A.

Phenomenology

This refers to the descriptive study of how individuals experience a phenomenon. The fundamental question in phenomenology
is: what is the meaning, structure, and essence of the lived experiences of this phenomenon by a person or persons? Conducting
in-depth interviews is a common method for gaining access to individual’s life-worlds. Phenomenological researchers often seek
for commonalities across individuals, rather than focusing on what is unique about individuals.

Examples:
1. What is the essence of people’s experiences when they find out their loved one has terminal cancer?
2. What coping mechanisms do patients employ before a major surgery?
3. What is the essence of student’s experiences on uncaring teachers?

B. Ethnography

This is the discovery and description of the culture of a group of people, and originates in the discipline of anthropology.
Therefore, the concept of culture, which shared beliefs, values, practices, language, norms, rituals, and material things that
group members use to understand their world, is of central importance.
The basic question is:
 What are the cultural characteristics of this group of people or of this cultural scene?

The final ethnography (i.e., the report) should provide a rich and holistic description of the culture of the group under study.

C. Case Study

This is the detailed account and analysis of one or more cases.

The foundational question in case study research is:
 What are the characteristics of this single case or of these comparison cases?

A case is a bounded system (e.g., a person, a group, an activity, a process). Because the roots of case study are interdisciplinary,
many different concepts and theories can be used to describe and explain the case.

Multiple methods of data collection are often used in case study research like interviews, observation, documents, and
questionnaires. The case study final report should provide a rich (vivid and detailed) and holistic (describes the whole and its
parts) description of the case and its context.

Case studies are in-depth investigations of a single person, group, event, or community. Research may also continue for an
extended period of time so processes and developments can be studied as they happen.

The case study method often involves simply observing what happens to, or reconstructing the case history’ of a single
participant or group of individuals (such as a school class or a specific social group).

Among the sources of data the psychologist is likely to turn to when carrying out a case study are observations of a person’s
daily routine, unstructured interviews with the participant herself (and with people who know her), diaries, personal notes (e.g.
letters, photographs, notes), or official document (e.g. case notes, clinical notes, appraisal reports). Most of this information is
likely to be qualitative (i.e. verbal description rather than measurement) but the psychologist might collect numerical data as
well.

D. Grounded Theory

This is the development of inductive, “bottoms-up,” theory that is “grounded” directly in the empirical data. The foundational
question is:
 What theory or explanation emerges from an analysis of the data collected about this phenomenon?

It is usually used to generate theory. Grounded theory can also be used to test or elaborate upon previously grounded theories,
as long as the approach continues to be one of constantly grounding any changes in the new data.

Four important characteristics of a grounded theory are:

1. Fit. Does the theory correspond to real-world data?
2. Understanding. Is the theory clear and understandable?
3. Generality. Is the theory abstract enough to move beyond the specifics in the original research study?
 4. Control. Can the theory be applied to produce real world results?
Data collection and analysis continue throughout the study. When collecting and analyzing, the researcher needs theoretical
sensitivity (i.e., being sensitive about what data are important in developing the grounded theory).

Data analysis often follows three steps:

1. Open Coding (i.e., reading transcripts line-by-line and identifying and coding the concepts found in the data).
2. Axial Coding (i.e., organizing the concepts and making them more abstract).
3. Selective Coding (i.e., focusing on the main ideas, developing the story, and finalizing the grounded theory).

The grounded theory process is “complete” when theoretical saturation occurs (i.e., when no new concepts are emerging from
the data and the theory is well validated). The final report should include a detailed and clear description of the grounded theory.

E. Biographical Study

A biographical study is considered an exhaustive account of a life experience, it is the collection and analysis of an intensive
account of a whole life or portion of a life, usually by an in-depth, unstructured interview.

The account may be reinforced by semi- structured interviewing or personal documents. Rather than concentrating upon a
‘snapshot’ of an individual’s present situation, the biographical approach emphasizes the placement of the individual within a
center of social connections, historical events, and life experiences (the life history).

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH ACROSS THE DIFFERENT FIELDS OF INQUIRY

Researchers in social sciences and humanities such as anthropology, sociology, philosophy, psychology, criminology, business
administration, political science, communications, education, and history as well as many areas in the health sciences like
nursing and occupational therapy have a common belief in the desirability of trying to understand human action through
systematic study and analysis. Some researchers use quantitative research approaches, others opt for qualitative research
methods, and some use a combination of both.

IDENTIFYING THE INQUIRY AND STATING THE PROBLEM

LESSON 1: Writing the Title for Qualitative Research

To write your title, you must start with a topic. You may start by writing three topics of your choice. You might resent this, but
soon you will realize that there is wisdom to this practice. There is actually no such a thing as a single best idea. It is easier to jot
down three ideas or even five, instead of selecting one single topic. In the process of discussing these topics with your teacher,
he/she may learn about your interests and discovers other topics and together, you may come up with one researchable topic,
which may be similar, slightly different, or totally different from the three topics you presented but still within your line of interest
and/or expertise.

Where are we going to source all these three to five topics? It was mentioned in the previous sections that ours is an imperfect
world, that there is so much to be improved. Therefore, we can get sources of all these topics from where we are.

A. Problem Situations

In school, you would hear classmates complain about teachers' teaching strategies, and how they deal with their
students, complaints about their failing grades, their love life, their limited allowances, school facilities and equipment, their
families, social networking practices, computer gaming, social issues, unemployed graduates, graduates not finding the right
job, bullying. Career opportunities, classmates getting sick, medicinal plants, waste management, and many more.

At home, there are also problems that you dwell on, relationships, money matters, infidelity, unemployment,
neighbors, bills, health-related concerns, absentee parents and more. You can move to the larger community and look into
problems on politics, prices of commodities, and other concerns.

For sure, if given the opportunity, you would help in any way you can to ease people out of these problems. You can
already start by doing a research on any of these experienced problems, the recommendations you offer at the end of this
research may eventually affect solutions which can be more helpful than we ever imagined. These are already your sources of a
topic or topics for research.
B. Consider your passions or interest

What are you passionate about or interested about? Where would you like to make a difference? You are going to spend a lot of
time doing a qualitative study. Choosing a topic you care about will keep you interested and could result in you making a
difference where it matters to you.

C. Consider the settings available to you

In what places do you have convenient and regular access? What places will you be able to get permission from participants?

If you want to answer a research question by observing people, where can you go where you will not be noticed? If you want to
interview people, where can you go where you can easily approach people without disruption and within the regulations of the
setting? Your topic is only as good as the setting. The title should describe what you are studying and to what effect.

D. Consider Your Subjects

In order to study people, you have to gain their permission after thoroughly advising them of such things as who you are, how
you will keep their responses confidential, and what happens if they want to quit.

Now, on how to write the title, let us take this sample title:

A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE BEHAVIOR OF STUDENTS WITH ABSENTEE PARENTS

From this title, the reader can find out a lot about the research before reading the actual proposal or actual research
report.

1. What are we looking at? behavior of students with absentee parents

2. Who are the subjects? students with absentee parents
3. It is going to be a qualitative study, and we know which will be used, phenomenology.
4. We will just be using a small sample.
5. Data collection will involve obtaining information from the participants in some way - interviews, observation, open-ended
questionnaires, etc.
6. Data analysis will not be statistical, but the title does not give us a clue as to how the data will be analyzed.

Another example:

A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE LEVELS OF PAIN EXPERIENCED BY CHILDREN AGED

3-5 YEARS UNDERGOING AN INTRAVENOUS INJECTION IN THE PRESENCE OF THEIR
MOTHERS

1. What are we looking at? Levels of pain

2. Who are the subjects? Children aged 3-5
3. It is going to be a qualitative study, and we know which will be used, phenomenology.
4. We will just be using a small sample.
5. Data collection will involve obtaining information from the participants in some way - interviews, observation, open-ended
questionnaires, etc.
6. Data analysis will not be statistical, but the title does not give us a clue as to how the data will be analyzed.

At this stage, you will not have the final title of your finished research yet. That will depend upon your results.
However, you do need to have a working title, and this working title out of necessity will encapsulate your proposed research.

Before attempting to write your research proposal about the phenomenon of interest to you, you need to have spent
some time thinking about, reading about, theorizing on, rethinking, and discussing your ideas with colleagues and experts in the
field or in your area of interest.

More Sample Titles:

A CASE STUDY OF THE SELF-CONFIDENCE LEVELS OF CHILDREN TRANSFERRING TO A NEW
SCHOOL
A GROUNDED THEORY STUDY ON THE SPENDING PRACTICES OF PARENTS WITH CHILDREN
ATTENDING COLLEGE
A GROUNDED THEORY ON THE EATING HABITS OF PATIENTS WITH TYPE II DIABETES

LESSON 2: WRITING THE JUSTIFICATION FOR CONDUCTING THE RESEARCH

This learning activity challenges you to write a justification to the research topic emphasizing the trends, issues, objectives, and
contributions of the study to theory and practice.

THE INTRODUCTION

The justification for conducting the research should be integrated in the introduction or background of the study.

Contrary to the usual practice when writing any literary piece, the introduction may be written after everything has been done,
or to be written last. This will give you the chance to have fully grasped the whole study and thus, this is the time where you have
seen the trends and issues related to the study after doing a review of related literature and studies, thus you have now
internalized your objectives and are now fully aware of the possible contributions of the study to theory and to practice.
However, even at the beginning of the planning stage for your research, you should already have put into writing a short
justification for conducting the study.

Trends, issues, objectives, and contribution to theory and practice should be the main content of your introduction (de Guzman,
2013). The first two would be made clearer through related literature and studies and the last two from your own perspective.

Trends may be presented through studies and statistics related to the topic from the international, national, and to the local
setting.

Issues may be presented with related literature on actual situations involving statistics and legal provisions. Legal provisions
may be taken from the international to the local setting. The last paragraph of the introduction may be devoted to a short
discussion on why you decided to conduct the study based on the trends and issues and the possible outcome contribution of the
study linking it to the problem at hand.

At the end of the day, after discussing all these four, you should have convinced your reader that your study should have really
been conducted as you have proven a research gap in that particular area. Needless to say, there are some topics which might not
need to be researched anymore as there is no more research gap.

Below is a sample introduction from Maniego (2010).

Tourism on an international and domestic level acts as a huge factor in economic growth and alleviation of
poverty. It is the most effective economic contributor to developing countries as considered by many observers. The
demand created by consumers, using the tourism product, creates millions of jobs worldwide (Tamondong, 2010).

In the Philippines, tourism industry is also seen as one of the most promising industries and an alternative solution to
the problems of unemployment and underemployment. The prevalence of festivals like the Sinulog Festival in Cebu,
the Mango Festival in Zambales, the Panagbenga Festival in Baguio, the Sibit-sibit Festival in Olongapo City, Kite
Flying Festival in Lipa City, Pahiyas Festival in Quezon, the Carabao Festival in Pulilan, Bulacan, the Fertility Dance
Festival in Obando, Bulacan, Bangus Festival in Pangasinan, the Lantern Festival in Pampanga, Tsinelas Festival in
Liliw, Laguna, and Musikahan Festival in Davao, and many more, are just but attempts of different provinces to invite
and attract more tourists to these places to generate more income for the people and therefore more government
revenues.

The Commission on Higher Education Memorandum Order (CMO) 32, s. 2006 emphasized that tourism is
the world's largest industry, generating in 2003 over USD 514 Billion in receipts from 697 million tourists and
employing hundreds of million people worldwide. Almost 760 million travelled across borders in 2004; several times
more travelled domestically. The probability of one being able to visit foreign lands in his lifetime has never been
higher.
 The tourism industry is a vast system consisting of several sectors with airlines, hotels, resorts, travel
agencies and tour operators constituting the greater bulk. The myriad of smaller entities that thrive and wane with
tourism’s upswings and downturns include souvenir shops, restaurants, bars, and the like. The industry also goes
beyond its business realm; it covers government and non- government organizations as well as educational institutions.
Tourism generates both positive and negative impacts on the culture, economy, and environment of generating and
receiving countries. It can uplift country’s living standards, instill greater pride in one’s identity, and make people more
aware of their cultural and natural heritage.

Alongside this development, BS Tourism and BS in Hotel and Restaurant management became one of the
most sought-after courses in college, which in turn resulted to all post-secondary schools and colleges offering tourism-
related short-term and degree programs. Thus, the industry is not short of highly qualified workers to look after the
needs of its clientele.

However, low wages, poor conditions, and negligible promotion prospects become consistent across the
tourism sector in both rich and poor countries, including the Philippines, as reported by Pacific Daily News in its May
8, 2010 issue. In some sectors of the industry, there is a high turnover of staff but this often goes hand-in-glove with
low wages, long hours, no professional development, and no promotion opportunities. The concern for job security,
over-dependence on tips and service charge, long hours, and unpaid overtime become unswerving across numerous
destinations in the tourism industry because of such curtailments. These were confirmed by the research gathered by
the International Travel and Tourism Research Team (ITTRT) led by the Tourism Concern and from interviews and
published data.

The Subic Bay Freeport Zone, having been gifted with pristine beaches, beautiful mountains, and a vast land
area for hotels, restaurants, and other rest and recreation establishments, looks at the tourism industry as one of its
lucrative sources of income. This has been expressed in the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority’s Mission Statement -it
will be developed into a self-sustaining hub for commerce and investments, finance, infrastructures, maritime and
transshipment activities, and tourism destination in the Asia Pacific. (SBMA Department of Tourism Infosheet).

Subicnews (2008) reports that the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) is clearly on the move to
capture a larger share of the growing outbound tourist market worldwide with its aggressive tourism promotion
program and the continuous development of tourism facilities in this free port. In fact, the SBMA Tourism Department
reported of the increase of the number of tourists from 1,009,609 last 2008 to 2,225,540 as of November, 2009. This
created jobs to more or less 13000 individuals in both the SBMA Department of Tourism and private locators who have
ventured into the tourism business at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.

Findings of a Tracer Study of 2000-2005 graduates of Technical-Vocational Schools in the City of Olongapo
and the Province of Zambales showed that the Subic Bay Freeport Zone did not provide long-term employment to the
said graduates, as many would have their contracts expired before the end of six months (TESDA, 2006). Other reasons
cited were low salary rates. This is found to be true for a majority of the workers even in the tourism industry, many of
which are just dependent on tips to compensate for the low salary.

As of the present, there has been no study yet conducted which focused mainly on the status of the tourism
industry workers. It is in this context that the proponent of the study decided to determine the status, problems, and
prospects of tourism industry workers at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, in the hope that through this study, decision
makers relative to the industry may have a sound basis for coming up with programs and projects that eventually will
lead to the upliftment of the quality of life of the tourism industry workers.

WHAT TO DO
What do You Think of my Introduction?

1. Critique this introduction and make your suggestions for possible improvement.

Topic: Reasons for College Students in Transferring to Other Schools

The school is a place for learning. It is where the foundation of every professionals started. Some say that
going to school is just a waste of time or merely an additional burden on the part of some individual who thinks that
learning or going to school is just a hindrance in earning money in the future where you can have a job to earn income
without going to school. It makes sense in some way or another, but the question now is, can they go to what they call
success in life without learning from school or finishing a degree in school? Learning already exist even during the
 early days of mankind, some people during those days thought how to make a living through basic knowledge of
survival. Time past and learning evolves from generation to generation until it become a huge impact in becoming a
successful career person. The future of every learners or students as we call nowadays depends on the institution that
they are enrolled at and for the institutions part, its success depends on the number of enrollees or students.

The benefit of going to school gives an individual a higher chance of becoming successful in the future but
considering the school they’re going to study at is a big decision to make. Many things must be considered in choosing
the right school, tuition fee, faculty efficiency, school environment, etc.

Establishing a school for the benefit of the students is a good thing but to maintain a reputation of a school, the
number of populations of every program enrolled in an institution and to be responsive to the needs of its clientele is
definitely a challenging task for every management of a school. Students differ from each other, not only in terms of
personal characteristics but also in life status. Students who are less fortunate choose a school with low pay but a high
matriculation of a school is not always a factor on minimal number of students enrolled in a school. The number of
students enrolled in a school sometimes also depends on the program that a school is offering. Some clientele looks on
its competitiveness to other schools offering the same program and sometimes it’s not always about the school but also
the person behind its program or its faculty members.

School is an institution built to respond to the needs of every country with growing economy, it is where learners
gain there foundation in preparation to the country’s demands for professionals who can work, develop and lead people
professionally, that is why it is important for every management, administration, immediate supervisors and faculty
members to give its clientele the best education that every students deserves and at the same time, to establish a
reputation and good business to be responsive to the needs of our country.

Every student deserves a quality education and it is the duty and moral obligation of every institution or school to
give the quality education that every student deserves to prepare them in the career that they have chosen.

2. Revise the above introduction based on your comments and suggestions. Have it computerized, double-spaced,
printed, and paste it in the space provided below.

LESSON 3: STATING THE QUALITATIVE RESEARCH PROBLEM

There are two parts of the research problem, the general statement and the specific research questions or sub- questions.

To make your general statement easier, you may follow this pattern:

The purpose of this [type of study-can either be phenomenological, grounded theory, ethnographic, case, etc.] study is to
(understand, describe, develop, discover) [what: indicate the central phenomenon of the study] of [who or what: indicate the
participants] involving [what or who: (a general definition of the central concept] from [when] to [purpose].

Example: The purpose of this ethnographic study is to describe the training of Aeta teachers from Castillejos, Zambales for the
past ten years to provide insights into the formulation of a teacher education model for indigenous people.

To put it simply:

Type of study: Ethnographic study

What: The training
Who: Aeta teachers
When: Past 10 years
Purpose: Provide insights into the formulation of a teacher education model for indigenous peoples.

a. Begin the research questions with the words what or how to convey an open and emerging design. The word “why”
often implies that the researcher is trying to explain why something occurs, and this suggests a cause-and-effect type of
thinking associated with quantitative research.
 b. Focus on a single phenomenon or concept. As a study develops over time, factors will emerge that may influence this
single phenomenon, but begin a study with a single focus to explore in great detail.

c. Use exploratory verbs that convey the language of emerging design. These verbs tell the reader that the study will
discover (e.g., grounded theory), seek to understand (e.g., ethnography), explore a process (e.g., case study), describe
the experiences (e.g., phenomenology), report the stories (e.g., narrative research). Use these more exploratory verbs
that are non-directional rather than directional words that suggest quantitative research, such as “affect,” “influence,”
“impact,” “determine,” “cause,” and “relate.”

d. Expect the research questions to evolve and change during the study in a manner consistent with the assumptions of an
emerging design. Often in qualitative studies, the questions are under continual review and reformulation (as in a
grounded theory study). This approach may be problematic for individuals accustomed to quantitative designs, in
which the research questions remain fixed throughout the study.

e. Use open-ended questions without reference to the literature or theory unless otherwise indicated by a qualitative
strategy of inquiry.

f. Specify the participants and the research site for the study, if the information has not yet been given.

The following are examples of qualitative research questions drawn from several types of strategies.

Title:
A Phenomenological Study of the Levels of Pain Experienced by Children Aged 3-5 Years Undergoing an Intravenous Injection
in the Presence of Their Mothers

General Statement:
The purpose of this phenomenological study is to describe the levels of pain experienced by children 3-5 years undergoing
intravenous injection in the presence of their mothers.

Sub-question:
How do the children describe their levels of pain while undergoing intravenous injection in the presence of their mother?

Another sub-question may be:

How do the children compare the levels of pain they experienced while undergoing intravenous injection while their mother was
with them and their mother was not around?

Or

How does the presence of their mothers ease the pain experienced by children aged 3-5 undergoing intravenous injection?

Objectives of the Study

Sometimes, a research proposal will detail objectives.

 Objectives are another way of detailing the purpose of a study.
 They are set by the researcher to explain in detail what the study is expected to achieve

LESSON 4: WRITING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Research has only one main objective and that is the upliftment of the quality of life. Thus, before you continue sitting
down to write your research proposal, you have to be convinced that this study of yours would lead to the ultimate goal of
improving people’s lives, not just to comply with a requirement.

To be able to do this, you may identify the groups who would eventually benefit from your study, starting from the
most direct beneficiaries to the ones who would be indirectly benefitted by it. The study on the job satisfaction and job
performance would probably directly benefit the employees, their clients, the HR Managers, and indirectly, the Department of
Labor and Employment, the community, the society as a whole.
 After identifying the beneficiaries of the study, discuss the specific benefit that they would get from it: that is, by
discussing how the study would help in solving existing problems of these identified groups leading towards an upliftment of
their situation.

Be careful not to make the study as something like a magic wand, that after conducting the study, it has already
worked changes even without interventions from concerned individuals, groups or institutions through their programs, projects
and activities

Here is an example of a discussion on the significance of the study from Rafanan (2012):

This study evaluated the effectiveness of the on-going Scholarship Program of the Municipality of Castillejos with the
hope that findings would prove useful to the following:

The policymakers may review the existing Scholarship Ordinance and consider certain amendments which are
necessary for the improvement of the Scholarship Program.

The implementers may consider the findings of this study in strengthening the implementation of the program.

The scholars were given an opportunity to raise their sentiments regarding the program and further benefit in the
improved implementation of the program.

Public Officials in general may find that evaluation of public programs is necessary in public administration and can
be used as a powerful tool for them to know if the program is delivering the intended impact.

And lastly the future public administration students may find this useful for any program evaluation research.

LESSON 5: WRITING THE SCOPE AND DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

Determining the Scope and Delimitations of the Study

Whatever topic you might have chosen, there is the tendency for you to go unending with all the different areas and
variables relative to it. This is likewise true in terms of the respondents, the locale and the data gathering stage. If this happens,
it might no longer be within your capability to manage it, not within your time and financial resources or it might no longer be
within the objectives you have set at the beginning of the study, thereby ending with an unfinished research.

Thus, defining the scope and delimitations of the study becomes important. If at the beginning of the study, it is already
clear that your respondents are the regular employees who have been working at the agency for at least three years, are presently
connected with the agency, and who have been assigned to at least three provinces in Central Luzon, then all those who do not
meet the above description should not be part of the study.

Likewise, if it is clear that only selected variables are included, then no other variables are supposed to be part of the
study even if these were included in parallel studies. You might have avoided other variables for reasons of practicality, interest,
or relativity to the study at hand.

The role that these variables have in relation to the topic should be included in the discussion. For example, you should
also mention that it will be determined if the variables will affect the work productivity, or if these are motivating factors in their
job performance.

Below is a sample of a scope and delimitations of the study from Abasta and Freal (2013).

The study covered the financial lifestyle management of employees at Central Luzon College of Science and
Technology, Olongapo City for the period covering February 18 to March 11, 2013.

The study investigated on the financial data of the employees’ family which include the monthly salary and
income, assets, capital assets and liabilities. It includes details of their monthly expenditures such as their household
expenditures, living/personal expenditures, transportation expenditures, children and dependents expenditures,
recreation and entertainment expenditures and government taxes paid for the month.
 The study also included questions in relation to their spending and saving practices and the details of their borrowings.

LESSON 6: FORMING ALL OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS

Defining the Terms Used in the Study

It is important to include definition of terms in your research in order to understand the key terms being used in the
study. These terms should be clearly defined according to how they are used in the study for easy understanding of the problem
and avoid ambiguous meaning to terms which can be otherwise interpreted in different ways. This is what we refer to as
operational definition.

There are cases when you have to define terms based on actual concepts, that is, based on what has been accepted as
the definition as used by experts in the area. This is what we refer to as the conceptual definition. This is also accepted provided
you acknowledge the author from whom you borrowed the definition, then proceed to define the terms operationally by applying
the conceptual definition to the study and to finally arrive at an operational definition of the term.

Make sure to define common terms that may have special meaning or used differently. To identify terms to be defined,
start from the title. All terms in the title that may be given a double meaning or a meaning different from how you intended it to
be used in your study should be operationally defined.

From the title, proceed to the general statement and the sub-questions and look for the variables. Variables which are
used with a different meaning from the traditional or accepted meanings should be defined while those variables with meanings
similar to accepted or traditional definitions may no longer be included in the definition of terms. Example is if you are referring
to gender as male and female or age as the chronological age.

If however you would like to expand your definition of age to mean mental age as required in the study, then, you have
to define age operationally.

As you progress in writing your research, you might be using terms which might again be given a different meaning
from the usual as you used it in your study, from the introduction to the analysis and the interpretation of data. These should also
be given a proper place in the definition or terms.

Terms used by authors you cited but not actually used in your study may not be defined. If quoting definitions from the
dictionary as may sometimes be needed, avoid the circular definitions, such as “freedom is the state of being free, that is, using
the root word of the term to define it. You will not be clarifying the meaning of the terms in that manner.

In writing your definitions, make sure that the terms defined are arranged in alphabetical order and
that the definitions are presented in complete sentence, with a format similar to what are presented below:

Changes in Company Activities. These pertain to the possible organizational changes that the company will undergo
for the next five years such as internal growth, vertical integration, horizontal expansion, company diversification,
combination strategies, and retrenchment. These also include turnaround, divestment, and liquidation (Sy, 2013).

Adjustment. This is used interchangeably with marital adjustment which is the degree to which a couple gets along
with each other or have a good working relationship and are able to satisfy each other’s needs over the marital life
course. It is an ongoing process (Balolong, 2010).

Gender Roles. This refers to the beliefs about how the other person should behave in relation to his/her partner, like
whether a woman should serve the man or is she given more liberties (Balolong, 2010).

Relationship With In-laws. This is one area being considered in determining the adjustment strategies of the
respondents where their relationship with the relatives of their non- Filipino partners and the relationship with the
relatives of the Filipino women partners is being considered (Balolong, 2010).

Local Government Units. This refers to an administrative and political government subsidiary to the national
government which could itself consist of sub-units as in the case of the Municipality of Castillejos. It has the legal
authority to levy taxes, legislate, and execute programs for the citizens (Rafanan, 2012).
Poverty Line/Threshold. This refers to the minimum monthly income required or the expenditure necessary to
satisfy the food threshold of a family (Maniego, 2010).