How do you decide whether to use a qualitative or a quantitative approach when designing a research study? How
do you write up the results of a study for a scholarly journal article or dissertation? This book addresses these
issues by providing a guide to major design decisions such as deciding a paradigm, stating a purpose for the study,
identifying the research questions and hypotheses, using theory, and defining and stating the significance of the
study. Each chapter is organized to first present the principles about composing and writing qualitative and quantitative
approaches followed by specific examples from journal articles and dissertations from a variety of fields within
the social and human sciences. The chapters also conclude with writing exercises that relate back to these formats
so that the reader can end the book with a written plan for a scholarly study.
Research Design is aimed at the upper-division to graduate-level research methods course that is taught to prepare
students to plan and write up an independent research study.
Table of Contents
1. A Framework for the Study
2. Use of the Literature
3. The Introduction to the Study
4. The Purpose Statement
5. Questions, Objectives, and Hypotheses
6. The Use of a Theory
7. Definitions, Delimitations, and Significance
8. A Quantitative Method
9. A Qualitative Procedure
10. Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Designs
