How valid are estimates of buying intention?

Source: Synovate. Consumer Insights-Research on Research. “Measuring buying intention: How valid is the estimate?”

Morocco shop. Photo credit: Steven Smith

How reliable are self-reports when we ask respondents whether or not they intend to buy a new consumer product within the next six months? Synovate summarized the results obtained when the respondents were asked to use a simple “yes” or “no” answer to indicate whether or not they intended to buy a home appliance within a specified period of time.

• How good is the resultant estimate relative to actual buying behavior?
• Also, what was the actual buying behavior among respondents who failed to provide information initially?

Research Method

Two questionnaires were mailed to the same Consumer Mail Panel households approximately 18 months apart. The first questionnaire inquired about present ownership or intention to buy a microwave oven¹. The second questionnaire asked whether a microwave oven had been purchased and, if so, when it was purchased.

Respondents were classified into four groups on the basis of their response to the first questionnaire:

• Intend to buy
• Do not intend to buy
• No answer regarding intention to buy
• First questionnaire not returned

These groups were then cross-tabulated against four similar groups based on the respondents’ responses to the second questionnaire:

• Bought a microwave oven (within 18 months after the first questionnaire was sent)
• Did not buy a microwave oven
• No answer regarding purchase
• Second questionnaire not returned

Results

Over-all, the estimates of intended purchase were two percentage points higher than the actual purchase using respondents who supplied answers to both waves of research. Initially, nine percent of the respondents said they expected to purchase a microwave oven within the following twelve months. Upon recontact, seven percent of the respondents had actually purchased one.

Even though the sample sizes are large enough to make this difference statistically siqnificant² the relatively small percentages yielded a reasonable estimate of future purchase using data for all respondents who supplied answers.

A more targeted analysis among respondents who initially said they intended to buy a microwave oven produced much less accurate results. Upon recontact, only slightly more than one-fourth (26.5 percent) of the original intenders had actually purchased a microwave oven Because this group represented less than ten percent of all respondents, however, the over-all impact of intenders who did not buy a microwave oven was almost offset by the three percent of non-intenders (almost 80 percent of the sample), three percent of the respondents who initially gave no answer, and nine percent of the initial nonreturners who subsequently bought a microwave oven.

The latter two groups were of special interest. Their subsequent purchase behavior was analyzed to determine the best method for handling non-response when reporting study results.

Granted, all researchers recognize that the higher the response rate, the more confidence one has that the sample represents the surveyed population. Given the reality of non-response, however, the question is, how does one deal with it in presenting the findings of a survey? In general, should non-response be allocated among the answer categories in the same proportions as the answers received? Specific to this study, when using “yes-no” answer alternatives, should it be treated as a “no” answer or should non-response be reported as non-response?

By cross tabulating the initial “responses” against the subsequent “responses,” it was possible to track purchase behavior, not only among respondents who answered the intention question, but also among the “no answers” and non-returners as well.

When the respondents who were initially classified as “no answers” or non-returners are included in the analysis, the estimate of the percent of respondents who would purchase a microwave oven dropped to seven percent but remained two percentage points higher than the percent of respondents who subsequently bought one.

Further, it was found that the subsequent behavior of each of the four initial groups is significantly different³ from group to group. This means that one should neither combine “no answers” with those who said “no”, nor allocate “no answers” in the same proportions of “yeses” and “nos” from those who gave answers. Of the two choices, however, combining “no answer” and “no” together would have produced the smallest error. Further, this analysis also revealed that non-returners’ subsequent behavior could not be predicted using data obtained from respondents who returned questionnaires.

Conclusion

The use of “yes” or “no” alternatives appears to have produced an over-estimate of subsequent purchase. This finding is likely to be true particularly in those instances when over-all purchase intention is relatively low.. The fact that actual behavior was statistically different than the forecast is offset somewhat by the relatively small percentages involved. It was estimated that seven percent of the respondents would purchase a microwave oven and five percent had actually purchased one by the time they responded to the second questionnaire.

How to measure consumer mood index

Source: Synovate Infact
For more information visit http://www.synovate.com

Farmers' market, Halifax port

The Synovate Consumer Mood Index data was taken from Synovate’s Global Trends survey, an international research study that monitors and measures consumers’ values and attitudes on a variety of topics and their impact on trends and other emerging insights. The Synovate Consumer Mood Index asks respondents a series of questions about their own and their country’s economic prospects, including the economy in general, their personal economic situation and the job market in their country. The index is calculated by subtracting the negative answers from the positive ones, adding 100 to leverage the results and then calculating the average of all topics to obtain a single score that represents the current situation and the future situation. For example, current situation perception = average (economy in general net + 100, personal economic situation net + 100 and job market net + 100). The mood index is the average between those two situation indicators.

This study was conducted from July to September 2010 with people aged 16 to 65 years old. The following countries fielded the survey using CATI (computer assisted telephone interviewing): Argentina (600 people), Brazil (800), Chile (600), Colombia (600), Mexico (1000), Serbia (600), and Spain (600 – also used online). The remaining countries conducted the survey online: Canada (600), Germany (1000), Italy (800), Japan (1000), Netherlands (800), Spain (also used CATI), UK (800) and USA (1200). Synovate set quotas in all markets to maximize representativeness of the sample interviewed.

Synovate Consumer Mood Index Survey questions

Do you think that the current economic situation in (COUNTRY) is better, about the same or worse than 6 months ago?

How about your personal economic situation? Do you think it is better, about the same or worse than 6 months ago?

Do you consider the job market in (COUNTRY) now to be better or worse than 6 months ago?

Thinking about the next six months, do you think that in 6 months the economic situation in the country will be better, about the same or worse than it is today?

Thinking about the situation of your personal economy, do you think that in 6 months it will be better, about the same or worse than it is today?

Do you think that in the next 6 months the job market in (COUNTRY) will be better, about the same, or worse than the current one?

Generally speaking, do you think now is a good time or a bad time to buy a house?

What about selling a house — generally speaking, do you think now is a good time or a bad time to sell a house?

Speaking now of the automobile market — do you think the next 12 months or so will be a good time or a bad time to buy a vehicle?

Writing the thesis outline: Conceptual framework

Jinhua College students during survey procedures training

One of the frequently asked questions in Thesis/Research Coach of this blog is how to develop a framework — conceptual and theeoretical — for a thesis outline. Here’s the advice I have always given my own thesis students …

A framework is simply the structure of the research idea or concept and how it is put together.  A conceptual framework elaborates the research problem in relation to relevant literature. This section may summarize the major (dependent and independent) variables in your research. The framework may be summarized in a schematic diagram that presents the major variables and their hypothesized relationships. It should also cover the following:

• Existing research and its relevance for your topic
• Key ideas or constructs in your approach
• Identify and discuss the variables related to the problem.
• Conceptualized relationships between variables

Independent variables (presumed cause)
Dependent variables (presumed effect)
Intervening variables (other variables that influence the effect of the independent variable)

• Present a schematic diagram of the relationships between key variables and discuss the relationship of the elements/variables
• Statement of hypotheses

For sample conceptual frameworks, click here and here .

Writing the thesis outline: Methodology

Jinhua College student, Zhejiang province, China

Since last year, the blog stats have shown that the  posts and pages which got the most traffic in Devcompage are the following:

• Thesis/research coach
• Suggested new communication thesis topics
• How to choose a development communication thesis topic
• More communication thesis topics
• Thesis topics on communication technology

I am glad that many communication students in the Philippines and elsewhere (Australia, East Africa, Central Asia, Sri Lanka, etc.) have referred to Devcompage for thesis advice.  And I would like to oblige them further by completing the series of posts on research that I had started — from design to analysis.

So far, we have tackled writing the introduction and the review of literature. The next step would be to write the conceptual and theoretical framework. Some schools, however, do not require these so let me deal first with writing the methodology chapter.

Research methodology

The methodology chapter of a communication or social science thesis often includes the following elements:

• Location of the study (study sites, reason for choice of site; at manuscript stage, include a location map)
• Research design (experiment, content analysis, one-shot survey)
• Sampling procedure (sampling method, sample size)
• Data gathering instrument (main sections of the instrument)
• Instrument pretesting (translation, where and how many pretest respondents)
• Data analysis (statistical tests to apply, how data will be analyzed)
• Data requirements matrix

Research objective	Variables	Specific question to be asked
To determine information environment of respondents.	Print readership TV viewership	Which of the following media are you exposed to: ___ 1) Newspapers ___ 2) Magazines ___ 3) Comics ___ 4) Radio ___ 5) TV ___ 6) Video ___ 7) Farmers’ meeting 2. If 1, 2 & 3 are mentioned, 2a.What newspapers do you read? ______________ 2b. How often do you read newspapers? ___1) daily ___2) every other day ___3) once a week ­­­­___4) twice a week ___5) once a month

Sample thesis methodology

Farmers’ Comprehension of Usage Instructions on Pesticide Packaging

Julieann Rae M. Aguilar

METHODOLOGY

Locale of the Study

The study was conducted in four areas of the province of Leyte, particularly in Albuera, Hilongos, Ormoc and Baybay. These places were chosen as the study sites because these are rice growing areas in the province (www.ormocnews.blogspot.com).

Research Design and Sampling Procedure

The study followed the one-shot survey research design. A sample of one hundred (100) rice farmers were randomly selected as the respondents, distributed as follows:

Town	Sample size
Ormoc Baybay Albuera	50 25 25

An arranged exposure was conducted among the 25 randomly selected respondents from each area. After the arranged exposure, an individual interview followed.

Data Collection and Instrument

Stimulus material. Six samples of pesticide packaging with usage instructions were shown to the respondents. These samples are six different kinds of pesticides that are commonly used by rice farmers. The pesticide use instructions on pesticide packaging were categorized as follows:

WORDS	VISUALS
HazardsDirections for Use – Target pests – Application – Timing –  Amount/dosage –  Frequency Precaution Storage and disposal First aid	Symbol (skull, etc.) Pictograms

The 25 respondents from each area were gathered in a hall and each of them received copies of samples at the start of the arranged exposure. Interviews were subsequently conducted by the researcher and hired interviewers.

Interview Schedule

The interview schedule was prepared in English and then translated into Cebuano. It was composed of three parts, namely: respondents’ comprehension of pesticide use instructions, respondents’ information sources on pest management, respondents’ literacy and respondents’ socio-demographics.

Questionnaire Pretesting

Prior to the field work, the interview schedule was pretested among respondents who have the same characteristics as the actual study respondents. The pretest aimed to ensure that the questions can be understood. Any portion of the interview schedule which the respondents could understand was modified.

Focus Group Discussion

In order to complement the data that were gathered from the interviews, a focus group discussion (FGD) was conducted in one of the three study areas. There were six participants in the focus group discussion. Questions raised in the discussion dealt with respondents’ comprehension of pesticide use instructions. Respondents were asked what part of the pesticide use instructions they considered to be difficult to comprehend. Respondents were asked to give their comments or suggestions on how the packaging instructions could be improved, if there is any, on the pesticide packaging in order to facilitate understanding among farmers.

Data Analysis

Data were encoded and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 15.0. Correlation measures such as the Pearson product moment correlation and Spearman’s rho were used to test the relationship between the respondents’ selected socio-demographics, number of information sources on pesticide application, literacy and their comprehension of pesticide use instructions. Frequencies, totals and percentages were used to present the results of the study.

How to develop a realistic survey budget

Interviewing a farmer in Lingui County, Guangxi, China

Interviewer training, Jinhua, Zhejiang, China

Interviewer training, Jinhua, Zhejiang province, China

The first consultancy assignment I did was to conduct a farmer survey for an FAO Regional Programme.  The initial task was for me to estimate the survey cost. I came up with a rather conservative estimate and I even left my professional fee blank. When the programme coordinator asked, I replied:  “I leave it up to you to decide as I don’t know your rates and I might price myself out of the market.”

Being conservative in my budget estimate and not seemingly taking advantage of a UN organization, must have opened the door for me. I completed the survey in less than three months at a time when PCs weren’t around yet.  That led to many more FAO assignments and the rest is history.

Let’s segue to the present… In our ADB-funded project, one deliverable is baseline survey results for China, Thailand and Vietnam. To achieve this, we conducted a training-workshop o n “sociological tools and decision making in planthopper management” in which a key outputs were a survey work plan and budget.  The budgets submitted ranged from USD 11,000 to 15,000 for a survey of 300 rice farmers in their part of Asia.

To cut the survey cost, I developed this formula to come up with a realistic budget. Below are the key cost items in a survey and the way to calculate the costs.  The illustration is that of Vietnam so take note of the units — VND means Vietnam dong for currency, Cai Lai and Cai Be are districts in Tien Giang province where the survey will be conducted. Add wages of interviewers and supervisors,  supplies, transport and interviewer training and pretesting.

1)  Wages of interviewers
Sample size:  1,000 (Cai Be: 600, Cai Lay: 400)
No. of interviews that can be completed/day/person: 5 to 6
1,000/6 = 167 man-days

Option 1 (hire 10 interviewers):
167 man-days/10 interviewers = 18 days/interviewer
OR
Option 2 (hire 20 interviewers)
167 man-days/20 interviewers = 9 days/interviewer
Daily wage: _____ x 18 days x 10 interviewers = __________ VND
OR
Daily wage: _____ x 9 days x 20 interviewers = __________ VND

2) Wages of survey supervisors
Estimate wages, honorarium or overtime of staff directly supervising the enumerators

3) Supplies
Number of pages of the questionnaire x 1,000 respondents = ________ pages for reproduction
Cost of reproduction per page x total number of pages = __________ VND
Interviewing kit for enumerators (ballpen, plastic envelope, clipboard, raincoat, etc.)

4) Transport
Choose the most cost-effective transport arrangement appropriate to the survey area. You might want to consider giving a lump sum transport allowance to each interviewer to minimize the hassles of collecting small receipts. Or if the survey areas are near each other, perhaps a rented van can ferry the students to their survey site.

5)  Training of enumerators
No. of persons:  10 enumerators
5 staff, including driver
2 resource persons
Total:  17

Coffee break + lunch x 17 = ________ VND

How to develop attitude statements for a survey

Preparing FGD refreshments, Lingui county, Guangxi, China

Individual interview, Lingui county, Guangxi, China

An important section in our farmer surveys is  “beliefs and attitudes” of respondents.  To construct attitude questions, one has to determine what to ask.  The research literature suggests the following steps to help you determine what to ask and how to appropriately write attitude questions.

1. Determine the attitude objective of the survey. For example, if the survey is to encourage farmers’ participation in local farmers’ cooperatives, then the attitude objectives could be to determine farmers’ attitudes toward:

(a) the services provided by local farmers’ cooperative
(b) the management of the cooperative in fulfilling its responsibility.

2. Based on the objectives, the next step is to decide on the information that would be needed to assess the attitude. Make a list for each objective. In the example above, some of the information needed for objective (a) would be to assess farmers’ feelings toward the services of the cooperative. What are the services that they like? What are the services that they do not like? Do they find the services beneficial?

3. Once the required information has been identified, the next step is to prepare attitude questions or statements around each topic. For instance, on whether the services are beneficial, two possible questions that can be asked are:

The farmers’  cooperative  has been  responsive to farmers’ needs.
There ought to be more projects for small farmers.

4. Prepare a large number of questions or statements based on  the following guidelines:

(a) Attitude statements express a judgment.
(b) Avoid double-barreled statements.
(c) Avoid double negatives.
(d) Avoid long statements.
(e) Incorporate both positively and negatively worded items.

5.  As can be seen from the above examples, an attitude question includes a statement and a response scale. There are many types of scales. It may be a  3-point scale (Agree, Disagree, Uncertain), 5-point scale (Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Unsure, Agree, Strongly Agree) or even a 7-point scale.

Next post:  How to use FGD results to develop attitude statements for a survey.

Reference

Mohamed R, Khor YL, Escalada MM, Teoh CH.  1997.  KAP survey training module. FAO. Rome.

How to develop an FGD guide

FGD with extension officials in Long Dinh, Vietnam

The success of an FGD often rests on the set of themes and questions about the main topic that one has prepared in advance . It is called the FGD guide. Many of my students think that the FGD is just an abridged version of the personal interview.  It isn’t so.

So how do you develop an FGD guide? If you have a lot of experience on the  topic, thinking of focus group questions to ask is often intuitive and the questions just flow in succession. However, with a new topic, the rule is: Read, read, read. One must read the literature on the subject to come up with relevant key questions.

In our ADB-IRRI planthopper project, we need to understand how extension officials and policy makers at various levels — district, province and central government — respond to planthopper outbreaks.  For a while, I wrestled with a list of questions that would give me a handle to the topic.  The most efficient way was to first understand the relevant topics in decision making and management. By doing this, I was able to draw up a focus group road map.

This is what I did. I read up on management, public administration and looked up substantive rationality and procedural rationality. I also reviewed the essential management functions – planning, organizing, coordinating, staffing,  directing and controlling.  From my readings and familiarity with the structure and operation of plant protection services in Asia, I came up with the questions below which generated useful insights into why plant protection organizations often have a “fire brigade” response.  Here are the questions:

Response to Rice Planthopper Outbreaks
for Extension Officials & People’s Committee Chairmen
FGD Guide

Flow of information
How are outbreaks reported?
What is the flow of outbreak information from the field upwards?
And usually how long will this take to reach province directors?
How do provincial directors act on reports of outbreaks?
Are reports of outbreaks from the field communicated upwards to the central offices or contained within the province?

Management procedure
What is PPD’s management procedure for dealing with a pest outbreak?
What about the People’s Committee?

Role perceptions  and expectations
During the BPH/virus outbreak last season, what do you think was expected of you as an extension official?  As a People’s Committee vice chairman?

Actions to manage problem
What steps did PPD take to manage the BPH/virus problem last season?
What about the People’s Committee in the area?
What virus disease management options were preferred and recommended by PPD? (Chemical, escape strategy, etc.)
Why was that option chosen?

Concerns about the problem
What were your worries about the BPH/virus outbreak?
What were your worries about the disease management option you have chosen and recommended to farmers?

Budget allocation
How much was the budget allocation for virus disease control? How was this amount determined?
What was the basis for the budget allocation?
How was the budget allocation decided in PPD?
Who decides the budget allocation for pest outbreaks?

Communication and social mobilization
What extension mechanisms were used to communicate to farmers about virus disease control?
How did you mobilize farmers to swiftly control virus disease?

Suggestions for the way forward
What needs to be done to sustain the success of the virus eradication strategy?
What needs to be done to minimize prevent the spread or occurrence of the virus in other areas in Vietnam?
What do you think was the cause or contributing factors to the virus problem?

For the FGD report, visit Ricehoppers. Go to the “Project reports” tab. I will appreciate if you post your comments.

How to make literature review citations easier

In response to the post on how to write a literature review, my friend, Ritchie Varela, sent me this heads-up on a great citation-gathering tool. Here’s Ritchie’s post:

Zotero – Citation-gathering tool

Contributed by:
Ritchie Varela

Literature review is a tasking job for a researcher. As said earlier, it requires a lot of time searching and poring over reference materials. That’s why tools are needed to make one’s job easier. I’m using a Firefox extension Zotero (http://www.zotero.org). It is a citation-gathering tool that has a lot of features:

• Automatic capture of citation information from web pages
• Storage of PDFs, files, images, links, and whole web pages
• Flexible notetaking with autosave
• Fast, as-you-type search through your materials
• Playlist-like library organization, including saved searches (smart collections) and tags
• Platform for new forms of digital research that can be extended with other web tools and services
• Runs right in your web browser Formatted citation export
• Free and open source

Perhaps you might want to give it a try.  Click here.

How to write the literature review

After writing the Introduction to a thesis outline/research proposal, the next chapter is the Review of Literature.  Many thesis students find writing the literature review a formidable task as it requires a lot of time searching and poring over reference materials.

In keeping with the topic, I looked for related materials by writing “review of literature” in Google and found several links to excellent materials from various sources, particularly university libraries. You can read those by clicking on the following links:

Concordia University Libraries
University of California Santa Cruz university library
UCE Birmingham Learner Development Unit
North Carolina A&T State University library
Asian Institute of Technology Language Center

I found the guide on writing the literature review prepared by the North Carolina A&T State University library quite relevant to the needs of most thesis students so I adapted parts of it here. If you have time to read the complete guide, visit their website.

What is a literature review?

A literature review is a summary of previous research on a topic.  Literature reviews can be either a part of a thesis or a research project that is published in a scholarly journal. It is an overview of significant literature published on a topic.

What is the purpose of a literature review?

The literature review aims to convey to the reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic and what are the strengths and weaknesses. It presents the following:

• What is known about the subject?
• Are there any gaps in the knowledge of the subject?
• Have areas of further study been identified by other researchers that you may want to consider?
• Who are the significant research contributors in this area?
• Is there consensus about the topic?
• What aspects have generated significant debate on the topic?
• What methods or problems were identified by others studying in the field and how might they impact your research?
• What is the most productive methodology for your research based on the literature you have reviewed?
• What is the current status of research in this area?
• What sources of information or data were identified that might be useful to you?

How to do a literature search?

1.      Develop a search strategy

• Define the topic – In order to begin your literature review you must first define your research question. What is the purpose?What does it mean?What are the key words? Are there other words which could be used, such as synonyms, variations in spelling? What do you already know about the topic? What is the scope?  Do you need everything every written on the topic or just the last 5 or 10 years?

• Compile a list of keywords – Before beginning a search for information, develop a search strategy that will most effectively locate useful, relevant information.  Break down a research question into: keywords or phrases; entering your search; and evaluating your results to determine whether you need to employ  various strategies to broaden, narrow or otherwise modify your research.

2.  Identify resources – Information is  available in a number of formats, such as:

Books
Reference materials
Journals
Conference papers
Dissertations and theses
Internet
Indexes/abstracts printed
Electronic databases
Government publications

How to write a literature review

The UCE Birmingham Learner Development Unit offers these tips on how to write a literature review:

1. Include a clear, short introduction which gives an outline of the review, including the main topics covered and the order of the arguments, with a brief rationale for this.
2. Provide a clear link between your own arguments and the evidence uncovered in your reading. Include a short summary at the end of  each section. Use quotations if appropriate.
3. Always acknowledge opinions which do not agree with your thesis. If you ignore opposing viewpoints, your argument will in fact be weaker.
4. Write your review in a formal, academic style. Keep your writing clear and concise, avoiding colloquialisms and personal language. You should always aim to be objective and respectful of others’ opinions; this is not the place for emotive language or strong personal opinions.  If you thought something was useless, use words such as “inconsistent”, “lacking in certain areas” or “based on false assumptions”!
5. When introducing someone’s opinion, don’t use “says”, but instead an appropriate verb which more accurately reflects this viewpoint, such as “argues”, “claims” or “states”.
6. Use the present tense for general opinions and theories, or the past when referring to specific research or experiments.
7. Always remember to avoid plagiarizing your sources. Always separate your source opinions from your own hypothesis. Attribute the material (results, ideas, arguments) you are referring to their sources.

The next post will deal with how to attribute important ideas to original sources cited in publications or reports or downloaded from the web, but which are unavailable for the thesis student to read. For instance, some thesis students write:  “Cigarette advertising, according to Cruz as cited by Smith (2009) leads to more positive attitudes toward tobacco use …”

Would you write “second-hand” citations this way? How can you get around this without appearing like a parasite preying on others’ citations? Please post your comments.

Writing the thesis outline: Introduction

Indonesian research partners in a workshop, Solo, Indonesia

In my years of advising thesis students on their research proposals, the biggest hurdle for them often occurs when writing the Introduction chapter.  Just what is the introduction of a thesis outline and why is it important?

The introduction sets the context or background of your research problem. In a concerto, it is the prelude which sets the tone. Its purpose is to frame the research question. Although social science research books do not provide a quick formula on how to frame the research question, experts advise that it is important to present it broadly while pointing out its significance.

Here are some practical guidelines suggested by experts on how to frame research questions:

1. Try to place your research question in the context of either a current “hot” area, or an older area that remains viable.
2. Provide a brief but appropriate historical backdrop.
3. Provide the contemporary context in which your proposed research question occupies the central stage.
4. Identify “key players” and refer to the most relevant and representative publications.

Following the inverted pyramid style of presenting information, start the introduction with a general statement of the problem area, with a focus on a specific research problem, followed by the rationale or justification for the proposed study. The introduction generally covers the following elements:

1. State the research problem, which is often referred to as the purpose of the study.
2. Provide the context for your research question and justify why the study is needed or important.
3. Present the rationale of your proposed study and clearly indicate why it is worth doing.
4. Briefly describe the major issues to be addressed by your research.
5. Set the boundaries of your proposed research in order to provide a clear focus.

Justify the research problem

Also referred to as the “rationale” , this is the part of the proposal in which you try to convince your adviser and research committee members why your proposed research needs to be done. You can do this by describing how the results may be used, such as, your research may:

• help design future communication campaigns
• develop better instructional modules in specific areas, say, HIV/AIDS prevention, smoking cessation, newborn screening, etc.
• influence government regulation on cigarette or alcohol advertising
• change the way farmers obtain information from extension technicians
• shape societal norms on environmental protection

Provide details on the above points to produce a convincing argument on the usefulness of the research. Are there other contributions your research will make? If so, describe them in detail.

Emphasize communication elements

In a communication thesis proposal, start with the communication elements of your research problem. This can sufficiently be covered by one or two paragraphs. Remember that you are a communication major and not a biological or physical sciences student so don’t start your Introduction with a treatise on the technical content of your thesis. For instance, in a study on “Fisherfolks’ information needs on mangrove conservation”, don’t write several paragraphs of the importance and results of research on mangroves.

Examine how the short introduction was written in a research proposal on the use of entertainment-education for rice pest management below:

Sample introduction

Title:  Motivating farmers to reduce insecticide use through a radio drama series in Vietnam

Research has shown that a large proportion of rice farmers’ pesticide use can be reduced. Many of the chemicals used are hazardous to human health as well as detrimental to the environment and disrupting natural biological control mechanisms promoting secondary pests, like the brown planthopper. For instance, sprays in the first 40 days of the crop produced 56 million more pests and 14 million less predators per ha than the unsprayed fields.

Since farmers’ spray decisions are due more to loss aversion attitudes, biased beliefs and local peer pressures, mass media can be effective in modifying the cognitive heuristics in decision-making and practice change. The Entertainment-Education strategy to facilitate social change has been successfully used in India, Mexico, UK, Jamaica, Costa Rica and several African countries. EE can effectively be applied to cultivate a new societal norm with regard to pesticide use by communicating IPM principles. In addition it can potentially be extended to other issues, like health education (e.g. HIV/AIDS) and resource and environment management.

Read more …