methodology

6

APA Style Seventh Edition Template: Catchy Title with Colon

Student Name

Liberty University

Course #: Course Name

Instructor Name

Assignment Due Date

Discipline Field 1 & Field 2 (not an APA requirement but requested for this class)

1

Methodology

This methodology section is hypothetical, but it should be written as if you were really going to test your research question. Include what participants you expect to find, how you would collect and analyze data from them, and how you would identify differences between your control group and your test group or identify changes within your test group(s). This is the only section where first-person (I) pronouns are acceptable, though they are not required. If the paper can be written without such pronouns, do so. This section will probably have some future-tense verbs because of its hypothetical nature. Review the methodology sections of papers from academic journals you have been researching to see how detailed this section can be in real life and to model your explanations after. Carefully consider the questions and suggestions on the instruction document. This section may also incorporate level 2 headings, though they are not required.

Rationale

In this section, you can finally argue your case regarding why anyone should fund or complete your research. Address why your topic is so important to the stakeholders involved. Who cares about it and why should people care? As with your entire paper, keep your audience in mind. Consider what is important to them, what their goals are, and what they are concerned about. This paragraph should comprise 250-450 words. This section may be similar to some of the information from your introductory paragraph, but its focus will be on the justification of your research and how it falls within the rhetorical situation (understanding your audience and how your own purpose in studying the topic meets their expectations). A sample topic sentence could be, “Research for Topic X is important to study because a significant finding will have such-and-such effect(s).” Use your own words, but those key elements (research topic, value judgment, effect(s) that are important to your audience, etc.) should appear in your justification.

Conclusion

This section of the entire paper will be written as part of the Final Proposal in Week 7; disregard it for now but follow the instructions on the template when we get to Week 7. If you used any source material in your Methodology or Rationale sections, include them on the References page following. Delete the extra information that does not apply to your citations.

References

Ajournalarticle, R. H., Spud, P. T., & Psychologist, R. M. (2016). Title of journal article goes here: Only the first letter of title and subtitle are capitalized per sentence case rules. Journal of Research in Personality, 22(2) , 236-252. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_ and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/reference_list_author_authors.html

B’Onlinesourcesareconfusing, S. O. (2010). Use online sources sparingly: They are not often considered academic. WebPage . https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/ apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/reference_list_electronic_sources.html

Cmagazinearticle, B. E. (2009, July 18). Note that some publications will include the month and day: Each source type has to be formatted in a different way. [Special issue]. Prose Magazine, 126(5) , 96-134. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/ apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/reference_list_articles_in_periodicals.html

Dbookreference, S. M., Orman, T. P., & Carey, R. (1967). Purdue OWL’s resources are easy to use and very helpful. Pearson.

Pchapter, P. R., & Inaneditedvolume, J. C. (2001). Scientific research papers provide evidence of frustration with giant style manuals. In P. Z. Wildlifeconservation, R. Dawkins, & J. H. Dennett (Eds.), Research papers are hard work but boy are they good for you (pp. 123-256). Simon & Schuster.

Qosenberg, M. (1994, September 11). This is how you cite an online news article that has an author. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/17454832.2016.1245767

INDS 491

Methodology and Rationale Assignment Instructions

Overview

This assignment gives you the chance to do two things. You will build a basic methodology that should be logically sound enough to be able to study your research question in an observable, unbiased way. You will also build a rationale that explains why your research gap should be filled.

Instructions

In 150-400 words describe a hypothetical methodology for studying your research topic. In the same document, in 250-450 words, create a rationale to a scholarly audience of experts on your topic justifying why your identified research gap should be filled and why your proposed study should be conducted to your audience.

Requirements:

1. Do not use first or second person in the rationale, but you may use first person in the methodology.

2. In addition to a specific explanation of how you will test your research question, your methodology should explain how you will analyze the data and how you would recognize a significant result. Use the following outline to build your methodology paragraph. Generally, 1-2 sentences will be enough for each item:

a. Explain who or what your sample is and how you will locate it.

b. Describe your independent variable’s process.

c. Describe how you will collect and observe your data.

d. Describe how you will analyze your data.

e. Describe what a significant result would look like.

3. In your rationale, the question you are answering is this: Why is your research proposal a good way to study this problem, and why should we fund this research? Pretend you are convincing a board of academics in this field that your research proposal is worth financial support. Remember: your audience are already experts in the field, so you do not need to explain basic principles.

4. Your grammar, spelling, and punctuation should be flawless. Visit the Liberty University writing centers if you want extra help.

5. Use current APA formatting; no abstract or title page is required but do include a reference page if you use sources.

Additional Suggestions for Methodology:

1. Look up methodologies in the journal articles you have been researching and use those as models and guides.

2. Everyone’s methodology will look a little bit different. Your methodology may include an experiment with two groups getting different treatments, one group that gets tested before and after a treatment, or a large group of people filling out a survey. Or you may be suggesting a research proposal that involves reading literature and analyzing it.

3. Remember that simply reading textbooks or other journal articles is just secondary research. A good methodology does primary research and finds new information rather than just compiling old information.

4. Whatever you do, make sure that your results cannot be brought into question. For instance, if you wanted to test the effects of a drug on humans and did not clarify what humans, I might wonder if your results would be skewed because more or fewer men or women could be in different experimental groups than in the others. Be specific about your demographics or aspects of your methodology.

5. Similarly, if you were doing a study of postmodern literature but did not say when the postmodern era began, you would get very different results based on your cutoff date.

6. You can be creative with your methodology, but you must also be skeptical. Would you have faith in your methods to return a reliable result?

7. Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to get started:

A. What would I need to find to suggest that my hypothesis is correct?

B. How can I eliminate variables that might confuse my results? (i.e. If studying effects of sunlight on positivity in a work environment, make sure you are not also adding free food or opportunities to walk around.)

C. If you’re studying humans, which ones, and why does it matter? How old are they? What ethnicity? What religion? What income level? What education level? Not all of these will matter for every study (education level would be more important than religion in studying effects of education on earning potential), but identify the ones that do.

D. If you’re doing textual analysis, what texts do you plan to analyze? And what will you be looking for when you read them?

Additional Suggestions for Rationales:

1. Usually, the introduction of a journal article shares some similarities with a rationale—they both typically mention the problem being studied and why it’s important to learn about it. Use the journal articles you’ve researched so far as models and guides for developing your rationale.

2. Your rationale will likely be 1-2 paragraphs.

3. You can begin your first paragraph with a mini thesis statement that sounds something like “Research Topic X is important to study because a significant finding will have such-and-such an effect(s).” Use your own words, but those key elements (research topic, value judgment, effect(s) that is important to your audience, etc.) should appear in your justification.

4. The rest of your rationale can expand on these effects as you connect those to your audience and show the importance of what you are proposing studying.

5. The last sentence of your rationale should summarize your main idea and emphasize the importance again.

6. Remember to speak in terms of what your audience (the people you want to convince) want. Are they philanthropic and want to help others? Are they considering you for a research grant to promote an area of study they care about? Don’t make it obvious you’re talking to someone in particular ( i.e., “Because my audience loves children, I want to study children.”), but consistently speak in terms of the benefits others will receive from what you find. These do not need to be big benefits either—research is often a series of small steps towards big conclusions.

Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool.

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