Major Assignment 1 Final Submission: Developing a Research Topic for a Qualitative Research Study

In Week 4, you submitted your Parts 1 and 2 and your Annotated Bibliography to your Instructor for feedback.

For this Major Assignment 1, you will incorporate your Instructor’s feedback if you have not already done so. Also, you will finalize your Major Assignment 1 and complete Part 3: Potential for Social Change section.

To prepare for this Assignment:

1. Review the Major Assignment 1: Developing a Research Topic for a Qualitative Study Assignment Overview and Guidelines for proper formatting of your paper.
2. Incorporate your Instructor’s feedback from week 4 Parts 1 and 2 submission.  Please go back and read guidelines below for parts 1 and 2 Make sure you have all details and information for each part. This Major Assignment 1 counts as 300 points.
3. Update your Annotated Bibliography to include any new articles you have read since Week 4 that would be appropriate to include.
4. Continue on to Part 3 and finalize this section for your final submission. Use the Detailed Major Assignment 1 Guidelines to format your paper.

Assignment Task /Part 3: Potential for Social Change

• In your revision of Part 1 and 2 of Major Assignment 1   Please indicate the new material by highlighting the new or revised text in Parts 1 and 2.

Adding on Part 3: Potential for Social Change

• Based on your understanding of social change, write one paragraph to describe how the results of your study might contribute to making a difference at a local/community, regional, or national level.
• Finalize your Annotated Bibliography. Use the Major Assignment 1: Developing a Research Topic for a Qualitative Study Assignment Overview and Guidelines for proper formatting of your paper.
• Finalize your References section of your paper. Use the Major Assignment 1: Developing a Research Topic for a Qualitative Study Assignment Overview and Guidelines for proper formatting of your paper.

Be sure to specify each section Parts 1, 2, and 3.

Submit Parts 1, 2, 3, the Annotated Bibliography, and the References section of your final Major Assignment 1: Developing a Research Topic for a Qualitative Research Study.

Part 1

• Create a title page for your Major Assignment 1. Use the Major Assignment 1: Developing a Research Topic for a Qualitative Study Assignment Overview and Guidelines for proper formatting of your paper.
• Write a problem statement based on your topic of study. Develop a 1- to 2-paragraph statement that is the result of a review of the articles you located on your topic.
  1. Briefly describe the phenomena you are interested in studying.
  2. Briefly summarize the key findings or what is understood about this phenomena based on the three articles you reviewed.
  3. Briefly identify the “gap”—what do you see as an important, relevant, next step in learning more about this topic that would be appropriate for a qualitative study.
• Include your Annotated Bibliography section.

Part 2

• Write a purpose statement using terminology of qualitative research. The purpose statement should contain:
  1. A statement using the following template: The purpose of this qualitative study is to [choose one: explore, describe, understand, explain] the meaning/experience/culture/stories of [phenomenon of interest] in [population/setting].
  2. A justification of why the purpose of your study is suited for the qualitative approach in terms of:
     • The phenomena you choose
     • The “fit” with a constructivist epistemology and ontology
     • The relevance of the naturalistic setting or context to the phenomena of interest

Based on your knowledge of reflexivity, explain your relationship to the problem; and the issues of bias and positionality to be addressed. Include a brief description of the setting and possible sources of data.

• Write a research question using terminology of qualitative research. (Note: This could be the same research question you created in your Discussion 1 for this week ONLY if it applies to your topic of study for this Assignment.)

  The research question should incorporate and mirror the purpose statement using the following template: What is the meaning/experience/culture/stories of [phenomenon of interest] in [population/setting]?

• Include your updated Annotated Bibliography section.

Part 3: Potential for Social Change

• Based on your understanding of social change, write one paragraph to describe how the results of your study might contribute to making a difference at a local/community, regional, or national level.
• Finalize your Annotated Bibliography. Use the Major Assignment 1: Developing a Research Topic for a Qualitative Study Assignment Overview and Guidelines for proper formatting of your paper.
• Finalize your References section of your paper. Use the Major Assignment 1: Developing a Research Topic for a Qualitative Study Assignment Overview and Guidelines for proper formatting of your paper.