Chapter specific application exercises will help you think about research design in practice or have you explore a relevant resource.

Exercise 1: An Ethnographic Study

Review in this chapter the broad research question of how students use the Internet to find out about employment and apply for jobs. You decide that the best insights on student job hunting on the Internet will come from an in-depth ethnographic study of students as they do this. Using the Dell Hymes questions outlined in this chapter, set out your plans for such a study. It should include key informants, an outline of the observations you would make, the questions you would ask your research participants, media content that you might want to read, and any permissions that you might need to obtain before your study begins.

Exercise 2: An Interview

You are interested in how exactly a student might go about using the Internet to locate jobs and apply for them. Assuming that a structured interview with specific questions is the best way to get this information, write out the specific questions you would want to ask a student you know to be highly experienced in the art of the online job search.

Exercise 3: Performance Studies

You are interested in students’ preparations for job interviews. If you were interested in studying this using the performance studies approach, where would you begin? What questions would you ask? How might performance studies questions and results differ from those for interviews or ethnography?