INPUT ARTICLE: Article: twice a day. Even if you're in a hurry, brushing your teeth will remove bits of food, bacteria, and stains that can cause problems if left to fester. Try brushing once in the morning and once before you go to bed, and spend at least two minutes each time you brush. It will keep you fresh the whole day.  If you are constantly on the go, have a travel toothbrush in you purse or briefcase so you can pop into the bathroom at work. Spend equal time brushing the front, back, and tops of your teeth, especially the molars. Your dentist is not lying when he says this is one of the most overlooked hygiene regiments in America. Regular flossing cleans the parts of your teeth a brush can't reach and stimulates healthy gum growth.  Using a short piece of floss, get in between your teeth and along the gum line, using your fingers to add pressure. Take to your orthodontist about ways to floss if you have braces, such as dental threads. Be sure to clean in between your back teeth too, using the floss around all sides of the molars. Mouthwash does not physically remove plaque and food and is not a substitute for flossing. While going to the dentist every six months is not strictly necessary for healthy adults, children and those with dental issues should talk to their dentists about frequent checkups. Monitor your teeth, note any changes or worrisome pains, and get your teeth professionally cleaned at a minimum of once a year.  Smokers, diabetics, and people with a history of cavities should see the dentist twice a year or more.

SUMMARY: Brush your teeth Floss at least once a day. Schedule regular visits to the dentist.


INPUT ARTICLE: Article: This is an opportunity to learn the nuanced opinions of clients, potential customers, staff members or a community. Ideally, you'll only be talking to one of these groups per focus group. They'll be expressing opinions on one topic, which should be kept to a single product or issue. There's a reason it's called a focus group. Are you researching how your product is received among adolescents? What age range specifically? Do they have specific interests, hobbies, or spending habits? The more specific you can get this, the better you'll be able to guide your recruitment and find useful opinions.  If your target audience includes members of a specialized profession, such as doctors, don't try to combine them with other demographics. They will be most likely to speak freely around people from the same background.  If you are concerned with workplace satisfaction, consider targeting certain job positions at which employees seem to be particularly discontent. If you have the resources to run two focus groups, consider running one focus group with participants from your target demographic, and one audience from the broader pool of potential customers or community members. This second "control group" helps you separate the unique opinions of the target demographic from opinions that are more widely shared. Focus groups are less effective when the facilitators or clients try to move beyond the original scope of the project. You may need to correct the participants in your focus group about some of their misapprehensions about the purposes of focus groups.  A focus group is not a meeting. You are not trying to achieve consensus or come up with a solution. A focus group is not a public relations opportunity. Don't go out of your way to present your organization in a good light. A focus group is not a way to collect statistical data; the sample size is too small and the data is qualitative. An assistant can take notes and handle the recorder, so that you can focus on facilitating the discussion. The assistant should not participate in the discussion, else the facilitators dominate the discussion and the authority of the lead moderator be undermined   The assistant should, however, introduce themselves prior to the beginning of the focus group.  This is important for making participants feel comfortable with an additional person in the room. No one else should be present unless they have a clear role, such as managing snacks and sign-in sheets. Unnecessary spectators can make participants nervous. Find a private area where participants will feel relaxed and comfortable. Video cameras or one-way observation mirrors are often used for market research, but they are not appropriate for focus groups covering sensitive or stigmatized topics. Use an audio recorder instead if you are concerned about the effect of observation on participant comfort. Organizing seats into a circle will make all participants feel more equal and comfortable participating than if, for example, they are sitting at a rectangular table with one person at the head. Design the questions to encourage participants to open up and talk about their opinions in depth. Avoid yes-or-no questions, since people are more likely to respond "yes" to please you. Instead, use open-ended questions like "What do you think of this product?" or questions that describe both choices, such as "Do you think the color of this product should be changed, or kept the same?"  Avoid technical terms and jargon. Keep sentences short and focus so that they do not confuse participants. Avoid questions that might embarrass participants or intimidate them into silence. Begin with questions that encourage participants to talk generally about the subject to make them comfortable and familiar with the topic of conversation. For example, “How do you like to use your smart phones?” Move on to questions that get to the substance of the discussion: “How likely would you be to use a thesaurus app?” Before concluding, ask if anyone has something else to say that did not come up earlier in the discussion. Ask positive questions to establish comfort, before moving on to more negative questions. Ask: “what do you like about this product” before asking “what do you dislike about this product?” Before you begin acquiring data, you will want to consider how you will store it. That means not only getting a tape recorder, but also thinking about a format in which you can organize and sort through your data. For example, an excel spreadsheet can be used to record responses and label them according to common themes. This database will ultimately be used to account for how many of a particular type of response you received and serve as an ease go to source for particularly impactful quotes on any given subject. Remember to keep data in a password protected location, especially if you are working in a university system that requires strict privacy measures. If the data needs to be shared with multiple researchers, use a password protected online database like Dropbox.

SUMMARY:
Pick a single, clear purpose. Narrow down your target audience. Consider organizing a control group. Refrain from using the focus group for ulterior motives. Find a second facilitator. Choose a comfortable venue and recording method. Prepare questions. Plan out how you will record data.