1. Develop a research question. Write a research question for a hypothetical study that interests you in your area of study, e.g., What is the ethnic diversity of characters featured in award-winning Caldecott children’s picture books? 1 point
2. Create a sampling plan. Describe the content you propose to analyze and how you will sample it. For the question above, your content would be Caldecott winning books for a certain range of time. You would also describe how you are sampling from that content. Publication dates? Every book, or some group of books? Every page or certain pages? 2 points
3. Briefly review the material in the sample. Locate some content and examine it. (You don’t need to describe this step in your written assignment.)
4. Set your unit of analysis and define your terms. For the research question above, you might say you are sampling all Caldecott winning books from 2000 to 2016. You might also sample every fifth page and analyze every character on those pages. You would define what constituted an ethnically diverse character and what would not qualify as an ethnically diverse character. What about animals? Someone of Irish descent? German? Native Alaskan? The reader should easily be able to examine a page from a children’s picture book and categorize the characters on the page as meeting or not meeting your definition. 2 points
5. Code the content. (You do NOT need to do this.)
6. Summarize your findings. (You do NOT need to do this.)
