RECL 3Q17

Trent Newmeyer

Assignment 1 - Evaluating qualitative methods

DUE OCTOBER 10 IN CLAS

Articles

Ritson, Mark and Richard Elliott. “The Social Uses of Advertising: An Ethnographic Study of Adolescent Advertising Audiences.” Journal of Consumer Research. 26 (3): 260-77, 1999.

Outley, Corliss and Myron Floyd. “The Home They Live In: Inner City Children's Views on the Influence of Parenting Strategies on Their Leisure Behavior.” Leisure Sciences. 24: 161-179, 2002.

Kane, Maurice and Robyn Zink. “Package adventure tours: markers in serious leisure careers.” Leisure Studies. 23(4): 329-345, 2004

Pick the article listed above which interests you the most. The journal articles are available on WebCT. The chapters from Esterberg (1-2) and the lectures will give you the tools and the language to critically but fairly assess the research methods used by other social researchers.

Write up your responses to the sections in short answer format, not to exceed 4 double spaced, typed pages. Make sure to give examples from the journal article to provide evidence for your answers and indicate the page number where this evidence is found. You will be graded on your ability to both identify and critically evaluate the author's method.

Describe, analyze, and evaluate the following components of the research method in your chosen article. In terms of content, you should answer the following questions:

  1. What is the topic? Identify the key concepts in this study.

  2. What is the general research problem addressed?

  3. What is the purpose of this research?

  4. Is this deductive or inductive theorisation? You need to construct a viable argument not just state it is one or the other.

  5. What are the potential ethical issues involved in this research?

  6. Critically evaluate the overall research design in the article. Discuss the strengths and limitations of the research. Remember, there is no such thing as a perfect research project. Every project has limitations. The critique should be on the quality of the research not whether it was `boring' or `exciting.'