Your CIOS file request: COMGRADS hotline item

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Received:  by CIOS Mailer; Thursday 10 Jun 1999 15:17:39
Date:          Thu, 10 Jun 99 15:02 -0400
To: "Multiple recipients of COMGRADS" 
From: titswor  at inetnebr.com
Subject:       Re: Too Quiet! - length of time

I agree that multiple factors dictate the length of the dissertation
time-frme.  However, all things being equal, quantitative takes less time.
When doing qualitative, one has to transcribe.  If you have a pro transcribe
them for you, plan on spending close to $1000, depending on the amount of data,
quality of recording, length of interviewes/focus groups, etc.  Once you get
them transcribed, which can take up to a month, you have to read them and
code.  For quantitative, data entry is relatively quick after data collection
os over.  If you had a good plan to start, data analysis can literally be done
in a day.  The writeup for the "results" takes considerably less time with
quantitative.

Here at Nebraska, four people in my class are at least half way through the
diss process.  Two of us did quantitative and are literally within a few pages
of being done with the first draft.  The two who are doing qualitative projects
are only about half done, even though we all started serious work on them at
about the same time.

Last comment.  Speed should not be your primary criteria.  As soon as your
advisor/committee learns you are making decisions based on speed of completion,
they will freak out.  Make your decisions about methods based on the questions
you want to ask and your own particular methodological expertise.

--
Scott Titsworth

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