Week 3: Personal Research

Welcome back to my Senior Project Blog! I received news that my on-site advisor will be away which meant I was stuck with the task of productivity without any on-sight research. During my work at home I decided to begin creating my questionnaire. This questionnaire is an integral part of my research as I need to show what the consensus is and the varied opinions out there about plea bargains. The questionnaire will be given to a range of people, from expert lawyers to the DA’s office. It is crucial I get a wide array of people answering my questionnaire in order to remove any biases involved. Overall, the questions I will be giving will be the same for all participants however, I will personally tailor a couple questions for select experts depending on their field. This tailoring is important because it will allow me to gather a couple succinct answers which I will incorporate into my on-site research regarding specific cases. It is of the utmost importance that the questionnaire be completely objective in nature. Due to my project covering the issues with plea bargains it is important I get rid of any leading questions that could nudge individuals to answer in that regard. Not only that, but answers which point in the opposite direction from my argument are crucial in establishing a counterargument and a wide array of answers. If the overall consensus supports my argument then it could mean two things: 1. My questionnaire was not as objective as I had hoped; or 2. The system of plea bargains needs to be reformed sooner rather than later.

Lastly, once I collect all of the answers I will gather them in a chart or glossary of sorts in order to have an organized list of responses for readers to gather conclusions from. While I was limited in research I could do this week I believe I took many steps closer to the finish line. Come back next week for my week 4 update!