Research Proposal needs revising

My task this week is to revise my research proposal - I changed the methodology some time ago but no one told me I needed to change my proposal. I have always seen a research proposal as just that - a proposal and not something that is etched in stone

I am struggling a bit - I seem to be have been so immersed in the Exclusive Brethren for months now what with finishing off the quantitative research and writing my witness statement. I hope the charity commission make up their minds soon about this proposal - everything seems to be in limbo and I don't care much for limbo-dom.

So why did I change my methodology. The one I chose originally was suggested by my supervisor - it sounded good though it took me some time to get my head around the terminology. It was the heuristic approach. As time passed I realised I was unhappy with this choice though I could not articulate why. Then I attended a masterclass on the narrative approach - and bingo I know that was the right one for me. Former Exclusive Brethren tells stories. The minute they know you are also a former member they start telling of their experiences. Telling stories is the way we have of making sense of our past.

The heuristic approach requires a lot of words and I only have 35 000. It also requires the researcher to get completely emotionally involved and walk the journey with the participants - the researcher goes through a metamorphosis themselves. It seems to be a good approach for universal concepts like loneliness but I don't think that the EB experience is universal in that sense. Each former member has very different experiences depending on a number of factors such as when they were born, how enmeshed their family was in the brethren, their personality, whether they lost family when they left, whether they have contact with that family now and so on.

So that is what I need to write about and hand in by Friday. Heads down again I think.