Writing Chapter III

Chapter III is composed of 7 parts.

• Method
• Respondents or Participants/Selections
• Locale of the Study
• Research Instrument
• Data Gathering Method/Procedure
• Data Analysis
• Ethical Considerations

Many students and writers mistake that many parts of this chapter is a patch of paraphrases defining the parts.  Keep in mind that the thesis is YOURS.  Hence Chapter III is where you narrate and justify the procedure on how you intend to answer your problem, and to prove your thesis statement.

In method you will discuss 3 to 3.5 things.

• Method
• Approach
• Deisgn

There are two basic Methods:  Qualitative and Quantitative.

Advanced methods are Quanti-Quali and Quali-Quanti.

How does one determine or justify which one to use? 

Qualitative is used when there is not enough authorities or not enough data to conceptualize the thesis statement.  You will do qualitative in order to help gain insight into the essence of the phenomenon.  As extension.  Because of this, the writing of Chapyer IV should be more righ than rigorous.   It means, that there should be more high level of abstraction of concepts.  Deep explanations of ideas.

Quantitative if there’s an existing theory that rightly fits the phenomenon.  You will do quantitative in order to test the theory using statistical tools.  It will be more rigorous than rich.  It means that there will have to be more focus on the accuracy of the data in order to arrive at the conclusion.  It will be careful attention to details and ensuring that every detail match perfectly in order to avoid questions on accuracy.

There are three basic approaches:  Historical, Descriptive, and Experimental.

A qualitative historical research explains (studies) the past.

A qualitative descriptive or quantitative descriptive explains (studies) the present.

A quantitative experimental project or predicts (studies the possibilities of) the future.

Take note where the method and the approach matches.

A warning to keep in mind is that experimental approach may seem fancy as a word to use.  But again, make sure that you can justify.  It’s the most rigorous among the approaches.  And you will need cutting edge statistical designing for that.

For political science writers.  There is an additional approach.

You have to identify which approach in the study of politics does your research fall into:

• Institutionalism (old or new)
• Behavioralism
• Postbehavioralism / Normativism
• Postmodernism

Design varies depending on the goal of the research.

For qualitative:

There should be two basic designs.

Phenomenology – if the goal is to know based on the experiences of people.  If one’s purpose is to describe the phenomene based on the experience of the people involved.

Case study – is also experiential, but it’s purpose is to know what makes a particular situation unique.  Case studies are best used for model studies.  E.g.  You can’t propose solutions without models.  You can’t discuss problems also without any cases.  Case study fits best here.

To write: Identify and explain each. One to three paragraphs will do.

Respondents or Participants are terms used based whether you are using qualitative or quantitative methods.

The term, respondent, is best used in quantitative researches.  The people answer by responding to surveys.

Participant or Selection are used synonymously in a qualitative research.  The people participate in an interview, focus group discussion or any activity that can help in producing the needed data.

The number of respondents are determined based on sample size formula.  An important factor in this is the consideration of representation.  Is the population devided into different groups?  E.g. year levels of students? Programs?  Age groups?  Gender?  Do these need equal representation in the population?  Descriptive research may not require equali representation.  But experimental will have to considere having equal representation.

Selections are synonymous to participants because of the choosing.  They are not determined by statistical formula, but by arbitrary determination of best possible number.  You “select” participants because they will be your information base.  And the number ranges from 1 to 20.  This will depend on the design used.  For example.  A case study of a person who behaves politically based on TV exposure will be made to write in a Journal.  That one person can be the participant.  But more is better. 

The principle used in adding to the number is to gain saturation - in interviews, saturation happens when as you visit different people, there seems to manifest a particular pattern of answers.  You add because saturation is not yet evident.

This is different in an FGD.  You limit it to 7.  More will open the possibility of free riders, and one or a few will dominate the focus group.

To write: Identify and explain each. One to two paragraphs will do.

Locale of the Study is basic.  Simply justify why you chose the location.  The justification should be objective, not personal.

Research Instrument

The tool to gather the primary data.  For qualitative, the common instrument used is the Questionnaire Protocol.  For quantitative the common one is the Survey Questionnaire.

There are instruments that already exist, tried and tested. This is the best path for researchers.  But if it happens that you can’t find a suitable instrument.  You construct your own.

Constructing the instrument is based on the conceptual framework.  The questions to be rated or answered will be guided by the elements found there.  For qualitative, you are looking for indicators.  So you ask questions that can bring forth the indicators if such exist.  For quantitative, you quantify the parameters.  Such as rating performance, rating cleanliness.

Once composed.  The instrument must be pre-tested.  For qualitative, have 1 or 2 people who fit the same category as your selections (but not your actual selections) participate in a test interview.  For quantitative, have around 10 to 20 surveys accomplished by people who also fit the qualifications of your respondents (again, not your actual respondents) answer the survey.

Take note of how the test interview or the pretest survey happens.  The people will ract, not react, not understand your questions.  After that, note, does the answers satisfy the Problem?  Are they complete or incomplete?  Edit the instrument as necessary.

Data Gathering Method

This is where you narrate the actual process of how you will collect the data.  Will you do a survey?  An FGD?  An interview?  Is the interview structured or semi-structured?  Will you be using printed primary sources?  Will you interview people who experienced the phenomenon?  Or will you interview experts on the phenomenon?

Will the procedure be done in several steps?  Will it be in stages? Or Will it be in levels.

Identify each, then narrate and explain why you plan to do so.

Data Analysis Method

Reading the interview transcriptions is not analysis.  There are tools for analyzing the data.  And you choose the tools based on the approach and design that you use.  A correlational experiment will require T-Test or Perason’s R analysis.  Acase study or phenomenology will required data thematization, tabulation, and classification.  There are technologies that use these tools, such as MS Excel and SPSS for statistics.  And MaxQDA and AtlasTi for analyzing transriptions. 

Discuss in proper sequence and in detail, with appropriate justification why you plan to use which particular tool.

Ethical Considerations

This is where you narrate how you plan to protect the research subjects.  You declare a particular reference for research ethics.  And provide a summary of how you plan to comply. Do you brief your respondents and participants?  Do you ask for consent to answer questions?  Do you have plans and procedures to conceal their identities?  Enumerate and narrate.  Cite as needed.