Qualitative Research - MSc Dissertation

[ptork66]

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?

[Party_Key]

I think you can audit courses from the other departments. I would try an English department. Methods that you mentioned, they do those. There must be research seminar or method courses in the English department in your university. It's not my taste, but good luck.

[rising_star]

Pick up a copy of Bernard's Research Methods in Anthropology and read it. Then start reading qualitative methods texts in the Sage Research Methods series. That should help you. Because really, without knowing your specific research questions and what you want to know by asking them, it's impossible to say what kind of analysis you should be doing.

[ptork66]

I think you can audit courses from the other departments. I would try an English department. Methods that you mentioned, they do those. There must be research seminar or method courses in the English department in your university. It's not my taste, but good luck.

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.

Pick up a copy of Bernard's Research Methods in Anthropology and read it. Then start reading qualitative methods texts in the Sage Research Methods series. That should help you. Because really, without knowing your specific research questions and what you want to know by asking them, it's impossible to say what kind of analysis you should be doing.

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?

Edited November 19, 2012 by ptork66

[LPK8386]

That's true. Content analysis is nice in that it's a way to quantify and bring more rigor to analyzing qualitative data. There are many ways t carry out content analysis as well (e.g., CQR, or just coding). I'm partial to Denzin and Lincoln's book the Landscae of Qualitative Research.

If there is some coding scheme you're doing with your outcomes variable as well, you could look at some simple cross tabs to see where chosen language intersects with your outcome variable. You could also calculate odds ratios to see the liklihood of a chosen language and the outcomes of interest. Not very conclusive stats, but may point you in a direction to theory building, etc. Just a few ideas