PSYC 515 M4 INTRO AND METHOD INSTRUCTIONS 1
RESEARCH P I MROJECT NTRO AND ETHOD
ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS
OVERVIEW
This is the first written component of your research project. Review all relevant files /
presentations as listed in the and this document. This project will Research Project Overview
refine your graduate level writing abilities and allow you to practice scientific writing skills. It
also requires you to locate and read many research articles over a specific topic, discern which
are most relevant, and use them to provide a review of literature while simultaneously building
an argument for your proposed research study. This type of writing takes many revisions, so do
not wait until the last minute to begin work on this assignment. (You are turning in a “final
version” – not a draft!).
INSTRUCTIONS
By this stage you should have already been approved to use your survey to collect data. You will
now write the introduction and method sections of your research paper and submit it for
instructor feedback. There are three stages to this assignment as detailed below. This is the
ONLY assignment in which you submit two separate files – you will also submit your SPSS data
file within a single submission in Canvas. The following stages are provided to help guide you
through this assignment.
Stage 1: Read articles to locate the most relevant ones specific to your research project. You will
need to find a minimum of FOUR articles that provide a basis to your research study using the
Jerry Falwell Library. Given you will also refer to at least one article as a basis for your
developed survey (i.e., either Koenig & Bussing, 2010 or Hodge, 2003), you will have at least
five articles discussed in your Introduction and included in your References for this phase. (Note
if a second variable used on your survey also requires a citation it must be included but does not
count towards the four you must find on your own). For the four you must find on your own:
oAll should be from peer-reviewed journals. For a description of types of articles, please
review Section 1 in the APA Manual.
oAt least three of the articles should report primary, empirical, quantitative
research; no more than one can be a literature review/theoretical/ or meta-analysis
article. Discussion of the articles must include enough information to clearly
identify what type of article is being discussed.
oAll four articles should be used to provide context and justification for your study – thus,
their relevance to your study must be clear.
Stage 2: Write the following portions of your research paper: Introduction, Method, References,
Appendix. Make sure you follow the APA guidelines for a professional paper . The following
steps outline the systematic organization of the body within each of these sections.
1) Introduction: remember you use the title of the paper in title case, bold, and centered (2.11;
Figure 2.4). Also include a running head and page numbers. Note both the title and running
head should reflect your study’s topic – NOT that is it a phase or part of a class. You are
already expected to be able to write at the graduate level in terms of grammar, syntax, and
using your own words (no quotes or paraphrasing). However, we are now also honing
scientific writing skills. Thus, there is no page or word minimum. Be concise yet detailed. Do
PSYC 515 M4 INTRO AND METHOD INSTRUCTIONS 2
not be redundant or opinionated. There is a specific flow to all quantitative research articles.
