Exercises to accompany each chapter of Qualitative Research Methods for Everyone: An Essential Toolkit (Policy Press).
Five difficult questions. Try writing out, for any (imaginary) research proposal, five bullet points that illustrate, even if obliquely, your answer to the five difficult questions.
Preparing the proposal. Write any (imaginary) research proposal as one paragraph that anyone you pass in the street might understand. Write an enticing, clear succinct research proposal title that would be useful when people do searches on it. Have a competition with your peers as to who does this best.
Aims and Objectives. The purpose of this exercise is to do the groundwork that leads to the development of clear and informed Aims and Objectives. Spend five minutes on your own skimming through the ‘Space to Care’ project aims and objectives, in the chapter. Then in small groups: Select an imaginary topic (or use your own). Discuss the 5 difficult questions (not necessarily in order). Then design aims and objectives for this proposed study. End with presentations if appropriate.
Philosophical position. Summarise your philosophical influences in a few sentences. See the example in the book.
Methods. Choose one research method and discuss why it is relevant for your particular research proposal.
Discuss: is all qualitative research interpretivist? Which research methods would not be appropriate for who or what, when, and why? Can the analysis of pre-existing data (eg open ended survey data) be qualitative?
Comment below. Please share any tips or insights in the comments.
Karen O'Reilly 
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