Outline for a Qualitative Study
Chapter 1: Introduction
- Statement of the problem
- What is the issue, problem or phenomenon that prompts this study?
- Purpose and significance of the study
- Indicate your intention to try to describe or understand the phenomenon, develop a theory about how the phenomenon works, discover something about the phenomenon or about the subjects with whom you will be interacting
- Indicate your general approach to investigating the phenomenon
- Indicate why this study is important
- Grand tour questions & sub-questions
- State in broad terms the main question you will be trying to answer
- State some specific questions that you plan to pursue—for example, some key questions you might ask during an interview
- Definitions
- Provide general definitions of key concepts in the study
- Delimitations & limitations
- Delimitations refers to the boundaries of the study—its limits based on the context in which the inquiry is carried out and the subjects who will be involved
- Limitations refers to potential weaknesses in the study, such as limits resulting from the approach to selecting subjects
Chapter 2: Review of Related Literature
- Overview
- Describe how your review is organized, indicating major themes or questions you have pursued.
- Briefly describe how you carried out your search.
- In broad terms, what have others learned that is relevant to your question?
- Findings: Present specific findings represented in the literature you have reviewed. Organize your presentation thematically rather than serially.
- What are the major findings and most significant studies pertinent to your topic?
- What are the most promising methodological approaches to investigating your topic (or evaluating your project)?
- Conclusions:
- Summarize major themes and major contributions of significant studies and articles to the body of knowledge under review, maintaining the focus established in the introduction.
- Evaluate the current “state of the art” for the body of knowledge reviewed, pointing out major methodological flaws or gaps in research, inconsistencies in theory and findings, and areas or issues pertinent to future study.
- Summarize promising methodological approaches to investigation of your topic.
- Conclude by providing some insight into the relationship between the central topic of the literature review and the research project you are pursuing.
Chapter 3: Procedure
- Design of the Study
- Describe your general approach to carrying out the study
- Describe important characteristics or features of the design
- Indicate any pertinent assumptions about the research process that are associated with this design
- Indicate why this design is likely to yield useful results
- Include statements about past experiences of the researcher that provide familiarity with the topic, the setting, or the informants
- Discuss steps taken to gain access to the setting and to secure permission to study the informants or situation
- Comment about ethical issues such as maintaining confidentiality of data, preserving the anonymity of informants, and using the research for intended purposes
- Indicate the type or types of data to be collected and provide a rationale for the data collection
- Identify the parameters for the data collection, such as why you have selected this particular setting and how you will go about selecting informants and the rationale for that selection process
- Describe how you will record data
- Describe the protocol for collecting information including guide questions and probes to elicit informant responses
- Describe how you will go about coding information, sorting it into categories, identifying themes and patterns as well as divergence
- Describe how you will verify the accuracy of your findings: will you use a triangulation approach, with multiple sources of information? Will you seek to verify your findings with your informants (“member checking”)?
- Discuss the generalizability of your study—in what ways is it likely to be unique and in what ways might a replication of your study yield different results?
- Role of the researcher
- Data collection procedures
- Data analysis procedures
- Methods for verification
Chapter 4: Findings
- Overview of major themes
- Presentation of detailed findings organized by theme
Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations
- Summarize what you have learned from the study—your interpretation of the meaning of your findings and their implications
- Indicate needs for further study
Reference List
Appendices
