance that the question will mean different things to different people.
Leading Questions: A leading question is one that forces or implies a certain type of answer. Avoid asking questions which lead your participant to answer in a certain way.
Embarrassing Questions: Embarrassing questions dealing with personal or private matters should be avoided.
Hypothetical Questions Hypothetical questions force the respondent to give thought to something he/she may have never considered. Avoid them.
Prestige Bias: Prestige bias is the tendency for respondents to answer in a way that make them feel better. People may not lie directly, but may try to put a better light on themselves. For example, it is not uncommon for people to respond to a political opinion poll by saying
they support social programs, such as welfare, but then go on to vote for candidates who oppose those very programs. Do not ask questions with prestige bias.
Rubrics for the Questionnaire:
Questionnaire- 10 marks Relevance of questions to research topic, wording of questions
SECTION 4: Format – General Guideline
Your paper must be 5-7 pages long (which does NOT include the title, biography, and questionnaire), and conform to the following format: double spaced, 12pt Times or Times New Roman font only; standard margins (1 inch/2.54cm on the top and bottom, 1.25 inch/3.17cm right and left). This is the most basic formatting necessary for a professional academic paper, and points will be deducted for failing to follow these guidelines. Consistent use of either APA or MLA style of referencing Students are not allowed to use more than one direct quote for this assignment. All other relevant quotes must be rephrased in your own words, and cited. You must also remember that failure to provide page numbers for all citations will result in a deduction from your final mark, and may be grounds for charges of plagiarism.