Design and Planing Research

A common, and costly, mistake is to leap in and begin working without designing what it is you will do and planning how to carry it out. Spend time on working this out and discussing it with your supervisor and any available experts.

 After this, you will most likely need to submit for approval a brief proposal providing details of your intended studies. You should provide information about: topic; aims of the research, or the problem to be investigated; relevance to your discipline; and the central concepts of the study.

 Identifying the central concepts of your study often means considering possible attitudes, experiences, behaviours, social processes, reactions - whatever is interesting and possible to examine. Take into account such factors as your own personality, age, gender, interests and work load; the participants, their available roles, the activities that will take place, the times at which things happen and the places in which they happen; the accessibility and availability of material, of members of a group or an organisation, of individuals to be interviewed or documentary sources.

Methods to be used

 Many of these remarks apply across the board; and not to just one method. Indeed, it is difficult, and usually fruitless, to compartmentalise research methods. As with most aspects of PhD work, you arrive at the best method to use by asking questions.

Experimental and quasi-experimental studies.

What design is most appropriate?

What factors are to be controlled by you in the experimental design?

What factors are to be knowingly ignored, or dealt with by randomisation?

How is random allocation of treatments to experimental units to be achieved?

Where are the experimental units coming from?

Survey research

What form of survey is most appropriate for the task at hand: mail-out, face-to-face interview, telephone?

Who are the intended respondents?

How will the respondents be chosen-by a randomisation process, by a quota, by purposive selection, from administrative records, from an organisational hierarchy?

If randomisation has a role, how will it be introduced - by your, by a private survey organisation, by a governmental survey organisation?

Interview based studies

How many members of a group would you attempt to interview? How would you approach them initially?

What form will the interviews take - semi-structured, unstructured?

What would be the approximate duration of the interviews? Would you use a single interview per person or a series of interviews?

What topics would you attempt to cover in the interviews?

Participant observation

What role or roles would you adopt in the setting? What level of participation would you employ - complete, participant as observer, observer as participant?

What would be the best activities in the setting in which to participate? What would be the best physical locations from which to observe?

What use, if any, should be made of informants? How would you go about selecting them and establishing a relationship with them?

Textual analysis

What sort of textual material will you use - printed, graphical, audio or visual?

How will you obtain the texts to be analysed?

What other aspects of the text will you examine, eg, origins of the material?

How will you select a sample of texts to be analysed from the range of available material?

Conversation analysis

Will you record conversations for the analysis or use conversations recorded for other purposes?

If you record conversations for the analysis, how will you manage your role as observer? How will you obtain existing recordings? How will you gain the consent of the participants?

If you use conversations recorded for other purposes, how will you obtain existing recordings?

 For each methodology, ask yourself how should the data be

recorded?

analysed?

 These may not be simple decisions to make. But, you need to clarify the steps involved in each part of the study, and establish a timetable for each part.

 Of course, it is also important to recognise that you may well bring personal biases to the study. Examine how these might affect the data collection process and your interpretation of the results of your research. There are invariable ethical implications to proposed research programs.

 If possible, seek professional advice before setting about data collection, especially on statistical matters that you may be unfamiliar with. Most universities employ professional statisticians within their mathematics, economics, agricultural, biological and social science departments. These people have to be experienced in the real-life issues of data collection and data analysis relevant to their discipline. Use them.

o   Looking at the fit between your aims and your research design.

o   Dealing with data.

o   Now I see how I should have done it all along. Is it too late to change?

o   I am three quarters of the way through but it isn't as fruitful as I thought it would be. How can I rescue my thesis?

o   Finding, formulating and exploring your topic.

o   Deciding on your structure.

o   Seeing a plot emerge.

o   Developing a picture of the thesis as a whole.

o   Preparing an outline for three years?

o   Is it really necessary to start with a really detailed outline of your thesis?

o   Seeking, receiving and handling feedback.

o   Strategies for getting the best feedback possible.

o   Overcoming reluctance to seek feedback.

Source : http://www.uq.edu.au/student-services/phdwriting/phlink26.html

Planning a speech

Like any earnest endeavor, there is only one place to start when planning a speech, and that's with a plan.

I know that's not what you wanted to read. It's only natural to want to dive head first into your first speechwriting endeavor. In your mind you can see the words Ladies and Gentlemen forming on your blank piece of paper, but I beg you to hold back.

By taking the time to develop a great plan for you speech, your planning efforts, not to mention your patience, will reap the benefit tenfold.

The purpose of planning a speech phase is to discover what you want to write, what you ought to write, and what you should omit from your completed speech. Don't be the best man who forgets to thanks the bridesmaids, the eulogist who omits their fondest memory of the deceased, or the speechmaker who is babbling on or worse, lost for words.

Planning your speech well will also give you confidence every step on the way to your speech.

Public Speaking Occasion

This lesson will prepare a solid foundation for your speech and assist your confidence in your own public speaking abilities. It will also ensure that you avoid one of the most common mistakes when delivering a speech, the mistake of omission.

The nature of the occasion will obviously have a great bearing on your speech. The occasion will dictate not only the content of your speech, but also the duration, the tone, and the expectations of your audience. For example, humor may be inappropriate during a business presentation or a eulogy, while it may be welcome during a wedding speech, or a sports event. You should also be aware of your role and any observances that you should make during your speech (For example, a Best Man ought to close his speech with a toast to the Bride and Groom).

Digging deeper, The Occasion is fairly self-explanatory, or so we think. But you should never stand in front of a large group of people and make a speech based on assumptions. The very first thing we must get to know before speaking in public is the occasion itself.

Perhaps you think you know the occasion and are tempted to skip to the next chapter. It's a best man speech, what else is there to know? you may ask. Let's have a closer look.

You've been asked to be the Best Man of a good friend who you know through work. You start thinking about the guy you know though the office, the joker, the work-related social gatherings you've attended. You figure you've got some great material for your speech. But, you think smartly, it's time to find out if there is more to the occasion. Aspects to his life of which you are not aware. You contact the groom's sister and ask whether there is anything to consider. Yes, she tells you, their mother has a grave illness and will not be able to attend the wedding. Also, the groom's brother is serving overseas and also not be able to attend the wedding.

Suddenly a simple best man speech has become something completely different. It is a bittersweet occasion due to the absence of close family. There is also serious illness in the family. You also realize that you have likely been asked to be best man due to the absence of a brother in patriotic duty overseas.

You have an idea. You contact the groom's sister and ask if she thinks the family would object to you featuring a message, a recorded message, from the groom's absent brother as part of your best man speech. She loves the idea!

The point being of course, that a speech is never just a speech. There is always an occasion, and labels such as wedding, retirement, eulogy do not constitute an occasion while marriage of childhood sweethearts, retirement of much loved lifelong company man whose grandson has just joined the firm and eulogy for first generation immigrant, mother of four and grandmother of eleven certainly are occasions.

Knowing this distinction, and taking the time and care to do your research, set you on the road to a very special, memorable speech.

Pubilc Speaking - The theme of your speech

At the heart of every speech is a message. Your job as a public speaker is to pass that message to your audience and in so doing, convey a theme, evoke an emotion or elicit a response - be it emotional or otherwise.

The first step is to identify the single most important idea, theme or message you want to convey in your speech. This message will likely be informed by the public speaking occasion you identified earlier.

For example, if you identified the occasion as the retirement of much loved lifelong company man whose grandson has just joined the firm, some potential themes you identify may include:

Family (grandson & grandfather, also the company family)

Continuity

Gratitude

Respect

The future

Once you have identified 3-7 potential themes, it's time to decide which of theme will be the dominant one. Again, there is no right and wrong answer. It's your speech, pick the theme that resonates most with you. It's important to note that the themes not selected as your primary theme should still play a part in your speech. DO not discard them just yet.

People

Our lives revolve around people - the people we know and love, strangers we interact with, those who influence us. A speech is very similar.

Most first-time speechwriters or novice public speakers spent much of their time focused on one group: the audience.

Of course, the audience are not the only group of people you should consider when planning your speech. Let's look at the people whom you should consider when planning or making your speech.

The subject(s) of your speech

Most speeches are about a single person, a couple, or a group of people. (I will touch on speeches that are about subjects other people later).

The Ancient Greeks carved the words Gnothi Seauton, meaning "Know Thyself", on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. If the Temple of Speechwriters existed, I am sure that the words "Know Thy Subject" would appear somewhere on it.

At the outset of the speechwriting process, you re likely (but not always so) to have a familiarity with the subject of your speech be they a friend, relation, work colleague or even a celebrity. As such, you should try to organize what you know about your subject(s) on paper.

My favorite way to collect my thoughts about the subject(s) is to use a piece of paper with helpful headings over blank paragraphs as an aid to your brainstorming. Samples of headings could be:

First impressions

Fond memories

Favorite Quotes

Funny moments

Features & Characteristics

The next part is fun. Take your time, and think about everything you can remember about the subject(s), in keyword form, under each heading. Time will pass quickly and before you know it, you will have a page that should summarize the subject perfectly and act as a terrific tool when writing your speech.

Tip:  Once you have delivered your speech, this brainstorming page (preferably framed) can act as a wonderful gift and touching memento for the subject(s) of your speech.

Associates of the Subject(s)

Associates of the subject(s) may include parents, siblings or other family members, friends or colleagues, and especially their husband, wife or fiance. These people are extremely important as a source for additional information about the subject of your speech.

They will likely know aspects of the subject(s) life that you don't know, this will surely enrich your speech. There are additional benefits in consulting the friends and family of the subject(s) as they will appreciate your decision to involve them in your speechwriting. You should also bear in mind that as they are certain to be in attendance at the event, you will already have won over some of the audience!

Other public speakers

It is very likely that you will be a co-speaker at the public speaking event. If this is indeed the case, you should consider contacting the other speakers before your speech. This will ensure that you are not duplicating content and that there is a nice flow of themes and/or contact from one speaker to another. It may also be an opportunity to share ideas and provide moral support to one another.

The audience

The audience, of course, are a critical part of delivering a speech. We will discuss the audience in detail under the topics Writing a speech and How to deliver a speech.

At this stage of planning, it is important to realize that your audience are not there to be lectured at. Your public speaking goal is to do one or more of the following:

Engage your audience

Stimulate your audience

Entertain your audience

Pique your audience's interest

Convey a message, theme or order

There are countless other ways and reasons to communicate with an audience. How many more can you think of for your speech event.

Non-human Speech Subjects

Of course, you may be asked to speak about things too, be it a product, a country, an argumentative thesis, and so on. of course in those instances you should consult authoritative sources such as encyclopedias, college professors and local library resources, to name but a few.

Note that even when the topic is non-human, a compelling story can often be told by focusing on the people involved - for example the inventors or engineers of a product, modern or historical figures of a country, or proponents or opponents of an argumentative thesis.

Articel Source : http://www.speechtips.com/how-to-write-a-speech.html

Picture Source : http://lfp.tldsb.on.ca