Kayla Strouse

I was selected by Dr. Heather Evans to work with her on research during the summer of 2015. Dr. Evans’ research was focused on the tweets made by candidates for the House of Representatives and the Senate while they were campaigning for the 2014 elections. I was assigned approximately 20,000 tweets to code over the course of the summer. We were to code approximately 2,000 tweets per week for ten weeks. The tweets were coded into ten categories; campaign, media, position taking, policy statement, attack, attack Republican, attack Democrat, attack Obama, personal, and attack other. I read each tweet individually and decided what category it should be placed in. This data was reported to Dr. Evans every two weeks.

Throughout the course of this project I have enhanced my skill in communication, collaboration, and computer. While completing this research I met with Dr. Evans and the two other students who were also working on this project. We discussed tweets that we were unsure of or did not understand their meaning and decided as a group which category the tweet should be placed in. It was very beneficial to hear the opinions of other participants. I did not have very much experience working with academic groups before this project and I feel that this project helped enhance my skills in this area. The group also worked together in deciding the title of the research paper. While working on this research my computer skill was improved, specifically in excel. I was coding an average of 350 tweets per day and by doing I became more familiar with excel and the many tools it provides.

This project gave me great insight into what it takes to complete research that can be published. I am very grateful for this opportunity and experience.