13 Methodological Paper

This project is a bit more open ended and should be driven by your interests. In it you should explore a methodological or methods topic. For example, you could look in depth at a particular method’s use in a specific domain. You could explore a methodological approach such as feminist methods or grounded theory.  There are many examples of papers like this that are published, and you can think of that as a goal.

Potentially you can build on your other writing for this, but don’t feel you have to do so.

One possible approach to this is to look through the Sage Research resources.  They are famous for (among other things) having very specialized books on many different specific methods, both qualitative and quantitative.  I also have always used their “little green books” to learn about new data analysis approaches that I want to try out.

Some suggestions I have made: Using vignettes; case studies; working with administrative data;  analysis of textual data; factor analysis; experiments; systematic social observation; grounded theory; feminist methodology;  focus groups; oral history; narrative methods; participant observation ; archival research; and so many others. It could also be a deeper dive into positionality, reliability or other topics we have discussed.  More specific is better, so it should not be “qualitiative research,” it should be “ethics in qualitative research” or “narrative inquiry.”  Similarly, within survey research pick something specific.

Writing structure

Think of this as like the methods section of a research project.  You need to explain the methods you are doing and show that you have deeper understanding than you would get from a chapter in a general methods text book (there are many examples of those kinds of books in the resources section).   That means you don’t need a long introduction or conclusion.  Although you could in theory write a stand alone paper about the application of this topic to some area, this document would be one part of that paper, not the whole thing.

So

• A topic paragraph for this section that introduces the focal idea.
• The body which will discuss the topic in a way that is understandable to a generic academic audience (meaning college graduates or above) .  This  may include things like definitions of key terms, discussion of major contributions, discussion of any important debates.
  This likely will include strengths and weaknesses.
  This may include applicability of the method to a particular research topic.
  This may include other elements that depend on your area of interest.
• A straight forward final paragraph that wraps up the discussion.

How will this be assessed?

• Are the source or sources used appropriate for doctoral work?
• Is the writing well organized and appropriate for a scholarly audience?
• Does the document conform with standards of academic writing in terms of writing mechanics, citations and other elements (may depend on the topic).
• Does the content move beyond summary to analysis and description of potential application or apply the material to a specific topic?

Note that this will probably be a 4-5 page document, more if you get into it. But remember that the ideal of most of your course work is that you will revise and either make it into its own paper or presentation (stand alone) or incorporate it into a larger document (like your dissertation).  So think of this as kind of a draft of (a section of) that future work that you are ready to share.

Here are some other sources to get you thinking.