Assignment: Qualitative Book Critique
Write a critique of the qualitative research book for your theme. The critique
should focus on how the research was done. Even though this is about a book,
the process of writing a critque is essentially the same as that for an article.
The guidelines in Lofland and Lofland's "Dissecting Fieldstudy Reports" (pp
231-236) (and relevant materials from the rest of their book) give you some
specific guidelines for evaluating qualitative research.
Some of the questions that you will want to address:
- What questions did the researcher have? What was she or he wondering
about before the research started?
- How did the existing literature influence the research?
- What was the setting for the research?
- How was the research done? (This might be pretty complicated.)
- How does the author deal with methodological issues such as ethics, sampling,
reliability, and validity.
Give your personal response to the book.
- Overall, did you think the research was well done? Give specific examples
of strengths and weaknesses?
- Do you think that the researcher made any of Babbie's "Errors of Human
Inquiry?"
- What new research do you think needs to be done on this topic?
At this point in the semester your analysis should include the methodlogical
concepts and vocabulary that we have been
learning. You may also refer to other reading you have done.
The critique should have an introduction and conclusion. Make sure to proof
read before handing it in. There is no specific minimum or maximum number of
pages, but most critiques will probably be between 3 and 5 pages long.
Under no circumstances may you substitute a different book for this assignment.