Why These Data?: Rationales for Data Selection in Doctoral Student Presentations

Abstract

Doctoral students' research presentations were investigated for the way in which the students articulated their rationales for data selection for their research projects. Rather than look for genre-related characteristics, though still working within the area of academic discourse (spoken), the objective of this study was to identify a set of possible data selection rationales, for subsequent use by future doctoral students and their advisers. Presentations from two groups of doctoral students were analysed: part-time students on an Applied Linguistics 'thesis and coursework' PhD programme at a UK university, and student nurses on a doctoral programme at the University of Michigan (whose presentation transcripts were already publicly available). The result was a substantial set of data selection rationales, including availability of data, good quality (various types), professional concern, paradigm-relatedness, originality and generalisability. These were provisionally ranked in terms of 'research awareness'.