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Example of a cover letter
Margaret Jackson
The Evergreen State College
2700 Evergreen Parkway NW
Olympia, WA 98505
(To Participant)
To Whom It May Concern:
This research protect conducted by Margaret Jackson, a student in the Community of Self Program at the Evergreen State College, hopes to survey the news viewing and news reading habits of a target population.
Participation in this survey is and will remain confidential and there are no risks to the participants that can be foreseen at this time. This survey will hopefully assist the student in gaining a greater understanding of the power of communication through the available media. Results can be made available to participants upon request.
The person to contact in the event that the participant experiences problems as a result of participating in this project is Masao Sugiyama, Academic Dean, The Evergreen State College, L-2211, Olympia, WA 98505 (360) 866-601 Ext.: 6512
I will try to answer any questions you may have on completion of the survey.
Thank you for you time and participation.
Sincerely yours,
Margaret Jackson
Student Researcher
Community of Self Program
The Evergreen State College
1 pm Class Potential Risks in 3 Research Situations
The Situations are:
- Interview a young child about death and dying.
- Interview elderly about memory and doing some memory tasks with
them. You work at a retirement home.
- Interview people walking down the hall at Pierce College about their
education (best teacher, worst teacher, getting their money's worth,
etc.)
| Risks |
(Viet Le, Yolanda , Ingrid, Nadia)
parents permission
location - ???
your appearances the interviewer
approach
as the interviewer
emotional aspect of the child &
interviewer knowledge of the child about the questions interviewer
ask
alarm child that someone died
as a research you could
give a non-response, and the child can take it as his "thought" is
right.
ask parents a lot of question s- curious ("Will I die?")
child gets ill
child gets nightmares
confuse child
confused of life & death
depression
difference in
religion
expose to death might lead to experiment
fear of
reliving situation
feelings
Kid scared
kids could get
impression of being immortal
long term thoughts
loses trust
in parents for lying about death
loss of innocence
might
bring up unresolved issues with family.
morals beliefs (change
or alter)
old memories brought forth
other people would
think you were kidnapping the kid
Parents upset
start
experimenting with drugs and guns cause everyone's gonna die anyways
(media)
suppressed feelings
they'd get scared of
parents/family dying
they'd get scared of themselves dying
trigger paranoia
kids wouldn't pay attention - not a
human subjects issue
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ELDERLY
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Risks
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Angry that they lost their memory & you brought it up
spark an imagination
may think they're dying
be violent
may end up spending all day listening to stories
decreased
attention span
too emotionally stressful
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KID
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Benefits
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Child gets better understanding
Adult gets a different
perspective of death
someone to talk with
no judgment of
recipient
dealing with past
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ELDERLY
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Benefits
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spark an old memory
getting 1-on-1 attention
don't
remember 1st set of pictures, therefore know memory is bad
prepare yourself for the inevitable
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How do you deal with It?
Designing your Research:
Sometimes concerns about subjects help you see potential biases in
research, like which questions you ask about death and dying. Have a plan:
have a sense of when you will stop procedure.
Informed Consent:
This includes parents if there are people under 18 involved. Mention
the nature of the questions you will ask. Mention possible risks and
benefits
Let people know they can withdraw at any time during procedure.
Confidentiality
Keep information confidential. When reporting, removing enough personal
info that person could not be identified. Let people know how you are
going to report information (e.g. only grouped into averages, etc.; no
individuals).
Roles
Think about whether subject will feel extra pressure. You're the one
bringing the meals. If they say no, will you stiff them?
Will passersby overhear?
Roles also related to being able to keep confidential. Might have to go
extra step.
Last Modified: Nov 28, 2002
Tom Link
tlink@pierce.ctc.edu
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