Statistics Assignment

Formal Writing Assignment 3 Prof. Yeung

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Review of a Journal Article Information Literacy Writing Assignment

Assignment details: Select an article from the list below for this writing assignment. You should

skim through all of the articles before you make your decision. Some of the articles have quite a

bit of mathematical contents and you are not expected to learn all of the mathematics if it is too

difficult, but there will be some new mathematical content that you are capable of learning. Pick

the article that most interest you and within your capabilities. Once you have selected your

article, read it carefully and take notes along the way. Study and understand the graphs, tables,

and figures carefully. Consult other sources if needed to help you understand some of the

terminology in the article.

In this writing assignment you are to write at least 4 full pages (double spaced) that summarize

the statistical ideas that the article contains. Be sure to include the following:

1. Describe the subject of this article.

 What is the topic of this study?

 What is/are the variable(s) of the data?

 What is the sample size?

 What is the method of sampling?

 What are the null and alternative hypotheses?

2. Summarize the statistical ideas of this article.

 What is the result of this study? Use the data presented to highlight the result. (remember to cite your sources)

 What makes this a valuable study?

 What is the limitation of this study, if any? If so, why were they not able to address the weakness?

 Discuss one or more confounding variables that may be influencing the results (look at the discussion section if you can’t think of any).

3. Conclusion.

 What did you learn from this article? What are your overall reactions to this study?

 Do you think this was a well-designed experiment? Can the results be trusted?

Grading: The essay will be part of your writing assignments grade. It will be worth 6% of your

final course grade. I will judge the essay on the following criteria:

 Style, clarity, and mechanics of writing  Your understanding of the statistical topics in the article and your ability to convey them  Citation formatting

Please refer to the rubric for more details.

Due date: Final draft and the tutor’s comments from your first draft must be submitted on

Blackboard BY THE END OF THE DAY on Sunday, May 2, 2021.

Formal Writing Assignment 3 Prof. Yeung

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The articles: Each of these articles come from BMJ Open. You can obtain these articles on

Blackboard. The articles listed below are in APA format, please do not copy and paste it to your

MLA 8 Works Cited.

MacIntyre, C. R., Seale, H., Dung, T. C., Hien, N. T., Nga, P. T., Chughtai, A. A., ... & Wang, Q.

(2015). A cluster randomised trial of cloth masks compared with medical masks in healthcare

workers. BMJ open, 5(4), e006577.

MacIntyre, C. R., Dung, T. C., Chughtai, A. A., Seale, H., & Rahman, B. (2020). Contamination

and washing of cloth masks and risk of infection among hospital health workers in Vietnam: a

post hoc analysis of a randomised controlled trial. BMJ open, 10(9), e042045.

McAloon, C., Collins, Á., Hunt, K., Barber, A., Byrne, A. W., Butler, F., ... & More, S. J. (2020).

Incubation period of COVID-19: a rapid systematic review and meta-analysis of observational

research. BMJ open, 10(8), e039652.

Writing Requirements and Information:

1. For this paper you will be required to make use of tutoring. Tutoring is available online by using Tutor.com. You will be required to submit the tutor’s comments with the final draft of

your paper as proof that you used Tutor.com. It is strongly recommended that you submit

your rough draft at least one week before the final draft is due.

2. Cite your reference using MLA 8 Style. MLA Entry Format for Citing a Journal Article Published Online: Author’s last name, first name. “Article Title.” Journal Name, vol.

Volume, no. Issue, date, pp. Page range, DOI. Accessed Date.

Example of a bibliographic entry of a journal article in MLA 8:

Giannoni, Carlos, et al. “Diagnosis of Sustainable Business Strategies Implemented by

Chilean Construction Companies.” Sustainability, vol. 10, no. 82, 30 Dec. 2017, pp. 1–19,

doi: 10.3390/su10010082. Accessed 24 Aug. 2019.

3. Here are some strategies that you can follow for an in-text citation that appear as a summary. I. Use your own words to summarize information obtained from a journal source.

II. Authors must include relevant elements from the initial sentence where evidence is taken. However, you must keep it brief while maintaining the original meaning of

passages or sentences.

III. You should not include the interpretation or analysis of the original quote. Remember to maintain a clear distinction between your own thoughts and those expressed by the

article’s author.

IV. You should vary the introduction or attribution of the source used. For example, “According to Author A,” … (page number) and “Author B and Author C state

that … (page number),” when citing a journal article in MLA 8.

Example of a Summarized in-text citation in MLA 8:

 According to Giannoni et al., innovative business strategies enable organizations to achieve a competitive advantage in the market (1).

 In this article “Diagnosis of Sustainable Business Strategies Implemented by Chilean Construction Companies” Ginnoni et al., discusses the innovative

business strategies enable organizations to achieve a competitive advantage in

the market (1).