Dq Questions

Thanks for the information provided about qualitative study. Your response provided valuable information to help doctorate students achieved with more confidence research papers. For most qualitative studies, it appears that there are two major issues with sampling, (1) sampling the entire population (e.g., only two people contracted a rare disease in the world and the study is conducted only with those two individuals), or (2) taking a sample of the population from which to make generalizations (Leedy & Ormrod, 2010.) The researcher must never assume that qualitative research studies always involve the use of small samples. In fact, qualitative research can utilize large samples, as in the case of program evaluation research. Leedy & Ormrod (2010) mentioned that the association of qualitative data analyses with small samples is to ignore the growing body of literature in the area of text mining, the process of analyzing naturally occurring text in order to discover and capture semantic information.

Leedy, P. D. & Ormrod, J. E. (2010). Practical research: Planning and design (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River NJ: Pearson.

According to Leedy & Ormrod (2010) most qualitative investigations, one or more of the following generalizations are made: (a) from the sample of words to the voice; (b) from the sample of observations to the truth space; (c) from the words of key informants to the voice of the other sample members; (d) from the words of sample members to those of one or more individuals not selected for the study; or (e) from the observations of sample members to the experience of one or more individuals not selected for the study. Each of these types of generalizations necessitates sampling decisions (Leedy & Ormrod, 2010.)

Leedy, P. D. & Ormrod, J. E. (2010). Practical research: Planning and design (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River NJ: Pearson.

Why are small sample sizes appropriate for qualitative research? A small

References: Leedy, P.D. & Ormrod, J.E. (2010). Practical research: Planning and design (9th ed.) Upper Saddle River NJ: Pearson Okonkwo, G., & Mbajiorgu, C. (2010). Rainfall intensity-duration-frequency analysis for Southeastern Nigeria. Agricultural Engineering International, 12(1), 22-30. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database. Neuman, W. L. (2006). Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (6th ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.