ptork66

Hi everyone! I'm ptork66. I'm originally from Texas (but also lived in OK and NC). I graduated from UNCW in 2008 with a BA in Sociology. I moved to the UK in 2009 to be with my now-husband of 7 years, completed in 2013 a PG Certificate with Merit in Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Health, and have now been accepted to study part-time the MSc Research Methods in Psychology at Anglia Ruskin. I currently work as a PA at Cambridge University and am also a part-time barista at Caffe Nero. I hate the weather (it rains way too much - my Texas hometown gets more average yearly rainfall than London but it rains on less days there, and it's way too cold for far too long), have a number of gripes about certain aspects of the culture, and the cost of living is way too high (and my husband won't let us move somewhere cheaper, like Liverpool). But I'm here in the UK for the long haul. I haven't been back to the States since 2011 and don't really plan on going back (possibly ever, even for visits), certainly not to live long-term. The only reason I don't yet have British citizenship is because it's so expensive, but I do have permanent residency and plan on citizenship late next year or early 2019 - I need to be able to vote, it's driving me mad that I can't! I'd really love to move to another country for a little while, but I'm not sure my husband can be convinced.

Unfortunately, I'm in the UK, and I don't think that's possible here. Even if it was, my uni only does English at the undergraduate level. Thanks for the book rec! My research question is how does the language used in adoption shape reality - is it propaganda and does it amount to coercion, and what are the potential implications of using the language they do on the decisions and mental health of the mother, looking at materials used by adoption counsellors as the data source. Hopefully that make sense, haha... *headdesk* Or I could possibly look at how often they talk about adoption versus how often they talk about parenting, which I believe would bring me into the realm of content analysis. I'm under the impression, however, that the only thing I can do with content analysis is look at the frequencies to determine what words/phrases occur more often, and that I couldn't actually look at how the particular language chosen alters meaning and may or may not be a form of coercion. Is that...anywhere close to correct?

Hello All, My dissertation topic dictates that I choose a qualitative research approach. However, I'm not very familiar with qualitative research. I will be looking at written documents only and am looking the implications of the language that is used within them. I cannot for the life of me figure out which method I should be using to do this research. Narrative analysis? Rhetorical analysis? I have no idea, and the more I research, the less sure of an answer I am. Does have any guidance or sources I can read to try to figure this out?