Research Project Worksheet (Update 1)

Introduction

The purpose of this worksheet is to provide an outline view of the project I wish to execute. The details expressed here are early thoughts, put down on paper in order to record progress as well as to distribute to stakeholders. The intent of the document is that it will grow and change as the project does.

Step 1. Identify goals, research question

My goal for this research is to analyse and understand more about both the users who join (and the space they inhabit) a couple of forum threads at a support site for people engaged in a specific weight loss program, Michael Thurmond’s Six Week Body Makeover. The threads I am participating in, and observing, are directed at people who have more than 100 lbs to lose.

The primary questions I am (at the moment) focusing on are:

1. Who are, collectively, the people that are residents of these two threads? Who are the visitors?
2. What is it about this space that compels them to participate in it?
3. What are the risks and benefits of participating in this space?

Step 2. Conduct a literature review

I have a number of resources in mind already and will be adding more as I dig deeper into the research.

Barton, E. (2004). Discourse methods and critical practice in professional communication: The front-stage and back-stage discourse of prognosis in medicine. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 18(1), 67-111.

Barton, E. (2004). Linguistic discourse analysis: How the language in texts works. In C. Bazerman & P. Prior (Eds.), What Writing Does and How It Does It: An Introduction to Analysis of Text and Textual Practice (pp. 57-82). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Huckin, T. N. (2004). Content analysis: What texts talk about. In C. Bazerman & P. Prior (Eds.), What Writing Does and How It Does It: An Introduction to Analysis of Text and Textual Practice. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

MacNealy, M. S. (1999). Strategies for empirical research in writing. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Step 3. Determine a research methodology

• Quantitative
• Textual discourse
• Perhaps using Thomas Huckin’s (1992) method
• select an initial corpus
• identify salient patterns
• determine "interestingness"
• select a study corpus (sampling)
• verify the pattern (coding, counting, etc.)
• develop a functional-rhetorical analysis
• Perhaps using MacNealy’s (1999) steps
• STEP 1, Define the Construct: “The first step in developing a plan for doing discourse analysis is to carefully define the construct. Then the categories are developed by considering the ways that the construct can be divided up”, (MacNealy, 132).
• STEP 2, Choose Recording Units: “Once you have defined the construct of interest, you will need to specify what features of the discourse you want to count or categorize”, (MacNealy, 132).
• STEP 3, Create Categories (MacNealy, 133)
• need a sufficient number of categories to make meaningful distinctions between the data
• categories must be defined so that a piece of data can logically be placed only in one
• STEP 4, Count the Data (134)
• Straight numerical counts that include 0
• Scales which record comparative amounts

Step 4. Conduct the research

The first part of my research involves me getting immersed in the content. I will accomplish that by visiting a few forums frequented by my target audience (people with more than 100 lbs to lose) and select a couple that have a relatively high frequency of visitors. For my research, I will refer to these forums simply as Forum A and Forum B.

In the forums, I will introduce myself, fill in the information that makes me a participant, and begin watching the flow of information. Once I have collected a number of interactions, I will begin attempting to code them, looking for specific patterns and indicators of common topics, responses, or other discursive interplays.

Step 5. Interpret the results

To be developed.

Step 6. Disseminate the results

To be developed.