WDRA’s collection of data on Twitter

• Project Report

Word Length:  3,000 words, excluding references.

Description: Using the feedback received for their research idea and initial research question, students will design, conduct, and provide a report about a small-scale research project undertaken using digital methods. Projects must meet the following requirements:

1. they must be based on the collection and analysis of an archive of at least 1000 tweets.
2. tweets must be collected using ONE of the techniques (and related tools)presented in the module (students cannot use alternative techniques or tools);
3. the collected tweets must be analysed using TWO of the techniques (and related tools) presented in the module (students cannot use alternative techniques or tools);
4. the report must be compiled using the following template:

Title (Remember: give your reader a sense of what your project is about)

Introduction (recommended length: 300 words)

This section should present the research idea and briefly outline the structure of the report.

Literature review and research question (recommended length: 500 words)

This section should provide a brief review of existing literature relevant to the project and conclude presenting the research question(s).

Data and Methods (recommended length: 800)

This section should provide information addressing the following questions:

Data collection:

• What queries did you use to collect your data? Why were these queries relevant to your research question?
• What is the project’s sample period?
• What tool did you use to scrape your data? What API did your scraping tool access? Discuss implications for your final dataset.
• How did you clean your data to make sure they were relevant to your project?

Data analysis:

• Which TWO analytical techniques did you carry out (e.g., basic text mining, sentiment analysis, visual analysis, network visualisation techniques)? Why were these analytical techniques the best means to address your research question(s)?
• What tools did you use to apply these techniques?
• Did your research raise any ethical concerns? How did you protect the privacy of the people whose tweets you included in your project? Do you think it was important to protect their privacy? Which literature did you use to guide your choices?

Findings (recommended length: 700)

This section should present the findings achieved through the two analytical techniques (with tables and graphs, if relevant).

Discussion and conclusion (recommended length: 700)

This section should discuss:

• your findings in the light of your research question and the reviewed literature, that is, what is the answer to your research question? How does it compare/talk to existing research on the topic?
• the study’s limitations: provide a critical discussion of possible flaws in the methodology (e.g., in data, data collection, data analysis, tools, outcomes).
• possible ways to improve the quality of your project.

References

(For in-text citations and the list of references, you must follow the Harvard style of referencing. Guidelines are available here: http://www.librarydevelopment.group.shef.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.html)