Posted: March 12th, 2023

Writing Stratgies and Ethical Considerations

Consider the following ethical dilemnas that may face a researcher. Describe ways you might anticipate the problem and actively address how you would handle each in your research proposal.

1. A prisoner you are interviewing tells you about a potential breakout at the prison that night.What do you do?

2. A researcher on your team copies sentences from another study and incorporates them into the final written report for your project. What do you do?

3. A student collects data for a project from several individuals interviewed in families in your city. After the fourth interview, the student tells you that approval has not been received for the project from the IRB. What do you do?

Writing Strategies and Ethical Considerations

Chapter 4

Introduction

• Have an idea of the general structure of topics

• Structure depends on the design

• Be aware of good writing practices

• Anticipate ethical issues prior to the study

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Writing the Proposal

Arguments presented in a proposal:

• Consider early on in planning the study

– The major points that need to be addressed

– How they will convey a cohesive picture of the study

– What the core arguments to advance are

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Arguments presented in a proposal:

• What do readers need to better understand the topic?

• What do readers need to know about the topic?

• What do you propose to study?

• What is the setting, and who are the people you will study?

• What methods do you plan to use to collect data?

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• How will you analyze the data?

• How will you validate the findings?

• What ethical issues will your study present?

• What do preliminary results show about the practicability and value of the proposed study?

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Format for a quantitative proposal:

• Follow the format of a journal article

– Introduction

– A literature review

– Methods

– Results

– Discussion

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Format for a mixed methods proposal:

• Purpose statement/research question for quantitative and qualitative components

• Include mixed methods

– Rationale

– Design elements

– Visual diagram of procedures

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Designing the sections of a proposal:

• Specify the sections early in the design of a proposal

• Examine proposals that other students have authored under your advisor

• Look for a course on proposal development

• Review formats with your adviser

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Writing Ideas

• Read fiction and nonfiction widely

• Read good literature

• Always think about how the ideas writers share in their works might be applied in writing good research

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Writing as thinking:

• Write ideas down early in the process rather than talking about them

• Work through several drafts of a proposal rather than trying to polish the first draft

• Do not edit at the early draft stage

– Start with an outline

– Write a draft and shift and sort ideas

– Finally, edit and polish each sentence

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The habit of writing:

• Make writing a daily activity

• Keep a daily chart of activities if you do not feel you have time to write

• Write when fresh

• Avoid binges

• Write in small, regular amounts

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SAGE Publishing, 2018 Writing Ideas The habit of writing:

• Schedule writing tasks

• Keep daily charts: time spent, page equivalents, percent complete

• Plan beyond daily goals

• Share your writing with supportive, constructive peers before going public

• Try to work on two or three writing projects concurrently so that you do not become overloaded with any one

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SAGE Publishing, 2018 Writing Ideas The habit of writing:

• Exercises to improve writing

– Describe an object by its parts and dimensions

– Write a conversation between two people

– Write a set of directions for a complicated task

– Take a subject and write about it three different ways

– Choose a physical location for writing that is not a distraction

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Readability of the manuscript:

• Use consistent terms throughout the proposal

• Consider how different type of narrative thought guide the reader:

– Umbrella thoughts – general or core ideas

– Big thoughts in writing – specific ideas

– Little thoughts – reinforcing big thoughts

– Attention or interest thoughts – keep the reader on track, organize ideas

• Coherence in writing – ideas tie and logically flow

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Voice, tense, and “fat”:

• Eliminate unnecessary words

• Delete the passive voice

• Scale down qualifiers, eliminate overused phrases

• Reduce excessive quotations, italics, and parenthetical comments

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SAGE Publishing, 2018 Writing Ideas Voice, tense, and “fat”:

• Use active voice

– “If the subject acts, the voice is active. If the subject is acted on, the voice is passive” (Ross-Larson, 1982, p. 29)

• Use strong active verbs

• Pay close attention to the tense of your verbs

• Edit and revise drafts of a manuscript to trim fat

• Write, review, edit

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Ethical Issues to Anticipate

• Research involves collecting data from people

• Researchers need to

– Protect research participants

– Develop trust with research participants

– Promote the integrity of research

– Guard against misconduct

– Cope with new problems that emerge

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Prior to beginning the study:

• Consider codes of ethics

• Apply to the institutional review board

• Obtain the necessary permissions to gain access to the site and to study participants

• Select a site without vested interests

• Negotiate authorship for publication

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Beginning the study:

• In the research problem:

– Identify a problem that will benefit individuals being studied

• In the purpose and questions:

– Convey the purpose and sponsors of the research to participants

• Do not pressure participants into signing consent forms, obtain informed consent from participants

• Respect norms and charters of indigenous cultures

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Collecting the data:

• Respect the site, and disrupt as little as possible

• Make sure all participants receive the benefits

• Avoid deceiving participants

• Respect potential power imbalances, consider reciprocity

• Avoid exploitation of participants

• Avoid collecting harmful information

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Analyzing the data:

• Avoid going native – taking sides or disregarding data

• Avoid disclosing only positive results – reflect the statistical tests and diversity of perspectives

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SAGE Publishing, 2018 Ethical Issues to Anticipate Analyzing the data:

• Respect the privacy of participants:

– Protect anonymity of participants

– Remove names from responses

– Qualitative researchers use aliases and pseudonyms

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Reporting, sharing, and storing data:

• Do not falsify authorship, evidence, data, findings or conclusions

• Do not plagiarize

• Avoid disclosing information that would harm participants

• Communicate in clear straightforward, appropriate language

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SAGE Publishing, 2018 Ethical Issues to Anticipate Reporting, sharing, and storing data:

• Share data with others (e.g. stakeholders, participants)

• Keep raw data and other materials for a reasonable period of time

• Do not duplicate or piecemeal publications

• Complete proof of compliance with ethical issues and lack of conflict of interest

• Understand who owns the data

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Summary

• How to write a proposal

• Use one of the outlines for a qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods proposal

• Importance of putting words on paper

• Consider anticipated ethical issues and describe

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