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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Writing the Proposal

Arguments presented in a proposal:

• 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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Writing the Proposal

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Writing the Proposal

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Writing the Proposal

Format for a quantitative proposal:

• Follow the format of a journal article

– Introduction

– A literature review

– Methods

– Results

– Discussion

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Writing the Proposal

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Writing the Proposal

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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Writing the Proposal

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Writing the Proposal

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Writing the Proposal

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 the Proposal

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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Writing Ideas

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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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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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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Writing Ideas

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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Writing Ideas

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Writing Ideas

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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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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Writing Ideas

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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Ethical Issues to Anticipate

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Ethical Issues to Anticipate

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Ethical Issues to Anticipate

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Ethical Issues to Anticipate

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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Ethical Issues to Anticipate

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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Ethical Issues to Anticipate

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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Ethical Issues to Anticipate

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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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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Ethical Issues to Anticipate

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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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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Ethical Issues to Anticipate

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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