posc data
DTLG
ResearchPaperFirstDraft1.docxResearch Paper First Draft
Due printed in class on 5/4 AND on Blackboard. If you have trouble printing, e-mail Dr. Oliver BEFORE CLASS to ask for help with printing.
How to assemble and complete the draft: For the first draft of your paper, start by finding each section that was previously submitted: the literature review, data and methods section, and results section. You will likely need to make some revisions, sometimes rewriting or substantially revising from the previous version based on feedback. Combine these sections in one document and order them according to the outline below for the middle of the paper. Add an introduction and a conclusion. Write an abstract for the paper and a cover page with an interesting title. Combine all citations into a combined works cited page. Complete one more round of proofreading, and you are done!
Style: The paper should be written and formatted as a full research paper including all the components noted below, similar to the example posted on Blackboard. You should have relevant headings and subheadings. All sections should be written in paragraph form, not as bullet points or notes. Double-space the text and include page numbers at the top or bottom of each page. All sources should be properly cited both in text whenever you are quoting or paraphrasing, and with full citations in your bibliography, both in APA format. For a review of APA citation style see the Purdue OWL site on APA formatting.
The language should be formal but still be understandable to your audience. For this paper, imagine you audience is someone from the general public who is interested in your topic, but is not an expert, and does not know specific details or definitions. To the extent possible, direct and simple language is preferable if it still communicates your arguments and findings in a detailed way. You may add notes (as comments or footnotes) in this first draft to keep track of areas that need further revision or where you have questions.
Paper Outline
You should use the following outline to organize your research paper and check that you have all required components. I added some notes, in the form of comments on the right side of the page which you can click on to view, about where you have done parts of it before in this class:
1. Cover Sheet: Your cover sheet should be on a separate page with the following centered between the margins: Comment by Sarah Oliver: This will be new.
a. Title of the paper
b. Your name
c. Date
d. Course number and title
2. Abstract Comment by Oliver, Sarah M.: This will be new.
a. Your abstract should be a paragraph that describes your research question, methodology, and findings. It should be single-spaced on a separate page that follows your cover sheet.
3. Introduction Comment by Oliver, Sarah M.: New section. The paper proposal includes some of this material that you can revise for this section. You may move some of the information you wrote in your literature review that fits better here.
b. State your research question.
c. Indicate why your research problem and question are interesting and important.
d. Preview of main points of the paper
e. Transition to the literature review
4. Literature Review Comment by Oliver, Sarah M.: You already submitted the first draft of this section. Review the feedback from this assignment and revise as needed. Make sure this section is consistent with the hypotheses tested in the next sections.
a. Introduction: Overview of your three hypotheses and research about them
b. Main body: Three sections for each of the three hypotheses. Synthesizes and analyzes previous research related to each hypothesis
c. Conclusion: Reviews main points of each section, analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the research related to each hypothesis. Summarizes your argument of why you propose your hypotheses.
5. Data and Methods Comment by Oliver, Sarah M.: You already submitted the first draft of this section. Review the feedback from this assignment and revise as needed. Make sure this variables in this section are consistent with the hypothesis tests in the next section.
a. Describe the research design of the data you are using. That is, what is your detailed plan for locating information that you will use to test your hypotheses? Discuss how your data were gathered and provide proper citations for the sources. You may use quotes from sources of the data in this section as needed, properly citing all quotes.
b. Discuss each variable in your project
i. Measurement Plan: What key concepts do you need to measure? How will you measure them? What data will you use? This should include all variables included in the next section of the paper.
ii. Descriptive Statistics: Provide information about each variable in your hypothesis on its own. Explain what the frequency distribution shows for each variable, including its level of measurement. Include a frequency table or histogram and a table with relevant statistics (like the mean, median, mode, etc.) to show the variable. Describe each of the four variables using relevant measures of central tendency and dispersion.
iii. Evaluate your variables in terms of validity and reliability. Be honest and self-critical. Indicate how you will compensate for these problems, if you can.
6. Results Comment by Oliver, Sarah M.: You already submitted the first draft of this section. You may not be able to incorporate the feedback from the first draft of this section. Make sure that the variables in this section are all described accurately in the previous section, especially if you made any changes to variables.
a. You must provide a valid, reliable test for each of your hypotheses. In this class, you must test your hypotheses using empirical (statistical) methods. Simply reporting data, including reporting percentages or frequencies, does not constitute a valid, reliable hypothesis test. Report the results of your statistical analyses. Include tables either in the text or in the appendix for each set of analyses you discuss in the paper.
b. Bivariate analysis:
i. For each hypothesis, there should be an analysis testing the link between the IV and DV. This can be: a correlation analysis, an independent-samples t-test, or a bivariate regression.
ii. Report the relevant statistics and interpret the results in the context of the variables.
iii. Report whether you are able to reject the null hypothesis at a .05 level of statistical significance. Explain whether your hypothesis was supported.
c. Multiple regression analysis
i. You must include at least 1 multiple regression with all three IV’s testing all hypotheses together.
ii. For each regression, include the following information:
1. Report the regression coefficient for the intercept and the slope for each variable in the model and explain whether each slope coefficient is significant.
2. Discuss the results of the model in your text with a focus on the effect of significant independent variables on the dependent variable.
3. Report and interpret the value of the R-Squared test
d. Findings: This is not the same as your conclusions. Provide a synopsis of your hypothesis tests and summarize which of your hypotheses were confirmed and which were rejected. Summarize so it is clear what you results are to a reader who has not read your full results section and who does not understand the specific statistical language.
7. Conclusion Comment by Sarah Oliver: This is new.
a. A conclusion is more than a mere restatement of what you have said previously. It is here that you bring together all your arguments in the context of your results. You also use the conclusions to address the meaning of your research. How did the results compare to the hypotheses and the theories covered in the literature review?
b. What are the limitations of your research? What was flawed or could have been improved under different circumstances (time, data, skills, research design)?
c. Suggest a couple of possible additional research ideas related to your theory and/or findings. What could another researcher do next after they read your work? If you were to continue the project with more resources, what would you do next?
d. Last, make a final statement about your project in the larger context. What are some of the implications of the research? Any moral lessons or impacts on policy, politics, society? Here is your place to include any final thoughts or conclusions.
8. Bibliography Comment by Sarah Oliver: Include all sources cited in the paper, including anything cited in the introduction, lit review, and data and methods sections. Format in APA format to the best of your ability.
a. Regardless of the type of referencing you use (footnotes or parenthetical), you must provide a full bibliography of works cited and other relevant works that is alphabetized by author. You must follow the APA format for your references.
9. Appendices Comment by Sarah Oliver: You may include the tables in the text or separately at the end in an appendix. Either way, number them and refer to the numbered tables and figures as relevant in the text.
a. Place data tables in the text where you discuss them OR in an appendix along with figures (graphs, pictures, etc.). Each table and figure must have a title that numbers the table or figure (Table 1, Table 2, Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.).
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