When you recruit your first participant, remember to use the Oral Consent script. You are free to adapt the script to your own language as long as you cover the key points contained in the

ORAL CONSENT SCRIPT FOR COURSE-RELATED RESEARCH

Good morning/afternoon/evening. Would you be interested in participating in a course-related research project I/we are conducting at the University of Denver? This research is being conducted as a classroom project in COMN 2200: Qualitative Inquiry in Communication. I’d like you to participate because you (explain the criteria for participant selection (e.g., new mother, polyamorous, adoptive parent of ethnic and racial minority child, family member of adult with X diagnosis).

Your participation is completely voluntary so you don’t have to answer any question, and you can stop at any time. If you do choose to participate and then change your mind, you won’t be penalized in any way.

I’m conducting this research project because I are hoping to learn more about qualitative research methods and XX— add explanation of the significance of the project for you and any possible significance for interviewee (e.g., insight into their experiences of XX; sharing their story of XX; catharsis in talking about XX). You and one other individual will be interviewed. If you agree to participate, I will be asking you to participate in an interview with me. This should take about 60 minutes of your time.

Your participation in this research doesn’t involve any direct risks or benefits to you. As a token of appreciation for your time, you will receive a copy of your transcribed interview.

In reports presented in class or within the university, there will be no information included that will make it possible to identify you. I will change your name or use initials to refer to you and any specifics you mention (e.g., place you work, live, names of others) will also be changed. The results of this study will not be published or presented outside of the university. Research records will be stored securely and only approved researchers will have access to the records. At the end of the class, I will delete your interview and its transcription. The instructor of our course may inspect and/or copy your research records for quality assurance and data analysis. If you have any questions about your rights as a participant or any concerns or complaints regarding your participation, you can contact me at (include your phone number and email address. If you have any questions about your rights as a research participant, concerns, or complaints about the research and wish to talk to someone other than me or if you cannot reach me, you may contact the instructor of the course: Professor Suter, [email protected], 200 Sturm Hall, Department of Communication Studies.

Before you agree to participate, remember that your participation is completely voluntary and if you would like a printed copy of the information I’ve just read to you, you are welcome to have this one.

DU IRB / Office of Research Integrity & Education

Oral Consent Script for Course-Related Research, v2 Nov 2020

DU IRB / Office of Research Integrity & Education

Oral Consent Script for Course-Related Research, v2 Nov 2020

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Interview and Transcription Assignment Sheet

Interview and Transcription (300 points)

Assignment Description: In this assignment, students demonstrate their ability to conduct, transcribe, and assess/revise three (3) semi-structured audio research interviews. Using their approved research proposal, students conduct and prepare their first interview for data analysis by creating a verbatim (aka orthographic) audio transcription which transcribes spoken words (and other sounds) in recorded data. The student’s verbatim/orthographic transcription follows Braun & Clarke’s transcription system. For each of the three interviews, the assignment also includes a written honest self-assessment of the student’s interview performance and a statement of plans for improvement in the subsequent interview. Each interview, transcription, and self-assessment are worth 100 points for a total of 300 points.

Orthographic transcription records what was said. When we speak, we don’t use punctuation to make ourselves understood. We use pauses and intonation; we vary our speech in pace (faster, slower), volume (louder, quieter) and many other ways. Spoken (natural) language is ‘messier’ than written language: we hesitate when we speak, we stumble over our words, start a word or phrase and don’t finish it, and say the same word or phrase a number of times.

It’s important that your transcripts are thorough and of high quality. A transcription notation system allows you to clearly and consistently translate spoken language into written language, meaning your approach to transcription is thorough and meticulous.

WHAT MAKES A (QUALITY) TRANSCRIPT?

A quality transcript signals what is said and who is speaking. A good orthographic transcript records in written form all verbal utterances from all speakers, both actual words and non-semantic sounds – such as ‘erm’, ‘er’, ‘uhuh’, ‘mm’ and ‘mm-hm’. Your aim is to create as clear and complete a rendering of what was uttered as possible.

Do NOT ‘correct’ or change anything – for example, don’t translate slang or vernacular terms into ‘standard’ English (if a participant says ‘dunno,’ it should not be transcribed as ‘don’t know’). If you ‘clean up’ or edit your data, your participants will sound more fluent and more like they are using written language. The whole point of collecting spoken data is that we capture how people express themselves.

Schedule time to time to transcribe the interview as soon as possible (ideally the following day).

Verbatim/Orthographic Transcription Is Expected To Follow Braun & Clarke’s Transcription System:

Anonymizing transcripts: Any data that could identify the participant has been removed or changed. This includes changing participant names and names of other people mentioned in the data by giving them a pseudonym (fake name). Beyond this, remove or change other information that could potentially make the participant identifiable (e.g., occupation, age, identifying personal information – for instance has three older sisters). You can change identifying information such as people’s names and occupations, places, events, etc. in one of two ways. By changing details and providing unmarked, appropriate alternatives (e.g. ‘Bristol’ to ‘Manchester’; ‘my sister is 14’ to ‘my sister is 12’; ‘I’m a really keen knitter’ to ‘I’m a really keen sewer’). By replacing specific information with marked generic descriptions (indicated by square brackets, so ‘London’ might be replaced with [large city]; ‘Michael’ with [oldest brother]; ‘running’ with [form of exercise])

Identifies the speaker for each turn of talk: The speaker’s name, followed by a colon (e.g., Anna: ) signal the identity of the speaker (use Interviewer/Int for when you are speaking). A new line is started for every time a new speaker enters the conversation. The first word of each new turn of talk begins with a capital letter.

Identifies Laughing, coughing, etc.: ((laughs)) and ((coughs)) is used to signal a speaker laughing or coughing during a turn of talk; ((General laughter)) signals interviewer and participant are laughing at once

Identifies Pausing: ((pause)) is used to signal a significant pause (i.e., a few seconds or more; precise timing of pauses is not necessary).

Spoken abbreviations: When someone speaks an abbreviation, that abbreviation is used (e.g., TV for television) but abbreviations are not used unless a speaker uses them.

Overlapping speech: Type ((in overlap)) before the start of the overlapping speech Use ((inaudible)) for speech and sounds that are completely inaudible; when you can hear something but you’re not sure if it’s correct, use single parentheses to signal your best guess or guesses as to what was said – for example (ways of life) or (ways of life/married wife)

Non-verbal utterances: Render phonetically and consistently common non-verbal sounds uttered by your participants. For English-as-a-first-language speakers, these include ‘erm’, ‘er’, ‘mm’, ‘mm-hm’

Reported speech: Reported speech is when a person provides an apparent verbatim account of the speech (or thoughts) of another person (or reports their own speech in the past). Signal this with the use of inverted commas around the reported speech (e.g. … and she said ‘I think your bum does look big in that dress’ and I said ‘thanks a bunch’…)

Margins: Format the transcript using transcript margins. 2 inch margin on the left-hand side and 1 inch margins on the right, top, and bottom margins.

Line numbering: Line number the transcript, continuously.

Audibility Check: Evidences that an audibility Check Performed (e.g., Auto-transcription software errors corrected (e.g., homophones) ** Audibility checks ensure the veracity of a transcript. Perform by playing back the recording while reading the transcription, pausing the recording to improve the accuracy of the transcription. 

DU offers students access Zoom and Kaltura automated transcription services

i. Students conducting face to face interviews should audio record their interviews and upload their recording to Kaltura My Media within Canvas or DU MediaSpace. “All video and audio files uploaded to Kaltura My Media within Canvas or DU MediaSpace will have an auto-generated closed caption file. As the video owner or editor, you can edit the auto-generated closed captions to improve accuracy." Information provided courtesy of the DU Ed-Tech Knowledge Base: https://otl.du.edu/knowledgebase/kaltura-editing-closed-captions/

ii. Students conducting remote interviews should conduct their interviews using Zoom. "Our DU community ZOOM enterprise license now allows for real-time closed captions and live transcription" & " if the ZOOM meeting was recorded to the Cloud, the host of the meeting can access the meeting record and edit the transcript." Information provided courtesy of the DU Ed-Tech Knowledge Base: https://otl.du.edu/knowledgebase/zoom-closed-captioning-and-live-transcription/

a. “Audio transcription automatically transcribes the audio of a meeting or webinar that you record to the cloud" Additional Instructions for automated transcription post-Zoom recording: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115004794983-Using-audio-transcription-for-cloud-recordings-

Self-Assessment

For each of the three interviews, the assignment also includes a written honest self-assessment of the student’s interview performance and a statement of plans for improvement in the subsequent interview. Revisions to subsequent interviews can include, for instance:

· Rewording interview questions that did not work particularly well

· Changing the order of questions

· Adding more prompts and probes to encourage participants to talk more

· Plans to keep the next interviewee more on track

· Changing the location of the interview to somewhere more quiet or private

· Better use of silence

· Better management of nervousness

· Better opening or closure of the interview

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Wenjia Zhang

COMN 2200

Professor Elizabeth Suter

Oct 5,2022

Research Proposal

Research Topic:

The ability of women to get pregnant changes with time; the female biological clock shows that it is difficult to get pregnant later in life since the number and quality of fertile sperm and ovum reduce with age (Verma et al., 2021). This proposal uses a qualitative study based on three life story interviews to analyze the social and subjective aspects of the biological clock and its consequences for reproductive time.

Research Question:

When discussing reproduction time in the context of delayed motherhood, age-related fertility problems, and the use of artificial insemination, the biological clock has become a popular framework. Numerous studies demonstrate an increase in women who delay childbearing and have their first child at 35 or later during the previous few decades (Verma et al., 2021). Because the time needed to reach personal and social milestones clashes with the window of opportunity for pregnancy established by female fertility, delaying the transition to parenthood places restrictions on reproductive time, which has been a significant problem in the past few and recent decades. My research question is, what is the significance of the biological clock in terms of female fertility?

Statement of research reflexivity:

When I see a challenge other women face between balancing their career life and having families, I can sincerely say that I understand their struggle while the clock is ticking. Many activities require attention and other challenges that make it difficult to bear a child at their fertile window. This proposal will conduct its research by interviewing three people through online channels; two are friends who follow the biological clock and are my longtime friends in junior studies, and one is a parent who lets her daughter track the biological clock. The data from the interview will help view life from other people’s description and their way of thinking and how to encourage the observance of the female "biological" clock to balance between being a mother and career life. Of course, there must have limitations to my sample; my interviewees live in a very small town in China, their education levels are not very high, and they are only a few families following the female biological clock.

Self-Assessment and Data Collection Planning:

The participants are subjected to an online interview where an interviewee conducts the online conversation. The participants would opt for online data collection, which contributed to the decision of the online interview process. The online interview is more of a self-assessment comes about. Self-assessment works best in research, especially in understanding the follow-up questions that ensure the feedback is valuable for planning purposes (Staller, 2022). After knowing the participants for the online self-assessment, planning is done to ensure the process is successful. I think the most appropriate attitude during the interview is relaxing, enthusiastic, and patient. For me, the potential limitation of the online interview is the lack of eye contact, emotional exchange, and time difference.

Statement on an assessment of research participant:

Qualitative research involves participants who play a significant role in offering the information necessary for the study. The participants' involvement is voluntary since the data collected is more about their personal life. There is a need to focus on seeking consent from the participants to ensure legal compliance. The focus is directed towards giving the confidence to the participants that their contribution is valued, and their data protected after collecting them (Staller, 2022). The assessment of the research participant is conducted following the qualitative research processes, especially in the interview process.

The participants' interviews demand following the qualitative approach, which involves developing open questions that result in more detailed feedback. The research participants are engaged in the process where it is made sure that their interests are considered in the data collection for them to be confident enough for the process. The participants are women because the topic of concern is more about women and their biological clocks. The research project will interview three people, two friends who follow the biological clock to get a baby in China, and one interviewee is a parent who lets her daughter follow the biological clock. The participants are given appointments for the online interview session where they are more comfortable with the self-assessment interview successfully. The intention is to have 3 participants for the study and ensure that all 100% engage in the study.

Interview Guide:

The term "intense" or "in-depth" is occasionally used to describe the length and intensity of a qualitative interview. The researcher has a predetermined topic for the respondent, but the questions are more free form. They may not be asked in the same order or fashion among participants in a semi-structured interview (Kross & Giust, 2019). In their own words, listening to interviewees' thoughts on the matter is the fundamental purpose of an in-depth interview. Here, we will examine qualitative interviews, how to interpret interview data, and the benefits and drawbacks of using this approach. The questions were developed to follow the structure of opening, intermediate, and closing questions.

The questions are designed so that the participants can give their feedback in more detail and ensure that they tackle each question in-depth (Kross & Giust, 2019). The focus is on interest and ensuring that the participant gets a follow-up question that promotes detailed discussion during the interview taking the research to the next level. The research questions above are open-ended and encourage meaningful feedback that can take the research to the next level.

Interview Questions:

1. In what way has following the biological clock impacted your life? (Opening Question)

Probe: What aspect of your years stands out the most when you describe how following a biological clock has impacted your life? Why?

Annotation: This response to this question will allow the interviewees to describe their daily life and what it is for them to follow a biological clock to bear a child earlier. Having each individual lay out their daily lives will help answer the specific impact that assuming the biological clock would have and notice similarities and differences across these stories.

2. When someone describes the following biological clock as “primitive,” how does that make you feel?

Probe: I appreciate your effort to answer this question. From personal experience, I understand that it can sideline you from peers in decision-making. If you are comfortable, can you please recall your decisions different from your peers and who abandoned you for making such a decision?

Probe: Now that you have recalled it, do you prefer the following of the female biological clock being “important” or “primitive”?

Annotation: This question will dive deeper into the true feeling of being identified and known as the following biological clock. It will then help to understand people’s take on the issue.

3. Tell me about the understanding of a woman’s biological clock program and how it has impacted your life in the journey of your motherhood.

Probe: When you recall the program, did you feel supported? Can you tell me some of the situations where you felt not supported?

Probe: are you still in the program? Did it help you?

Annotation: this question will help understand the kind of support the interviewees got in the program brought to make women understand their biological clock.

4. When did you embrace the idea of following the female biological clock?

Probe: Did the program help you, or were you referred to by a friend? How was the experience? Were the challenges faces faced in doing so?

Annotation: the response to this question helps to understand how women perceive the Female biological clock for the first time.

5. What would happen if, during your fertile years, you got engaged in many activities to enhance your career life? How would you do? Would you sacrifice your career to get children first? (Intermediate Question)

6. Is there a point when your decision to follow the biological clock to have a child early was misunderstood by your peers?

Probe: in this case, who was there? How did you feel at that time?

Annotation: This response will help understand how women feel when they get misunderstood by their peers concerning their choice. It will also show its impact and how to train various peers towards accepting this.

7. How do you hope others will understand the importance of using the female biological clock?

Probe: moving forward, what do you think is very important for other women to know about the female biological clock?

Annotation: this final question will tie together the whole interview by getting the interviewees’ answers, their thoughts on how they wish to be viewed in society, and what they wish would help others understand the female biological clock.

8. Do you ever regret following the biological clock?

9. How do you feel about following a biological clock to give birth? Why did you choose to let your daughter follow it?

10. In conclusion, how do you advise other parents with daughters who have entered fertility? Will you encourage them to let their daughters follow it to avoid delayed production?

(Closing Question)

Conclusion:

The research follows the qualitative approach where the three interviewees are involved in the process and protected by offering them the consent form to sign and assure them of the security of their collected data. In this scenario, the research considers the safety of the data stored in the physical and online servers for security purposes. The research questions follow a guide that ensures the participants give detailed feedback. The consideration is valuable in ensuring that the participants experience the open, intermediate, and closing questions that better explain the female biological clock.

References

Kross, J., & Giust, A. (2019). Elements of Research Questions in Relation to Qualitative Inquiry.  The Qualitative Report. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2019.3426

Staller, K. (2022). Confusing questions in qualitative inquiry: Research, interview, and analysis.  Qualitative Social Work,  21(2), 227-234. https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250221080533

Verma, P., Yadav, A., Rani, S., & Malik, S. (2021). Biological clock vs Social clock conflict in Adolescents.  Journal of Applied and Natural Science,  13(1), 327-342. https://doi.org/10.31018/jans.v13i1.2571

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