The treatment (sometimes called a story outline) is a screenplay told in story form.Treatments avoid the scene-by-scene, action-by-action, line-by-line minutiae of a screenplay. Treatements allow the writer to:focus on major movesreview story elements earlydetermine who the characters are, and their relationships and goalsdetermine how all of the major pieces of the puzzle fit together. See pages 414--16 in the textbook Story for further description of the treatment. Note that treatments are to be written in the present tense -- the action is happening now.SAMPLE FROM A TREATMENTJulie (mid 40s), a successful Manhattan reporter-turned-columnist believes she has it all - a great job, a rent controlled apartment, a boyfriend and best of all, an adorable six-year-old son named Jake, whom she conceived via an anonymous sperm donor. Her perfect world, however, is rocked when she's called in for an emergency parent-teacher conference and learns that her son has been acting up, needs to be 'tested' and is on the brink of expulsion. Over-whelmed, Julie instinctively blames herself... it's easy to do since her mother has made her feel inadequate for not being a stay-at-home mom. Julie, however, will not concede that her mother could be right, so she places genetic blame on Jake's anonymous father. Through a private investigator, Julie learns the identity of the donor and meets him - Paul, a struggling actor and law school dropout. Julie has neither intention nor desire to reveal her identity to him, she simply needs to check her sources, get the facts, and move on. A child psychiatrist tells Julie that Jake does not appear to have ADHD, but could benefit from a "father figure" in his life. Julie's boyfriend, a charismatic photo-journalist is up for the challenge and proposes. Julie believes her life is back on course until Paul, the donor, shows up, hoping she'll promote the off-off Broadway show in which he's performing. Jake instantly bonds with Paul. No matter how hard Julie tries to keep Paul from complicating her life, the more he does as he begins to fall for her, and she finds she can not deny her feelings for him, and her boyfriend is pushing to set a date.

To prepare for this Discussion:There are “rules of thumb” that guide each qualitative approach. Review Patton’s chapter on sampling types, and study sampling strategies in research articles on the approach you have chosen.Review the articles on data saturation and theoretical saturation, and consider which criteria you will follow to estimate “how many.” Remember, in qualitative research, one case can be enough. If your phenomenon is complex or you are interested in a range of experiences, then you will need more cases.Reflect on your research problem and question. What are the essential characteristics of participants that you want to recruit? By Day 3Prepare a Discussion post in which you address the following: Present the most current version of your research question and state the phenomenon of interest.Describe the criteria for inclusion and exclusion.Describe in detail the choices for sample size, data saturation, and theoretical saturation. Justify your choices with citations of research studies that use the same strategy and/or of methodological articles that describe the rationale.Put yourself in the participant’s position, and consider the assurances you would want to hear to ensure that your privacy is respected and that your identity will not be revealed when the study is published. Include those assurances in your invitation.