Literature Search, Part I
One of the more important questions you will need to ask and
answer for yourself as you develop your research study is: “Which
qualitative research approach best fits my research question?” You may
be able to reframe your research question to fit more than one
qualitative approach; generally, though, one of the available approaches
is likely to fit better than the others once you have a well-defined
question. The only way to make this determination is to develop a
familiarity with different approaches.
In this Discussion, you will conduct a literature review of your
topic area, focusing your choice on a research study that uses one of
the qualitative approaches covered this week.
- Looking for a particular kind of qualitative article on your
topic may be more difficult than finding a needle in a haystack. Do not
hesitate to broaden your search to incorporate related phenomena or
different target groups in order to find a study. - Go to the Walden Library for tips and strategies for efficient searching.
- Make sure you get the complete citation of the article, as well
as the .pdf, because your Instructor will want to review the article. - Be aware that your posting will first require an extensive
article analysis. What you post is a summary of your work, not the
entire analysis. This is good practice for summarizing and evaluating
research for your capstone.
To prepare for this Discussion:
- Review the reading materials about the different approaches in this week’s Learning Resources.
- Conduct your own literature search to find a published study that represents one of the approaches.
- Review the following resources before proceeding with your own article review:
Document: R8360 Guidelines for Reading and Evaluating Qualitative Research Articles (PDF)
Document: Example of How to Read and Evaluate a Qualitative Research Article (PDF)
By Day 3
Contribute a 3-paragraph Discussion post in which you respond to the following:
- Summarize the characteristics of the approach of the research article you chose during your literature search.
- Summarize the research article, including the citation and
sufficient information for your classmates and Instructor to locate the
article. - Present a short critique of that article based on the “R8360
Guidelines for Reading and Evaluating Qualitative Research Articles”
document.


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