The sample qualitative research for this week is a feature article on transit workers in New York during the pandemic.

Here are the three things I would like you to read for: 

• Try to pay attention to where we are getting background information on the main subject being interviewed for the piece. That information comes from the interview subject but it is not direct quotation. What kinds of information do we learn that rounds out our picture of this individual? 
• Where is direct quotation from the subject used and why is it used? Where is is not used and why? 
• What do "secondary sources" look like in this piece? How is it positioned in the actual article? 
• What is the larger world that this interview reflects on? How do come to know the wider view and what do we come to know about it? 
• What is the significance of the piece in it's entirety? Why tell this story? 
• What narrative elements shape the article? In other words, this is public scholarship not academic scholarship. So, related to the question above, why tell this story this way? 

Once you've read and considered these questions, post between 250 and 300 words that address them.

Additionally, what do you learn about your own final project by thinking about the last two bullets: why tell. this story and why tell this story this way? Write through your answer for your own project in 100 to 200 words. 

Good Talk with you today. Not everyone had an abstract and the folks that did got an earful from me--both about what goes into an abstract and how it relates to actually writing something from it. 

A few things to know, in general, about abstracts: 
1. Abstracts are written in present tense--like you write about literature, it's always happening at that moment. 
2. The first sentence or two identifies what your argument is--it's a hypothesis, sure, because this is the start of project not the end of it, but you say it like you know your argument is right. 
3. You need to include a sentence or two about why you think this is true--this could be a place to bring in a quote or two from an outside source--it's like saying, I believe X and one of the reasons I believe X is because these other very smart people think something similar to X. 
4. You need to include a sentence or two about methodology--this you should be able to do in your sleep at this point. 
5. You conclude with a sentence about significance--why is this research valuable in the world. Now, I know, you aren't curing cancer, but you want to convey why we should care about what you are telling us. 

A few things to think about as it relates to your final project: 

• Most of the folks I talked with today are re-looking at their midterm project. For you folks, keep in mind that this is not just a revision, it's an expansion or a re-looking at the data you got at midterm with a tweaked question. Your data collection should lead you to a more nuanced question that you are trying to answer. That's what will make a successful final project out of an existing midterm project. 
• To that end, you might look at Bhattacharya's example qualitative research project that she conducted for her class. Remember how she demonstrates to us how by asking a different kind of question you treat your data and data collection differently. How will you either look at the data you have already collected differently for the final project and/or how will you collect new data to thicken up your project? 
• If you are doing an entirely new project, be clear about the scope of your project--or, rather, the possibility for the scope of your project given the time you have. 

Instructions for Posting & Responding. ​Once you've worked through the feedback: I gave you during our meeting on Monday, post your finalized (for now) abstract. Once everyone has posted, please read your colleague's post and reply to more than one of your colleagues with one piece of constructive feedback--it could be a question about their argument or how they intend to prove it. It could be a question of clarification (In our conferences I often asked what a writer meant by a word or phrase--clarity and precision are vital in an abstract). 

For today's post, consider the reading from Bhattacharya about the various schools of thought, theories, that can impact the decisions we make as qualitative researchers. In 250-300 words, identify one or more theories that speak to you--so theories you agree with or have encountered before or that you think is totally ridiculous. Write a little bit about what you understand about that theory both from Bhattacharya and from your own lived experience--perhaps you encountered it in another class or while watching something or exploring social media or thinking about the news. 

Then, expand that idea. Write about the ways you see some of these theories affecting how you or how other people actually make decisions in life. This is tricky. People don't walk around saying things like, because Marxist theory affects how I think about the world, I'm not going to buy a new car but instead buy a used one. But, in fact, a belief that we don't want or need a lot of new stuff all the time is shaped by a belief system and that belief system is based on one theory rather than another--or a combination of theories. 

Once you've posted, read and respond to more than one your colleagues. 

NOTE: Don't post your response until class time. Be prepared with notes from the three readings for today listed on the syllabus. We will discuss and post to the discussion board as part of class.

Overview: The Bhattacharya has addressed the concepts of "ethics" and "rigor" in scholarly qualitative research, particularly as it applies to educational research. As a class, you are more interested in what I would call public intellectualism--the kind of in-depth, research and writing that we see in the best news-reporting and feature writing. To that end, we have a series of readings that consider what ethics and rigor look like in the public domain. Two of the articles are discuss ethics and the third piece, American Hunger, is an example of long-form journalism of the sort that you all have expressed the most interest in writing. It should serve as both a way to talk about ethics and rigor and it should also serve as a way in, in class, to talk about ethics and rigor. 

What to Post: Considering what you've learned about the research process in Bhattacharya so far, how does ​American Hunger hold up? In what ways does it feel like the qualitative research projects that she describes and explains? In what ways does it not? (Careful here--some of that is obvious, but not all of it). Is this a rigorous research project? Is it ethical? in what ways does the piece serve as an example of journalistic ethics and rigor in ways that explains the difference between public versus academy-based knowledge-making? Is it possible to say that there is a difference--in scope, methodology, and purpose--in the end? 

OVERVIEW: Once folks are caught up with the reading from last week, you will have read descriptions of various ways that researchers who rely on qualitative methods develop their research questions, create rigorous qualitative studies, and make decisions about methodology (what practices--methods of research--will they use to try to answer their research question) they will use. 

Bhattacharya offers us an example of a research question she had about a class she was teaching and how effective--or, really, what did a particular assignment accomplish in her class. She offers us a variety of research questions that propel the researcher to use different methodologies to find the answer. Different methods yield different kinds of data and, thus, answer the questions differently. 

While it is true that journalists and other writers don't necessarily understand or describe their work as a "research process," it is certainly true that they would say the "do research." And what I would hope you would see is that even though they might go about it differently, many of the kinds of things that Bhattacharya says go into a rigorous qualitative research study is the same kind of work that would go into producing, for instance, a profile piece in The New York Times or, as we read for this week, a personal essay in The New Yorker. 

You are reading two pieces this Monday. One is a scholarly piece in the field of Rhetoric and Composition (Writing Studies) and one is piece written by Marcus Laffey (which, it turns out, is a pseudonym), about cop life in the late 1990s in New York City. 

DETAILS: Once you've read these two pieces, in your Reading Journal for this week, try to identify, for each of the two articles, what Bhattacharya would call, the research question. Secondly, how do the authors of the two pieces collect their data? What methodologies do they use (remember that Bhattacharya says that most qualitative researchers use a mix of methodologies--that can apply here too). Finally, how does each set of authors establish the "rigor" of their work, their research and their resulting argument (answer to their research question. 

​HOW TO POST
Click on either the "comments" button at the top right of this post or the bottom left. Either one. Fill out the name and email portions of the dialogue box when prompted to do so, and then post your 200-250 words I that space. Click "submit" and you are done. 

You can "reply" to a specific post from your colleague by clicking on "reply" rather than "comments." Don't worry if you accidentally post something in not exactly the right place. 

Overview. Unit two of Bhattacharya covers the many ways you can approach qualitative research. And you are perhaps thinking that there seems to be a lot of different ways to do qualitative research. In this post, please do the following: 

1) Identify two different types of qualitative research that are particularly appealing to you. Provide a good summary from Bhattacharya as part of your response. In what ways are these types very similar? In what ways do they differ?

2) What is appealing to you about these particular modes? Why these modes and not others (here is an opportunity to show me that you read the entire unit)?

3) Considering the reading from last week, what are the benefits of these kinds of research? What are some things you need to watch out for. 

Specifics. Your post should be between 250 and 300 words and should demonstrate to me that you've read the entire assigned reading. 
​
HOW TO POST
Click on either the "comments" button at the top right of this post or the bottom left. Either one. Fill out the name and email portions of the dialogue box when prompted to do so, and then post your 200-250 words I that space. Click "submit" and you are done. 

You can "reply" to a specific post from your colleague by clicking on "reply" rather than "comments." Don't worry if you accidentally post something in not exactly the right place. 

WHAT TO POST: Bhattacharya offers an brief introduction to qualitative research in the first reading of your semester. In your very brief first post, how do you understand what qualitative research is and, connected to your first assignment, how does your partner profile fit into her definition of research? In what ways does this assignment and her definition feel at odds with one another? Post you 200-250 word answer here by midnight on Monday, 14 September 2020.

HOW TO POST
Click on either the "comments" button at the top right of this post or the bottom left. Either one. Fill out the name and email portions of the dialogue box when prompted to do so, and then post your 200-250 words I that space. Click "submit" and you are done. 

You can "reply" to a specific post from your colleague by clicking on "reply" rather than "comments." Don't worry if you accidentally post something in not exactly the right place.