DOING RESEARCH in ANTH 314/COMM 314

THE RESEARCH PROJECT:

A major component of this course involves the careful preparation of a research proposal. You will not be doing any actual ethnographic research—what you will do is what any researcher first needs to do at some stage: prepare a RESEARCH PROPOSAL. This still involves research, but in this case only of a secondary nature (that is, using secondary sources: sources that are already published). The idea is to lay the groundwork for doing original research of your own. This guide is by no means the definitive statement on “doing research”: ideally, you will complement this with learning in any research methods courses and/or independent reading of research methods texts.

You will be coached throughout this process, so please do not feel too intimidated at this stage. Be aware that you will probably need to read everything here at least three times before you have properly digested it. Ask questions about anything that is confusing, poorly explained, or simply not addressed.

There will be various stages leading to the production of your final proposal, hence, lots of opportunities to revise, correct and rewrite. I will accept drafts of the final work as late as one month before it is due, should you desire some final feedback—this is not mandatory for you, it is a benefit that I am providing. Otherwise, the main assignment has been broken down into a series of “lead up” stages.

Your final research proposal will carry most of the weight in terms of the grade—however, the stages leading up to it will also be graded, essentially to make sure that you are staying on top of the work.

This course is rooted in ETHNOGRAPHY. Both of the required texts for this course, and many items on reserve, are entirely about ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE MEDIA. Thus it should seem clear that you must be able to master those texts, especially Machin’s Ethnographic Research for Media Studies, and the qualitative media studies materials on Reserve (see the bibliography—also see “Important Links” for all items coded as “ethnography”).
 

THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL:

A research proposal commonly has the following main elements:

1. INTRODUCTION:
What is your topic? What are the main question(s) you are addressing? Why is this important?

2. LITERATURE REVIEW:
You can never exhaust all relevant literature—just show that you have tackled some of the more significant items. The purpose of this section is to outline main approaches in the established literature, their strengths and weaknesses, and where your proposed research fits in. Outlining theories and defining concepts of relevance are critical components of this section.

3. HYPOTHESES:
Having given the reader a clear sense of what you are interested in, why it is important, and how extant research is insufficient or somehow inadequate—you now present us with your core arguments, your perspective, the points you hope to prove in your research (these are hypotheses, you don’t have to actually prove them here, but they cannot be wildly absurd or amateurishly inane and pointless either)

4. METHODS:
In this section you outline the methods you intend to use in your ethnographic fieldwork. Try to be detailed. Show a balanced evaluation. Justify your use of certain intended research methods.

5. ETHICS:
In the final section, you consider some of the ethical implications of your research and how you will protect the rights of your informants whilst safeguarding the integrity of your research. As part of this section, you will complete a mock-up application for review to a Research Ethics Board.
 

DOING THE RESEARCH FOR THE PROPOSAL: Some Basic Steps

This page is meant as a guide, rather than a recipe book on how to do research. It is meant as a series of suggestions for those who are uncertain about how to proceed; for others, it will serve as a checklist, reminding you of steps that might you have wanted to take.

After you have read the guidelines below, review Memorial University Library’s “Doing Research: The Basics” to refresh your memory, focus your thoughts, and fill in any gaps. That link is available at http://www.library.mun.ca/instruction/doingresearch/. Remember, the reference and bibliographic format we are using for this course is the APA (American Psychological Association) format—and those guidelines have been widely reproduced across a great many websites.

1. The FIRST step in doing research for this course is to decide on a topic. I suggest that you think in these terms—you will need to:

A. decide on an ISSUE AREA, i.e., gender, race, ethnicity, globalization, terrorism, advertising, indigenous peoples;
B. specify a geographic LOCATION for your research;
C. focus on a particular MEDIUM, i.e., television, cinema, the Internet;
D. choose a particular CONCEPT or theory that you wish to use or critique, for example, see the Glossary for a list of many of these; and,
E. think of a THEORETICAL perspective that you will use in some fashion.

2. The SECOND step involves the creation of a concrete research problem:

A. Having done the above, you now realize that without a background in some of the theories and some of the concepts, you are going nowhere. You MAY choose to start by getting a grip on some of the theories and concepts; OR, you may decide that you first need to have a handle on the empirical data, i.e., indigenous peoples’ usage of the Internet, before you can decide on the theory and concepts you will use. You can choose either direction.
B. Now is the time to establish your RESEARCH QUESTION/PROBLEM: this is the central theme of your whole paper—breaking it down into component key words can help you to articulate the questions you will be addressing, even the main paragraphs of your work.

3. Now you have to start reading. Assigned readings for this course are merely a condensed guide as to what is “out there”. You may have to read ahead if your interest lies in something we cover at the end of this course. Therefore, try to cover the following:

A. The course bibliography is an obvious starting point;
B. Books on Reserve not used for assigned readings, as well as chapters that were not assigned in books of relevance to your interests;
C. Books in the general Library collection;
D. Books available through inter-library loan;
E. Journals—both bound on shelves and via the University Library website;
F. Check “Important Links” for this course—many articles, and directories of online articles, are listed there;
G. Free books online, as listed on this website; and,
H. Use online news searches for any articles that may be of immediate relevance, from credible sources.

4. You should read purposefully: know what you are looking for and what you need for developing your argument, your hypotheses, your directions for further research. You will rarely need to read complete books, just the most relevant chapters. Take notes, and make sure you have the exact source for the notes, and the page number(s) from which a quotation, idea, or “factoid” comes. Remember, we are using APA format for referring to works in the main body of your paper and for the bibliography. Also, review the university policy on plagiarism. That will be strictly enforced.

5. Since ethnographic methods and the ethics of research are critical concerns in this course, you must do your best at covering the print and online sources we use for this course. In particular, spend some time on the following tutorials:
 

USEFUL TUTORIALS FOR DOING RESEARCH AND WRITING

Citation, Grammar and Writing (see APA guidelines)
http://www.uccb.ns.ca/library/citingstyles.html 

Tutorials for Conducting Research
http://www.uccb.ns.ca/library/reshelp.html 

Anthropology Internet Resources
http://www.uccb.ns.ca/library/anthro.htm 

Locating Journal Articles
http://www.uccb.ns.ca/library/locatearticles.html 

Doing Research: The Basics
http://www.library.mun.ca/instruction/doingresearch/ 

Quantitative and Qualitative Research (strongly recommended resource)
http://writing.colostate.edu/references/research.cfm

Writing and Research Processes (strongly recommended resource)
http://writing.colostate.edu/references/index.cfm?guides_active=processes

Research Ethics Board: Application for Review
http://www.deti.uccb.ca/research/ethics%20form%20WORD%20Mod.doc 

Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans
http://www.ncehr-cnerh.org/english/code_2/

American Anthropological Association: Code of Ethics
http://www.aaanet.org/committees/ethics/ethcode.htm

Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR): Ethical Decision-Making and Internet Research
http://www.aoir.org/reports/ethics.pdf

THOMSON Learning tutorials on Grammar, Writing, Research
http://infotrac.thomsonlearning.com/infowrite/index.html

See THE SUNDANCE READER online for mirror links
http://sundance.heinle.com/reader3e/

• Research and the Research Paper
  This section focuses on research and the research paper. It includes strategies for conducting research, sample essay topics and information on using quotations and other source material.

• Grammar
  This section will help you sharpen your grammar and usage skills. Included are interactive exercises for additional practice with subject-verb agreement, pronouns, commas, and more.

• The Writing Process
  Visit this section for additional help with prewriting strategies, developing thesis statements, style, drafting and revising your essays, and more.

• Modes of Exposition
  This section provides tips and other helpful information for each of the 9 modes of exposition, from descriptive and narrative writing, to cause/effect and argumentation.

• Critical Thinking
  This section helps you learn to think critically about issues.