Today’s Plan:
- Checking in on Data (Did everyone do the thing?)
- Methodology and Data Assignment
- Writing a Methodology Section
- Writing about Data/Findings
Methodology and Data Assignment
This week we are going to finish up project 2. As I indicated at the start of the project, we aren’t writing a complete research paper here. A complete paper looks like this:
- Introduction [introduces need for study, states the problem, supplies hypothesis, DICTATES FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS]
- Literature Review (previous research)
- Methodology
- Data / Findings
- Discussion / Recommendations
- Conclusion [reviews findings, directs future research]
We are going to spend this week focusing on methodology and findings.
Writing a Methodology Section
Think of writing a methodology section as if you were writing a recipe for baking a cake. I specifically say baking and not, say, grilling, because baking involves chemistry. You can grill steaks that have been “seasoned with salt and pepper.” You don’t necessarily need exact measurements. Try baking a cake without exact measurements and tell me how that goes. So the first and most important lesson when it comes to writing up a methodology section is to be detailed and precise. A researcher should be able to read this section and recreate your data pool and your analysis, and expect to get similar results.
Generally, any methodology section has three primary concerns:
- Collection: How did you collect/identify the stuff that you would analyze? How/did you make sure your sample was either random or focused? In our case, how did you put together the collection of games your team analyzed?
- Analysis: How did you analyze them? What did you look for? How did you know to look for that? Who else has looked for that? How does your methods compare?
- Reliability: What did you do to make sure your results were accurate? Did more than one person analyze each item? Did you hold norming sessions to ensure everyone is on the same page?
Let’s look at a sample methodology for a project that, apparently, I will never finish writing.
Let’s look at another methodology description from an article that I finished writing this weekend.
Notice how I mention specific technologies and processes. I’m doing my best to walk my reader through what I did step-by-step.
Working with Data
To be honest, data sections can feel a bit boring. In these sections you want to tell the reader, as clearly as possible, what you found. It is very common to use bulleted lists, charts, and/or graphs in these sections. We will make some simple graphs in class on Thursday.
Even if you insert a graph or a chart into a data section, you still need to write a descriptive paragraph that puts the findings into words. Different readers will look for different things–some like visuals and are comfortable with them, while others will skip the visual and look for a textual description. I tend to read and review both. So your data section needs to be ready to accommodate a range of readers.
Let’s look at a sample data section from a student report.
Generally, when I review data sections I am looking for two things:
- Visualization: Does the section contain a table or graph of data?
Can you understand the table or graph, or is there some mystery meat?
- Textual Description: Does the writer make clear what the table or graph says?
It isn’t enough to just have some graphs. You also need to provide a clear and concise textual description of your graphs too.
Creating Graphs in Google Sheets
Today we are going to work on creating graphs in Google Sheets. I’ve put together a set of sample data with which we can work; the data is from my ENG 301 Writing as a Job class.
Visualizing Our Data: Let’s Make Some Graphs
Today we are going to work with the data we produced in the last class to generate, label, and modify some graphs in Google Sheets. Learning outcomes:
- Inputting Data to the Template
- Generating a Graph
- Editing the Graph’s Axis/Labels/Title
- Modifying the Graph’s Appearance
- Inserting the Graph in a Google Doc
Inputting Data to the Template
Now you have to decide on which jobs your report will focus. You could write your report about all of the jobs. You could focus on Writing and Editing jobs. You could focus on Social Media and Marketing Jobs. Or Social Media, Marketing, and Design. Etc. Etc. My only requirement is that you report on more than one column of jobs.
In order to make it easier to generate graphs in Google Sheets, you are going to make a copy of this template and populate it with numbers. This will require you to do a bit more math.
Unless significant (something you want to highlight in your discussion), delete any columns that contain a zero or a really low number.
Generating a Graph
Here is a link to Google’s documentation on creating a graph in Google Sheets. Insert > Chart. Easy Peasie.
Editing the Graph’s Axis/Labels/Title
This is also covered in the documentation. Let’s change the title first to Figure 1. Tools and Technologies
Editing the Graph’s Appearance
Fonts
Label angle?
Neat trick: series > data labels
Inserting a Graph in a Google Doc
Two ways:
- Right corner of graph: Three dots. Copy. Then paste in your document [benefit: graph is linked, if you change the spreadsheet, it will auto-update the graph]
- Convert the graph into an image [benefit: easier to email to technophobes]
Describing Visual Data
Scroll down to the ways to describe visual data. .
Homework
Remember that your homework for this weekend is to write both a methodology and data section. We will begin our final project on Tuesday.
