Wreyford’s Research Question, Context And Justification
Part 1: Critically reporting on existing research
Choose one of the readings listed further below and both describe and explain:
1. What its research question is, the broad context from which the question emerges (intellectual and/or social), and the broad justifications or motivations that the researchers provide for it (about 300 words)
2. how the researchers did or approached the research in question: e.g. the steps that they took, the methods that they used, the challenges that they negotiated (about 400 words)
3. why the researchers did what they did: the researchers’ (explicit and implicit) conceptual, practical and ethical reasons and justifications for taking the particular approach and steps that they did (about 400 words)
Note that the ‘how and why’ questions above would be best integrated into one discussion as they go hand in hand.
4. how the researchers’ methods and approaches shaped or led to their findings and conclusions. Note here that the emphasis is not on what the findings were or what the researchers argue, but how they got to these findings and arguments (about 350 words)
5. gaps and limitations in what the researchers did, and the possible or reported reasons for them; or how the gaps and limitations followed from the steps that the research took (about 300 words)
Part 2: Designing a new research project Report on how you would or could go about researching a new question raised by the piece of research that you discussed in Part 1.
1. Briefly contextualize the new research question by discussing why it is or could be a useful or necessary one to research: e.g. why does the question matter, what can it shed light upon (about 250 words).
2. Describe and explain how you would do this new research (about 600 words):
a. the broad approach that you would take to the research
b. what types of sources you would plan to include, from where, and how you would access them, including human sources (i.e. people) if appropriate. If people, how you would invite them to participate in your research
c. after deciding on your type of sources, how you would ‘sample’ or make decisions about exactly what, how much, and/or who to include and exclude (e.g. which media texts exactly would you like at, from what time periods, what precise demographic of people might you interview, how many people would you aim to include, etc.)
d. what you would do with your sample to derive meanings and findings from it, (e.g. what data analysis method you would use; if researching people what you would do with them and how, etc.)
3. Why you would do the research in the above manner, why these particular approaches and steps (about 500 words)
Note that, as in part 1, the how and why discussion is best integrated into one as they go hand in hand.
4. Ethical and practical considerations you would need to take into account, and any challenges you would anticipate in doing the research (about 400 words)
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