Order DescriptionGeneral Description of the Participants
Describe the participants using age, gender, rank, and other measureable qualities relevant to the study and related to the population. If the study is a document analysis, then the documentation is categorized, labeled, and clearly described. Your data should appear as tables coupled to narratives explaining the tables.Unit of Analysis and Measurement
A unit of analysis is the fundamental component of a scientific research project. The unit of analysis represents the who or what you are attempting to study and generalize into broader findings. For example, social sciences and business analysts consider workgroups, subgroups, organizations, leaders, individual workers, survey participants, policies, and other agents as units of analysis. You must clearly describe the who or what formed the unit of analysis.The unit of measurement is a little trickier because they rarely are people or agents. Explain the unit of measurement and the initial parameters used to partition the unit into types. For example, if you studied organizational change at Nokia, then the unit of measurement may be the documents and meeting notes forming the chronology of organizational change at Nokia. The parameters would be the categories you derived from literature as to analyze the documentse.g. changes in salaries, number of project teams, decisions regarding the handling of stock, categories of debt, and other categories deemed useful for understanding the organizational changes at Nokia. Thus, parameters give structure to your unit of measurement and help you make concrete qualitative measurements.
The clearer you define the units of analysis and measure, the more credible your study. Make sure you clearly define both.Sample Size
Explain how you drew the sample from the population and whether it correctly represented the population. Explain why your sample was large enough and utilized enough participants as to ensure a desired statistical power. You may find https://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/power.php a worthwhile resource while writing.Data Collection
Illustrate the data collection process, its effectiveness in collecting the needed data, and the use of secondary/archival sources. The reader should understand how data collection occurred in the field and be able to compare collection efforts with those described in the methodology section.
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