Pig Lip Methodology

This post may interest those who are curious about what it's like to write a dissertation. For everybody else -- well, you might at least connect on some level with the first paragraph because there is a metaphorical pig lip you know you have to eat, sitting in front of you: a difficult task you've been putting off... one that kind of makes you nauseous just to think about, but there it is, in the jar, with your name on it.

Several years ago, I read a wonderful essay called "I'm Not Leaving Here Until I Eat This Thing" by John T. Edge: http://www.johntedge.com/ --- it made an impression on me because there are certain foods that I think I just can't eat, and one of them is a pig lip, the featured "thing" in the essay that Edge is determined to eat... and does. Now, he had to jazz it up in order to get it down, but he did it. I'm bringing this same attitude to my task today, which is to write the methodology section of my doctoral study proposal: the dreaded and much put-off "Section 2" (pig lip). I'm going to use this metaphor to sustain me throughout the writing of this miserable section, so wherever you see "big pig lip" you can translate as "my correlation study of the relationship between the Student Success Center and student retention at a small technical college." The little pig lip (Section 2) stands in the way of me getting the damn proposal finished so I can actually do the study and finish the dissertation, at which point I will be the proud pig with lipstick featured here by http://pat-aviewfromtheedge.blogspot.com/2012_12_01_archive.html

The first part I got stuck on, which was ... well, the first part: justify your choice of this design and approach to your study. I'm still stuck. My strategy: I'm about to listen to a webinar on writing about methodology at Walden, and read about writing a justification. This will be my concern, rephrased as "Why is my design and methodology for eating a big pig lip the best way to go about it"? If that "don't get it," I'll move on to the next part for now, which concerns setting and sample : where will I eat the big pig lip, and who will be there, participating? I am the pig lady, and I should know.

Now, I found this article on the type of research that I'm doing, which is an "ex-post facto" design: http://www.dissertationrecipes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Ex-Post-Facto-research.pdf

The problem, however, is not that I don't understand what ex-post facto means or that I don't know why I want or need to use it for my study --- the problem is that I don't know how much of this I need to explain in my justification section. (Translate to metaphor: How much hot sauce do I put on the pig lip?) Also, I'll need to write about how I'll show results --- for example, I will use a scatterplot: http://www.indiana.edu/~educy520/sec5982/week_7/correlation_ex_post_facto_overview.pdf

My exogenous variable (attendance at the SSC) and my endogenous variable (student retention) will be graphed using a coordinate plane (x/y) indicating the relationship (strong positive, strong negative, moderate negative, no relationship, etc.) In other words, we look at relationship in two ways: strength and direction. We use a mathematical formula to figure this out: for example, the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (sigh), known as "Pearson r."

How do I get the information to build the chart? Well, that goes in the data collection section, which I must also write. I'll be using information from archival data stored at the college (the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, the Registrar, and the Student Success Center all have records that I can use related to how many students were enrolled in a specific period, their demographic data, their academic standing, financial aid status, attendance at the center, retention from fall-to-fall, etc.) If 3,000 students were enrolled in 2012, I will need to know which of these students visited the SSC and how many were retained from fall semester to semester that year. That chart will indicate whether there appears to be an association between these variables. One website I consulted reminds me: I have one group of subjects with two or more variables: http://www.indiana.edu/~educy520/sec5982/week_7/correlation_ex_post_facto_overview.pdf

To recap, I need to do the following in regard to data gathering: 1) decide which variables I suspect may be related --- got it 2) decide how to measure the relationship -- got it, I think 3) select a sample --- pre-chosen, I think --- or do I have to narrow this down to a certain set of students in the larger group? This much must be described in the proposal.

The results of one correlation study looked like this:

Alright, I've been sitting outside in the cold so the puppy could play while I listened to the webinar and sipped my coffee. The cup is empty. I'm going in. I'll be back for another thinking session. Are you a doctoral student going crazy like me? Leave me a comment. Thanks.