Chapter 4 Reviewing and Revising your Purpose Statement.ppt

Reviewing and Revising your Purpose Statement

1. Planning an
Applied Research
Project
Chapter 4 – Reviewing and Revising your
Purpose Statement

2. Learning Objectives
»Compare your purpose statement with several
criteria
»Write a clear purpose statement and appropriate
research questions
»Make a case for your purpose statement and
research questions

3. Key Terms
»Important
»Interesting
»Intriguing
»Investigable
»Impactful
»Literature review
»Partner test
»Public speaking test
»Purpose statement
»Research questions
»Thanksgiving test

4. Reasons for Revising Purpose
Statements
»New information about what has been studies
»New insight about research methods used
»New ideas about the topic
»Shit in focus and interest
»Challenge of developing a coherent design
»Chance to test something important
»Lack of approval for current purpose
© 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

5. Reasons for Revising Purpose
Statements
»Purpose Statement Format
˃“My purpose is to … (what you want to learn –
the questions)
˃“The reasons it is important include ... (why it is
significant? what is the context for it? why should
people care? what gap does it fill?)
˃Therefore, I will … (what you will do to answer
your questions and accomplish your goal? what
will be your research design?)

6. Purpose Statement and
Supporting Dimensions
»Focus on the following four central elements:
˃What is the goal?
˃What parts are most important to this research?
˃Why is it important?
˃How will I pursue?

7. Process of Reviewing and
Revising
»Test of Purpose Statements
˃Spousal or partner or friend test
˃Thanksgiving test
˃Public speaking test
˃Then reflect on what you have learned and what
changes you might want to make 

8. Process of Reviewing and
Revising (cont’d)
»Research Questions
˃Accompany purpose statements
˃Clarify and specify purpose statements
˃Trigger and expand your thinking
˃Improve you thinking about research design
options
˃Promote others to help you
˃Help you throughout the reading and planning
˃Guide the research proposal

9. Process of Reviewing and
Revising (cont’d)
»When Writing Research Questions
˃Think generally
˃Write them so they beg to be answered
˃Focus them broadly in the beginning
˃Make them real questions you want to answer or
investigate
˃Focus them at an intermediate level
˃Develop more questions now – you can refine
them and consolidate them later

10. Criteria for a Good Purpose
Statements
I Important
I Interesting
I Intriguing
I Investigable
I Impactful

11. Purpose Statement and
Research Question Example 1
»Purpose – to examine the relationship between the amount of
money spent by a school's athletic department on academic
support and the graduation rates of college football athletes
»Research Questions –
˃How does an increase in money spent effect graduation rates?
˃How exactly is the money being spent?  Tutors?  Computer
labs? Incentive programs?
˃How does the treatment differ for scholarship players and non-
scholarship players?  What is the difference in their graduation
rates? What is the correlation between winning/losing and
graduation rates?
˃How do outside factors influence the results?  School's
academic reputation? Priorities of players? Academic
background of players?

12. Purpose Statement and
Research Question Example 2
»Purpose – to analyze the factors that influence traveler’s
preference to independently plan their trips as an alternative
to utilizing packaged group tours
»Research Questions –
˃What are the most influential reasons for independently
planning trips (i.e. cost, convenience, lack of available
options that meet customer needs)?
˃What are the demographics and psychographics of
travelers who prefer to plan their own trips?
˃What are the demographics and psychographics of
travelers who prefer packaged tours?
˃What are the most common sources of information that
travelers utilize in making their independent travel plans
(i.e. internet, travel books, word of mouth, media)?

13. Purpose Statement and
Research Question Example 3
»Purpose – to examine the process by which co-branding occurs
between hotels and restaurants and evaluate the overall value of
brand alliances with respect to each operation as separate entities
»Research Questions –
˃To what extent is co-branding among hotels and restaurants a
mutually beneficial relationship?
˃What factors need to be considered when entering into a brand
alliance?
˃What factors affect customer’s choice of one hotel over
another? How does restaurant brand influence that decision?
˃When is it more profitable for hotels to outsource restaurant
services rather than handle the details of these operations
directly?
˃How does that situation differ for other co-branded operations?

14. Purpose Statement and
Research Question Example 4
»Purpose – to analyze the effect that a mission
statement has on employee’s performance in a hotel, in
what ways does it change their behavior
»Research Questions –
˃To what extent do hotel employees consider the
hotel’s mission statement an important or not so
important part of their work life?
˃What percentage of employees follow the ideas
described in a mission statement?
˃To what extent does employees’ work behavior
change as a result of their agreement and
acceptance of a hotel’s mission statement?

15. The Research Hourglass
»Topic
»Purpose statement
»Research questions
»Literature review
»Research design
»Research method
»Data analysis plan
»Findings
»Applications
»Limitations
»Opportunities
»Conclusions

16. Review of the Class Session
»Anything unclear?
»One thing that I discovered in this class session is
…